Chapter 38: Feral

I couldn't move. My feet were frozen to the muddy path, my hands still raised in a pathetic defensive posture.

He had tried to kill me. There had been no hesitation, no flicker of recognition. Just a predator lunging for prey.

"Stop staring, girl," Estav snapped, stumping down the porch steps. "You'll draw his focus. Right now, that’s not what he needs."

I stumbled back a few steps, bumping into Julian, who had rushed out of the cottage. He caught my arm, his grip tight.

"Holy crap," Julian breathed, staring at his best friend. Vesper was gnawing at a thick root crossing his chest. "Ves... Vesper, calm down, man. It’s us."

Vesper responded with a guttural snarl, thrashing so violently I thought his bones would snap before the wood did.

"He can't hear you, boy," Estava said dismissively. She stood over Vesper, looking down at him with cold calculation. "The human part of his brain is drowning in a lot of negative emotions. The wolf is now in charge, and the wolf is terrified by the energy in this valley."

She raised her staff again. The green glow intensified. The roots shifted, groaning, tightening around Vesper until his thrashing turned into choked gasps for air.

"We can't leave him in the square," Estava stated. "The scent of an Alpha in distress will draw things from the tree line that even I don't want to deal with tonight."

With a flick of her wrist, the mass of roots, with Vesper trapped inside, began to move. It dragged him across the muddy ground toward the back of the cottage. Vesper fought every inch of the way, his silver eyes locked on me as he was being pulled.

We followed Estava around the back of the house to a heavy, iron-bound door set into the stone foundation of the cottage.

Elara mumbled a few words in an odd language, and the heavy lock clicked open. She gestured with her staff, and the root-cocoon tumbled down a short flight of stone stairs, taking Vesper along with it.

Vesper hit the bottom with a heavy thud and a sharp cry of pain.

Estava descended the stairs slowly, like a woman with nothing to lose.

An instant later, Vesper slammed against the inside of the door. We all jumped back. He threw his weight against the wood again and again, roaring, claws scrabbling uselessly against the iron banding.

Estava walked back up the stairs, calm as if she’d just put a noisy cat in the basement. She shut the heavy door and threw the deadbolt with a finality that made my stomach drop.

The muffed sounds of Vesper’s furious cries continued from below ground.

Julian suddenly looked pale. "You can't just leave him down there like an animal. He's grieving his mother."

"Exactly," Estava said, turning her sharp gaze on Julian. "He needs to burn it out. Down there, the earth magic is damp, muted. It will soothe the wolf faster than open air. If I let him loose, boy, he’d tear through this village until someone put him down with silver. Is that what you want?"

Julian jaw tightened, but he dropped his hand. "How long?"

"As long as it takes for the eyes to turn green again."

Estava pushed past us, heading back toward the warmth of the cottage. "Aleera, stoke the fire. The rest of you, inside. Now. Before you freeze to death and give me more bodies to deal with."

We filed back into the cottage.

I sank onto the bench by the fire, shivering uncontrollably. The heat did nothing to touch the cold dread radiating from my chest.

Aleera handed me a mug of something hot. I held it with both hands, staring into the dark liquid.

"You said..." I started, my voice raspy. I looked up at the old woman, who was back at her cauldron, adding handfuls of dried leaves. "Outside, you said Hera isn't trying to get in. That she's already inside me. Trying to get out."

Estava stopped stirring. She turned slowly, leaning against the stone hearth.

"The prophecy book," she said to Aleera. "Show her the page you found."

Aleera pulled the heavy leather book from her bag. Her hands were shaking as she opened it to a page covered in dense, archaic writings.

It showed a woman’s body. But her torso was transparent, revealing a ribcage that looked less like bone and more like the bars of a prison cell. Inside the cage sat a smaller, shadowy figure with glowing eyes.

"The Lock," Aleera whispered, pointing to the illustration.

"For centuries, my line thought the prophecy spoke of a Vessel—an empty cup waiting to be filled by Hera’s spirit," Estava explained, her voice low and reflective. "We were wrong. The ancient texts you translated... they speak of a prison of flesh and soul."

She pointed a bony finger at me.

"When the first Sylvania died, she didn't just die. She used her final breath, and the immense power of her bloodline, to create a trap. She bound her sister’s spirit to her own soul."

I felt sick. I put the mug down before I dropped it. "A first Sylvania? So... I'm a jail. I’m an incarnate."

"You are," Estava said. "Designed to hold a monster until the end of time. You reincarnate, but she reincarnates before you, a fragment of her soul trapped inside you. So she can’t fully manifest without you."

She looked toward the cellar door, where faint thuds could still be heard.

"Hera is awake, girl. And she is furious. There isn’t any more time left."

"Then what do we do?" Julian demanded, turning from the door. "How do we fix the lock?"

"We don't," Estava said flatly. "It’s too damaged. If we try to seal it now, the pressure will kill Sylvania, and Hera will be released anyway."

She turned back to her cauldron.

"There is only one way to end this prophecy. The lock has to be opened. Intentionally."

I stared at her. "You want to let her out?"

"I want him to let her out," she nodded toward the cellar. "The Key. Vesper. He is the only one who can unlock the cage without destroying the host."

"But Cassandra said..." I swallowed hard, remembering the dying woman’s grip on my wrist. "She said he would break me open to the world."

"Cassandra was dying, her sight was clouded by fear," Estava dismissed. "But she wasn't entirely wrong. If Vesper opens the lock as he is now—feral, filled with rage and grief—he won't just release Hera. He'll unleash a cataclysm of raw power that will level this mountain range."

Estava reached up to a shelf and pulled down a small, velvet-wrapped bundle. She unwrapped it to reveal a dagger.

"He needs to remember," Estava said, her eyes gleaming in the firelight. "He needs to remember who he is. Who you were to him. And you have to do that fast, before his mind completely blanks out. Because when it does, Hera would manipulate him to do her bidding, and that would be the end of the supernatural world as we know it."

She held the dagger out over the bubbling blue potion.

"We need blood. Yours, girl. And his. Tomorrow, if the wolf hasn't eaten him alive by then... we send you both into the past."