You need to get out of here. Blossom’s voice was in my head, but her mouth wasn’t moving. She only stared at me with wide dark eyes. If you want to live, you need to run. NOW.
So I did. I burst forward, pushing back through the trees in the direction I thought was the camp, but I had no sense of anything. Being in a strange forest in the middle of the night was disorienting, but I had to keep running as fast as I could.
Behind me, the branches and trees crunched and snapped as the creature tore through them. I didn’t scream—there was no one who could come to help me, and I didn’t want my mom or Roxie rushing in after me and getting themselves killed. The only thing I could do was run faster.
Then the ground gave way beneath me. The tall grass and thick forest made it hard for me to see where I was going, and it was already too late when I felt my foot squelching down into the dense mud of the surrounding swamp.
I fell forward roughly and lost my grip on the crossbow. It slid out of my grasp, somewhere in the underbrush, and I didn’t have time to search for it. I had to climb to higher ground, but the mud was swallowing my legs.
The creature was close enough that I could smell the sulfur on its breath. I could hear the beast behind me—it made a strange high-pitched guttural sound, like a demonic squeal of delight.
Grabbing a broken branch, I turned around to face the creature as it tore through the trees toward me. I brandished the branch like a weapon. If I was going down, I was going down swinging.
48. death
I couldn’t see it, but I knew it was there, standing right in front of me. Its breath felt hot on my skin, and it would only be a few seconds before it tore into me.
But then the branches beside me started cracking. There was something else in the woods, charging toward us. Was there more than one demon?
A loud snarl erupted from the trees beside me, and I saw a flash of silver before it collided into the demon. The demonic shadow tried to engulf it, so the new creature almost disappeared, but it fought back hard, crashing into the swamp.
I had no idea what was going on, but I knew I had to escape while I had the chance. Grabbing the roots of a tree, I hoisted myself up out of the muck. The clouds had parted enough to allow the moon to shine through, and I saw the light glinting off the metal on my crossbow.
As the fight roared on behind me, I scrambled to grab my crossbow. Behind me, I heard heavy footsteps and ragged panting. I whirled around, pointing the bow at whatever was chasing after me.
Instead of the darkness of the demon, it was a massive silver wolf, and it would’ve easily dwarfed a bear. Its fangs, exposed under the curl of its lip, could easily snap me in two. I took aim with my crossbow, right for its chest, but the wolf’s expression softened and there was something in its eyes—dark golden brown and strangely familiar—that made me hesitate to pull the trigger.
Then the wolf lowered its head before turning and bounding away into the trees.
I lay on my back in the dirt for a second, catching my breath and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. But I didn’t have much time for that; I had to get out of there before anything else tried to kill me.
I’d just gotten to my feet when a guy burst through the bushes. But it wasn’t just any guy—it was Gabe, shirtless and barefoot. The only clothing he wore was a pair of jeans that looked like they’d gone through a shredder. His hair was mussed, his eyes were wild, and he was out of breath as he walked over to me.
“We have to go,” Gabe commanded.
“Where did you come from, Gabe?” I asked in a trembling voice, but I already knew the answer and stepped back from him. “You were that wolf, weren’t you?”
“We can talk about it later, but we have to get out of here now before that thing comes back.”
“Mara!” That was my mom, screaming just outside the edge of the forest.
“Mara!” Gideon’s voice followed right after hers, his accent lilting with panic.
The trees rustled behind us, and there was no more time to think or talk. Gabe grabbed my hand and pulled me along. His legs were longer and faster, and he nimbly leapt over a fallen tree before picking me up and lifting me over it.
We broke through the forest at the edge of camp and ran straight into Gideon, pointing his Luger right at Gabe.
“Don’t shoot, it’s Mara!” Mom yelled, and she practically pushed Gabe out of the way to wrap her arms around me. “Thank the heavens you’re alive. I couldn’t lose you, qamari. I love you more than the stars in the sky.”
She let go of me long enough to grab my shoulders and give me one rough shake. “I gave you the crossbow and told you to harness your powers to protect yourself, not to kill yourself, Mara!”
“You shouldn’t have followed me,” Gideon said once my mom finished scolding me. He put his leathery hand on my shoulder. “I couldn’t have lived with myself if you got hurt because of me.”