The Wolf King (The Wolf Kings #1) (MLM)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

                Jack felt and heard nothing but wind. It lasted for a second before they landed on the bridge and he had to clutch Isaac's fur to keep from falling off. He slid off Isaac's back as Everett did the same, and like they planned, they ran straight for the nearest tower, the entrance just tall enough that Isaac and Mira's ears brushed the ceiling. It opened to a wide, empty hall with tapestries, statues, and windows revealing more smoke outside.

And wisps, their whitish-blue light flickering and leading the way down the hall.

"Come on," he told them, "and keep out of sight."

No sooner had Jack said that than Isaac pulled on his shirt to drag him behind a pillar, half hidden in shadows. Two wolves ran across the far end of the hall just then.

"Thanks, Isaac," he murmured, and Isaac nodded. The wisps led down the opposite direction, and since Jack was the only one capable of clearly seeing them, the others followed closely behind him.

Smoke blew outside and more explosions shook the tower, but the deeper into the castle they walked, the quieter the battle outside turned. They stopped at every corner and peered into the hallway, but it was as if the wisps knew how to hide them. Or maybe they were just taking them to a pathway not often visited.

Isaac whimpered as the windows vanished, the sconces unlit and the ceilings limitless, and the battle completely muffled now.

"Yes," Everett whispered, moving closer to Mira. "I'm getting a little creeped out, too. I can still kind of see the wisps. Is it just me, or are there a lot of them?"

"There are," Jack confirmed. He ran a hand over one as they passed it, and a warmth touched his palm before the wisp vanished. "A lot more than last time. What does that mean?"

Everett frowned. "I dunno. But there's never just one wisp in any of the stories. Even with the witches, they serve in groups."

"I think someone was trying to set me up last time," Jack confessed. "Have the wisp send me down the dangerous path. Hang on," he pulled his notepad off his belt. He was sure he'd written something about wisps days ago that had given him this idea in the first place. "Here it is! Wisps are impossible to control, I remember reading about it. They only serve witches because they want to, but if a witch goes against what they think is right—"

"—So the balance of nature—" Everett cut in.

"Exactly," Jack said. "Then they can ignore the command. Maybe . . . maybe a witch wanted the wisps to lead me down to the trolls' tunnel, make it look like I wandered down there on my own, so my death would look like an accident."

"But killing a wolf king is against the laws of nature," Everett deduced, "so the wisps refused."

Jack nodded. "Except the witch couldn't accept that, so he or she tried to control the wisps and only managed to get one."

Mira shuddered, and Everett moved closer to her, aghast. "But they couldn't! It's just as bad as killing a king! Using that kind of dark magic against something as pure as a wisp corrupts it!"

Isaac growled and shook his head, and Jack had the feeling he knew what he was saying.

"It would explain why the wisp was able to talk to me," he said, shivering at the memory of all those voices screaming in his head at once. "And why it felt so . . . wrong."

"And," Everett said slowly, "how do we know these ones are good again?"

Isaac seemed to agree, eying the wisps warily, while Jack only lightly brushed the tips of his fingers against one as they passed it. It felt like touching a soothing flame. "Like I said," he murmured, some kind of comforting warmth spreading through his chest, like the wisps were assuring him. "Just a feeling."