"You're much more interesting than a red fox shawl, don't you think?" I said, and Caelum stiffened, while Julian looked half-impressed and half-worried. Maegel just looked annoyed that he hadn't been the one to give me what I wanted.
We turned to head back toward the main trail, but before we could clear the hollow, the forest went deathly silent. The birds stopped chirping. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Hee-hee!
A high-pitched, childish giggle echoed through the trees, followed by a heavy, mechanical thud-clack, thud-clack.
From the thick fog ahead, a massive figure emerged. It was Jay, the silent giant, his expression as blank as a stone wall. But it was what he was carrying that made the air turn to ice. Slung over his shoulder like a sack of grain was the carcass of a massive white she-wolf—the mother of the very cub in my hands.
And sitting comfortably on Jay's other shoulder, swinging her legs and humming a tuneless song, was Morrigan, the succubus.
