The Raven and the Wraith Book 2 (Completed!)

The Raven and the Wraith 2 Chapter 43

The Wraith 2 Chapter 43

The images were more than simple pictures of an event. They were fluid, vibrant entities that instantly etched into my mind like my own memories. It sent a sickening bolt of ice down my spine, and I snarled as I yanked my mind and my senses back away from the ring. I would never allow myself to be controlled through my memories again. Anyone or anything that tried was nothing more then warm meat to be shredded and cast aside to me.

"You saw yourself on a String. Very interesting. You are the most unique Werecat I've met in thousands of years."

I heard the Werecat Kings voice in my head, I knew it had somehow known I had seen myself in the ring, but I was too busy freaking out to think of much other than trying to formulate a plan that would keep me from ever going anywhere near that event. I knew it was something like a forecast, an image of what was coming. But I also knew it was not Fate, it was not set in stone.

"Whoever, or whatever, created this ring, they knew I would find it. They planted some...some stuff in it for me to see."

The panther nodded. I bared my fangs, feeling burning fury rising up in my chest, so hot it was almost scary.

"They're dead. I will hunt them and I will rip them apart. No one controls me, no one plays with my memories, to try to force me to follow their will. No one."

My voice was so laced with threat it sounded like a demon trying to speak like a human. Trying and failing.

The panther nodded.

"Yes. You are Werecat. You always have been. Let's go hunting."

The air shimmered by the cat, a round ball of colorless, rippling waves, an eternity of promises, knowledge, and power woven into their patterns. It was a portal, a hole in the fabric of reality. I looked away.

"That's...disturbing." I almost laughed, perhaps more than a little hysterically, at that wonderful understatement.

"Get accustomed to it. In time you will be creating your own Strands, your own Paths, and you will move between your realms at will, as all Werecats do."

The panther stepped through the portal, disappearing instantly. I closed my eyes and followed, clenching my fists as I stepped through the portal. Expecting something, anything, but not knowing what it may be.

There was a piercing, tingling wave that shot from head to toe, and then I heard the normal sounds of a warm, summer evening, along with the scents of a young forest. I opened my eyes and carefully scanned the world about me, realizing I was in a ready crouch, my blades in my hands.

"Your claws are far more dangerous than those silly metal toys you hold. If we were to be attacked, you would be better off relying on the instincts and ferocity of the Cat than that of the Human."

I narrowed my eyes at the panther. Who, or what, could ever be so foolish as to dare attack the Werecat King?

"Only you can see or hear me here, right now. I am not truly here, in your realm, just my consciousness is here. So to any predator in these woods, you're alone. Although anything even slightly intelligent seeing you in this current half—Werecat form would hurry away."

That was both a thrilling and a comforting thought. It felt good to know that I was much more than just a small, easy prey. And it was thrilling to imagine how much freedom to go where I wanted this new power would grant me.

"So where are we? And what are we doing here?"

The panther began to circle me, its steps as silent as the night sky, its eyes just twin pools of eternal blackness. And with every step it took, it faded farther away.

"This is where your Path begins. Yours alone." It's last words were quiet, like a soft breeze fading away. Then it was gone, and I was left standing in the unfamiliar woods, more baffled than I could ever remember.

I looked down at my paws, their strange cat-like form covered in silky, black fur. Seeing them still gave me a jolt. I felt like I was in someone, or something else's body, in a strange world where I did not belong. In that moment I felt more alone than any other moment in my life.

My ears, more keen than ever before, warned me of approaching footsteps. I stepped into the deeper shadows of a thick cluster of trees, pressing my back tight against a tree trunk, and holding as still as I knew how. I was desperately hoping my new ability to blend into the shadows would work here. Wherever "here" was.

The footsteps were steady. More than steady, they were unnaturally precise, carrying none of the natural disorder of life. I felt the fur all over my new half-Cat, half-human form prickle up as I recognized that this thing approaching me was something born purely through magic. No natural, living thing could possibly move that perfectly.

Then, I saw a girl gliding through the shadows. She looked like she was my age, and I felt my mouth go dry at her otherworldly beauty. I felt star struck, and a part of my mind began chanting that this was familiar. And as she looked at me, a small smile plying her lips, I knew what it was.

She was as perfectly, terrifyingly beautiful as Melikah, the crimson Cha'el Queen who had showed me my Path in the city in the trees.

The girl stopped, looking at me thoughtfully. Her hair was a fiery silver, so white and glittery that it swept around her like a halo of starlight. Her skin was without flaw, a soft, pale glow that served to accentuate the startlingly deep emerald of her eyes.

I met her eyes, then blinked as I saw the vertical pupils. Cats eyes. She looked amused at my befuddlement.

"Well? Don't you know your Queen, kitten?"