Chapter 186 The Blood Debt

Chapter 186 The Blood Debt
Maddie Pov 

The steam from the river slate was still rising when Lady Vespera turned her horse back toward the north ridge. Her hundred warriors moved into the shadows of the pine trees, leaving our training ring completely dark under the white moon. I kept my hand flat against my collarbone, feeling the hot tracks of the gold spear mark pulse against my thumb. Calix stood right next to me with his oak club, his teeth locked together so hard the muscles in his jaw formed two thick knots.

"I am going to the boundary line alone tomorrow morning, Calix," I announced and I pulled my wool wrap tighter around my chest. The yellow lines under my linen shirt gave a small, sharp throb that reached down to my knees. "The vision on the stone is not a mountain trick. The grass in the north pasture is already dry like soot, and the seventeen wolves cannot drink yellow mud for another three moons."

"You are not stepping past the salt border, Maddie," Calix replied and he slammed the base of his oak club into the gravel path. A few white stones scattered into the weeds near my boots, but he did not look down at the dirt. "Vespera wants to drag your ribs up to the high hall throne because she needs the gold anchor to fix her own territory lines. She does not care about our well water or our pups."

"She has the crystal vial with his blood soul."

"The vial cannot cross our boundary line."

"It can cross if the land dies first," I muttered.

"We will dig a deeper well by the creek bed."

"The creek bed will turn to salt too," I insisted.

He reached out his big hand and grabbed my elbow, his fingers locking tight around my sleeve to pull me away from the center post. His leather vest smelled like cold sweat and burnt pine needles from the long negotiation hours, and his gray eyes looked very wide in the dark.

"I am the Alpha of WolfTrail, Maddie," Calix reminded and he shook my arm once to make me look at his face.

"You are the Alpha of seventeen thin wolves," I countered and I pulled my elbow out of his grip.

"We are still standing on our own dirt."

"We will not be standing when the winter ice arrives."

"We can fight the shield line together," he roared.

"You cannot hit a vision with an oak club, Calix," I yelled back.

He went completely quiet for a moment, his chest heaving against his leather laces as he stared down at the flat river slate in the dirt. Behind us, Rex was leading the remaining hunters back toward the log cabins, their boots making a slow, dragging sound across the wet gravel. None of them looked back at the center post because they had all seen the black image on the stone.

"I will lose the mate bond if you go," Calix whispered and he dropped his training club onto the path.

"The bond is already burning my ribs," I murmured.

"We can find another way to balance the contract."

"There is no other way," I stated.

I turned around and walked toward the back bedroom without waiting for him to pick up his oak stick. The wood floorboards inside the cabin were cold against my socks, and the small tallow lamp on the table was completely out of grease. I lay down on the mattress with my boots still on, keeping my eyes fixed on the square wooden window frame until the white moon moved behind the north ledge.

When the kitchen clock struck three, I slid off the edge of the bed without making a single scrap of noise.

I picked up my leather wrap from the pine stool and crept past the front room where Calix was sleeping on the floor rugs. His breath was very slow and heavy, his right arm thrown across his face to block out the gray dawn light. I lifted the wooden latch of the back door with two fingers and slipped into the wet brush behind the meat shed.

The pine needles were slick with morning dew as I hurried up the north path toward the boundary line. The gold spear mark between my ribs felt like a small piece of hot iron, pulling my body forward with every pace I took through the gray fog. I did not carry a hunting knife or a silver point because I knew the high hall shields could stop any valley metal.

I reached the flat boulder where Vespera had planted her iron staff during the midnight hour. The salt line was completely covered in gray frost now, and the air smelled like old wood smoke and horse dung.

"I am here to settle the blood debt, Vespera," I called out to the thick brush.

A low, wet sob came from the shadows behind the large boulder, and the sound did not belong to a mountain warrior.

I took three fast steps past the white border, my boots sinking into the soft moss on the north side of the ridge. The gray fog lifted for a single second, and my heart gave a hard jump against my chest bone as the light hit the clearing.

Three young pups from our valley camp were sitting in the dirt with their hands tied behind their backs with thick leather ropes. Little Toby had a dark bruise across his left temple, and his small wool shirt was torn down to the hem. Vespera was standing right behind them with her iron staff, her yellow eyes shining under her metal helmet as she looked down at my face.

"You came alone just like your mother did, valley girl," Vespera observed and she pressed the iron base of her staff against Toby’s collarbone. The boy gave a short cry of pain and shifted his knees away from the metal point. "The blood debt is very simple this morning. You can walk into the center of my shield line right now, or I will use these three small ribs to feed the gray fluid inside my crystal vial before the sun clears the pine ledge."