“I take this curse from you, as I take your blood,” Verity says, a wicked gleam in her eyes.
The dagger plunges toward me and I roll to the side, narrowly missing the blade. Heat flushes through me like a fever and I wince in pain as the sudden movement aggravates the cuts in my chest. I stare at her, at the knife she tried to drive into my chest. She’s fuzzy, but I can see the snarl on her lips. I leap to my feet, the world swaying and tipping around me with magic. Before she can rise, I dart into the shadows of the darkened city, desperate to escape her.
“Altair!” She screams angrily.
I run faster, heart pounding wildly as I follow the twists and turns of the ancient alleys far away. My body is slow and sluggish, and I feel the curse taking hold. She didn’t fix me, I think morosely, she didn’t fix me. I feel my arms extending until they drag along the sand, slowly, painfully, they morph into enormous paws and strong arms.
My vision clears, and I feel wings burst from the folds of skin on my back. I keep them tight against my body, heading for an open space where I can fly away from the woman and her murderous intentions. The alley opens up into what once might have been a town square and I pad to the center of it. I want to go away and fly wherever the wind takes me. Perhaps Civisilva. What am I doing in this wasteland anyway? I shake my head, trying to remember how I came to be here, but all I know is that the sky is waiting for me.
I hear footsteps behind me and spin, lips pulled back over my teeth. A woman bursts into the space, dagger in hand. She’s panting, but her eyes are narrowed dangerously. I growl low at her, a warning to keep her distance. Her light brown hair sticks to her forehead, damp with sweat, and she wears a set of fine armor. She’s thin, with light blue eyes that sear into my soul.
“Stay back, girl,” I snarl, flicking my tail out behind me.
“Altair?” Her words spark a flicker of recognition, but it’s gone before I can catch hold of it.
“Whoever you’re searching for isn’t here,” I growl. “Leave at once.”
She lifts the dagger and takes a step towards me. “You have to let me finish the spell, Altair. If you don’t, you’ll be trapped like this forever.”
My hackles rise as she approaches slowly. “You test my patience.”
With a cry, she lunges towards me, dagger outstretched. I swipe it out of her hand with a paw and she yelps, surprised. With a furious snarl, I pounce on her, driving her to the ground. Her eyes are wide and fearful. I open my mouth, ready to snap my teeth around her skull. She whimpers as saliva drips from one of my fangs and lands on her cheek. Yes, this will be satisfying indeed.
Suddenly, there’s a sharp shriek from the darkness. My head snaps up, eyes roving through the shadows to find the source of the noise. She struggles under my paws, and I can hear her heart pounding fearfully. Another moan from the night, closer this time. I release the woman, instincts telling me that whatever is approaching in the night is much more dangerous than this feeble woman. She scrambles to her feet, hand reaching for the blade at her hip.
“Spirits,” she whispers. “We have to get out of here and back to camp.”
Her words are cut short by a wail shattering the night. The sound chills me to the bones. A white fog hurtles out of the darkness towards the woman. Despite its ethereal form, I see a pair of black, endless eyes, and a mouth filled with too many teeth. The woman screams, swinging her sword at the spirit. Her fear makes her sloppy and her blade is as useless against the phantom as it would be cutting through smoke.
She screams a garbled phrase and light bursts from her hands. A Bloodbane witch, I seethe. The spirit whirls away in response to the flare of light, but it will be back. More howls join the chorus of the first. More spirits are coming to join the first. When they finally burst into the open space, they streak around us so quickly, I can’t keep track of them all. I snarl at them, trying to bat them away with my paws. But my own attacks are as useless as the woman’s sword. She throws beams of light all around us, lighting up the night sky like blasts of firepowder.
Pain sears through me as one of the phantoms takes a bite out of my shoulder. I roar in anger, and my teeth close uselessly around its ethereal body. The woman’s light is coming slower now. She’s growing tired, I realize, as one of the phantoms knocks her off her feet. I don’t bother rushing to her aide. My eyes trail up to the sky. I should flee, travel to Civisilva like I planned. But something draws me back. I glance at the woman, on her back and trying desperately to maintain a light source to keep the spirits at bay.
They crowd around her, taking turns diving at her, testing her magic. I feel a pang of guilt at the prospect of abandoning her to the spirits. But, then again, she is a Bloodbane, no doubt intent on killing me. I groan, tossing
