She Wolf Prophecies Book 3 Jordan's Curse

The fin folk

~Raiden~

The old man led us from his cottage and across the hills, heading toward the coast on the other side of the island. We passed a few cottages on the way, small things like his own.

“The people who live there”—Jordan pointed to one of the cottages—“are they your family?”

“Aye, more Finfolk like myself.”

“What are Finfolk?”

“Shifter. But not like him.” He nodded at me.

“Different, like you. Rare.”

“Rare?” Jordan frowned. “You think I’m a rare shifter?”

“Ain’t you?”

“I suppose so. Do you know anything about what I am?”

He gestured to the broken stone castle that rose against the skyline in front of us.

“One of these lot, I assume.”

“What made those wolves different?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Don’t know. Never saw one myself, now did I? But different they were. This island is home to the different. That’s the reason the Finfolk came here.”

The man spoke in obscure, broad statements, but he did reveal gems of information. I gave Jordan a considering look. The wind whipped her crimson hair back from her face, the pink tips glittering in the sunlight. She was beautiful out here. Beautiful everywhere, but particularly here. Hell, it didn’t matter where I saw her. I always thought she was beautiful. Part of it was how different she was from everyone around her. Though I knew that she considered herself to be a failure of her kind, I never had. I’d known she was different, of course, but never had the ability to put my finger on it. Perhaps this was part of it.

We reached the castle, which towered thirty feet overhead. Piles of broken stone sat around the base, and we found the entrance into the tower. All of the walls had been covered by inscriptions, which looked good as new. Though many of the stones appeared broken and ancient, the stones with carvings looked like they’d been made yesterday.

Jordan held her hand near the surface of one. “Protected by magic.”

“Of course.” The Finman sounded shocked. “Of course protected by magic. The residents of this island are no weak humans, leaving our relics to rot in the elements.”

Humans didn’t have access to the tools that supernaturals did, so it was hardly negligence. At least, not on the part of some of them. But they didn’t need me sticking up for them.

“Well, I’ll leave you here,” he said. “Best be gone before dark, or you’ll regret it.”

I turned to him, but he was already disappearing through the door.

“We’ll regret it?” Jordan asked. I nodded, still able to feel the threat on the air.

“This place isn’t keen to have us here, even if you are somehow related to the people who once built this castle.” She nodded, her gaze bright and her face pale.

“I can’t believe these might be my ancestors.”

“Let’s find out.”

I walked toward one wall of carvings but was dismayed to find that I couldn’t read any of it.

“They must be runes.” She ran her fingertips over some of the carvings. “But I can’t read them.”

I pulled my mobile from my pocket. “I’ll photograph them so we can have them interpreted.” She nodded and turned to inspect the rest of the space.

It was empty save for the broken bits of the wall that had tumbled inside the structure. The ground was grassy and damp, scattered in places with sheep droppings that she carefully avoided.

“There’s no evidence of an excavation here,” she said. “But it would have been done so long ago that the land had time to recover.”

“I can’t imagine they were particularly careful with their efforts.”

“No, most antiquarians weren’t known for their scientific methods. Not in the early days, at least.” She pulled her bag from the ether and began rooting around.

“What are you looking for?” I didn’t stop taking photos as I asked, making sure that each one was clear enough to study later.

“Something that will show me if there’s anything still beneath the surface.”

“What can it detect?”

“Anything of value, though that’s subjective. In this case. I’m just trying to find anything manmade. Maybe the original excavation missed something.”

Clever.

She pulled a vial from her bag and decanted it into a spray bottle.

Seeing me eying the bottle, she said, “Ive lesrned a lot since I last saw you. A slight modification of a design of Eliza’s. Packed it just for this purpose.”

She truly was extraordinary. She had a gift for potions, no doubt, but she hadn’t been born into that form of magic or trained from an early age. She’d picked it up all on her own out of necessity.

I often felt guilty that she’d felt the need to run from us to save her life, but she’d had no trouble handling herself in the outside world, that was for damned sure.

She sprayed every inch of grass with the sparkling silver potion as I finished taking photos. When she completed her task, she stood back and surveyed the ground. The air buzzed with power, and I looked at her.

“Is that your spell?” She frowned.

“Shouldn’t be.”

I turned to the door and looked out onto the rolling hills that fell toward the sea, searching for an external threat. Every inch of my skin prickled with wariness. Something was happening here. I’d been feeling it ever since we arrived, but this was more than just a vague discomfort. This was a distinct threat.

“The sun is going to set soon,” she said.

“The Finman did warn us.” I nodded.

“Be quick, then. How long for your potion to work?”

“Almost there, I think.”

I stood guard at the door, watching the horizon for anyone who might approach. The threat might not be from the living, however. There could be any manner of spells on this island that could create trouble for us. With every moment that passed, the threat seemed to grow stronger. It vibrated against my skin like the sting of bees.

“They took everything,” Jordan said.

I turned back to look at the ground. It glowed with a faint light from her potion, and I could somehow see through the dirt. There were places where the earth seemed disturbed, but there was nothing beneath the soil that had been manmade. The bastards had cleaned the place out. A moment later, she gasped.

“What is it?” I asked.

“The moon has risen.”

“You feel it?” She nodded.

It wasn’t fully dark yet, but at certain times of the month, the moon could rise early.

“Let’s go. We have everything we can get from here.”

She nodded and hurried toward me. We left the castle without a backward glance, heading for the shore.

“I can feel them now,” she said. “Someone is coming.”

The sky was darkening, the sun having finally set. I scanned the horizon and spotted figures rising up over the hill. They were pale-faced, nearly dead-looking, with dark green weeds for hair and ragged clothes.

“Twenty dollars those are the Finfolk in their not-so-pleased form,” she said.

“ I think you’re right.”

There were a dozen of them, possibly more, and they stood between us and the beach where Crom had dropped us off. I turned to head to the other shore.

“Crom will have to pick us up from over here.” She nodded and followed me.

We ran, sprinting across the hills. I looked back over my shoulder and spotted the Finfolk running after us. We might be able to fight them—there wasn’t much that I couldn’t take on in my beast form—but Jordan probably wasn’t at full strength, and we had no idea what the Finfolk were capable of. As we neared the sea, I drew the flare gun from my pocket.

“It’s going to take him too long to get here,” Jordan said. She was right.

“We need to find another way off this island. We just have to get far enough away that the transport charm isn’t blocked.”

“Can we swim?”

I looked back at the Finfolk.

“Probably not smart, given that they’re creatures of the sea.”

“s**t, good point.”

I scanned the shoreline, finally spotting a small rowboat in front of a little stone house. I pointed to it.

“Head for that house.”

As we veered left to go straight toward it, six pale, green-haired figures rose from the sea and climbed out of the waves.

“More Finfolk.”

Jordan drew hand back ready to throw her flames. Inside, my beast growled, struggling to break free. The threat moved between Jordan and the safety of the boat, and my beast grew even more enraged. With the moon in the sky, it was impossible to fight. And I shouldn’t. We’d need that strength.

“I’m going to shift.”

As soon as the words escaped my lips, the beast burst free in the form of a wolf this time. Magic swirled around me as my beast took over. Bloodlust and rage flowed through me, followed by cool cunning. I hurtled across the grass, putting myself between Jordan and the Finfolk who were closest. We just had to break through them to get to the boat before the other attackers reached us from behind. A red glass orb arced high overhead and slammed into one of the Finfolk at the far fight of the crowd. The bomb exploded against him in a fiery blaze, and the creature shrieked as it sprinted back into the sea. I was nearly to the closest attacker, and I leapt forward, already imagining the crunch of bone beneath my jaws.

Protect Jordan.