The Wolf Queen (The Queen's Slave, Book 2)

Seventy: Into The Woods

"The God's expression was calm and content, as if he'd just come home from a lovely evening strolling through the Fields of Punishment, enjoying the screams of the damned."

-Rick Riordan, "The Blood of Olympus" (The Heroes of Olympus) book #5

ten months prior to birth

E L I Z A B E T H

"Chaos" (Acoustic)

By: Toby Johnson

My breath frosted in the cool morning air, my body one fluid movement as I stalked through the trees, my sight fading with each step I took yet heightening my other senses dramatically. I took a deep breath as the last of my sight left me, a low sigh humming through the forest around me. Even without eyesight, I could still see. I could feel every root and flower straining for the slightest bit of sunlight, and hear the soft chittering of chipmunks in their nests. My heartbeat slowed as I welcomed the darkest part of myself, letting the sinister side of me take control. Naturally, first thing on her mind was Azalea. I wasn't sure when my monster fell for her, but she fell hard as fuck.

Then again, so had I.

"Blood."

The delicious scent caught my nose and my throat burned, a roar of hunger on my lips. I was off, surging through the forest without care for what was in my way. Every thought, emotion, purpose, were dedicated to tasting that blood. And although the same excitement of the hunt raged through me every time, the outcome was the same. All the blood I tasted fell to ash in my mouth. The first drops were ravishing, and then it failed, leaving me more ravenous than ever. I tracked that scent with perfect accuracy and fled, weaving through the trees as easily as a fish through water. My demon was comforted by the feeling of the soil beneath our feet and the crisp winter air. It made us feel alive, whole in a way that could only be defined by the link I shared with Azalea. It has taken me a while to adapt to the forest, but I could see why she loved it so much. It was wild, free, and the purest form of life that has ever existed.

I slowed as the ruins of the old world cracked beneath my feet. My fingers brushed gently across the soft leaves of an oak that stood in the center of it all, roots winding through the rubble. For as much destruction, death, and brutality this world has faced, not even I could deny the beauty in its resilience. A low whimper caught my ears, and with an intrigued tilt to our head, my monster steered us toward the frightened sound. Vibrations through my feet alerted me to the shift of gravel underneath fabric. A deep inhale confirmed that this was the blood source I had tracked here. Glass crunched under my boots as I stepped over thick chunks of broken concrete, once the base of something large, but now overgrown. I didn't need to see to know where I was, the outskirts of Seattle, a town called Issaquah.

"I can smell you." I whispered to the frightened woman, the rank scent of urine and sweat permeating the air. From my place at the back of our shared mind, I rolled my eyes at the demon's sinister words and snorted when my counterpart shot me the finger. The girl fell into a full blown sob when I rounded the corner of a crumbling wall, a symphony of pleas flooding from her mouth.

My lips pursed at the scent of this woman, a regrettably familiar scent underneath all the grime. All at once my monster relinquished control, and I was grateful, since I wasn't entirely sure how I would be handling this and I knew she would've outright killed her. I clasped my hands behind my back but did not move towards her. "So, I take it my mother finally tired of you?"