*Ella*
Granger drags me by the arm through the dense forest, his other hand clutching Amanda by the back of her shirt–something that hangs off her slight frame–likely belonging to one of Ryatt’s men–as he guides us away from the camp.
Behind us, the sounds of battle ring through the forest. I barely have a moment to swallow, let alone think, or even catch my breath, before Granger shoves us both into a clearing that descends into a shadowed clump of tangled alders.
I glance at the dark, shadowed recesses beyond the trees. A strange sensation drifts over my skin as the shadows seem to shift, beckoning me toward them.
A shiver licks up my spine, making me wince and tear my eyesight from the trees back to Granger, who is currently shaking Amanda by the shoulders as he loudly, and sharply, scolds her.
“You will stay with Ella, do you understand?”
“Get off of me you fucking brute!” she hisses, shoving him away.
He grabs her by the front of her shirt and pulls her back to him, leaning down significantly so they’re nose to nose and says, “If you run away, fox, we will hunt you and return your pelt to your father.”
“Oh, please,” she laughs, then smacks him soundly across the cheek.
My brows raise as Granger slowly straightens, still holding onto her shirt, and flexes his jaw. His cheek is tinged pink where her hand impacted him, but if it hurts, he doesn’t say so. His eyes are cold and sharp on Amanda’s as he inspects her, then turns to me. “There’s a waterfall five miles north of here. It’ll be hard to miss, but there’s no trail. Go directly through these trees and travel north. Do not stop until you reach the falls. I’ll be there soon.”
“What about Ryatt?” I ask. I glance at Amanda, who is wriggling, trying to get out of Granger’s iron grip on her shirt.
“He’s fine,” he says without an ounce of emotion. He lets go of Amanda so abruptly she’s caught off guard and falls backward onto her ass.
Huffing, she shoots upright, giving me the side eye as she brushes dead leaves and dirt from her pants. “We aren’t going to any waterfall, dickhead,” she sneers at Granger. “We’re going to a coven up north, our friends–”
“They did not make it to the coven,” Granger cuts in.
Amanda and I go perfectly still, too stunned to move. “Wh-what do you mean?” I pant, my eyes going wide with terror. “Hannah and Gemma should have made it by now, right? We gave them enough time to escape the Magpie!” Oh, Goddess, did they get caught by his men? We’re they sold off? What could have possibly happened?
Granger, unsurprisingly, doesn’t give away his thoughts behind those green eyes of his. “One of the women was injured, and scouts from your father’s pack caught up to them and brought them back to Granite Rise.”
“Who got hurt?” Amanda asked, the icy chill in her voice thawing to something tinged with panic.
“I don’t know.” Granger runs his fingers over the handles of the blades hanging from his waist. He turns his head toward the way we came, his chest rising and falling with a shallow breath. “I didn’t get all the details. It was a rushed message. Now, go. I’ll meet you at the falls by sundown.” He turns to me, tilting his head toward Amanda, “She isn’t trustworthy. Be on your guard.”
“You’re a bastard!” Amanda cries out, but Granger is gone in a flash, his body disappearing through the trees where growling and snarling has pitched anew. Amanda swallows, giving me a brief look. “You can trust me, Ella. I can’t help what I am.”
“I–” I close my mouth, shaking my head. “Honestly, I don’t have the capacity to even think about anything other than getting back to Hannah right now.”
“Well, we’re going to need Granger’s help with that, because I have no idea where the hell we are.”
“Then we’re going to the waterfall?”
“Guess so,” she breathes, looking around. Her eyes land on the shaded, shadowed clump of alders that’d made my skin crawl only a few minutes ago. She takes a deep breath, her shoulders going rigid.
“You feel it too? Like something is watching us?”
“Whatever it is, they’ll have to catch us,” she shrugs and begins unbuttoning her shirt. “I’m not going to be as fast as you, though. Short legs, you know.”
“Is this why you wouldn’t shift when we first left your village?”
She nods, her eyes still on the woods in front of us. “Again, I can’t help what I am, but it sounds like we’ll have some time to talk about everything that just happened while we wait for this group of idiots to catch up with us, won’t we?”
“Sure,” I whisper, mostly to myself. My heart lurches as shrill screaming cuts through the air, followed by snarling and the gnashing of teeth. We need to move, now. The sounds of battle are only getting closer. I undress quickly, leaving everything behind as I shift and inspect my paws.
Something red catches my eyes and I look up to find Amanda, in her fox form, waiting patiently for me. One of her small, sharp ears ticks toward the woods, and then she’s gone, letting out a sharp bark.
My wolf wants to chase her. It must be instinctual. I feel it in every muscle and bone as I lower my ears and take off after her into the trees, and into the shadows that haunt them.
* * *
I can’t help but feel oddly at home against the misty spray of the waterfall. We’d found it, not easily, but here we are. The entire journey to the falls, I’d felt like we were being followed by something unseen, something dangerous, but something that didn’t want or see the need to make itself known.
