Something rose from the bottom of the river, coming toward me. In the darkness and murk, I could just make out an enormous black blob, two pale fishy eyes fixed on me. A mouth gaped open, filled with lamprey-like teeth, and my heart seized up as the tentacles drew me toward it. I kicked wildly, thrashing in the thing’s grasp, but with my arms pinned I could only watch as the teeth loomed closer.
There was a flash of silver beside me, a slender blade stabbing from the darkness, piercing the band around my chest. The tentacle spasmed and recoiled, loosening enough for me to free my arms. With the gaping mouth only a foot away, I stabbed up with everything I had and sank the steel blade between two curved fangs.
A muffled roar went through the water, vibrating against my skin, and I was free. Kicking out, I swam for my life, breaking the surface with a gasp and immediately heading for shore. Kenzie and Razor were at the water’s edge again, eyes wide as I staggered out of the river. My lungs burned, and the ground didn’t feel as solid as it should, swaying under my feet as I stumbled onto dry land.
“Ethan!” Kenzie rushed toward me, taking my arm as I nearly fell to my knees in the mud, feeling my heart hammer in my ears. Close behind me, the Thin Man emerged from the river, shaking water from his blade and giving me an exasperated look as he grabbed my sleeve in long fingers. Together, we scrambled up the bank, Kenzie and the Thin Man half dragging me, until we were about a hundred feet from the water’s edge. Only then did I collapse, panting, never so happy to feel solid earth under my palms.
Razor let out a screech and scrambled to Kenzie’s shoulder, frantically pointing back to the river. I looked up, and my blood chilled as a long black tentacle rose into the air, followed by another, and another, as the huge, amorphous blob pulled itself onto the bank. Eyes gleaming, it opened its mouth to bare the circle of jagged lamprey teeth and slithered forward with a hiss.
Grabbing my swords, I staggered to my feet. But as I raised my weapons, the tentacles reaching for us suddenly retracted as if stung. The octopus-blob thing lurched to a halt, peering at us with blank silver eyes. Then, with a hiss, it turned and fled, tentacles carrying it over the ground and back down the bank. There was a splash as it reached the river, and then silence as it sank back into the depths and disappeared from sight.
Frowning, I glanced back at my companions. “What the hell just happened?”
Kenzie, looking just as baffled as I felt, shrugged. “Maybe you scared it off?”
A low chuckle echoed behind us from the edge of the trees. “The fox does not run away from the mouse, little human,” rumbled a deep, gravelly voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Unless, of course, it knows the bear is coming.”
Heart in my throat, I turned.
Something watched us from edge of the forest, nearly invisible in the shadows, except for a pair of gold-green eyes shining with subtle amusement. Something huge and black, with shaggy fur spiked out in every direction. It gave another chuckle and padded into the moonlight.
A wolf, I realized as it slid out of the dark. A black wolf...the size of a freaking Budweiser horse. The top of my head barely reached its huge shoulders, and its jaws were about the length of my arm. It was smiling as it padded into view, its tongue lolling out between rows of slick white fangs. I quickly stepped in front of Kenzie, raising my swords as it loomed closer, and the massive wolf snorted in clear disgust.
“Ugh, why must we go through this silly dance every single time I meet one of you?” it rumbled, making no sense whatsoever. I’d never seen this thing before and would certainly remember meeting a giant-ass wolf that could talk. The huge canine shook his head. “Do you think those little toys will hurt me, boy?” it asked in an overly patient tone, its teeth flashing in the dim light as it spoke. “Do you even know who I am?”
“I do,” the Thin Man said, startling me. The tall faery stepped up beside me, narrowing his pale eyes, and the wolf stared back, unblinking. “I remember you,” the Thin Man said softly. “When you came through my town. I remember you and the Winter prince, the Summer jester and the seer. That seer—the one whose time was already up—she should have never left Phaed. I knew it was folly to let her go, but you and the prince refused to leave her behind.” The Thin Man’s voice grew hard, bitterness seeping into his words. “I could have stopped them there, even the Winter prince. But you were the one that helped them escape, escape with her, and because of that one oversight, this entire mess came to pass.” He pointed at the wolf with a long, stabby finger. “If not for the seer, the Winter prince would have failed, but because she lived, the prophecy was set into motion. If the First Queen and the Iron Prince emerge victorious, let it be on your head.”
The wolf growled, showing his enormous fangs and making the ground vibrate. “You did not know what would happen any more than I did,” it rumbled, the spikes on the back of its shoulders bristling angrily. “Nor could you know what might’ve happened, had the Winter prince not fulfilled his quest. Perhaps a future worse than this one. Perhaps he would have become a monster even more terrible than the First Queen.”
“Or perhaps he would have died, and the child of prophecy, the one who is responsible for bringing the First Queen to power once again, would never have been born!”
“Hey!” Kenzie stepped between the Thin Man and the wolf, glaring at them both. “Stop it, both of you,” she ordered, as the Thin Man blinked and the wolf pricked his ears in amused surprise. “This isn’t helping anything. Who cares who did what, and who’s responsible for which prophecy? We can’t go back and change it. So, instead of pointing fingers at each other, why don’t we try stopping it now?” She turned to face the huge wolf, back straight, completely unafraid. “I take it you’re the guide Grimalkin told us about?” she asked, while I held my breath and tried not to imagine those massive jaws biting her head off. “The one who can help us find Annwyl?”