Daniel stepped up onto the platform and looked out over the people who crowded around the outside of the arena now. I wondered if he was searching their faces, looking for his father. I could feel the power radiating off his body in waves.
“A true alpha,” someone said with spite. I wondered if the owner of the voice was reconsidering whether or not to make a challenge.
Daniel held up his arms like Gabriel had, and the crowd became completely still. “I, Daniel Etlu,” he said, repeating the ceremonial words Jarem had taught him, “chosen successor of Sirhan Etlu and prime challenger, now call for all who wish to challenge my right to lead the Etlu Clan. Step into the ring to make your claim. All others should withdraw for their own safety.”
Gabriel gave a slight bow to Daniel and quickly left the ring. He took his place as one of the guardians next to Jude on the side of the ring opposite of the barn.
“We’re up,” I said, taking in a deep supposed-to-becalming breath.
Lisa, Talbot, Slade, and I stepped into the challenging field. We walked side by side until we came to stand behind the platform where Daniel waited. The crowd grew loud again with discussion as people realized that we were there for the sole purpose of backing Daniel up.
No other challengers entered the ring yet, and there was still no sign of the Shadow Kings. I searched the crowd for Caleb, while watching and waiting for the first real challenger to step forward. Based on the gestures and heated looks being exchanged between an older-looking Urbat and a man who looked like his son, they were debating over which one of them should enter the ring.
After a moment, the older man gave a nod to his son, and the younger man passed between two guardians and stepped onto the field.
The crowd silenced, acknowledging the first challenger.
“That’s Anton Oberot, son of Serge. He’s the beta of the Oberot Clan.”
The quiet continued as a second challenger stepped into the ring. He was large man dressed in army fatigue pants and a tight black shirt that showed off muscles upon muscles on his arms. He held something bundled in each of his hands.
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Lisa said. “Most likely a lone wolf. Or possible a mercenary paid to fight for someone else.”
“These first two are mine,” Daniel said.
Three more challengers entered the ring together. I recognized the tallest of them right away. I assumed the other two would be fighting as his lieutenants.
“Marrock. I knew he’d show up.” Lisa wrinkled her nose and tightened her grip on her spear. “He’s mine.”
“I’ll take the other two,” Talbot said. I wondered if he was trying to match Daniel in number.
Another challenger entered the ring—a woman swathed in layers of sky blue fabric, with golden bangles and henna tattoos decorating her arms.
“That’s Mahira, alpha of the Varkolaks. She’s vicious,” Lisa said. “She became alpha of her pack by ripping off the head of the beta at the last Challenging Ceremony I went to—he was her own brother.”
I shivered in the cold wind, but then to my surprise, Mahira pulled the blue fabric from her shoulders and let the layers fall to the ground. She stood there completely naked in front of us, unabashed.
Slade just about fell over.
“Okay,” I said. “Little Miss Naked is my responsibility. None of you boys will be able to focus while fighting her.”
One last man entered the ring. He had hair almost as white as snow, even though everything else about him looked as if he were a young man. Everything else but his narrowed eyes.
Lisa gasped. “That’s Christopher Varul. He’s a pure blood. Varuls don’t intermix with anyone who isn’t pure. They don’t allow Urbats like me—created by infection, not birth—into their pack. If he were to become alpha, he would no doubt get rid of everyone who isn’t purebred.”
“Now, we can’t have that,” Slade said, lifting his knife in the Varul’s direction.
Another minute passed as we waited for anyone else to step forward and make a challenge, but the crowd stayed quiet and still with anticipation. Where were the Shadow Kings? Where was Caleb? Where was my little brother?
“Why the hell hasn’t Caleb presented himself yet?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Daniel said. He drew his long steel sword from the sheath under his robe. “What is he waiting for?”
The guardians began to hammer their spears against the ground. My heart beat with the rhythm, anxiety curling in my muscles. It was only fifteen minutes until the eclipse. How were we supposed to stop Caleb before it if he didn’t show up?
And then I realized that maybe the eclipse was exactly what Caleb was waiting for.
