by AJ Eversley
“Those things are—” I couldn’t even find the words to describe how hideous they were. The smell of death that reeked off them was still burned into my nostrils. I shuddered again. Max nodded beside me and watched the fire grow.
I glanced around the hut. A small kitchen with a table fit for two was on one side of the circular walls while two bedrooms and a bathing room were on the other end. It was quaint and peaceful. Max eased into a comfortable chair and relaxed.
This was where Max had grown up; this was where he’d trained and become a man. It made Max seem different. But he was still the same comfortable Max I’d grown to care for and found hope in. I joined him on the chair and leaned into him. We slowly warmed up.
~
After feeling had returned to my toes, Max ran a bath for me while he dried our clothes over the fire. The warm water soothed every ache and pain in my body, though I winced as the tiny scrapes on my skin hit the hot water. I hadn’t felt this in a long time—aching pain that didn’t dissipate quickly. The energy deep inside me was barely a whisper. I’d used every last bit of it over the last few days traveling here and even more escaping the Dred Wulfs.
I stayed in the bathtub until the water grew cold and I was forced to leave. Wrapping myself in a towel, I stepped into the room where Max had a can of soup warming over the fire.
“Here.” He tossed me a pair of dry clothes, and I gladly put them on.
When I finally sat beside him, I saw the scratches that coated his face and the lingering cold that still enveloped his body. I cuddled closer to him, and with a side-glance at me, he smiled and wrapped an arm around my shoulder.
I ate the entire bowl of soup like it was the last meal I’d ever have. And after Max had a bath and was feeling warmer at my side, I finally inquired about the reason we were there.
“Did you find it?” I asked.
He pulled out a little wooden box from his side. A star was engraved on the top. He placed it in my hand, and my thumb traced the shape while I stared at it. I wondered how this familiar shape could be on the box. It was the same as the star pendant I still had in my pocket, the same as the necklace clutched against my chest. How could this not be a coincidence? How could one shape follow me around like this one had? But I knew it wasn’t a coincidence. This went beyond that, beyond fate and the stars, whatever you wanted to call it. This was a sign, and it was meant for me.
“Should I open it?” I asked.
Max shrugged. “It’s yours to do what you want with. Although I assume it’s meant to be opened at some point in order to be useful,” he teased.
I rolled my eyes before I returned my stare to the box. It was the size of my palm and neatly fit there. The wood smelled of cedar. It felt warm and soft between my fingers.
Carefully, I lifted the lid. There were two silver-looking cuffs inside. One was larger, and the other was small and petite. The larger one had lightning bolts etched across the outside, covering the entirety of its metallic exterior. The smaller one had ripples in it, almost like wind or water. A subtle current flowed throughout the cuff.
I took them both in my hands and felt a calm slip over me at its touch. My energy sparked at the feeling as if to say “here I am,” but I didn’t know to whom or what it spoke to. I only knew that these objects, these cuffs, called to me.
Max watched me as I put them back in the box and closed the lid.
“Do you know what they are for?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, not yet. They’re connected to my powers, but in this forest I’m too drained to figure out.” I sighed deeply as exhaustion took me over.
Max yawned, and I realized how tired we both were.
I tucked the box safely into my pocket where it stayed throughout the night. I slept curled up by the fire.
Chapter 45
At some point during the night, Max had carried me to the bedroom where I slept for most of the next day. I woke only to eat before I fell back into a deep slumber. Exhaustion fully consumed me as my energy tried to replenish itself.
Max looked exhausted too, but each time when I woke up, he was there beside me. I felt safe and comfortable in his presence.
Every time I opened the wooden box, I felt a tug in my chest, but I still didn’t know what the cuffs were for. The symbols were taking over my dreams, and when I closed my eyes, I felt the cool wind on my skin, blowing my hair behind me as sharp cracks of lightning blazed overhead. I’d wake up with a jolt each time, only to find the box still in my hand and the space around me calm and quiet.
Aelish had said it was something I desperately needed, something tied to my fate and my future, but all I needed right now was for Coleman to be gone. How these cuffs would help with that I had no idea. But Max trusted her, so I would trust her too.
By the second day, I managed to drag myself out of the bed.
“I don’t understand why I am so exhausted. I didn’t even use any of my powers. You’d think this Carbon body would bounce back faster,” I complained, sitting down at the table across from Max.
He had more of a glow to his skin, and his eyes weren’t so red. I hoped in the time I rested that he too found some sleep.
“It’s the forest. It has muted and dampened your powers, but they are still fighting to break though. Maybe that continual fight caused you to burn out all your energy over time,” he said. “At least now we know there is an end to your powers, and you’re not completely superhuman.” He passed me a hot cup of tea with a wink.
“Yeah, that’s true,” I pouted. I had thought my powers were endless somehow. To realize now that they did have a bottom—an end—had me worried. “We should head back soon.”
