The Savage Grace: A Dark Divine Novel (29 page)

MIDNIGHT

I walked out onto the back porch of the farmhouse and stood at the edge of the steps in front of the battlegrounds. I tucked the earpiece behind my ear and straightened my moonstone earrings. A cold wind kicked up, tossing my robes around me as I unsheathed my broadsword.

I’d feared April would have gone with something sparkly with sequins for my ceremony garb, but when I’d zipped open the garment she’d given me, I found a beautiful hand-stitched ceremonial robe the color of a coral reef. Pinkish-orange fabric with a satin sheen—that reminded me all too much of my bedsheets at home.

I looked out at the boundary of the challenging ring, lit up by torches and the cascading light of the larger-than-life-looking full moon that presided over the battlefield. Only twenty-five minutes remained until the beginning of the eclipse. I prayed we’d be able to stop Caleb and his army before that happened. Otherwise, the moon would turn red, and all hell would break loose. The Etlu clan stood in a circle within the torches, the ceremonial “guardians of the ring,” as Jarem had called them. They held their spears perfectly straight, despite the strong wind that whipped at their jewel-toned robes.

Beyond the guardians, I saw the silhouettes of figures waiting in the fields outside the ring. I caught the reflection of moonlight glinting in several of their eyes.

Urbats. Crowds of Urbats.

At least a hundred total from what I could make out.

“Are they all here to challenge?” I asked Lisa as I took my place next to her between two torches, unable to hide the worry in my voice. “There’re so many.”

“Spectators mostly.” She steadied her spear in her hand. “I hope.”

“Where did they come from?”

“Everywhere,” she said. “A Challenging Ceremony is one of the few things that will bring Urbat out en masse.” She scanned the crowd. “I count representatives from at least fifteen different packs in attendance. The Oberots sent their alpha and his son all the way from Russia. They wouldn’t have come if at least one of them weren’t planning on making a challenge. They’ve been keen on merging our two packs for quite some time.”

“Any sign of Caleb?” I scanned the crowd once more, but I didn’t see anyone I recognized. No Akhs or Gelals. No Shadow Kings.

Lisa shook her head. “It’s starting.”

She held her spear and stood at attention, looking toward the barn. Gabriel, in his burgundy robes, exited the barn. A second person followed, dressed in a robe that glistened like it had been spun from actual gold. The hood of the robe hid his face, but I could tell by the way he carried himself that it was Daniel.

Jarem, next to Lisa, began to hammer the shaft of his spear against the ground. It made little noise itself, but then Lisa and the other spear bearers joined in. Banging, banging, banging their spears against the hardened dirt floor until it sounded like the beat of tribal drums, heralding Daniel and Gabriel into the ring. The two walked in rhythm with the beat until they came to the epicenter of the challenging ring. Gabriel stood on the wooden platform Bellamy had built over the spot where Sirhan died. It was the place where the ceremony was to begin—and end. The winner would be declared from that spot.

I heard a low murmur from the crowd above the drumming, commenting and speculating as to why Gabriel hadn’t entered the ring alone.

Gabriel raised his arms. The pounding stopped, and the crowd quieted.

“I know many of you came this evening believing I, as Sirhan’s beta, would be the prime challenger,” Gabriel said. He spoke loudly, projecting his voice, even though there wasn’t much need in a crowd with superhuman hearing. “However, two nights ago, Sirhan named a new successor. His grandson, Daniel Etlu of the Etlu Clan.”

At Gabriel’s signal, Daniel lowered his hood. His hair glistened in the torchlight, looking almost as golden as his robes. Three black lines had been painted under each of his eyes, and another black line ran from the top of his forehead to the tip of his nose—the ceremonial markings of the prime challenger, signifying that Daniel was the person to beat in order to be declared the new alpha. They made him look fierce and primal, like a tribal warrior.

A louder murmur came up from the crowd of spectators. Some wondering why they didn’t know Sirhan had a grandson, others remarking as to how much Daniel looked like Sirhan in his younger years.

Gabriel raised his voice louder to be heard over the din. “Daniel is more like his grandfather than just in appearance. He is a true alpha.”

Daniel stepped up onto the platform and looked out over the people who crowded around the outside of the arena now. I wondered if he was searching their faces, looking for his father. I could feel the power radiating off his body in waves.

