Chapter 11 #2
The man’s features relax even further, widening to a smile.
‘Aldy’s out here, is he? Bet he’ll have made it to the lodge by now.
He knows the Morlagh better than any of us.
He’ll have made a beeline for it, I expect, and be forming a plan to find you.
’ He pats his jacket pocket and it clinks heavily.
‘Silver bullets. We’ve got a cache of them at the lodge if you know where to look.
Best get a move on though; I don’t like the look of this den.
Doubled in the last quarter, and some of them are so feral, they don’t even change back to their human form anymore …
’ He eyes Greg, then me. ‘Get him on his feet. We’ll have to brace him either side. It’s not far. I’m Edmund.’
‘Sophia, and this is Greg.’
There’s no choice but to trust Edmund and hope that Alden has indeed made it to this hunting lodge.
At least if Alden hasn’t made it there, I can leave Greg in safety and head out alone to find him.
Greg slips a couple of times, stumbling on tree roots along an overgrown trail, and I’m sure I hear the patter of paws, the shuffle of things in the undergrowth.
It takes what seems like hours, and my thighs begin to cramp from the weight of holding Greg up.
‘We’re moving too slowly,’ I murmur to Edmund as another howl shatters the near silence in the forest. ‘They’ve scented us, haven’t they?’
Edmund grunts, pausing for a moment to brace Greg, scanning the gloom and trees.
‘Not sure what they’re waiting for, but if there’s a few of you hopefuls dashing about, I expect it’s not the full pack on our trail.
Their attention will be divided. And if it’s only a couple of young wolves, we might be in luck. ’
A growl, low and long, stills my heart in my chest. Greg moans quietly and I take all his weight as Edmund quickly readies his rifle. ‘Whatever you do, don’t run,’ he murmurs. ‘They love the chase.’
I shuffle along, trying to keep calm, even as my blood beats hot and quick in my ears.
Edmund scans the tree line behind us as I grit my teeth, thinking of the gods I never bothered to worship.
Edmund fires once and I jolt, but he mutters that it’s only to keep them away.
My hips and shoulders throb from the effort of holding Greg up, sweat pooling under my arms as my breath gathers in ragged gasps.
Edmund swears, swinging the rifle towards a rustling in the undergrowth to our left, and eyes appear, glowing in the dark.
‘Shit, we’ve got to move!’ I say, fear pounding in my chest as I wrench Greg away. Edmund fires into the undergrowth, covering us.
‘Next clearing!’ he calls. ‘Don’t stop!’
A rush of movement, of fur and fangs sweeps in on our right, and I shove Greg through the last line of trees and into a clearing.
I only just have time to register a timber structure with small windows – a hunting lodge, the chimney already smoking – when Edmund falls through next to me, reloading the rifle with more silver bullets.
Pulling out my makeshift stake, I round on the treeline as Greg whimpers on the ground.
I tear my gaze from the trees, the glint of hungry eyes in the gloaming, to glance at him, hunched and pale at my feet. If we don’t stop the bleeding soon, he’s not going to make it. ‘Get to the lodge, get help—’
The door of the hunting lodge bursts open, and I’m aware of fast feet and shouting as a werewolf leaps through the trees, straight for me.
All I see are fangs and claws, a blur of motion, before the rifle cracks and a bullet lodges in its skull.
It drops to the ground mere feet away and I don’t wait to see what else is out there.
Turning, I find Alden just past the door to the hunting lodge and, clenching my jaw, I haul Greg up.
Edmund covers our backs as Alden runs to help me, shouldering Greg’s other side.
We fall through the door and Edmund scrambles to bar it, just as claws scrape down the wood on the other side.
A howl begins, joined by another, and I crouch there, panting, eyes on the door.
I exhale in pure relief when I look around and see Tessa.
She’s safe. Somehow she’s found her way here as well.
Greg’s pale and clammy, his side bleeding freely, and now we’re indoors with better lighting, I can see the gash more clearly.
‘You’ve been bitten ?’ Tessa breathes.
‘Sorry, T,’ he garbles, closing his eyes and slumping further to the floor as she kneels beside him. ‘Guess I just taste that good.’
She swears, removing her jacket to try and staunch the flow. But it’s not enough. He needs proper medical care, and right now, there’s no way of leaving this place. Not alive, anyway.
Then Greg starts, eyes flying wide as he reaches for his pocket, grimacing. ‘Tess, you need the antidote. It’s here, I had it—’
‘Don’t worry about that yet. I’m fine,’ she cuts in, glancing up at me nervously, then over at Alden. ‘Sophia and I are both fine. You’ve taken yours, right?’
‘As soon as I stepped through the mirror.’
Alden looks between us and narrows his eyes. ‘How can you possibly—’
‘Alphemera petals,’ Tessa cuts in swiftly.
Alden blinks in surprise, gaze turning on me. His mouth quirks into a smile and he chuckles, deep in his throat. ‘Maybe I underestimated you, wild card.’
‘Not for the first time,’ I say, and I can’t help smiling back. Something flashes in his eyes, respect, or perhaps something deeper, and for some reason, I can’t look away from him.
Edmund staggers out of the entrance hall, muttering about how Aldy better not have drained the hot water tank as Alden goes in search of bandages.
Tessa bites her lip, then takes a breath. ‘Slight confession, Sophia. Greg and I grew up together. I’m guessing you’ve clocked that we know each other pretty well. I know he seems fairly hopeless—’
‘Come on now, T,’ he grates out.
