He panted several times and then limped forward. We made it about twenty more feet before he stopped again, almost collapsing. I knew he wouldn’t be able to run any longer on his injured leg. If only he were in human form—his front leg would be his arm instead, and he wouldn’t have to use it to run.
If he were human, he would be much easier to hide. Those hunters would be looking for a wolf, not a boy. I could feel the heat of the moonstone resting against my chest, and I remembered what Gabriel had said about how to change Daniel back.
I pulled the moonstone from my neck and held it dangling from its long string. It seemed heavy all of a sudden, like the weight of my decision was encapsulated in it. Not only had I prayed for guidance, I’d also prayed for the ability to bring Daniel back to me. I held the means in my hand, but the strength to do it had to come from inside of me.
Was I ready? Could I do it?
I heard a shout from somewhere off in the distance—but too close for comfort. I didn’t have much time before we’d be discovered.
I needed to do it now, or it would be too late.
I had to be ready.
“Dear God, I hope I’m doing the right thing.”
I draped the moonstone necklace around the wolf’s neck. I clasped one hand behind his uninjured shoulder, and then with my other hand, I pressed the stone as hard as I could against his chest. He struggled at first. I could feel him trying to break away. I was afraid I was hurting him—but I had to push that fear away. I took several deep breaths, cleared my mind, and opened myself up to channeling all of my positive energy into that stone. Every particle of love I had for Daniel in my heart—in my soul—I tried to direct into him. The warm stone grew hotter and hotter in my hand, searing like a piece of brimstone into my flesh, but I didn’t let go.
“Come back to me,” I said to Daniel, and a jolt of energy flowed through me. It started in my toes and then rushed up my legs into my chest, making my heart feel like it might burst, and then into my arms, hands, and then the moonstone. Suddenly, shards of light shone out from under my hand—emanating from the burning stone itself. Power exploded from the stone so forcefully that it pushed me back and I fell into the mud, losing my grip on the white wolf.
Lightning burst in the sky directly above. I looked up and was momentarily blinded by the sharp light. I blinked several times, and when I regained my vision, the white wolf was gone. The place where he’d sat was completely empty.
“No” I said, turning frantically in a circle, looking for him. Had the lightning scared him off? I couldn’t make out his trail in the saturated ground. How was I going to find him again? Rain ran down my forehead from my hair into my eyes. I tried to brush it away, but it did no good. Even with my super vision, I couldn’t see farther than a few feet in this storm.
“Daniel?” I cried out. “Where are you?”
I took a few steps in the direction we’d been heading.
Then I heard it from behind me. A raspy voice, barely audible in the roar of the rain. A voice I feared I’d never hear again … And when I did, it made my heart almost seize up in my chest.
“Gracie?” he rasped.
I turned around, almost slipping in the mud with my haste.
Someone was there. Through the rain, I could make out the white silhouette of a person clutching the trunk of tree for support, his lower half obscured by branches.
I took a hesitant step in his direction, too shocked to believe my eyes. Then another step. And another—feeling like a whole lifetime could have passed in the time it took to make my body move.
He was so close now I could almost reach out and touch him. His blond hair, drenched from the storm, looked almost brown as it hung down on his forehead—still shaggy even when wet. I watched in awe as rainwater ran from his hair down his chiseled cheekbones, arched over his cleft chin, and down his neck. It pooled momentarily in his hollow of his collarbone, and then carved paths down his bare chest.
“Daniel,” I whispered, afraid I was dreaming again.