The Wand and the Wolf

43 - Ambush

Ibhans POV

A dark figure laughed from the tree line, and I reached for my wand.

"We knew you would find us sooner or later," the deep voice said from the dark.

"Show yourself," I said, stepping in front of Damien.

"Ah, Ibhan, boy wonder himself," the man said, "I've heard a lot about you," he said, still hidden amongst the trees.

"Like what?" I asked and he laughed again.

"About how she was looking for you, and how you were her mate, oh, how desperate she was," he said and it took me a moment to catch on. Kyda. He was one of her torturers. A strange feeling turned in my head as I took in his figure, and in that moment I knew he would die for what he did.

"Why her?" I asked, "why Kyda?" I felt eyes boring into me from Damien and Riaz, Eliza having retreated somewhere else.

"You know how it goes, a little scuffle, a little fight, and it all goes wrong," he said, stepping closer, face still obscured.

"Wolfsbane and torture over a little fight?" I asked. I could feel my anger pouring off of me, and when I looked down my shadow marks were pouring over my skin.

"We got an anonymous tip, that she was involved in something a little bigger than that," he said.

"What could she possibly have done in the minutes before you locked her up?" I asked. The man stepped forward into the clearing, green eyes looking out from under his hood.

"Kegsus' crow skull, our relic that helps hold the barrier, is missing," he said, pushing back his hood. "Kyda was under investigation when you broke into the prison to release her, leading us to believe that you were also involved in any scheme she had. Because you fled the scene, left a Shade behind who caused a lot of damage," I couldn't help but feel satisfied there, "we have permission to use lethal force to detain you, if necessary." As he finished his sentence, the trees rustled and several more warlocks stepped out of the shadows.

"You wont be taking me any other way," I warned, as I rolled back my shoulders.

"Oh, I love it when they play hard to get," the man said and he waved to the warlocks around him and they advanced out of the foliage. Damien snarled loudly, but it didn't deter them. Warlock guards had ruthless training, we were going to have to fight this losing battle if we wanted to live.

I flicked my wand down to my side, a shadow whip extending from it, and lashed out at the closest warlock just as they got ready to use their own wand. The whip twirled around their arm and I yanked hard, sending them sprawling to the ground. Around me, the battle had erupted and chaos grew.

I turned aside to see Damien leap into the air and shift into his wolf form before he hit the ground, narrowly missing a wall of shadow that barrelled towards him. I redirected the wall towards the attacker and I was about to send another when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me back. The green eyed man grinned as he punched me, my head snapping upward as I staggered back.

"Oh, how disappointing," he said as he stalked towards me, "your light put up more of fight than that." I gritted my teeth as he drew back his arm again, but this time I was ready and ducked under his arm, sending a punch of my own, clipping him across the nose. Blood spurted down across his face but he came at me again. We went blow for blow for a few more rounds before I found myself backed against a tree.

I raised my wand to attack but he was fast, flicking up some cuffs that held me to the tree. He approached slowly, as if there weren't a dozen others fighting behind him. He was so close to me, that I could smell the copper scent of his blood, and his breath was warm and clammy on my skin.

"You know, when she was pumped full of that wolfsbane, she would call out for you," he said, gripping my jaw in his hand, forcing me to meet his gaze. Fury clouded my head once again, and I focused on the shadow marks that crawled up along his neck.

"She was very, very pretty," he murmured as he studied my face, and for a moment my vision went entirely black.

I pulled my legs up to my chest and pushed hard, kicking him away from me. His shadows dissolved from around my wrists and I surged forward.

I swung forward with my hand and a mass of black shadows followed, and a moment later I could feel his pulse beneath my fingers as my hand wrapped around his throat. He gasped and spluttered for air, pulling at my arm but my grip was firmer than steel in that moment as I watched him turn a brilliant shade of red.

"What did you say your name was?" I asked . To his credit, he gave me another grin.

"She didn't tell you? Trouble in paradise?" I slammed him down into the ground again, throat still gripped in my hand and he fought desperately for air.

"Nathaniel," he wheezed and I lightened my grip on his throat as he gasped. "I'm Nathaniel," he said, "and I took great pleasure in carving into your lights soft skin," he said, maniacal laughter erupting from his chest.

My face remained unchanged as I reached for his shadow marks. At first they slipped between my fingers until I found a proper hold of them. I pulled tightly on the shadow marks and watched as his own marks squeezed around his neck.

Nathaniels eyes grew to the size of saucers, "what? What are you doing, how—" he was cut off as my grip on his windpipe tightened.

"I am showing you what happens to those who touch my light," I said softly, my other hand pushing back his messy hair as his cheeks turned purple. "You will never touch her again," I said, and I closed my hand into a fist, the shadows crushing his windpipe, his arms falling limp.

A scream shook the forest and I looked up to see a woman running towards me. I stood up and braced myself for the wave of shadows that she sent, it was thick and fast and I fell back against the ground.

"You!" She seethed, tears streaming down her face, "you will die for this," she hissed as she stood over me.

I crossed my arms over my chest as she slammed ball after ball of shadow against my shield. Each one took more and more effort to defend against as I tried to find another way out.

"Feathers!" I called and he swooped away from where he bashing against another one of the warlocks. He cawed loudly as he dived at the woman over mepulling at her hair. The woman screeched and with a wave of her hand, she slammed him away.

With the next ball, instead of defending against it, I caught it, pushing the ball back up against her. She stumbled back and created two shadow whips at either side.

"Your light," she hissed, "will die at my hands like she should have in that cell when I was filling her with wolfsbane!" she yelled and I felt that same rage rush through me again.

"I can fix this little predicament you're in," I told her, "and kill you both."

She screeched in response as she whipped her hands forward. I managed to dodge one but the other caught my leg and she dragged me towards her. I grabbed my wand and stabbed it into the ground, bringing me to a grinding halt as the shadows locked on to me and she stumbled at the sudden stop. She stomped her foot on the ground, trying to rattle my shadow but I took the chance to stand up.

"Mia!" Someone yelled and she turned, distracted. I fashioned a quick rod of shadows and swung hard at the back of her head, but as she twisted back the contact wasn't hard enough to knock her out. She fell back to the ground but grabbed at my legs and shadow swirled upwards over my body.

"Ibhan!" I looked up to see Eliza and Damien both captured in a network of shadows. Looking back I saw Riaz cornered by two warlocks, desperately fighting them on his own.

"You will die," the woman, Mia, promised, and as I looked down shadow shot forward from her hand and into my mouth, suffocating me until the world went dark.

It's uhh getting a little dark out here