“And what is your ailment?” the witch continued.
Where do I start?
“He requires a change of heart,” Arron replied for me again.
The witch’s eyebrows shot up to her frizzy hair. “Why on earth do you need that?”
Evidently, this was not a common request.
I looked around the room, not comfortable discussing these details with other strangers in the room. Before Arron could respond for me again, I replied, “I would like to speak privately with your sister about my condition.”
“That’s all right.” She consulted her ledger again. “Well, the soonest she could see you would be the day after tomorrow.”
My heart dropped. The day after tomorrow. With my predicament, that was an age away.
“I don’t have that sort of time,” I said, clenching my jaw. “I need to see her sooner.”
“I’m afraid she won’t be available,” the witch replied stiffly. “The day after tomorrow, in the evening, is the soonest appointment available. You could arrive late afternoon just in case she finishes with another patient earlier… Do you want it or not?” There was a tone of impatience in her voice.
I let out a sigh. “I want it.”
“Very well. I have scheduled your appointment. Now, we need to talk payment.”
She reached into one of the drawers beneath her desk and pulled out a single piece of parchment. She drew three circles on it and planted it down on the counter before us. I didn’t know what exactly I was expecting it to be—some kind of bill, perhaps specifying the required number of gold coins? I wasn’t expecting to be staring down at some kind of bizarre ingredients list.
Most of the items scrawled on the list were completely foreign to me. I didn’t have the first clue what they were. I focused on the three items that the witch had circled…
Tooth of werewolf. One strand of merflor. Scale of dragon.
What the…
Arron addressed me. “Uma asks for a rather unique way of payment. She keeps an updated list of ingredients that she requires. In return for treatment, three items from the list must be provided by each patient.”
I looked down at the list again, feeling intimidated. The first was bad enough… but the scale of a dragon? And what was merflor?
“Merflor is a type of rare plant that grows in The Cove,” Arron said, as though he’d read my thoughts.
“And scale of a dragon,” Julie murmured.
We had dragons back in The Shade who might be willing to shed a scale for me, but going back there wasn’t an option. Even if I sent Aisha, or perhaps even Julie on my behalf, it would mean explaining what was happening to me—and I just wasn’t willing for my family to know how bad things had become since I’d last seen them. They would be worried enough as it was.
I continued to stare at the list disbelievingly. Those who sought out Uma were supposed to be ill. I couldn’t help but wonder how she expected them to procure such fantastical items. I could only suppose that this was simply the price of her treatment. Apparently if one couldn’t provide it, then it was just tough luck.
“Make sure you have them for your appointment,” the witch said pointedly. “I’m afraid if you don’t we will have to turn you away.”
Aisha looked at the witch with deep disdain.
I had no choice but to thank the redhead and turn away.
“I’ll be with you in a moment, Benjamin,” Arron said.
I looked back at him. “What?”
“I need to pick up a personal health item while I’m here.” He turned his focus to the witch. “Uma owes me a small favor, I’m sure you recall?”
The witch nodded. “Come with me to the apothecary,” she said. Standing up, she led him through a door behind her desk. I remained in my spot, straining to hear their conversation as they walked away, but I picked up on nothing.
“We might as well wait outside,” Aisha murmured, glaring at the warlocks seated in the waiting room.
We exited the building and stepped outside onto the windy hilltop. I heaved a sigh, clasping the list in my hand.
Then I turned on the jinni. “You cured River’s brother of autism,” I said. “Say somehow we got a suitable heart… Are you certain that you, Nuriya or anyone else in The Oasis wouldn’t know how to perform this operation? Would it really be that much different than treating a human? You seem to be well-versed in human illnesses, even mental ones.”
Aisha shook her head. “If you were a human, we wouldn’t hesitate to use our powers. But you’re not. And swapping the heart of a vampire… Well, it’s kind of unheard of. Even though we could try, I don’t think we would want to risk it. Nuriya wouldn’t, I’m sure. Just in case we did something wrong… As much as I despise the idea of relying on a witch to do this, Ben, I think it might be the safest option.”
