Free Virtue - a Fairy Tale by Amanda Hocking Page A

revenge for Iris’s murder. She had entirely forgotten how this had started until she heard the howling. To the layman, it sounded like wolves, but more menacing, like a howl mixed with a mad man laughing. That was the calling card of the canu.
    The canu were a pack of hybrid demon dogs, and they worked for Valefor and his peccati. Scelestus would be the least of her worries if Valefor had gotten involved. Too late, Wick realized the canu were howling happily, the way they did when the caught their prey.
    “Lily.”

8
    Lily ran through the forest, Wick’s cloak billowing out around her. She heard the sounds of the forest around her, groaning and yearning, and the branches scraped against the cloth, but none of them touched her. The moon had been huge and full, but clouds rolled over it, blotting out its precious light. She could hardly see in front of her and narrowly missed running smack into a tree several times.
    The flap of wings echoed in the sky above her, but she kept her course as straight as possible. She didn’t know where she was going or what she would do when she got there, but she knew she had to keep going. Wick had possibly sacrificed herself for her, and Lily couldn’t let that be in vain.
    The only time she stopped was when she heard a booming sound behind her, coming from the cottage. She’d already gone too far to see the cottage itself through the trees, but she turned around anyway. Dazzling blue light spiraled through the sky, and Lily watched with awe for a moment before it disappeared.
    She didn’t know what it meant, but when Wick had saved her from the charuns, her wand had cast out blue light similar to that. It had been on a much smaller scale, of course, but she had to believe that Wick had vanquished whoever came looking for Lily.
    Staring in the direction of the now darkened cottage, Lily chewed her lip and tried to decide what to do. If Wick had done away with the assailant, then she had no reason to continue running away. On the other hand, if Wick hadn’t, Lily might walk into a terrible situation and only make things worse. But she maybe could help Wick if she went back. Or if she kept going, she’d be out of Wick’s hair and stop being a burden to her.
    Then the decision was made for her.
    Lily had grown accustomed to the sounds of the horrible little monsters that scurried about the forest floor. She rarely saw them, but she knew their grumbles and chirps and padded footsteps. When she heard the sound of heavy ragged breathing, she knew immediately that it was something else entirely.
    The enclosure of the trees made it hard to tell how far away they were, or even how many, but it sounded like a lot to Lily. Even their breathing was angry, and it was often interrupted by growling or the sounds of teeth of gnashing. The air smelled faintly of burning, like the scent after a flame had been extinguished.
    She soon realized that they weren’t breathing heavy; they were sniffing , searching for something. Her heart pounded in her chest and her hair stood up on the back her neck. If she could smell them that meant that they could probably smell her.
    One of the beasts howled, a deep, resonating sound mixed with a strange cackle. The sky was filled with the sound of charuns flapping their wings, dispersing into the night. Even they were frightened of the beasts. In the shadows, Lily couldn’t see much of anything, but she knew they were there – she sensed the shift of movement, the heavy sound of their feet pounding the ground, and their excited breathing as they approached.
    Lily turned and ran for her life.  
    Her legs moved as quickly as they could, churning underneath her, but she knew it wasn’t fast enough. They howled again, and it sounded much closer than it had before. She heard their feet pounding, a rabid pack of movement, and she darted around trees, trying to make her path as confusing as possible.
    She rounded a tree, and there the beast was, right in front of her.