The Lycan King's Healer
The Lycan King’s Healer – Chapter 29

I must have stared at the note for twenty minutes. Reading it over and over, scrutinizing the way each letter curved and perfectly arched, the smooth black ink’s trail in the ivory, the capital S positioned like an elegant snake. I was holding my recent paranoia and insanity in my very hands; the threats I had been trying to predict, the thoughts slowly infecting my mind, now placed right on my nightstand. My worries materialized into a real threat.

The note in the garden was more of a warning–not a threat. Now, the threat was written bluntly, as if it was a cold slap to the face.

I watched the night submit to the dawn, still gripping the note between my fingers, a cool sweat coating my spine.

If someone I love was being threatened, I had to do something about it. It was still dark enough to be concealed; the sun had not yet peeked over the horizon. It must have been around 4 a.m. Between night and day, between the unconscious and the conscious.

A perfect time for murder.

I threw the sheets and the duvet off me, placing my feet onto the cool morning wood. I peeked through the door connecting our rooms to take one more look at Theo before I left. He was still sleeping, oblivious to what his mother was about to do. I left the note on the nightstand.

In a black tunic and trousers, intending to blend into the night, I left right through the foyer door. Let anyone awake try to stop me. The black sky beyond me was starting to fade, becoming more pale, the moon looking like frosted glass. A couple birds lazily sang from the dewy trees, and the air was so crisp, I felt it permeate right through my long sleeves. The night guards were still on duty, but they allowed me to walk right past them, not even watching me go. As the hostess of an estate, you are no longer questioned for what you do. That aspect was nice.

I gripped the dagger in my hand. I kept one in my quarters in case something was to happen to me or Theo, but now something was about to happen to whoever lurks amongst the trees.

As a healer, I was never much of a hunter. I preferred gathering over butchering, and saving lives over taking them. I even healed the occasional wounded animal, and fed the rodents that roamed into our cottage. But as I entered the threshold of the trees, I felt like an adept and experienced hunter. A predator. My body was on full alert, my eyes scanning each droplet of dew and bush berry. The night was paling, but not under the canopies of trees and the thickness of the forest. It was still night here.

I prawled not deep into the woods, like every ounce in my being wanted to, but instead did a shallow perimeter. Simply, I planned to circle the mouth of the woods all the way around the estate, where the person lurked.

Despite my lack of hunting skills, I still had my wolf senses, and was able to smell anything within a large radius of me. It was hard to smell a being beyond the thick musk of the trees and the vegetation, however. This is why I relied on my night vision and my mute footsteps; and also the dagger in my hand.

I suddenly heard a rustling. My whole body clenched, especially my fingers around the hilt of my weapon. It was then I wished I had sneaked into the armory on the training grounds and stole a shield, not knowing if I had to brace for the arrows that shot at my friends.

The rustling’s origin came from south of the estate, and I was shocked that something was skulking within the woods beyond the entrance. I had not even traveled to the west, where the woods kissed the fields in the back of the palace. That is where everything happened, the fields, or toward the east, in the garden.

A reminder of the arrow taped on my son’s back sent a scalding wave of fury through me. It melted any parcel of fear. I sank back against a tree facing the south, pressing my body to it to scan the forest while unnoticed. The noise continued upon the forest ground leaves, light and not heavy. That signified it was most likely not an animal–an animal would heavily plod through.

I resisted the urge to scream at them, to throw my dagger in its direction and watch them bleed. But instead, I sidestepped the tree and moved closer to the origin of the noises. I counted my breaths, controlling the volume of my breathing as I crept more and more into the woods. The deeper I traveled, the more it did not make sense. The arrows shot from the mouth of the woods. Unless the person who roamed in the shallow part was on his or her way to it right now, and their origin was south of the estate.

Finally, the rustling coming from the south in the direction of the north toward the estate sounded more near. We were about to meet paths.

I braced for whoever I would replace at dawn in the middle of the woods, whatever creature or person wanting to be just as hidden as me.

I pressed myself against a tree in the creature’s path. I waited until it was right upon me, then I jumped out from the tree’s protection, my dagger stabbing through the air.

There was a startled cry then the sound of hurried small footsteps. I looked down to see that it was only a fox, now retreating from me in a haste.

I sighed in defeat. This was ridiculous. Who did I think I was, assuming I’d replace the culprit and end them myself, when skilled warriors like Alan and his men failed to?

Before I turned to head north, I saw a large silhouette within the trees.

I paused, my heart starting to pound, and leaped right back into the tree’s shadows. Maybe I did not fail to replace them. I gave myself a moment to slow my breathing and calm my pulse before looking at the dark, towering shadow.

It was a man. He had broad shoulders, and something on his back. I narrowed my eyes, not able to decipher if it was a quiver. I did not give him the benefit of the doubt, and assumed that it was.

He was heading toward the estate. This had to be one of the archers.

The man was moving fast and silently, and if I had not seen him on a whim, I would have never heard him. I made sure my footfalls were just as silent as his as I crept toward him, following him in his trail. I then figured the best way would be to attack him was aerial. He was too large for me to take on without the fullest extent of surprise.

I circled around and fastened my pace to beat him in his trek, then swiftly climbed up the trunk of a silver maple. It hid me perfectly in its opaque shadows.

As he passed through, I timed the landing, then lunged at him from the tree.