The Wolf's Eye: A Novel (The Order of the Seven Stars) by Luanne G. Smith

Author:Luanne G. Smith [Smith, Luanne G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2024-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Josef splashed cold water on his face. He’d nearly lost control, and bitten the side of his tongue trying to hold on. How easily he could slip from one form to another when he knew he had the elixir to revive him, but without that small vial of herbs, he feared the brittle pane separating his wolf persona and the vlkodlak would shatter for good.

What if he’d succumbed and attacked Petra? Or Viktor? Or his family two lanes over? The thought made his stomach rise. The moon’s light had been more intense than he’d admitted. It pulled on his insides like a magnet, threatening to wrench the wolf out of him. Halos had dilated in his eyes until he was nearly blinded to reason. Another few minutes and he might have been raving in the streets, demanding blood, because the threat was always there, lurking in the back of his thoughts.

If there was no more elixir, then yes, he’d go through whatever pain it took to be free of that doubt in himself again to protect those around him. If he began with small doses, he thought it just might work. Build up a resistance to the moon’s power, the way he’d seen some men’s broken bodies develop a tolerance to morphine. If it worked, he might finally look at the future through a different lens.

Caught up in his thoughts, Josef nearly missed the arrival of a pigeon inside the storeroom. It landed on the table in the center of the space, strutting and cooing until Petra talked to it.

“Where did that come from?” he asked.

“I let him in after he tapped at the glass,” Petra said, bending at the waist to look at the bird eye to eye. “Didn’t you hear him? He’s brought us a message from Yanis.”

“And how do you know that?” Josef asked, but he needn’t have. Where witches were concerned, he trusted there was a spell for everything. But he did wonder if they were aware of how discomforting it was to watch someone have a viable conversation with a bird.

Viktor petted the pigeon gently on the back as he listened to the message. “Yanis wants us to meet him at that odd stargazing tower on the other side of the river. Says it’s urgent.”

Petra straightened. “I know the place he means. It’s not far from my old apartment.”

After a few final coos and wing flaps from the bird, Viktor extended his hand and carried the messenger to the window, where he let it outside.

“Are you feeling up to a short walk?” Petra asked.

Josef grabbed their coats. “I’ll take any excuse to get out in the cool night air and stretch my legs,” he said, then shook his head, resigned. “Even if it comes from the mouth of an enchanted flying rat with wings.”

They crossed the old king’s bridge to the Lesser Town district as a light mist settled over the bronze saints, making halos around the gas streetlights. Petra pulled up her hood and led them along a winding, narrow lane populated with respectable apartment buildings.

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