The Stone Wolf (The Chain Breaker Book 4) by D.K. Holmberg (digital book reader TXT) 📕

Gavin tore his gaze away from the courtyard and started to wander to explore more of the city, when the coin began to vibrate.

Chapter Seventeen

Gavin had lost track of how long he’d waited for the coin to work for him.

He’d tried over and again, this time pacing through the city while watching over Gaspar, going in and out of the outpost worried about whether he would fully recover. So far, he had not. He kept waking up, but he didn’t react much.

Imogen preferred to stay with Gaspar, and Gavin understood her dedication. Whatever debts she owed Gaspar obviously kept her tied close to him, as if she feared leaving him for too long. Gavin hoped she didn’t view Gaspar the way Gavin had once viewed Tristan.

He hurried to the edge of the city, looking at the stone wolves to ensure they were still there and that he and the others had a way to return to Yoran. Gavin had been concerned about leaving the stone creatures behind, not knowing whether there was any way to lose track of them. He had been pleasantly surprised to see that they had remained in place, waiting for them.

When the marker Anna had given him started to vibrate, he pulled it out, squeezed it for a moment, and frowned. He looked around and started to wonder if Anna would be able to find him. The last time she’d responded to the marker, she’d tracked him through the coin, but it had never vibrated quite this strongly.

He moved toward the city, and the vibration eased. Gavin stopped, peering down at the marker, and the vibration started up again.

Is it trying to guide me somewhere?

He circled back toward the creatures, and he rested his hand on the stone wolf. The marker continued to vibrate. The wolf twisted, the gray stone somehow flexible, and looked up at him.

“Do you know where to go?” Gavin asked. The wolf lowered his head. He let out a soft, creaking whine. “You want me to climb on.”

He hadn’t expected that, but maybe the wolf knew exactly where the El’aras were and how to reach them. He scrambled onto the wolf, grabbing its ears, and they started off. With any other creature, holding on to the ears would be torment, but since it was not really alive, Gavin knew he couldn’t hurt the wolf.

He focused on the vibration, though he didn’t know if he needed to, as the wolf seemed to know exactly where he was going and trotted ahead. Gavin sat up enough to protect his backside and avoid the jostling.

They reached the boundary of the forest. He should have known. Of course it would’ve been at the forest. This was Anna, after all. They’d met in the forest the last time he’d summoned her.

As the creature kept moving, Gavin frowned to himself and slipped the El’aras marker back into his pocket while still trying to clutch the wolf’s ears. They slowed at the edge of the clearing with the house in the distance, and Gavin climbed off.

He didn’t have to wait long.

“Why this place?” Anna asked, stepping out from the trees on the far side of the clearing.

She was as lovely as she had been the last time he’d seen her. Her golden hair flowed in waves past her shoulders, and her crystal blue eyes pierced him with a certain intensity, something knowing about the way she looked at him. Maybe that wasn’t anything surprising, given that she was El’aras and Gavin was at least part El’aras, so he shared some of her magic.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” he said, looking around. “Is it just you?”

“Would you prefer others to have come?”

“I’m a little surprised you were willing to come on your own.” He wasn’t going to press on her delay in getting back to him.

Why now? And why here?

“You should not have been,” she said, smiling slightly. “I came as you requested.”

Gavin smiled tightly. Not exactly as requested. “I’m sorry I needed to summon you again. I know that you are busy.” Even with that, he wasn’t entirely clear what Anna had been doing. Hiding, as far as he knew, like she had been in Yoran. She was the Risen Shard, which mattered to her people, and it meant that she had some fate that she had to prepare for.

“Are you sorry?” she asked.

As he looked across the clearing at her, he realized that was not exactly true. “Maybe I’m only sorry about the reason I had to summon you.”

She chuckled, a soft sound that carried across the distance. “And what reason is that, Gavin Lorren?”

“This,” he said, tapping on the earpiece for the enchantment. “My friend Wrenlow is missing, and I can’t tell if the enchantment has been compromised or if I simply can’t get through to him. I’ve encountered someone who has the ability to mitigate my enchantment.”

Anna crossed over to him and stood in the middle of the clearing, where he joined her. She looked slightly up at him. She was tall, much like most of the El’aras were, and her gaze swept over him, holding him in place. She reached out and touched his ear, the feel of her hand warm and pleasant. She closed her eyes for a moment, whispering to herself. As she did, a surge of pressure worked past Gavin before fading.

“What was that?” he asked.

She opened her eyes and stepped back. “That was me testing the enchantment as requested.” She cocked her head to the side, then shook it. “There is no deficiency within it. The enchantment works as it ever did.”

“I see.”

“I can tell that is not the answer you were hoping for.”

“I didn’t know if the enchantment had faded,” Gavin said.

“El’aras enchantments do not fade like others,” she replied.

“They don’t?”

“If you had come with me, you would have learned that by now.”

“You understand why I could not have,” Gavin said.

“I understand why you chose not to, not why you could not. It does not