“A true alpha,” someone said with spite. I wondered if the owner of the voice was reconsidering whether or not to make a challenge.

Daniel held up his arms like Gabriel had, and the crowd became completely still. “I, Daniel Etlu,” he said, repeating the ceremonial words Jarem had taught him, “chosen successor of Sirhan Etlu and prime challenger, now call for all who wish to challenge my right to lead the Etlu Clan. Step into the ring to make your claim. All others should withdraw for their own safety.”

Gabriel gave a slight bow to Daniel and quickly left the ring. He took his place as one of the guardians next to Jude on the side of the ring opposite of the barn.

“We’re up,” I said, taking in a deep supposed-to-becalming breath.

Lisa, Talbot, Slade, and I stepped into the challenging field. We walked side by side until we came to stand behind the platform where Daniel waited. The crowd grew loud again with discussion as people realized that we were there for the sole purpose of backing Daniel up.

No other challengers entered the ring yet, and there was still no sign of the Shadow Kings. I searched the crowd for Caleb, while watching and waiting for the first real challenger to step forward. Based on the gestures and heated looks being exchanged between an older-looking Urbat and a man who looked like his son, they were debating over which one of them should enter the ring.

After a moment, the older man gave a nod to his son, and the younger man passed between two guardians and stepped onto the field.

The crowd silenced, acknowledging the first challenger.

“That’s Anton Oberot, son of Serge. He’s the beta of the Oberot Clan.”

The quiet continued as a second challenger stepped into the ring. He was large man dressed in army fatigue pants and a tight black shirt that showed off muscles upon muscles on his arms. He held something bundled in each of his hands.

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Lisa said. “Most likely a lone wolf. Or possible a mercenary paid to fight for someone else.”

“These first two are mine,” Daniel said.

Three more challengers entered the ring together. I recognized the tallest of them right away. I assumed the other two would be fighting as his lieutenants.

“Marrock. I knew he’d show up.” Lisa wrinkled her nose and tightened her grip on her spear. “He’s mine.”

“I’ll take the other two,” Talbot said. I wondered if he was trying to match Daniel in number.

Another challenger entered the ring—a woman swathed in layers of sky blue fabric, with golden bangles and henna tattoos decorating her arms.

“That’s Mahira, alpha of the Varkolaks. She’s vicious,” Lisa said. “She became alpha of her pack by ripping off the head of the beta at the last Challenging Ceremony I went to—he was her own brother.”

I shivered in the cold wind, but then to my surprise, Mahira pulled the blue fabric from her shoulders and let the layers fall to the ground. She stood there completely naked in front of us, unabashed.

Slade just about fell over.

“Okay,” I said. “Little Miss Naked is my responsibility. None of you boys will be able to focus while fighting her.”

One last man entered the ring. He had hair almost as white as snow, even though everything else about him looked as if he were a young man. Everything else but his narrowed eyes.

Lisa gasped. “That’s Christopher Varul. He’s a pure blood. Varuls don’t intermix with anyone who isn’t pure. They don’t allow Urbats like me—created by infection, not birth—into their pack. If he were to become alpha, he would no doubt get rid of everyone who isn’t purebred.”

“Now, we can’t have that,” Slade said, lifting his knife in the Varul’s direction.

Another minute passed as we waited for anyone else to step forward and make a challenge, but the crowd stayed quiet and still with anticipation. Where were the Shadow Kings? Where was Caleb? Where was my little brother?

“Why the hell hasn’t Caleb presented himself yet?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Daniel said. He drew his long steel sword from the sheath under his robe. “What is he waiting for?”

The guardians began to hammer their spears against the ground. My heart beat with the rhythm, anxiety curling in my muscles. It was only fifteen minutes until the eclipse. How were we supposed to stop Caleb before it if he didn’t show up?

And then I realized that maybe the eclipse was exactly what Caleb was waiting for.

The drumming of the spears reached an almost deafening thunder around us, then broke off into silence all at once. “Begin!” the guardians shouted.

We all looked at one another for half a second, and then with a great scream the lone wolf in the military pants went charging at Daniel. The other challengers followed only a second behind. Daniel would be the prime target of the challengers, and it was the task of the rest of us to pick them off.

