The Steele Wolf (Iron Butterfly #2)(6)

Rolling over, I saw that the grey wolf had given up on the tree and instead knocked me out of the arrow’s path, but not before getting an ugly shoulder graze. I looked to my father whose chest was covered in deep red and was wide open for an attack. I knew what I had to do.

Protect my father, I commanded the wolf, who grinned dog-like at me, tongue hanging out of his mouth as he ran towards my father’s opponent. With a growl, he jumped up and bit the man’s sword arm. I heard a scream and the sound of bone breaking.

Opening my senses, I looked for the archer and found him perched high up in the tree, notching another arrow. Rage consumed me and I didn’t even blink as I pointed my finger at the arrow embedded in the dirt. Raw power flowed through me as I whipped it around and sent the arrow flying at an impossible speed straight towards the archer.

The arrow didn’t lodge in his chest but blasted right through, leaving a gaping hole. I watched dispassionately as he fell from the tree with a thud.

Odin was limping from a bleeding leg wound, but was still able to swing his axe with nimble dexterity, beheading his foe. Fenri was fast and deadly as he fought off two attackers. Rushing in, I engaged one of them and saw Fenri’s shocked face as I blocked a deadly downward thrust. I showed no mercy as I kicked the man between the legs, and smirked as I wondered what Kael would think of that move.

As the man crouched over and grabbed his groin, I swung the handle of my sword and struck him in the temple as hard as I could. He crumpled to the ground and didn’t move. Moving through the battlegrounds towards my father, I wondered if I was now becoming hesitant about killing since I dispatched the archer so ruthlessly.

Come, I called and Faraway ran to me. I swung up on his back and raced over to Bearen, who had moved farther and farther away from us and was now kneeling on the ground clutching his chest. The grey wolf stood in front of him, hackles raised, teeth barred in challenge at the ugly attacker with a short sword who was trying to dance around the wolf to get to Bearen.

Hold on! Faraway warned as he ran towards the man and rose up on his hind legs, striking out with deadly hooves. The man was so shocked he dropped his sword and fell onto his back as he tried to duck the hooves. The grey wolf lunged for his neck and I heard snarling and a gurgled scream that quickly ended as his throat was torn out.

I knelt by my father who had fallen on the ground and was pale as death. Pressing my ear to his bloody chest I tried to listen for the life giving rhythm to his heart. Not being able to hear it, I grabbed a leaf and held it to his mouth. The faint flutter of the leaf told me he was alive.

“Oh, what do I do? What do I do?” I cried, the tears freely falling, as I heard a blood curdled cough erupt from his large chest. “I don’t know how to do this!” I fervently wished that I had taken a healing course.

“Bearen, I don’t think I can take the pain and heal you at the same time. In fact, I’m not even sure I can heal you.”

Odin came over and leaned down to look at Bearen’s wounds. “It’s pierced a lung, Thalia.” He looked at me gravely. “There’s nothing we can do now but pray that his spirit finds peace.”

“No! I just got him back,” I glared angrily. “I won’t let him die.” Reaching forward, I gritted my teeth and pulled out the arrow that was piercing his lung.

“THALIA! What are you doing? You are just killing him faster!”

Placing my hands over the wound, I tried to open my senses and follow the instructions Healer Prentiss had given to the students when they healed my leg. I could see the hole in his lung and the blood flowing in, filling it up. I reached deep inside myself for the power to heal it and found none. What?

“NO, NO, NO, NO!” I chanted.

FARAWAY! HELP! I mentally called. I felt a rush of power, his, and I sent it towards the hole, siphoning the blood out and at the same time encouraging his lungs to keep breathing. Faraway was giving me his strength. I focused the energy into the surrounding tissues and encouraged them to reknit and grow. A grunt and cough erupted from my father, as sweat beaded off his forehead. He gritted his teeth in pain.

“I’m so sorry, Father,” I tried to reassure him. The tissue was healing, but very slowly. I didn’t think my father had that much time, and I felt myself begin to panic when another wave of power washed over me and I felt a cold nose press into my shoulder. Without looking I knew it was the wolf. I was drained from vision searching and my arrow stunt from earlier and I was using all of Faraway’s strength to do the healing, so I took what the wolf was willing to give, pulling that power into the healing process. The lung reknit itself faster and I was able to quickly heal any other damage. Before moving on to the second arrow, I released his lungs and watched him breathe on his own for a minute or so.

Odin’s eyes had gone wide and his face turned grey when he saw what I was doing. My hands trembling in exhaustion, I reached for the second arrow, but he stopped me.

“Thalia, I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it for myself. I will do it.” His strong hands pulled out the arrow from Bearen’s shoulder, who grunted in pain. Desperately wishing that I had Joss’s abilities, I did what I could to heal the shoulder wound, albeit slower this time.

When I was done, and my father was breathing on his own and seemed fine except for the pain. I leaned down and rested my head on his large chest and cried.

I cried for what I had almost lost, realizing that my heart remembered my father even if my mind didn’t. My tears made my father’s vest damp with their wetness, and the smell of dried blood tickled my nose, but neither one of us moved. I knew he was well because I could, in this position, listen to the beating of his heart and I prayed a prayer of protection over him. When I felt a light touch on my head, I almost moved, but the touch began to stroke the back of my hair and I sighed in relief, as my father tried to comfort me as I comforted him.