Something Dark

Something Dark
Oakley

Princess Juliette is… beautiful. That’s the first thing I noticed about her after the shock of seeing Princess Naomi and Prince Fennec wore off. I haven’t spoken to either of them as it stands, but Juliette scooped me up and whisked me away, and after several hours spent in her quiet presence, I’m wondering if it had less to do with me needing some serious help and more to do with putting distance between herself and her traveling partners. 

The sunset burns a sharp gold as it fades through the trees. The fire in the center of the clearing is bright now against the backdrop of inky dark forest all around us. I’ve maintained a safe difference from Ian and his family, and I think it’s wise. I can feel the tension between him and Naomi, especially. 

Juliette doesn’t seem to care that everyone is fighting. 

“They look better already,” she says, angling my hands in the direction of the firelight to get a better view of the horrible burns turning my skin to leather. “I do have a healing draft, but it’s very potent. It will make you feel sick at first, and I’m worried you’re already too weak to handle it as it stands. It’s better served as a last resort.”

“The salve you’ve been using is great. My hands don’t hurt at all. They’re just stiff now.”

She has marvelous green eyes, like polished emeralds with a smoky band of dark brown and bronze around her pupils. I wonder if it’s possible to knit a sweater with those colors because the combination is a masterpiece. 

The thought of knitting sends a pang of worry through my fatigued muscles. I’m sure I meant to curl my hands into fists, but my stiff fingers and tarnished skin protest and twitch instead. 

She lets my hands go and rocks back on her heels until folding to a seat on the ground beside me. Ian and Naomi continue to bicker back and forth in hushed tones on the far side of camp. Ian occasionally looks in my direction, and his expressions softens whenever he meets my eyes. But still.. he looks tense. His rigid stance and the way he has to posture at Naomi gives his feelings away. 

He could shift any moment now. I’m not sure why he hasn’t yet, given the time. 

“It happens at night, when the sun sets,” I murmur absently. Juliette shifts her position, her body angled toward mine and her head bowing. 

“He seems more in control tonight than he was when my brother witnessed the change last week,” she says in a low hum, matching my tone. “Do you have any idea why that is?”

“I assume it’s because of me, to be honest. His beast believes I belong to him, so….”

We let a festering silence spread between us, broken only by the crackling fire. I watch Ian stalk to the far side of the clearing, joining Fennec, who hasn’t left the tree line since Wren took his leave over an hour ago. He kneels, and the conversation between them is too far away to hear. 

Juliette looks up as Naomi approaches, and I immediately bristle, resisting the urge to fold in on myself when the fearsome princess plops to the ground beside us and lets out a long, dramatic sigh. 

“He’s impossible.”

Juliette lifts her head. “Cutting him some slack would be the best course of action.”

“He’s already at the end of a very long leash,” Naomi argues, pulling her knees to her chest. “Which means we can’t stay here for long. I’m supposed to be back in the Roguelands in two days to check in with Ryatt about our progress. I have no way of telling anyone we’ve found him.”

“Finding him wasn’t the hard part,” Juliette says. “What happens now is the real challenge.”

I’m well aware that both women are now looking at me intently, waiting for me to give my two cents about my mate, which feels so strange to think, let alone say out loud. 

I eye the women for a moment before bowing my head again, and Naomi lets out another sigh. 

“May I see your arm?” she asks, and without a pause, I extend my forearm. Her fingertips graze the scars. “It’s the moon cycle. When did it start?”

“The night of my twenty-first birthday,” I admit, curling my arm back along my belly, tucking it in tight. “It was a full moon that night.”

Naomi glances at Juliette. “That lines up with Ian’s side of the story.”

Something snaps. It’s a match being lit. A pearl of self-righteous frustration that I’ve been biting back for what feels like years erupts into words I can’t hold back. “There’s no two sides to this story. Ian is a… a beast. The foxes called him a Dire, but I know nothing of that fable. He can’t control it. He’s not there in his beast form. It has a mind of its own. And I’ve only been able to shift once, and it was out of pure fear. Fear of him.”

“Do you fear him now?” Naomi asks, her voice like iron. 

