Read Online Magic Stars (Grey Wolf Book 1) by Ilona Andrews - Free Book Online

hung from the bricks, each strung by a wet thread that smelled like flesh.
    A wooden pole rose from the ground just outside the circle. Dead animals hung on it, each nailed to the wood with a long iron nail. A rat, a squirrel, a cat, and above them a wolf head smeared in fresh blood. Above the head, an arrow protruded from the wood. The arrowhead looked crude, almost ancient.
    The wolf head stared at him with dead eyes, as if saying, “Hey buddy. Don’t fret. You and I are the same. There’s no pain where you’re going.”
    Great. He had to bleed himself before the pain dragged him under or he started seeing things that weren’t there.
    “He summoned something,” Julie whispered, her eyes wide. “He killed a wolf and summoned something very old.”
    He pointed at the herbs. “Are those wolf guts?”
    “Yes.”
    A deep eerie howl rolled through the ruin. He jerked. Run! Run now! He had to go. Dogs were coming and they would run him to ground. He was in the open, exposed, but he could outrun them if only he ran now, fast and hard, into the woods. . . .
    Julie grabbed his face with her fingers. “Look at me,” she whispered, her words urgent and fast. “Look at me!”
    He pushed her hands away, but she put them back, her fingers cold on his skin. She caught his gaze. He stared into her brown irises.
    “Derek! He summoned a hunter. The animals on the pole are your prey, and you are the hunter’s prey. This whole place is one giant magic trap, and it’s trying to make you act in your assigned role. The hunter will sic his hounds, the wolf will run, and the hunter will chase and kill it. It’s the way things were done for thousands of years, but you’re not all wolf.”
    Another howl cut at him, like a sharp blade slicing at the nape of his neck. Woods . . .
    Her hands held his face, her eyes two bottomless pools. “You’re human. You’re not all wolf. You don’t have to run. You’re human. Look at me. You’re Derek. If you run now, you’ll die.”
    If he ran, she couldn’t keep up.
    “You’re human, Derek.”
    Her voice severed the welling panic. He felt reason returning slowly, slipping through pain and instinct. The things that howled would find them soon, and he was in no shape to fight. “We have to get to shelter.”
    She let him go. “If you run, the spell will lock on you, and you won’t be able to break away. Don’t run, Derek.”
    “I won’t.”
    He turned around, fighting dizziness. A building—an old warehouse— loomed above the ruins to the right. It was obvious, but he didn’t care. They needed shelter. He pointed to it. She nodded.
    A sharp, triumphant howl sliced through the night. A hound was feet away, and it had just caught their scent.
     
    TO THE LEFT, THE WALLS CAME together under a sharp angle, leaving only a narrow gap, half-choked by rubble. Anywhere else would put them into the open. He pointed to it.
    Julie reached into her sack and pulled out a plastic bag of yellow powder. He took a deep breath and thrust his hoodie over his nose and mouth. She tossed the handful of wolfsbane into the air and backed toward him. They slipped into the gap. It terminated in a solid wall less than ten feet away. To the right, another wall. Above them, metal bars crossed. He could break them, but not without making noise. They were trapped in the twelve-by-twelve-feet space.
    He went to ground. Julie lowered herself next to him. They peered through the gaps between broken bricks and dirt. Something grunted low and deep just behind the corner. Something big.
    Derek lay completely still. The silver had eaten a hole in his chest and was trying to reach his heart.
    Another grunt, harsh, loud. A beast ran into the open, huge, at least three hundred pounds and covered with long, coarse brown fur. In a bad light, he’d mistake it for a boar: It had the bulk, the shape, and the enormous boar jaws armed with tusks and massive teeth. But it had no hooves. Its legs terminated in clawed