Her mouth dried with terror. “Silver!” she shouted to Sapphire, looking frantically for something herself, finally spotting a branched candlestick. That would have to do.
Frenzied growls punctuated the thuds as the wolf continued to ram the door. The bar shivered and cracked every time he hit. Sapphire and Bella backed into a corner; Bella’s heart was pounding so hard it felt as if it was going to leap out of her chest.
The bar shattered. With a shriek of tortured wood, splinters flew everywhere. The door smashed open, hitting the wall behind it, and Sebastian-wolf leapt wild-eyed into the room.
She hadn’t gotten a good look at him out in the woods — he had seemed huge then; he seemed bigger now. Tall and rangy, dark gray fur, his muscles rippled with power beneath his skin.
He focused on Bella immediately, his yellow eyes blazing at her. He sniffed twice, taking in her scent. He stalked toward her, stiff-legged, growling, no sign of anything human in his eyes.
Fear set her nerves on fire; she grasped the candlestick firmly in both hands, her mind racing. She couldn’t fight him off — she probably couldn’t even hurt him that much. Not physically.
That left magic.
She sensed, then saw, magic swirling in confused eddies all through the room, whirlpools of sparkling motes of light that danced and pulsed with a golden energy that was stronger than anything she had ever seen before. She called them to her, concentrating on keeping her will strong, believing that she could control this power.
Come! she called it, and the magic answered!
She felt it, warm and sweet, pouring toward her. It streamed toward her, like swarms of bees heading for the hive. The streams gathered around her; she spun them tighter and tighter, until the resulting sphere of power glowed like a little moon, and then she flung it at Sebastian.
“Sebastian!” she called, her voice cracking. “Sebastian! I order you! Remember!”
The sphere of magic hit the wolf full-force and enveloped him like an insect in amber; he froze, every hair on end, as the air crackled and the power surged around him.
“Remember!” she called again, putting every bit of her fear and her feelings for Sebastian into the order. “Remember who you are! You are not a beast! You are a man!”
The wolf shook like a tree in a windstorm, eyes huge and wild. The power continued to whirl around him, trying to penetrate whatever it was that was keeping it from fusing with him.
“Remember!” she ordered for the third time, and threw aside the candlestick. “You are Sebastian! And I love you!”
The power struck again, and shattered some barrier that she could not see. It was sucked into the wolf like water into parched ground. The beast yelped, convulsed — then went rigid all over, legs stiff —
And then, slowly, painfully, raised its head.
She looked in its eyes and saw, not the beast, but the man.
But before she could move, the sound of someone running shattered her concentration.
“Stand back!” Eric shouted, bursting through the broken door. “Stand back. I have him!” He raised a crossbow to his shoulder, aiming it at Sebastian. “I have him, Bella!”
To her horror, she saw the head of the bolt glinting silver. Fear stabbed her.
No!
But in the instant before he shot, a silver candlestick flew past her shoulder, knocking the crossbow aside. But it went off, anyway, the bolt hitting Sebastian’s hind leg and tearing a furrow across the skin and hide. With a yelp of pain, the wolf wheeled, charged for the door and shouldered Eric aside, dashing out into the corridor again. Bella ran in hot pursuit, ignoring Eric. She raced down the corridor, bare feet slapping on the stone, following the sound of skittering claws.
“Sebastian!” she called, or tried to, her sides aching, and her throat burning as she tried to catch her breath.
He didn’t even pause.
Even wounded, Sebastian was unbelievably fast. She reached the intersection of two corridors and paused, uncertain, no longer able to hear him running. A moment later she heard the crashing of glass far off in the direction of the greenhouse; by the time she reached the spot, it was obvious what had happened. Sebastian had managed to find the greenhouse, shoulder the door open and had thrown himself through one of the panes to escape out into the snow.
There was no trace of him but the footprints — dark pits in the drifts, heading into the forest.
She stood uncertain in her bare feet, holding her aching side, staring, her heart pounding like a mad drum and fear making her want to burst into tears and sink down helplessly to the ground. But she didn’t dare do that. He was all she had, the only hope he had. She fought down the tears and clasped her fists to her temples, trying to think.
A flood of Spirit Elementals poured into the greenhouse, probably attracted by the noise. Several of them — ones she recognized by their colors as being in the “not very bright” category — began working on a makeshift patch for the broken pane to keep the cold from pouring in; two began sweeping up the glass. The rest milled uncertainly. But some were intelligent ones, and more than that, were outdoor workers. She’d actually seen their little bunches of leaves floating on the verge of the forest. Could they follow him? “You!” she snapped, pointing to ribbons holding leaf bundles. “Oak, Ash, Thorn, Birch! Track him! Find Sebastian now!”
The four designated stopped milling and rushed back out the door.
She headed for her room, sure of only one thing. She had to get out there and find him. Find him, before Eric did.
Sapphire already had one of her breeches outfits ready, and a pair of sturdy boots. With the clothing was her hand-crossbow, a quiver of bolts meant to go on her belt, another for her saddle and two knives.
“Follow Thorn” was already written on the slate.
She scrambled into the clothing with Sapphire’s help, and belted the crossbow quiver and one of the knives on a second belt over her coat. There was something nagging at her, something very wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on it —
It was nagging at her so badly that before she ran out the door, she stopped, and snatched up her mirror, flinging magic and the demand for the Servant or the Godmother to appear into it.
The Servant appeared in it almost immediately, looking startled. “What?” he exclaimed. “Your summons was very urgent — ”
“Sebastian’s gone!” she interrupted him, explaining quickly what had just happened. Her hands were shaking as she held the mirror.
The Servant’s lips thinned. “Your intuition is correct — something is wrong. It is more than Sebastian transforming out of season — much, much more. Someone has altered the curse on him. I will inform Godmother Elena. Find Sebastian. And at all costs, keep Eric from him.”
She didn’t even bother with saying farewell; she just left the mirror on the table and dashed for the stables, pulling on her gloves and tying her hood around her face as she ran.
A wide, cream-colored ribbon with thorns stuck through it like pins bobbed beside the nose of her horse; the horse was already saddled and ready. She only paused long enough to fasten the quiver to the saddle, then used the mounting block to get in place. The ribbon dashed ahead; the gates were already open. Not a good sign. Eric must be ahead of her.