The drumming of the spears reached an almost deafening thunder around us, then broke off into silence all at once. “Begin!” the guardians shouted.
We all looked at one another for half a second, and then with a great scream the lone wolf in the military pants went charging at Daniel. The other challengers followed only a second behind. Daniel would be the prime target of the challengers, and it was the task of the rest of us to pick them off.
The lone wolf broke away from the other challengers in a flat-out run. He let go of the bundles in his hands, revealing two long whips made out of chains. Silver ones, I was sure of it. He spun them in front of him like propellers.
“Damn, chain whips,” Talbot said. “I should have thought of that.”
The man with the whips lashed one out at Daniel, who twisted out of the way.
The rest of the challengers closed in on them. Our little pack of backup broke apart, and we each went after the targets we’d chosen.
I went running after Mahira, who loped toward the platform. She jumped with a great lunge and shifted into a large brown wolf in midair, only feet from where Mr. Chain Whips and Daniel fought.
“Hey,” I shouted at her. I scooped a baseball-sized rock up and flung it with all my might at the back of the brown wolf’s head.
She turned on me, growling.
“Come and get me!” I cried.
I waited half a second to make sure she’d taken the bait, and then I went running toward the barn, following the strategy we’d laid out beforehand—to draw the other challengers as far away from Daniel as possible.
I made it inside the structure just as the wolf nipped at my heels. I spun around and smashed the side of my broadsword against the side of her head. She growled and flew at me with her great, clawed paws. I used my sword to bat them away, but suffered a nasty tear in my swinging arm in the process. As a wolf, she was stronger than I was, especially since I had to be careful as ever not even to want to kill her.
She came at me again, jaws protruding from her lips. I changed sword hands, and with a measured blow, slashed into one of her front legs, spilling blood onto her fur.
She howled with pain and anger. I scrambled away and climbed the ladder up to the hayloft, thinking it would give me a moment’s reprieve to heal the pulsating gash in my arm.
The brown wolf passed under the ladder. I wondered if she were contemplating changing back into human form in order to climb up after me. But I should have known better.
The wolf took ten paces back and then jumped up into the hayloft, landing only a few feet from where I sat. I clambered to my feet and ran, heading for the far end of the hayloft. The rotten floorboards creaked and cracked under my pounding feet, and I remembered that this was the area where that kid had fallen through the floor last month, forcing Frightmare Farms to be shut down. I jumped over a hole in the floor and ran for the window that overlooked the barnyard. Maybe I could make the jump?
The wolf growled. I glanced over my shoulder and saw her rearing back to leap at me again, claws extended. In a moment of either panic or brilliance, I threw my sword at the small metal box that protruded from the haunted barn’s wall. It swung blade over hilt and slammed into the large red button on the box. The same button Brent had shown me earlier as
a trick. The wolf lunged into the air, and I ducked as a thick, bicycle-sized faux battle-ax came swinging out from a metal contraption in the ceiling. I knew the ax wasn’t sharp, but it caught the brown wolf midair and sent her flying backward. She hit the rotten floorboards with such force, they crumpled under her and she went crashing through the floor of the hayloft. I heard her whine as she fell, and then a sickening sound that made me flinch. I moved quickly and carefully over the cracking boards and gazed down through the hole she left behind.
What I saw made a shudder of nausea rip through me: the body of the brown wolf, skewered through her belly by a broken pole below.
The wolf whimpered and writhed and then fell silent and limp, hanging like a piece of bloody meat on the end of a kabob. I knew she wasn’t dead. The pole was iron not silver, and it hadn’t decapitated her, but she was most likely in terrible pain. The blood loss would keep her out of commission for quite some time.
A horrible shiver overtook my body as I looked down on her.
Close, child. Close, whispered my inner wolf. I could feel its glee over my near kill. Its anticipation of the next.
I am so close to being freed. Finish her off.
I cupped my hands against my ears to feel the calming warmth of the moonstone earrings, shaking my head. no, I told the wolf. I have no intention of killing her. I don’t want her dead.
