A Gift from the Goddess by Dawn Rosewood

Chapter Forty-One “What do you want?” Aleric yelled out to them. They either didn’t hear or had no desire to answer because they approached us slowly without hesitation.

It was clear what their intention was. “Aleric?” I called out nervously. “What’s wrong with them?” I could see from here that something was off. Wrong. Their clothes were dishevelled and they looked like they hadn’t seen a proper bath in years. But not just that, they were also giving off some sort of weird vibe. Like they were sick…

…And dangerous.

“They look like rogues,” Aleric said, moving closer to my side to get into a defensive position. “You need to get out of here.”

“You’re joking, right?” I snapped. “I can handle myself in a fight, Aleric. What do you think I’ve been doing all these months?”

But his explanation made sense given their appearance. Normally, anyone who left a pack could be accepted into another after due process and screening. So, this meant that the remainder of those not accepted, those who had failed that process, were usually criminals banished. They became rogues. But rogues were actually pretty hard to come by these days since territories had expanded so much. There wasn’t really any one place they could stay for long without being driven out by the pack in charge. Something that made me wonder how they’d managed to make it so far into the Golden Blade territory, especially without being seen… and why they had come out of hiding to target us. “Why aren‘t they shifted?” I asked, warily eyeing them off as they paced around us.

There were four of them in total, each a fully grown male, and yet not one of them was in their wolf form. I could also see that one was far more muscular than the others and noted he was the one to be most careful of.

They were sizing us up, watching what we were doing carefully, and we were doing the same. Each side waiting for the other to move first.

“If I were to take a guess…,” Aleric said, looking around. “I would say it’s to help hide their scent in getting this far. Running past the boundary in wolf form would be picked up faster by the patrols. The fur leaves a stronger scent.” I hadn’t realised that was a real thing, but then again, I‘d never dealt with rogues before, nor had I taken the time to notice the difference in potency back when I’d had my stronger sense o f smell.

fanlanmathing naging in my brain rnar 

The whole situation seemed wrong though. I could feel something there was something obvious I wasn’t realising. But I had to push it aside, knowing I needed to

focus on what was in front of me if I didn‘t want to get killed. “You need to leave the minute there is an opening,” Aleric said. “Aleric!” I yelled angrily. “Enough!” And then one of them finally came forward, charging towards me. I moved to face him, ready for when he got closer, but Aleric was quicker. He lunged forward and had him on the ground within seconds with a powerful hit to the rogue’s head

There was no hesitation in Aleric‘s movements. Everything he did was confident and fluid. So much power displayed as tackled the rogue down, the man‘s head hitting the ground with such impact that there was no hope he had survived. He had died immediately.

This enraged the others, seeing the death of their comrade occur so fast. They advanced quickly on us before we’d even had a moment to get our bearings. Two went for Aleric, the largest of the bunch being one of them. The third ran towards me, but I was ready.

arm out to catch me in the face, but I moved back and dodged it effortlessly. His movements were sluggish compared to my father and Cai, but his body was more built, more muscled. I knew getting an effective

the other two. His main focus was on the larger one but he was having to keep his defence up against the second rogue as well. He didn‘t look to be in any trouble, or at least

still continuing his aggressive approach. But I wasn‘t letting him anywhere near me. I abruptly leapt backwards, catching him off guard as he tilted off–balance; the momentum of his flying fist having sent him forwards. I took the opportunity and managed to get my

miss the chance to finish him off. But blow after blow against him, I found I wasn’t

then I

towards something at his side, and for a brief second, I swore I saw a flash of the moonlight catch on a metal surface. Immediately, I

reaching. However, he had a firm grip on it now and was refusing to let go. I didn‘t let this sway my

punch him as hard as I could in the nose, allowing for his hand to loosen, and quickly I unsheathed the dagger he had concealed

even hesitate or

it directly into his chest…

happened so quickly. Too fast for me to have done anything about it. I stood up, inspecting the body below me

front of me, obscuring my view completely of whatever was happening… …And all I proceeded to hear was a grunt, the sound of flesh being sliced open… followed by Aleric moving his arms in a forceful movement that created a sickening snapping noise. I realised what had happened straight away. I moved quickly, desperate to see for myself, and pushed my way

there frozen, a knife in his stomach, with the body of

…And I screamed.

I realised what had been nagging me this

It was because this was my vision. This was where it took place. The tree line, the dimly lit pathway. All of it.

was where

at me expectantly; the largest one of the bunch. But he couldn‘t have known what was waiting for him. It was like my body lost control and I moved faster than I had ever before, faster than I had ever thought possible. And before he could even register where I was, I had climbed my way up him, swinging myself around his torso until I sat upon his shoulders. He didn’t even get a chance to lay a finger on me before I had

start to go into shock over what had happened, his hand feebly reaching towards the knife but not touching

ground, his head managing to land against my shoulder.

had told me, but I had gotten i t wrong. So wrong. It hadn’t shown me the

grabbed at the hilt,

Aleric so badly. His accelerated healing should have meant that, whilst he would be wounded badly, he shouldn‘t bleed to death from it. So, what could have possibly

it

“Don’t touch it,” I ordered, though I wasn’t sure if he could hear me. I firmly placed his hand b y his side just in case. I didn’t waste any more time after that and knew I needed to confirm my theory. Quickly, I began to inspect him. I pushed his skin down the blade just enough that I could squeeze my fingertip onto the surface, and immediately I felt the mild burn upon contact. As I had suspected, the knife was made of special silver. My heart sank. On a surface level against our skin, the silver would only cause mild irritation. But embedded into someone like this...? Well, there was no way he’d be able to heal himself. Even though he was not of age to shift yet, the silver would still stop his wolf DNA from accelerating the little healing ability he did have, keeping the wound open. And even if I removed the knife now, it would still take several hours before his skin would start to recover. This meant