The lone wolf broke away from the other challengers in a flat-out run. He let go of the bundles in his hands, revealing two long whips made out of chains. Silver ones, I was sure of it. He spun them in front of him like propellers.

“Damn, chain whips,” Talbot said. “I should have thought of that.”

The man with the whips lashed one out at Daniel, who twisted out of the way.

The rest of the challengers closed in on them. Our little pack of backup broke apart, and we each went after the targets we’d chosen.

I went running after Mahira, who loped toward the platform. She jumped with a great lunge and shifted into a large brown wolf in midair, only feet from where Mr. Chain Whips and Daniel fought.

“Hey,” I shouted at her. I scooped a baseball-sized rock up and flung it with all my might at the back of the brown wolf’s head.

She turned on me, growling.

“Come and get me!” I cried.

I waited half a second to make sure she’d taken the bait, and then I went running toward the barn, following the strategy we’d laid out beforehand—to draw the other challengers as far away from Daniel as possible.

I made it inside the structure just as the wolf nipped at my heels. I spun around and smashed the side of my broadsword against the side of her head. She growled and flew at me with her great, clawed paws. I used my sword to bat them away, but suffered a nasty tear in my swinging arm in the process. As a wolf, she was stronger than I was, especially since I had to be careful as ever not even to
want
to kill her.

She came at me again, jaws protruding from her lips. I changed sword hands, and with a measured blow, slashed into one of her front legs, spilling blood onto her fur.

She howled with pain and anger. I scrambled away and climbed the ladder up to the hayloft, thinking it would give me a moment’s reprieve to heal the pulsating gash in my arm.

The brown wolf passed under the ladder. I wondered if she were contemplating changing back into human form in order to climb up after me. But I should have known better.

The wolf took ten paces back and then jumped up into the hayloft, landing only a few feet from where I sat. I clambered to my feet and ran, heading for the far end of the hayloft. The rotten floorboards creaked and cracked under my pounding feet, and I remembered that this was the area where that kid had fallen through the floor last month, forcing Frightmare Farms to be shut down. I jumped over a hole in the floor and ran for the window that overlooked the barnyard. Maybe I could make the jump?

The wolf growled. I glanced over my shoulder and saw her rearing back to leap at me again, claws extended. In a moment of either panic or brilliance, I threw my sword at the small metal box that protruded from the haunted barn’s wall. It swung blade over hilt and slammed into the large red button on the box. The same button Brent had shown me earlier as a trick. The wolf lunged into the air, and I ducked as a thick, bicycle-sized faux battle-ax came swinging out from a metal contraption in the ceiling. I knew the ax wasn’t sharp, but it caught the brown wolf midair and sent her flying backward. She hit the rotten floorboards with such force, they crumpled under her and she went crashing through the floor of the hayloft. I heard her whine as she fell, and then a sickening sound that made me flinch. I moved quickly and carefully over the cracking boards and gazed down through the hole she left behind.

What I saw made a shudder of nausea rip through me: the body of the brown wolf, skewered through her belly by a broken pole below.

The wolf whimpered and writhed and then fell silent and limp, hanging like a piece of bloody meat on the end of a kabob. I knew she wasn’t dead. The pole was iron not silver, and it hadn’t decapitated her, but she was most likely in terrible pain. The blood loss would keep her out of commission for quite some time.

A horrible shiver overtook my body as I looked down on her.

Close, child. Close,
whispered my inner wolf
.
I could feel its glee over my near kill. Its anticipation of the next.

I am so close to being freed. Finish her off.

I cupped my hands against my ears to feel the calming warmth of the moonstone earrings, shaking my head.
no,
I told the wolf.
I have no intention of killing her. I don’t want her dead.

I backed away to the window in the hayloft and sucked in gulps of fresh air, trying to clear the wolf out of my head. However, the scene outside the window was anything but calming. I could see Daniel below, locked in battle both with Mr. Chain Whips and Anton Oberot. Daniel’s adeptness with his sword kept Anton at arm’s length, and his agility to spin and flip out of the way of the swinging chain whips seemed to frustrate his other opponent to no end. But Daniel was definitely on the defensive, trying to fend off both attackers at the same time.