I backed away to the window in the hayloft and sucked in gulps of fresh air, trying to clear the wolf out of my head. However, the scene outside the window was anything but calming. I could see Daniel below, locked in battle both with Mr. Chain Whips and Anton Oberot. Daniel’s adeptness with his sword kept Anton at arm’s length, and his agility to spin and flip out of the way of the swinging chain whips seemed to frustrate his other opponent to no end. But Daniel was definitely on the defensive, trying to fend off both attackers at the same time.
Then in a move I didn’t expect, and neither did Daniel, Mr. Chain Whips sent a lashing strike of one whip at Anton. It caught the Russian Urbat around the neck, and Mr. Chain Whips jerked his arm back, flipping Anton into the air and then slamming back down again. Anton clutched at the chain that was wrapped around his neck. I’m sure the silver was burning into his flesh. Even from the barn I heard Mr. Chain Whips laugh as he pulled his other whip back, ready to send it lashing into Anton’s face. But as the whip went flying, so did Daniel. He reached out in front of Anton, catching the brunt of the whip’s blow with his arm. The chain wrapped around his wrist, and before anyone could react, Daniel yanked the whip with all his might and sent Mr. Chain Whips flying over his head. He hit the ground several feet away and rolled over onto his back.
Daniel reached out and helped Anton to his feet.
To my surprise, the Russian made a small bow toward Daniel and then jogged out of the challenging ring. I assumed he’d withdrawn his challenge out of respect for what Daniel had done for him.
I was just thinking that not all of these challengers were bad people when Mr. Chain Whips scrambled to his feet and went flying after Daniel again.
I didn’t see what happened next, as a commotion below me caught my attention. Lisa Jordan, going spear to spear, had driven Marrock into the barn. Talbot and one of Marrock’s lieutenants entered behind them, fighting sword versus spear. It was only a matter of seconds before Talbot sent a slashing cut into the lieutenant’s throat with the blade of his steel sword. Not a killing blow for an Urbat, but the man clutched at his spurting artery and dropped his silver-tipped spear.
Lisa and Marrock went at each other with their spears—spinning, jumping, and ducking out of the range of each other’s thrusts in a way that reminded me of a kung fu movie. But Lisa shouted as Marrock sent a kick into her belly. She flew backward into a tower of hay bales.
“Watch out!” I shouted as Marrock raised his spear to stab her.
Talbot heard my call and snatched the fallen lieutenant’s spear and sent it sailing into Marrock’s back. Lisa rolled out of the way as Marrock fell forward into the hay, the spear still protruding from underneath his right shoulder blade. Talbot rushed at him and grabbed the end of the spear—I thought at first for the purpose of pulling it out, but instead Talbot twisted it with hard, cranking motions. Marrock screamed and screamed, and I knew the silver-tipped spear was not only slicing his insides, but also burning them at the same.
“Mercy!” Marrock begged between his shrieks of pain. “Mercy! I submit!”
Talbot twisted the spear again, his foot pinning Marrock down for better leverage. Marrock shrieked.
“Stop!” Lisa shouted at Talbot. “He’s submitted.”
Talbot only twisted harder.
“Stop!” I shouted at him from the hayloft, but he didn’t seem to hear me, either. I took a running leap and jumped from the loft. I landed in a trough of hay and ran to Talbot, shouting his name. A look of complete and utter rage filled Talbot’s eyes as he twisted the spear in Marrock’s back. I was sure the eclipse hadn’t started yet, but was it already having some sort of terrible effect on Talbot?
“Stop!” I sent my open hand sailing and slapped Talbot across his face.
He let go of the spear and stared down at me—that rage burning in his eyes. Then he blinked and clutched his palm over the red hand-shaped mark I’d left on his face. “What was that for!”
“He submitted. Let. Him. Go.”
“Fine.” Talbot grabbed the spear, yanked it from Marrock’s back, and cast it aside. “You’re welcome,” he snapped at Lisa, who gaped at him openmouthed.
“Grace! Grace!” I heard a voice shout. I couldn’t tell where it came from at first, and I thought the wolf was shouting in my head again. Only it sounded an awful lot like Brent.