It felt like I’m being watched by a curious child. Still, even now that we’re tucked behind the waterfall in a large, cavernous space shielded from the world outside the falls, I’m on edge.
“Someone made a camp here.” Amanda uses a piece of rope to secure the pants she found in a cache toward the end of the cave. The long button-up shirt she found hangs to her knees, and she’s cuffed the sleeves several times to make them sit against her wrists instead of dragging down to her waist.
I chuckle, “Giants, maybe. I’ve never seen anyone this size before.” I motion to the pants and shirt I found as well, which I swim in, even at my above average height.
Amanda continues her exploration of the cave while I turn back to the waterfall. The daylight coming through the falls is the only light, and the sound reminds me so much of being on Maatua.
A familiar ache settles in my chest as I reach out and let the spray of the falls dust my fingers with moisture.
“I’m going to start a fire,” Amanda says, her voice echoing through the cave.
I turn my head to look at her. “Do you think whoever was here before is coming back?”
“Nope,” she breathes, shaking her head, her long, coppery gold hair hanging loose over her shoulders. “Whoever left all of this stuff here did so a while ago. We’re safe, and unless there’s more than one waterfall, we’re exactly where Granger said he’d meet us.” She growls Granger’s name, making a face like his name on her tongue tastes like acid.
I smile a bit at her expression and walk toward her, sitting across from her as she builds a small warming fire.
“So,” I say, drawing my knees to my chest.
“So…” She gives me a narrow eyed look. “I’m a fox.”
“What’s that about?”
She shrugs, laughing. “I have no idea. I just am.”
“Do your parents know?”
“Oh, everyone knows… in my pack, at least. It’s not talked about.” Her voice falls a bit, a tinge of pain there that shows behind her eyes. “I got it from someone, someone down the line. Either on my mother, or fathers side. We’re not sure.”
“But if they’re wolves, shouldn’t you be one too?”
“You’d think, huh? I guess whatever gene carries this… power…it came alive in me somehow, and not in my brothers, or my parents, or my grandparents.” She sighs, and then begins rubbing a stick against a rock, searching for a spark to start the fire. “There used to be several different kinds of shifters, you know. Before the veil was dropped between our worlds, this place, Eastonia, was a hotbed for all kinds of magical beings. But, the Alpha King of Eastonia get rid of all the books that spoke of those times. He also… killed off the lesser shifters–those not able to shift into wolves–but a few got away.” She motions to herself, then gets back to starting the fire. “My father thinks somewhere down our family line, a fox shifter was bred into it. But our pack records only go back a hundred years or so. As far as I know, I’m the only fox shifter… at all.”
“Why did Granger tell me not to trust you?”
“Because I’m a lesser shifter,” she says tartly, rolling her eyes. “Foxes are cunning and quick, and he’s just jealous he’s not nearly as agile and quick-witted as I am in his big, clunky wolf form.”
I smile despite knowing there must be more to this than jealousy, but what do I know? Nothing, apparently. This new world–this new home–is full of secrets and magic. I’ve only been here for a few days and feel like my head is going to explode trying to wrap my mind around everything that’s happening.
“So, you found your mate,” she says, derailing the current train of conversation.
“Unfortunately.”
She chuckles then squeals with glee as she finally catches the spark she’s been looking for and begins blowing into the web of sticks and old coals she gathered. “He’s not so bad, is he? I saw how he looks at you. He’s hot.”
“Hot?” I tuck my knees closer to my chest. Well, she’s not wrong, but that doesn’t mean I like it, or him.
“Delicious, actually.”
Now, I’m snorting with laughter, which instantly betters my mood. “He’s all right, I guess. His looks don’t really make up for his blood thirsty personality.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s–he’s a villain. He’s the son of what sounds like an absolute dictator.”
“He’s the savior of our people,” she says slowly, her brow furrowed slightly. “His story… it’s terrible, Ella.”
“I don’t know his story.”
“Do you even want to know?” she asks, crossing her legs and staring at me over the fire. “Have you asked?”
“What am I supposed to ask?” I snap, my anger at my situation spilling over. “Why he toyed with my brother? Why he slipped into my dreams and turned them to nightmares? Why he had to take me here, away from my family, forever–” My throat closes around the words, and I choke on a sob. “I don’t understand why I’m here. I know his father wants me for something. I know I wasn’t meant to be in my kingdom anymore, that me being there was a threat to my people and my family, but he–he doesn’t want me, Amanda. He hates me as much as I hate him.”
“Well, this is off to a great start,” she says sarcastically, tossing a few more sticks into the fire. But her expression softens as she notices the tears beginning to stream down my face. “Tell me about your family, Ella.”
I wipe my tears away in surprise. “Why?”
She shrugs, her eyes reflecting the flames from the fire. “We need to pass the time somehow, and… I think you’d feel better if you talked about them.”
I blink, leaning back and balancing my weight on my hands. “Maybe you’re right.”
“I usually am,” she grins, then laughs.
I laugh, unable to stop myself.
And then I tell her about them. My parents. My brother. And Maddy.