Chapter 31 The Field of Ash

I gripped the handle of my axe until my fingers turned white. Silas stood next to me on the gray dirt field but he did not say one word. He just stared at the dark trees with eyes that looked like cold stones.

The sun came up behind the hills and made the sky look like a big orange bruise. The air was very quiet and smelled like dry dirt and old smoke. Behind me, my Rogue army stood in a long line with their wood shields held tight.

"They are late for the peace talk," I said as I looked at the trees. I touched the iron crown on my head to make sure it was still there. The metal felt very cold and heavy on my skin today.

"Torian does not want to talk," Silas muttered while he spit on the gray ground. He did not look at me at all. He held his big black sword with both of his hands.

A loud horn blew from the deep part of the woods. The sound was so big that it made the ground jump under my boots. It made my ears ring and my heart beat like a fast drum.

Hundreds of gray wolves ran out from the shadows of the trees. They were very big and they ran fast across the field. They did not stop to talk or wait for anyone to speak to them.

"Get the shields up now!" I yelled to my men. My voice felt very small in the big open field. The captains looked at me and then they looked at the gray wolves.

The men were slow to move and the line had big holes in it. I tried to tell them to move left, but the words got stuck in my throat. I had never led a big army in the sun before today.

"Move your feet!" I roared as I waved my hand at the soldiers to make them hurry. The gray wolves hit the front line with a loud thud. The whole line shook.

I thought I would hear the sound of wood hitting metal. I thought my men would growl and push the enemies back into the woods. Instead, I heard very loud screams of pure pain.

"The metal is hot!" Jarek yelled from the left side of the fight. He held his arm and jumped back away from a gray wolf. White smoke came off his skin and it smelled very bad.

I saw a gray wolf hit a Rogue warrior with a sharp claw. The metal armor on the wolf’s leg shined with a bright red light. Where it touched the fur, the skin made a hissing sound.

The skin turned black and dry in just one second. It was hot metal made to burn wolf skin. It cooked the meat while the wolves were still trying to fight.

"Push them back into the dirt!" Silas shouted as he jumped into the middle of the mess. His black sword went up and down and cut through the air. He looked like a mad man.

Silas was fast and mean, but he had to jump away from the red-hot blades. The air around the fight got very hot and hard to breathe. It smelled like burning hair and fresh blood.

Chaos was everywhere on the field. I stood in the middle of the ash and my brain felt full of cold mud. I did not know which way to look first because everything was moving so fast.

I saw a group of my men get trapped in a circle of gray wolves. Ten enemies moved in with their burning armor and red eyes. The Rogues looked at me and waited for me to tell them what to do.

"Help them!" I tried to yell, but my voice was weak. I did not know if I should send the men with bows. I did not know if we should run to the high hills.

Every second I stayed quiet, another one of my men fell down. Every second I waited, the hot metal burned another friend. I felt like a very bad leader.

"Elena, do something or we all die!" Silas yelled from the middle of the blood. He was covered in gray dust and red blood. He looked at me with eyes that were full of anger and fear.

I saw a giant gray wolf jump at my throat. I did not have time to make a plan in my head. I did not have time to be a Queen.

I let the White Wolf out of my mind. The change happened very fast and it hurt my body. My bones made a loud popping sound and my skin stretched.

My hair turned into white fur and a bright light came out of my body. I landed on four paws in the gray ash. My white fur shined like a new star in the dusty sun.

I opened my mouth to let out a very loud howl. I wanted to fix the burns on my men. I wanted to use my power to make them feel strong again.

I let the power go out of my chest. The white energy rushed out like a big, warm wave. I waited for Jarek and the others to stand up and fight.

But the men did not grow strong. I watched a Rogue soldier near my paws and the white light hit his back. It stayed there like a bug.

Instead of fixing his skin, the light grabbed him. I saw the man’s eyes go wide and his body got very thin. It was like the juice was being pulled out of an apple.

He let out a tiny, dry gasp and fell over on the ground. He looked like an old man who had been dead for a long time. He was just a dry shell of skin and bone.

"What am I doing to them?" I thought as I looked at my paws. I tried to stop the power from leaving my body. I tried to pull the white light back inside my chest.

But it was like a big hole in a boat. The white light turned gray and then it turned black at the edges. It spread across the field like a hungry fog.

It was not a healing wave anymore. It was a wall of death that wanted to eat everything. Every enemy wolf the fog touched did not just stop moving.

The enemy wolves withered up. Their fur fell out in gray clumps. Their eyes turned into dry stones. They became bone and skin in the blink of an eye.

The Iron-Tooth wolves saw the black fog and tried to run away. They were very scared of the white wolf. But the fog was faster than any wolf could run.

It moved like it had a mind of its own. It was eating their life and drinking their blood through the air. My white fur began to turn gray and then black.

"Elena, stop it right now!" Silas screamed. He was backing away from me with his sword up. He was not looking at the enemy wolves anymore.

Silas looked at me with pure terror in his eyes. He looked at her like I was a monster from a bad dream. I looked down at my own paws and saw the black lines.

They were not white anymore. Black veins were moving under my fur. They looked like thick black ink.

The lines moved up my legs and toward my heart. I felt a huge, empty hole in my stomach. I was so hungry for life.

I was not hungry for meat or bread. I wanted to touch the grass and make it turn to ash. I wanted to touch the sky and pull the light out of the stars.

"Mama! Please stop!" I heard Leo’s voice in my head. The sound of his name made me flinch and stop my breath.

I looked at the field and saw the dead piles of skin. Half of the gray wolves were gone. They were not just killed; they were erased from the world.

Some of my own men were on the ground too. They were shaking and their skin was pale and dry. I had eaten my own soldiers to feed my soul.

"Stop," I whispered in my own mind. "Please, stop this now." I fought the power with everything I had left in my body.

I pulled the black fog back into my chest. It felt like I was swallowing a thousand sharp needles. My heart felt like it was going to pop.

The orange sky turned black and the ground turned into dust. I felt my body change back into a human. It was cold.

I hit the hard, cold ground with a loud thud. I could not move my arms or my legs. I looked at my hands and saw the black lines.

The black veins were thick and dark under my skin. They looked like a map of a dead place. I tried to breathe, but my chest was too heavy.

"She is a monster," a voice whispered from the gray smoke. It sounded like Jarek’s voice. He was very far away.

"Stay back from her!" Silas yelled as he stood over my body. Elena tried to call his name to say she was sorry. But no sound came out of my mouth.

My throat was dry and it hurt to move. I was a hollow shell and my spirit was gone. My power was a black hole that had eaten me up.

I looked toward the woods one last time. The rest of the gray wolves were staying back in the trees. They were too scared to come closer to me.

I lay in the dirt and could not lift my head. The darkness started to close in on my eyes. The world was going away.

The last thing I saw was Silas standing over me. He did not reach down to help me up. He did not touch my hand to see if I was okay.

Silas just stood there with his sword and looked at me. He looked at me like I was a bomb that would kill everyone. He was afraid to be near me.

"What have you become, Elena?" Silas whispered. I wanted to tell him I did not know. I wanted to tell him I was scared too.

But the hunger took me and my eyes shut tight. I fell into a deep, black sleep. Black lines moved up my neck and over my face like a cage.