“Grace! Come in, Grace!”
I realized the voice was coming from inside my ear. I’d completely forgotten I was wearing the earpiece.
I put my hand to my ear. “What is it, Brent?”
“Still no Shadow Kings. What do you want us to do?”
“Stand your ground,” I said. “They’ll show.”
Brent swore so loudly it made my eardrum rattle. “Looks like Slade needs some help!”
I dropped my hand from my ear and went sprinting back out into the barnyard. Daniel and Mr. Chain Whips were still fighting, but I didn’t have time to ascertain the situation because Slade was running straight at us, down the middle of the field, with two giant wolves on his heels. “A little help here!” he called in our direction.
“I thought you were supposed to be handling one of those guys,” I said to Talbot.
“I was a little busy,” he said.
“You want us to stop them?” Brent shouted in my ear.
“No! Do not give up your position!”
Slade went barreling past us. Talbot flew at the larger of the two wolves. Lisa, weaponless now, jumped onto the back of the smaller of the two wolves, pummeling her fists against the sides of its head. I sent my sword into its hindquarters, slicing a chunk in its left hip. It stumbled to the ground. I raised my sword, ready to swing at it again, but the beast lowered its head and tucked its tail between its legs. It whined in submission.
The larger wolf stopped short before sending Talbot flying off its back. Slade punched the beast in the face, but instead of retaliating against him, it spun around and faced Lisa and me. Its yellow eyes narrowed in on me. It scratched at the ground like a bull and then charged in my direction, with great galloping leaps.
I gulped and raised my sword, ready to defend myself against the attacking wolf. But before it could make its final bound, Talbot came flying down on top of it. With a brutal swing of his sword, he sliced into the wolf’s neck. Then a second swing decapitated it completely.
“What the—?”
I stared at Talbot, amazed that he was able to pull off such an attack on the wolf, and revolted at the same time by what he’d done. “You … you weren’t supposed to kill him unless it was a final resort. That was the deal.”
He stared ba
ck at me with blood on his hands.
“I told you I’d kill anyone who tried to harm you,” he said.
“Grace,” Brent said in my ear, “the eclipse.”
I looked up in the sky and watched as a red stain crept along the edge of the moon, like blood slowly soaking into a white sponge. The eclipse was just starting, but I could already feel a surge of energy raking down my spine. My powers were magnifying.
“Any sign of Caleb?” I asked Brent. I knew he had a better vantage point than I did from his hiding place.
“No.”
I spun in a circle, searching every face I could see in the crowd. I was so sure Caleb would make his entrance the moment the eclipse started. It would be just like him to want to capture the drama of it all.
A ferocious roar ripped through the air, and I thought the Shadow Kings had finally arrived. But it came from Daniel’s opponent, the Urbat who had lost both of his chain whips. He reached his hands up in the sky, seething and shaking, and I watched as his hands transformed into clawed paws. He fell to all fours, and his body rocked and convulsed. His army fatigues shredded as his body burst into the form of a giant, hulking red wolf at least twice the size of any werewolf I had ever seen.
“Whoa,” Brent said. “Give me whatever steroids that guy’s taking.”
“It’s the eclipse,” I said.
The giant red wolf crouched in the straw ten yards away from Daniel.
“Do you want us to—?”
“No. Not yet.”
Daniel squared his shoulders, standing tall and mighty. He opened his arms, his sword ready in one hand. With the other, he beckoned the wolf to attack with the inward wave of his fingers.
The red wolf reared back and leaped at Daniel. Daniel countered out of the way and sent a hard crack across the wolf’s head with the hilt of his sword. The wolf shook off the blow and ran a few yards in the opposite direction away from Daniel.
I ran toward them, ready to back up Daniel if needed, but before I was even halfway across the field, the wolf leaped high into the air, straight at Daniel’s right side. Daniel tossed his sword into his right hand and stabbed it up into the wolf’s rib cage, then used brute force to swing the wolf through the air and slam it to the ground on its back. Daniel pinned it to the ground with the sword as the red wolf thrashed his clawed paws.