“No, I don’t. I can’t. Not now that I know that we’re bonded.” I look at Naomi with pleading eyes. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. The foxes say we’re mates. Ian says I’m his mate, but I don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like. I know it’s not the same for everyone. It’s not always some beautiful, explosive moment where the stars align and nothing bad ever happens again. I wanted that. I thought I’d have that with him when I finally came into my shifting abilities, but look at us now.” I motion in Ian’s direction. He’s looking over at us, his expression painted in fire-lit shadows, but he doesn’t make a move in my direction. “It’s unfair to us both. He thinks he’s going to be able to send me back with you and stay here to spend the rest of his days, or worse, die. He won’t stay here if I’m gone, though. His beast will come for me even if Ian doesn’t want it to.”

“Ian is under the impression you have the capability of taming the beast,” Naomi says after a beat of silence. “He is going to shift soon, whether he wants to or not. Like you said, he does not have control over it. But if he did, if he could somehow learn to control it, would you be willing to let me take you back to Silverhide?”

“Of course, but….” I flinch as a sinking, twisting, burning sensation blooms on my forearm. Juliette lurches forward and grabs my wrist, pulling my arm tight despite my attempts to curl into myself. “Look, Naomi.”

She leans forward and watches a new scar form on my skin in real time. Across the clearing, Ian buckles, falling to his knees. 

Naomi tugs me close. I can feel heat pouring off of her like she’s made of fire, and I suppose she is, deep down. But the strange electric current thrumming where she’s touching me bites through the pain of a new scar carving through my flesh. “It’s a waxing crescent moon.”

“It’s accurate to the current phase,” Juliette breathes, but Fennec shouts from the far side of the camp. 

“We’re running out of time! He’s shifting.”

Naomi rises, dragging me to my feet. Ian’s transformation begins, and it’s just as gruesome as usual. I think, based on the look of true fear and confusion turning her eyes the sharpest shade of sea glass, that she wasn’t truly expecting it to be this bad. 

“You have to let me go!” I try to yank out of her grasp, but she holds me tighter. “Princess Naomi!” 

Fennec shouts Ian’s name. A horrific shredding sound echoes through the camp. It’s too late. 

It’s far too late for Naomi, who’s still gripping my wrist hard enough to bruise. 

I look over her shoulder to where Ian is rising out of his shredded clothing. Everything about him is sharpened to a fine edge in the moonlight. The last whispers of the golden, smoky sunset paint his dark fur in strips of amber as he turns to face me. 

And her. 

“Let me go,” I beg. “He’ll kill you.”

“I’d love to see him try,” she replies with a wobbly smirk, but real fear shines behind her eyes. 

“Naomi, let her go,” Juliette commands in a hushed whisper as a terrifying silence falls over the clearing. 

Naomi drops my wrist. My arm hasn’t even fallen to my side before her hands meet my shoulders and shove. 

Ian roars as I fall backward, too stunned to break my fall. 

In an instant, the clearing erupts with shocking silver fire. A circle of flames forms just before the tree line, trapping all of us in with Ian. He, however, is momentarily distracted by the flames, which gives Fennec a single second to leap into his fox form and barrel in our direction. 

Ian swats him, sending the smooth, reddish fox careening head over heels. 

“Fennec!” Juliette screeches, but he lands on his side only ten feet from where we’re standing and rolls to a stop at his sister’s feet. Blood seeps from his fur, and three gnarly slash marks turn his bright red fur a deep, bloody crimson. 

Naomi slashes her hand toward Ian. A gust of energy explodes, and Ian tumbles backward. 

“Stop! Don’t hurt him! He doesn’t know what he’s doing!” I shout, but Naomi takes several steps in his direction, raising another hand to send another catastrophic blow of her magic. It hits him in the chest. 

And mine. 

Someone’s screaming so loud, I fear my eardrums are bursting. Rib-shattering pain expands through my middle, burning me from the inside out. Ian’s roar isn’t of pain, but fury, and his shadow races across the clearing, the only thing visible through my tear-blurred vision. 

“Naomi, stop!” Juliette shouts. “Oakley feels everything he does! You’re hurting them both!”