“Assuming this witch actually has Ben’s best interest in mind and doesn’t deliberately jeopardize the procedure,” Julie added darkly.
“Well, I will be by Ben’s side observing closely,” Aisha said.
Arron emerged from the castle and approached us. My eyes roamed him suspiciously, searching his hand. It was empty. He stepped forward and took the witch’s list from me, glancing over it as though he hadn’t left us.
I looked back at Julie. “Haven’t you had enough of all this by now?” I felt uncomfortable that she was still trailing along with us. I’d hoped that she would want to back out after what Aisha had wanted to do to her—and what Aisha had made clear she still wanted to do, if I would only let her.
Julie paused, shifting her gaze from Aisha to me. There was a look of determination in her eyes, and also what I believed to be sincerity. “I’ll stay,” she replied. “I’ve come this far… I’m anxious to see how it all ends up.”
Hopefully not in a pile of rubble.
“Tooth of werewolf,” Arron interrupted. “I suggest we procure that first.”
We?
“You’re coming with us?” I asked. I had been half expecting him to ask to be returned after fixing me up with an appointment.
“Like Julie,” he said, “I too am anxious to see how this ends.”
There was an unsettling glint in his eyes as he glanced up at me before resuming his focus on the list.
Tooth of werewolf. I could hardly believe that we were doing this. All just to get a private meeting with a witch, whom I still didn’t know could help me without requiring me to murder someone. Heck, for all I knew she might not be successful in helping me even with a fresh heart. And now these items… “Tooth of werewolf and scale of dragon. We need to procure them without killing,” I said. Even if I wanted to, I doubted we’d be able to pull off slaughtering a dragon anyway…
“The werewolf tooth and the merflor should be possible without murder,” Aisha replied. “As for the dragon scale… let’s just get the first two before thinking about that…”
“So we need to go to The Woodlands?” Julie asked.
“The Woodlands?” I frowned.
“That’s the realm of werewolves,” Julie explained.
“Yes,” Arron said. “We should head there now. We might find ourselves running out of time if we dally.”
On cue, Aisha made our surroundings disappear in a fog of mist, and the next thing I knew, we had arrived at the edge of a dense wood of towering trees that would rival even The Shade’s redwoods. The ocean roared behind us, wild waves crashing against a pebble beach.
Arron neared and addressed me in a low voice. “You’re going to need to let go of this aversion to killing,” he said. “We need to get this problem solved, and since you’re not open to any alternative, claiming lives—at least one life—is mandatory somewhere along the line. In fact, it would be much faster and easier to just kill a werewolf for a tooth than dancing around trying to figure out some other way.”
Ignoring his words, I marched toward the entrance of the woods.
“Aisha,” I called. “Come with me.”
I didn’t
care what Arron said. During my bouts of bloodlust, one might argue that I had an excuse for murdering the way I did. But now that, thanks to Bahir, I had control over my thoughts and was aware of myself, I wasn’t about to look for an excuse for killing. I simply couldn’t justify it. We had to find another way.
As we entered the dense wood, I scanned the area and began to mull over how we were going to pull off this first ingredient. The best way would be to find a werewolf who was alone and corner him or her. Aisha would need to stun the wolf and anaesthetize the jaw so the creature wouldn’t feel the pain while we removed a tooth. Even that was uncomfortable to me—forcing a tooth from someone who had done no harm to me—but it was the best solution I could think of. Because I didn’t think that we would find an abundance of werewolf teeth in the undergrowth. And we didn’t have time to scour the place in search of one. We still had two more items to get before the appointment.
And so we moved swiftly and silently through the woods in search of our victim.
