The Luna Choosing Game

Julian and I ran all the way to Nichola s’s room. I knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

“Maybe he’s asleep,” I said.

“See if it’s locked,” Julian said.

I tried the handle. The door opened at once, pushing inward. Together, Julian and I stumbled into the room. Then, I gasped.

Furniture had been shoved over. The carpet was torn to shreds, like wolf claws had sliced straight through. There were claw marks etched into the wall.

“He struggled,” Julian said, stepping into the center of the room. He paused, and turned to me. “Do you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

He lifted his head and looked around. “Magic.”

Now that he mentioned it, now that I knew what to focus on, yes. I could feel it too, like a tingle in the back of my mind. Or my nose preparing for a sneeze.

“How could this happen?” I asked, wandering around the room. The claw marks seemed to lead toward a wall, like someone had been dragged there.

Nicholas. What have they done to you?

Then, distantly, muf fled through stone and wood, I heard a wolf howl.

I knew that wolf. I could feel it pull inside of me much like my own had.

But this one didn’t belong to me. It was Nicholas.

“Sh it,” Julian said. “He’s here. Somewhere. There has to be a passage.” Julian went for the bookcase.

I turned back to the wall, where a painting of a sailboat hung.

“There’s nothing there, Piper. Keep searching!”

That didn’t seem right. Visually, I knew I should have been able to see the outlines of a passageway, especially if it had been recently used. But right now, my heart was pulling me here.

This is the way, it seemed to whisper. This will lead you to Nick.

“Piper, stop wasting time!”

I lifted my hand and put it to the wall. It felt sturdy, but under that was the now-familiar tingle of magic.

The passage was here, I was certain of it.

I closed my eyes, and let the pull of my heart lead the way. It compelled me to lift a hand. My fingers brushed against the brushstrokes of the painting.

I pressed down.

There was a click.

And just like that, a door swung open, revealing an opening right in front of me.

Julian rushed to my side. Disbelief widened his features. “How did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly.

“Well, to hell with it, let’s go.” He nudged me aside so he could enter the passageway first. I followed him down, down a winding stairwell. It opened up into a room filled with cages.

Nicholas was there in wolf form, a collar tight around his neck. One of the cages had been burst through, iron bars bent. He snapped wildly at some men in dark clothing who were trying to corner him.

He seemed tired, weakened somehow, in a way I had never seen him before.

“Get to him,” Julian barked at me. “Remove that d amn collar.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Save my brother.”

I’d never seen Julian so angry. His eyes were wild with it. His hands shook, tremoring with barely contained rage.

He shifted in a blink of an eye, fully human one second, and fully wolf in the next.

Before I could even think to react, he barreled forward. He tackled into two of the men, pushing them away from his brother and sending them into the wall. They hit it with an oof, and landed in heaps.

I entered the fray as well, dodging what I could. Julian had already turned around and tackled two more, clearing a path for me.

I fell to my knees at Nichola s’s side. He inched forward, trying to place himself in front of me. “Nick, let me help you.”/

He growled at anyone who came to close. He snapped at an arm, a hand. Julian took care of most of the rest. The collar was an obvious hindrance.

I grabbed it with both hands. The magic sparkled under my touch, shooting pain up into my arms. I gasped, but held on. If I could get him free, he would likely regain his strength. I didn’t have a wolf, I couldn’t save us from this. But he could.

If I could just get him free.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and yanked me back. I released the collar to touch the offender’s wrist between my hands. Then I twisted, just as Nicholas had shown me in self-defense class. The attacker stumbled backwards.

I darted forward again, eager to return to Nicholas.

Yet before I could get to his side, someone tackled me, sending me sliding along the ground. No, not a person, a wolf.

I watched, my eyes widening in horror as a wolf stepped closer to me.

My whole heart shattered.

This was my wolf, a piece of me that had been so violently ripped away and given instead to my sister. Now, she was using it against me.

Everything hurt. My heart, my soul, the growing bruises from where I’d been shoved to the ground.

My wolf growled at me as it stepped closer.

I knew it, but it didn’t seem to know me. At least, not with Jane so close behind its eyes.

I could feel its closeness, the way its very presence filled up the dark hole that had been tore of out me.

I wished with all my heart that Veronica had been able to find an answer before now. I wished so very much that I could welcome my wolf back into my person.

But she hadn’t.

And now I faced my wolf head-on, not as a friend, but as an enemy.

Would Jane make it kill me? Could she be that cruel?

I already knew the answer. What better way to kill me than to have my wolf tear out my throat?

Tears welled in my eyes. One escaped, sliding down along the curve of my cheek.

Behind the wolf’s back, I watched as Julian and Nicholas continued to fight off the attackers. Nicholas was whimpering, wounds all over his body.

It would be up to Julian to save him now. G od, I hoped they would escape.

No such bright future waited for me.

The wolf stepped closer to me.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m not mad. It’s not your fault.”

I smiled a little, it wobbled from my tears. “I’m here now. I’m sorry it took me so long to find you. To see you. You must have been so frightened, all alone.” Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

I tried to remember back. My wolf and I had been close as could be once. It had been so strong, so

bright, and wonderful. It had given me confidence beyond my wildest dreams.

I had felt so low since it had been stolen from me.

“I won’t leave you again,” I said. “We’ll be together… I’ll be with you this time.”

Another tear. “Don’t feel bad.”

Nicholas tried to turn around, toward me, but one of the men gripped him by the collar and yanked him toward a new cage.

Julian had his hands full, fighting off the rest, some of which wielded cattle pr ods.

The princes had to survive. It didn’t matter what happened to me.

“Just let them go.Please…”

My wolf took a step. Snarling, it lifted its lips away from its teeth.

I closed my eyes, breath in tatters, and tried to accept my fate.