I fall to my knees when Naomi sends another band of crimson light stretching across the clearing, forcing Ian into momentary submission. He backs away from the magic, but his progress is halted by the fire ring still stretching across the clearing. Juliette clutches Fennec, still in his fox form, to her chest behind us and seethes, “What are you doing? You told him Oakley would go into the forest with him tonight. She was supposed to–”

“You need to trust me!” Naomi shouts, and the second Ian takes another step in our direction, she reaches for me instead. 

Ian halts when he sees Naomi’s hand outstretched, her palm facing my head. Crimson and silver magic twists between her fingers and glows in warning. 

“I’ll do it!” she screeches, damn near foaming at the mouth. “I swear on the Goddess, Ian, I’ll kill her!”

“What?” Juliette bellows. 

I can’t move. I’m not sure why. I suppose this is my third or fourth near-death experience in a matter of weeks, and maybe, just maybe, it might be the gentlest way to go, if she’s quick about it. 

Ian just stares with his bright, monstrous eyes. 

“I’ll kill your mate,” Naomi taunts. “Don’t make me do it. Show me you’re still in control.”

He snarls, and she presses a single finger against my temple. 

I squeeze my eyes shut as her magic floods across my skin in tendrils of liquid heat. 

But a strange kind of silence settles all around us. Even Naomi’s fire stops crackling. Nothing happens. Magic isn’t shredding my mind apart. Ian isn’t snarling and clashing his teeth while he tears his cousins to pieces. 

I open my eyes and find Ian still on the far side of the clearing, but he’s different. His beast form has shifted into something new, something vaguely familiar. 

He looks trapped between both his wolf and human forms. His skin is an unnatural hue–more grayish green than his tawny, sun kissed skin or the jet black fur he wears while his beast has control. Bat-like wings expand along his back, relaxed along his spine. He’s standing upright, and his eyes are blue. Blue, but brighter.

“Interesting,” Naomi says in a hushed whisper. She tilts her head to the side to take him in, and Ian watches her every move. 

He continues to change. His body becomes more humanlike, and the beast fades until I’m sure he’ll snap back to his normal form, but he doesn’t. Not all the way. Not in the way that counts the most. 

“Do you know who I am to you?” Naomi calls out, her voice raw with emotion I hadn’t thought her capable of. She’s terrifying in her own right, especially now, her body glowing with power I can taste. “Ian, who am I?”

He slowly looks from Naomi to me and extends his hand, motioning for me to go to him. 

“Don’t,” Naomi says hurriedly, but I step out of her way so she can’t touch me again. 

“What’s happening to him?” I ask quietly, taking another step, then another, away from Naomi, Juliette, and poor Fennec, who is panting and badly hurt in his sister's arms. 

“That man,” Naomi says a little breathlessly, “is part fae. Did you know that?”

“Of course I knew.” My next step separates me from the group entirely. Ian watches my progress across the clearing, but his face is totally void of emotion. 

“I cannot save you from him,” Naomi calls out. “This is bigger than I bargained for, Oakley. This isn’t just a beast form gone awry.”

“Ian?” I whisper, stepping closer to the uncanny version of the man I knew. “What’s happening to you?”

He just stares as I walk toward him, showing no emotion, not a single hint of feeling. It’s like the first glimpse of moonlight stripped him to the bone, leaving something dark, something even Naomi, a witch of fire, can’t illuminate. 

“Are you there?” I ask, my voice trembling as his gaze slowly rakes over my face. “Ian?”

I glance over my shoulder at Naomi, who looks completely out of sorts and defeated, and behind her, Juliette, who’s still clutching Fennec to her chest, shakes her head. 

But I’m tired of waiting for answers and fighting the cold, hard truth standing only a few feet from me. I didn’t ask for any of this. Ian didn’t ask for this curse, whatever it is. Whatever he’s changing into now, as I angle my body toward the woods. 

Naomi’s ring of fire burns out to puffs of acrid smoke. 

I meet her gaze, swallow back any pangs of fear, and say, “I’ll find you in the morning.”

Then, I turn into the forest and run.