Then something occurred to me. The woods were dark due to the thick canopy of leaves overhead, but it was still daytime. If we came across a werewolf now, they would be in their humanoid form. The list stated ‘tooth of werewolf.’ But would the tooth be acceptable if it came from a werewolf’s human form? I doubted that if I pulled a tooth while the beast was in their human form the tooth would turn into a wolf tooth once night fell. The list didn’t specify, but I couldn’t help but feel that the witch would want the tooth of an actual wolf… in which case we had time to kill.
“We shouldn’t have come to The Woodlands first,” I muttered, frustrated.
“Why?” Arron asked.
I explained to the Hawk what had just occurred to me.
“Oh,” he said. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that… It will take time to search out a wolf in the first place. It’s already late afternoon. By the time we find a beast, the sun may have well set.”
Still, I felt unsure as to whether Arron’s suggestion to come here first had been wise. Julie also looked as doubtful as ever, while Aisha’s eyes were narrowed in concentration as they darted around the area in search of a wolf.
* * *
As it turned out, Arron was right. I was both surprised and dismayed by how long it took us to track down a target. Aisha had suggested that we go straight to the mountains where the wolves’ dens were, but I remained insistent on getting a wolf on his own. Approaching the dens, which would be closed off and filled with packs of dangerous wolves, was simply not a good idea. More injuries than necessary would be incurred, and if they launched a full-on attack, I was sure that at least one life would be lost.
It wasn’t until the sun had set that I spotted a lone wolf through the trees, bent over and drinking from a stream. He was already in his wolf form, so we wouldn’t even have to wait. I froze, holding up a hand and urging the others to stop. I was on the verge of turning to Aisha and nodding for her to stun the wolf when a twig snapped to my left. I spun around to see an apologetic Julie.
“I’m sorry,” she said in a whisper.
It was too late. The werewolf’s head shot up from the stream and, noticing us, he turned and raced away. I bolted after him. Although I was sure that I ran at least as fast as a werewolf, he’d had a good head start and now, as I looked around the dark tree trunks, I couldn’t see him anywhere. For all I knew, he could’ve scampered down a secret hole somewhere. As the others appeared by my side, not even Aisha could locate the wolf.
I turned on Julie, unable to hide my irritation. “We can’t afford more snapping twigs.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said in a hushed tone.
“Okay,” I said, breathing out. “Just be careful next time.”
* * *
We spent what felt like the next half hour continuing through the woods without coming across another wolf. I was beginning to feel desperate. I even pondered Arron’s suggestion to go directly to their dens. But I didn’t consider it for long.
As we entered a particularly dense area of woodland, I heard pounding in the distance. The thundering of heavy paws. I froze, raising my hands for the others to do the same. They halted and looked at me.
“Do you hear that?”
From the alarmed look on Julie’s face, she too had heard it.
The noise became louder as the footsteps drew closer and closer. Soon I could make out harsh, heavy panting.
I looked up toward the treetops. “Let’s climb,” I whispered. I grabbed hold of the nearest branch to me and swung myself up into a tree. Julie followed closely behind me and planted herself on a nearby branch. I’d forgotten about Arron only having one arm, but Aisha helped him into a tree several feet away.
My mind worked furiously. I had to think of a plan. The lone wolf whom we’d spotted earlier—or rather who had spotted us—had likely traveled back to his pack, and now a group of them had come to investigate. And from what I could hear, it was a very large group.
This was just what I’d wanted to avoid.
The first of the pack whipped through the trees beneath us. A giant black wolf with dark green eyes ran at the forefront. They halted, apparently having picked up on our scent.
Dozens of gleaming eyes shot up toward us at once. There was no hiding from them, but at least being higher up gave us an advantage. Or at least I’d thought that it would. The black wolf—the largest and most ferocious-looking, who appeared to be the leader of the pack—launched himself at my and Julie’s tree. Digging his claws into the bark, the tree trembling, he began to climb toward us.
Julie clasped my hand and tugged on it. Her hazel eyes bulging, she urged me higher up into the tree.
I extended my claws, even as I hoped that I wouldn’t have to resort to violence.
