Wild Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary Book 4)

I couldn’t focus on the bellowing roars of the Dragon who had joined the fray, Benjamin Acrux’s fate was down to the stars and my men to decide. And in a way it was fitting too. Cain deserved his vengeance on the man who had stolen not only his childhood and innocence from him, but also profited on the suffering of the children who had been desperate enough to seek out the questionable care he offered them.

I hated to think of Cain and those other small Fae so in need of a home that they had been willing to endure the punishment and cruel ‘training’ of a monster in plain sight just to be able to survive. I hoped that Solaria no longer held places of poverty and desperation like the streets Cain had clawed his way through life on, and that those in need now found the safety and help they were due.

I gritted my teeth as the bronze Dragon bellowed a roar at my back, refusing to turn and look at the fight which was taking place far beneath me. Every moment I wasted was another where my men would be forced to fight on. We were up against a viper and that meant victory would only come once I had cut off its head. And Vard’s beheading was the first priority on my list.

My muscles trembled with fatigue as I dug my fingers into the brickwork again, sweat slicking my skin and rolling down my spine as I climbed ever higher. Above me the windows were winking in the moonlight, beckoning me closer with every foot I climbed.

I was so close. And if I was lucky then Vard would be right there, up at the top of the tower looking out over the world below as stronzos like him so often enjoyed. But if not, it didn’t matter. Once I was in, I would delve through every layer of that tower, scouring its innards and ending all of the sick bastardos I came across who were complicit in the fucked up devilry they were practicing within those walls.

Max had been right. No knowledge of this could be allowed to survive for another psychopath to pick up and continue. No scrap of information could be left once this was done. We would burn it all and end every piece of shit who was involved in its production.

I dug my fingers into the bricks again, my magic flaring, but as I pulled myself higher, a high-pitched shriek cut the air in two and I flinched, my head snapping around despite the promises I’d made myself to focus on nothing but my climb.

I sucked in a sharp breath as I spotted the huge doors at the base of the tower which had been torn clean off and from within the bowels of the building hunched shapes were moving out into the moonlight.

I froze, staring down in horror as I was transported back to the war, to the monstrous creatures which had joined that fight. Fae experimented on and tainted with dark and terrible magic, forged into monsters which were near impossible to kill, frighteningly intelligent and blessed with magical weaponry.

Monsters like the Belorian who Vard himself had created. Monsters like the thing he had twisted Gustard into. Monsters which had wings.

My heart leapt in alarm as a brutish beast launched from the depths of the tower, leathery wings snapping out and hurling it skyward. It was as big as Benjamin in his Dragon form, its face disconcertingly humanoid and eyes a piercing yellow as they locked on me.

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the notion that it was coming for me. I was invisible. I could feel the rush of the moon’s magic and knew that there was no way it could see me.

But the beast did not sway from its path, racing through the sky towards me, and I cursed as I watched its nostrils flare.

No, it couldn’t see me. It could smell me.

“Fuck,” I gasped, reaching upwards as I tore my gaze from the beast which was flying for me at such speed that it defied physics.

I wrenched myself skyward a heartbeat before it collided with the tower where I’d just been, bricks crumbling away to scatter to the ground far below and the entire structure vibrating so forcefully that I was almost knocked free of it.

The beast shrieked again as it kicked off of the stone tower and launched itself back out into the sky, its wings beating hard as it swung in a tight circle, nostrils flaring as it hunted for me once more.

I gave up on keeping myself concealed; anyone would be able to see the beast attacking the tower anyway and though I remained invisible, I hurled vines out above me, aiming for the metal lightning rod which topped the tower.

The beast shrieked as it dove for me again, aiming true, its speed formidable.

The vines snapped tight and I threw myself off of the tower a mere moment before it crashed into the bricks where I had just been for the second time.

The vines snaked around my wrists at my command then wrenched me skyward, hurling me towards the windows.

My destination loomed but the monster threw itself after me, its eyes on the vines above my head, serrated jaws snapping wildly.

I yelled out in alarm as it collided with my vines, calling on my magic to save me but I wasn’t fast enough and my stomach swooped like an anvil had just dropped straight to the pit of it as my lifeline was severed and I tumbled from the sky.