Free Scarlet and the Keepers of Light by Brandon Charles West Page B

forward. “You were passing through.” It crouched, ready to spring.
    Suddenly it froze and then righted itself again. Chosen had emerged into the clearing from the far side and was now standing, as relaxed as ever, against one of the trees on the clearing’s edge.
    “Just like an animal, waiting until your prey was separated from its pack before you could get up the nerve to attack,” Chosen chided. If the size and viciousness of the creature worried him at all, he didn’t show it.
    He’d obviously struck a nerve. The creature’s eyes narrowed. “I just don’t bother with tainted meat,” it seethed, snarling at Chosen.
    “Ah, so that’s why you waited until the boy had fallen back and was alone. I figured it was just that you were a coward,” Chosen responded, removing the dark root from his tunic and biting off a piece.
    The creature let out a deafening roar, its muscles flexing as it raised its massive arms to the sky. “Others might tremble at the sight of you, dark one, but not me,” it raged.
    “You’re probably right, although you sound like you’re trying to convince yourself, not me. Besides, it’s not me you should concern yourself with.”
    The tension in the creature’s muscles eased as it looked at Brennan and laughed. “Is there a third with you? A scentless figure.” The creature made a dramatic pantomime of sniffing the air. “No, I don’t think so. Just a dark twisted soul and a sizable fresh boy. Fresh . . . meat.”
    Without any further warning, the creature pounced, landing on top of Brennan with a crushing force. Brennan just had time to seize the creature’s wrists, its claws inches from his face. It bared its snarling teeth as it bore down with its full weight and strength. The force was tremendous, and Brennan could already feel his own strength failing him. The claws edged closer to Brennan with every second.
    Then Brennan felt it, that warm tingling sensation all over his body, from his core to the tips of his fingers. It was the same feeling he had felt when he’d found his mother murdered. Brennan knew what it was, and it gave him little comfort. The Tempest was buried too deep to actually help him, and this hint of its presence was more torment than grace, taunting him with the knowledge that had he only known how to harness what was inside, he could save himself . . . could have saved his mother.
    Visions of his mother filled his mind, and the creature faded away. Now she was all he could see. She was smiling at him, trying to act happy and brave, but he knew better. She was lonely. It was her people’s way to accept fate and make peace with it, but she couldn’t accept such a life for her son. She had taken him and run, and in rebelling against her people’s beliefs, she’d lost the man she loved. Risked everything—and for what? So he could die, eaten by some horrible creature in the middle of the Southern Wildlands?
    No. Brennan wouldn’t allow it. That was not how her sacrifice—her love and devotion—would be repaid. If he was to die, so be it, but it would be for something. For someone. His mother’s face faded from his mind’s eye, replaced by the snarling creature, smiling like the Cheshire Cat down on what he thought was his next meal.
    What had only been a warm tingling sensation now burned through Brennan’s body like wildfire. He felt a deep and primal stirring from within, and then slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the claws were receding. Unbelievably, he was pushing the creature back. He lifted his chest off the ground, then got his legs underneath him.
    Straining under the weight of the creature, Brennan began to rise to his feet, still pushing the creature back. His legs wobbled beneath him, but they did not fail. For a long moment they faced each other, neither giving any ground, but the vicious sneer on the creature’s face was now a grimace of shock and fear. With a second surge the Tempest raged through Brennan, and with a