The wolf was slower in climbing the tree and we gained height much faster.
“We are not here to cause trouble,” I called down. “Nor are we enemies.”
Arriving on one of the thick lower branches, the wolf balanced himself and paused, looking up at us.
“Then why have you come?” he growled. “Vampires aren’t welcome here.”
I glanced toward Aisha through the trees. She was eyeing me intently. I knew that if she suspected I was in the slightest bit of danger, she would blast the wolf out of the tree. Which was the last thing that I wanted. It would only rile them up and make our task much harder to complete.
“I simply require the tooth of a werewolf,” I said. “Grant me this and we will leave in an instant.”
My words only seemed to aggravate the wolf.
“What makes you think you can just arrive in our land and make demands?” he snarled. “Who do you think you are?”
A very desperate man.
“Maybe you could try telling them the truth,” Arron called from a nearby tree, as he and Aisha retreated from two werewolves climbing up toward them.
The black wolf was already continuing his ascent toward us. It wouldn’t be long now before he reached the top.
“The tooth would be put to good use,” I said. “If you’ll listen, I’ll explain.”
The werewolf didn’t appear to be in any mood to listen. He was too close now—his heavy jaws within biting distance of our feet—forcing Julie and me to leap into the branches of a nearby tree. The werewolf leapt after us, landing on a wide branch several feet beneath us.
“Do you want the Elders to rise again?” I bellowed down.
The wolf froze, gazing up at me through his dark green eyes. My question had taken him by surprise.
“What kind of imbecile are you?” he hissed. “Nobody in their right mind would want that.”
“Then one of you will relinquish a tooth.”
He let out another deep growl and shook his fur before continuing to climb toward us.
I had to try a different tactic. Julie gasped as I leapt from our branch, and dropped down just four feet away from the wolf. Opening his jaws, he lunged forward. I dug my fingers through the thick fur on
the top of his head and, using it as support, swung myself around the wolf’s body and landed on his back. He twisted his head back and snapped at me with his jaws. I moved further down his long back out of reach. The wolf was forced to leap from the tree, down to the ground, where he could tackle me unimpaired by the need to maintain grip and balance on a branch.
The moment his feet touched down, I leapt off him and created a distance of ten feet between us—a distance that he immediately motioned to close.
“My name is Benjamin Novak,” I said, my voice deep.
The black werewolf, along with several of his companions who’d begun to circle me, paused.
“Novak,” the leader repeated. “Are you a relation of Derek Novak?”
“Yes,” I said. “He is my father. I am prince of The Shade.”
I’d forgotten about the visit my parents and sister had made to The Woodlands during their mission to end the black witches. According to their recounting of events, they had freed a pack of werewolves from the clutches of Rhys. I realized now that revealing that I was a Novak was the first thing that I should have done.
The beasts’ mood changed drastically, and they took a step back, as though out of respect. The wolf lowered his head slightly. “Then that changes things,” he said. He looked around at the rest of his companions, who had stopped chasing Aisha and Arron by now. “After what the Novaks did for one of our packs, I say we owe it to this boy to listen to what he has to say.”
I maintained firm eye contact with the wolf who appeared to be the chieftain. “Thank you,” I said steadily.
“I want to know why you mentioned the Elders,” he said. “What exactly is the relevance of those dark spirits to your visit here?”
I steeled myself to recount my history, albeit leaving aside many of the details. I explained to them that an Elder had engulfed my heart as a newborn and created a lasting connection between us, with the intention of using me to assist them in their future resurgence.
The werewolves’ eyes had darkened by the time I’d finished. The leader’s mood changed drastically. “We may be grateful to your family for the favor they did us,” he said. “But we cannot ignore the evil that lives inside you, waiting to be unleashed. You say that you need a tooth in order for the witch Uma to disinfect you. But what if your plan doesn’t work? I don’t see a reason to not kill you right now and end this evil before it has a chance to rise…” The leader shifted his heavy paws on the soil.