It was a trap.

  I’d known that the wolves were a distraction, but we were stuck with a wagon circle until the trap got sprung, so I’d poked it. For a moment, I thought about running back to Starna, but that would mean leaving my back exposed to a decent mage. If I wanted to help her, I’d need to finish this, but as I reasoned it out, there were few beings that would be able to break through a proficient level mage’s barrier in a short amount of time. Plus, Starna was fully capable of handling herself in a fight.

  I waved my sword. “You want to keep me here?” I slid it into the scabbard on my back. “Then talk.”

  The quadruped glared at me. “You keep company with that abomination and think to make demands of Hikar Windrun!” He snorted.

  “Windrun…” I let his family name play around in my head. I snapped my fingers. “Isn’t your family one of the arms of that protects Queen Temara?”

  The man-horse narrowed his gaze. “Keep my queen’s name out of your mouth.” He glanced at where Vin was still wrestling with the wolves. Most people would have thought the screams he was unleashing were him panicking and in pain, but that was just how he laughed. My brother was having a blast.

  “I’ve never met your people.” I leaned against a tree opposite the male. At least that way one of his wolves wouldn’t be able to sneak up on me.

  “As I said, you are fortunate it is not you I am after.” He folded his arms in front of him.

  “RIght.” I jabbed my thumb towards my brother. “But this is as far inland as Vin has been since he was six.” I studied the Centaur for a reaction. “I mean, I know he can be a bit much—”

  “He is an abomination and must be destroyed!” The mage oozed more magic out, sending an order to the wolves.” I sighed. “You know that’s never going to work. Camadt hide is too thick…” I held up the pendant on my neck. “I’m Prince Sectum Malus Irongut.” I pointed in the direction of the wolf pile. “That’s my brother and since you’re part of the Centaur leadership, that makes this an act of war.” I lowered the golden pendant. “Take your wolves and walk away and I promise to forget that this ever happened.”

  I was supposed to be trying for more peaceful solutions. A few months ago, I would have neutralized him as a threat and brought him back to the ship for the others to interrogate. Between a Camadt, Ogre, Cyclops, and Werecrocodile, most beings started talking real fast. All four races had a reputation for cannibalism and it didn’t take much of their poor acting to convince the prisoner that withholding information would lead to them being eaten alive.

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  I’d never seen any of them eat someone, though I knew that everyone on the ship had a checkered past of some sort. My father had an eye for broken people that needed just a little care to make whole again.

  The man-horse didn’t look fazed at the declaration. He trotted closer. “You underestimate who has the power. If it were not for my honor—”

  I pushed off the tree and sidestepped to the right. A Centaur couldn’t kick to the side and while they could stomp, most preferred to kick with their hind legs, since the attack would be more powerful.

  The larger man began to rotate with me, proving I’d been correct about him being right handed. In the heat of the moment, he’d tried to keep his dominant side towards me. Since my opponent was a beast tamer, I took a chance that he’d resort to instinct, not that I wasn’t prepared to dodge one of the sharp as blade hooves.

  I moved faster than he twisted, slapping my left hand on his rump as he tried to bowl me over, but the physical contact was all I needed.

  The man-horse stumbled and fell over. I backed up to keep him from falling on me, and put my right hand on the back of his neck, draining him as his thrashing grew weaker by the second.

  I pulled the knife off my belt once he stopped struggling and pressed the blade against his neck. “Call off the dogs.”

  His yellow eyes hardened as he strained to glare at me. “Sin…”

  I flicked his forehead with my other hand. “Yes, I know what I am.” I palmed his brow and pulled, exposing his neck even more. “Look, I’m trying to not turn this into a whole thing. Call off the dogs.”

  A howl from deeper in the woods sent out an order to the wolves. I turned to see if they were retreating, but instead of running away, every remaining wolf charged at the wagon circle.

  “The… Impure…”

  I didn’t care to listen to a speech from the Twelve, the group of Elves that advocated for racial purity. I used my ability to pull enough energy out of him that his eyes rolled back into his head. He’d be unconscious for days unless he had some sort of enhanced recovery that I wasn’t aware of Centaurs possessing.

  I stood up and used my burst of energy to start running towards the wagon circle. The wolves weren’t there, but I could see that they were already fighting under the dome.

  “VIN!”

  A deep howl made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I looked at the treeline farther east and watched an alpha-sized dire wolf walk out of the woods. The monster was bigger than a mother grizzly bear and looked at me like I’d just kicked her cub.

  I amended the shout I’d been about to give. “I’ve got the caravan! Take care of that wolf!”

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