‘But he’s important to me.’ She grins down at him and shrugs.
‘Don’t tell. The Ordeals are brutal enough, and any weakness, any sign that you care for anyone , and there are others who will exploit it.
I switched around the name cards so we would be partners.
I had to make sure he would get through this semester alive. ’
I crouch down next to them both. ‘Your secret’s safe with me.’
‘And me.’
I look up, finding Alden’s returned with a heap of bandages, eyes fixed on me. ‘Just about to come and search for you. I found Tessa on my way to the lodge, took pity when the howling started. What did you do, feed Greg to the den to get away quicker?’
Greg chuckles and I snort indignantly. ‘You think I can’t handle a few werewolves?’
‘Not without silver,’ Edmund says, walking in with a bowl of steaming water and a salve in his hands. ‘Only thing that slows or kills the blighters. At least this one’s not too far gone, not like a lot of them out there. No humanity left. Aldy, any chance you have some wolfsbane on you?’
‘Not something I came prepared with,’ he says.
Tessa grabs the bandages with a sigh, dunks a clean cloth in the water and Edmund gets to work cutting away Greg’s clothes. ‘At least there wasn’t a literal time limit to get back through the mirrors. I don’t fancy a trip through that forest tonight.’
‘Agreed,’ I say, wrenching my gaze from Alden as I mentally say goodbye to the prospect of coming in the top twenty, and getting the use of a comfy junior common room.
Yet as Alden shifts slightly, and then moves to pass Tessa more bandages, I’m keenly aware of him.
‘Have you seen any of the other hopefuls?’
‘Only one, but he was holding a knife so I steered clear,’ Alden says, frowning. ‘There are a few other lodges scattered about, so if they’re clever, they’ll take shelter until dawn then try and find their partners.’
‘Risky move with that unknown poison,’ Tessa says, sponging the blood away from the gash as Greg hisses. ‘It could get the better of them at any time.’
Alden shrugs. ‘Either way you’re taking your chances tonight.
Move over, Tessa. I’ll wield, see if it helps the wound.
’ He places his hands near Greg’s side and frowns in concentration.
I look on as light and glitter spill over Greg’s flesh, not healing him completely, but helping to knit the wound together.
That answers another question about the limitations of Alden’s wielding; he can manipulate living flesh, as well as plant matter. Interesting.
Greg shudders, closing his eyes. ‘That itches horribly .’
Alden draws a breath, the light dimming before trickling to nothing, and then he rises, giving him a small nod. ‘You won’t need stitches at least, but you will need a bandage and rest.’
‘Thank you,’ Tessa says quietly, blinking quickly. ‘Do you think we’ll find wolfsbane at Killmarth? Or will tomorrow be too late for Greg?’
It dawns on me suddenly why that plant had been harvested. They knew exactly what they were sending us into. Maybe the medical team are ready and waiting at Killmarth even now to ease the symptoms of any bitten hopefuls. Well, the ones that survive the night.
‘Hard to tell,’ says Edmund. ‘Alden? You’re the botanist in the family.’
‘He could do with some before dawn,’ Alden replies, eyeing Greg as Tessa carefully and efficiently begins bandaging him up.
‘If he can take some, even just a small amount, it will lessen the effects at every full moon after. He might even learn to control it in time and not transform at all or heed the compulsion to return to the alpha at the full moon.’
‘And if he doesn’t take it before dawn?’ I ask quietly, thinking of the risk of us all trying to leave the forest at night, weighing it up against Greg’s chances, the freshly harvested wolfsbane at Killmarth, my promise to Tessa …
‘The alpha of the Morlagh pack will claim him by daybreak. He may not be able to leave the woods.’
I glance at Tessa and catch her flinch, then I turn back to Alden. ‘Does it grow in the Morlagh?’
‘It does,’ Alden says, frowning again.
‘I’ll go,’ Tessa says quietly. ‘He’s my partner.’
‘I don’t like the thought of any of us …’ I begin, biting my lip. ‘If you don’t make it, you both fail the Ordeal, then what’s the point of saving Greg? May as well sling him out there now and be done.’
‘Um, thanks?’ Greg says.
Tessa stands quickly, looking to the door and, at this angle, I’m the only person who can see her features, washed in sheer terror.
It squeezes my heart, and an image rises unbidden of Dolly in those final moments.
How scared she seemed, how panicked. How I couldn’t save her from a monster.
I can’t save Tessa either, not if something comes after her in the woods.
But at least I can even the odds of her survival.
Of all of us surviving to reach those mirrors, together.
‘I’m going with you,’ I say.
There’s a beat of silence, then Alden sighs through his nose. ‘I’m not letting you out of my sight now I’ve found you, DeWinter. We have to pass together, or we both fail. Besides, at least one of us needs to know how to point and shoot.’
‘Er, rude,’ I say, standing to glare at him. ‘I will allow you to accompany Tessa and me because you know where to find the wolfsbane. I’m perfectly capable of handling a hunting rifle. As I’m sure is Tessa.’
‘I’d better load three rifles then …’ Edmund smirks.
Tessa leans in to whisper to me. ‘You’ve done enough. This is my burden now.’
I look at her and, in that moment, I know I’m making the right decision. To trust her, to help her, to make this more than an alliance. I grip her arm and say softly, ‘We are going into those woods together.’