I smiled. “Corrine fixed it.” As I said the words, an idea occurred to me. “Hey, why don’t we go check out that gate while we’re waiting for Sergius? Brucella already told you its location. That’s the gate we would all have to pass through in order to return to The Shade and fetch more recruits. It will save time if we go check it out now rather than waiting until later.”
“That’s a good idea,” my cousin Ben said, striding forward with the rest of them.
But Bastien furrowed his brows, looking reluctant. “I think, until my uncle has informed the wolves of your presence and spoken with them, it’s best you all stay put here. Away from the mountain. If you were spotted, it might put some wolves on edge prematurely if they jumped to the wrong conclusion…”
“Um, okay,” I said. “Well, you and I could just go alone? To verify that there really is a gate.”
“That we could,” Bastien replied, his eyes twinkling. He looked quite delighted by the suggestion.
As I turned to my parents, the last thing they wanted was to watch me leave again.
I squeezed my mother’s hands. “Bastien will take care of me.” I flashed him a grin. “Won’t you?”
He nodded, returning my smile. “It’s not far away from here,” he said. “I’ll be sure to bring your daughter back within half an hour. We should not stay away longer than that anyway, in case my uncle returns with news.”
“Promise me you won’t go exploring the portal without us,” my father said, eyeing me sternly.
“I promise,” I said. “We’ll just go to see if it really exists.”
With that, Bastien and I set off. We left the small wooded clearing and returned to the foothills. As we moved out of sight from the others, my hand instinctively inched closer to Bastien’s until our fingertips touched. He glanced at me fleetingly before twining his fingers with mine. I bit my lip. More butterflies.
I coughed my throat clear. “It feels so good to be walking again normally, without you having to carry me everywhere,” I said, attempting to divert my thoughts.
“Don’t speak too soon,” he replied
As we reached the base of the mountain, he gathered me in his arms and carried me. It would speed things up… a lot. Besides, I hadn’t exactly been eating much recently, and even if I was fueled on protein bars, there was obviously no way I could climb the mountain.
He followed Brucella’s directions around the edge of the mountain until we reached five oak trees where, after I had shifted to his back, he immediately began to climb. Scaling the side of a mountain was no more difficult for him than scaling trees. He gripped the rocks with ease, lifting us gracefully several feet at a time.
I hadn’t realized how high up this mountain was from the ground. I dared pry my eyes from the back of Bastien’s muscular neck to gaze around. For a few seconds, I lost my breath at the view. We were higher than the mountain I had stayed in briefly in Bastien’s lair. Higher than any treetop he had taken me to. This was the highest vantage point from which I had ever witnessed The Woodlands. Beneath the moonlight, the oceans of swaying trees looked magical. Mystical. A world of exploration. I wondered how large The Woodlands was compared to the United States or some other earthly country. And how much of it I had traversed with Bastien over the last few days.
Bastien continued climbing until we reached the ledge Brucella had described, an overhanging plateau, which was actually much larger than I had expected it to be. Even despite my curiosity about the gate, I couldn’t stop my eyes from drifting toward the view again, now more spectacular than ever. I was not sure if I had ever witnessed stars truly glitter, but the stars in this clear sky tonight were like shimmering diamonds. It was a mild night, and even so high up, the breeze was not overbearing. It was almost pleasant.
“Over there.” Bastien spoke behind me in a low voice. I turned to see that he was pointing about fifteen feet away from us. Etched into the ground was a circular hole. An abyss. A gate.
So Brucella was telling the truth. It had really been her lucky day that she had met somebody who knew of a gate and she was legitimately able to get rid of me. She knew that Bastien couldn’t object lest it look like we were more than just friends.
Friends.
That word again.
“I wonder if it really leads to where they say it leads,” I mumbled.
“There would only be one way to find out,” he replied, looking at me pointedly. “And I have no intention of inciting you to disobey your parents.”
“Yeah,” I said. “We will check it out with them.”
As we continued staring down into the portal, the silence of the mountaintop engulfed us. Then I stepped back, and we caught each other’s eye.
“Uh, well,” he said. “We found it.”
“Yeah,” I said faintly.
“I suppose we should return now.” He spoke slowly, like he was wholly unenthusiastic about the suggestion.
My eyes returned to the view. We—or rather, Bastien—had climbed all this way. It seemed a shame to leave so soon…
“We still have some time,” I said, raising a brow. “Why don’t we sit for a while? It’s so beautiful up here.”