“We’ll leave tomorrow in the daylight. Those Dred Wulfs have been stalking the hut. I’ve never seen them like this.” Max scrunched his brow.
I realized now why he hadn’t been sleeping. He’d been protecting us and watching out for me while I slept like a weak child.
“Why do you think that is?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Best guess I can make is that they can sense your energy. Smell it, or feel it. I’m not sure. But something seems to have driven them mad, and I have a feeling we’re going to need to get back as fast as we can.”
I nodded, realizing that also meant I had to be recovered enough to escape those beasts. A cold sweat formed on the back of my neck as I thought of the glimpse I’d seen of the Dred Wulf before we jumped off the cliff and into the freezing cold water. Their size and their hunched, muscly shoulders had me picturing myself being shredded to pieces if I was caught. A shuddered rolled through me.
“You should rest more.” Max nodded to the tea he’d poured me. It smelled of lavender and apple with a hint of something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “The tea will help you sleep.”
My eyes were growing heavier as I drank the last of the tea. He helped me to the room, and I couldn’t help wondering what I would’ve done without him. I wouldn’t have survived this forest without his help, Carbon or not. I don’t think my heart would’ve recovered like it had if I was alone. Pain and confusion still surrounded my every thought when I let it seep in. Kenzie was still there in the background as if he was watching over me and making sure I healed properly. But it was the version of Kenzie I remembered from before, not the one who lived in my reality.
Max lifted me into the bed and tucked the covers around me, making sure my toes were covered. I smiled at him with sleepy eyes. He kissed my forehead, and I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
~
We woke early the next morning. Max looked like he hadn’t slept again. After packing up our bags, we set out as the sun was spreading its warm light over the forest.
The deep white snow revealed tracks from the Dred Wulf that had been stalking our hut through the previous night. With their eyesight fixed for nighttime, I was happy that the Dred Wulfs wouldn’t be able to navigate on anything but scent in the daylight.
Before we left, Max took one of m
y shirts and ripped it into tiny pieces. He placed the torn clothing around the exterior thornbushes.
“It won’t stop them for long, but hopefully the smell will draw them here first. At least this way we’ll know which direction they’re coming from,” Max explained.
I felt the tension and urgency in every word he spoke. We stalked through the forest, and once we were far enough away, Max had me cover myself once again in sap to mask my scent. The chances of it helping were slim, but we had to try. I worried about Max. He had always been calm and collected, even when he was faced with death. But today, his face dripped with concern, and his eyes wouldn’t meet mine. These things were a living nightmare to him, and he had already escaped them once. But to come face-to-face with them again and relive the horror, I couldn’t imagine what he was feeling.
We reached the river quicker than the last time, seeing as we weren’t dripping wet and frozen. The river was moving too fast to cross, so we had to navigate our way downstream to find a shallow enough crossing. We wasted precious daylight traveling in the wrong direction, but we had no choice.
The sun had risen to its highest point, and we were still miles away from anywhere in which Max felt comfortable hiding. The cool, crisp air kept filling my lungs with a strong pine and maple scent. But it was another scent that lingered in the forest that I couldn’t get my mind off of—the smell of death.
~
As the sun threatened to set, Max sent me up a tall tree overlooking a small clearing in the area. I climbed as high as I could before I settled on a branch and watched Max climbed up behind me. He hacked down the branches below that we’d used to climb up.
Once he was on the branch below me, he passed me a small rope and instructed me to wrap it around the tree and myself.
“They can still climb without the branches, but this way they’ll have to use their claws to climb, not attack,” Max said. “And this tree should be too thick for them to take down.”
He secured himself to the tree as well. Using his hunting knife, he notched a foothold on a branch to brace himself, and then he pulled out his bow and arrow. He sat waiting.
I also had a bow, but I was much less comfortable with it. I preferred my gun, but Max had warned me that the sound of a gun would rally all the other Dred Wulfs to our direction.
So I pulled my bow out too and watched behind us.
The sun set, and darkness consumed us. I could see, but my vision was dulled and muted. The wind rustled the leaves and tricked my eyes more than once. I held strong and waited for a sign from Max.
He was a picture of patience beside me. His chest barely moved whenever he took a quiet breath.
We sat there for only a few hours before I felt a change. My energy, whatever was left of it, sparked with confusion. I was unable to pick up a single thing. I didn’t need my powers to know they were near. The forest told me. Silence filled the air, and the leaves stopped moving. The snow had stopped falling altogether. It set me on edge as I scanned the area.
And then, the smell hit me.
That rotting smell of death lingered in the air. In the distance, I saw the glow of bright yellow eyes. But it wasn’t one set of eyes; there were over a dozen. Much more than I had expected.
Max swore under his breath as he saw how many surrounded us. He pulled his bow taut and waited for the first Dred Wulf to come out.
They knew where we were. My scent must’ve been a homing beacon to them, and now they surrounded us in droves. There were so many, and each one was just as hideous as the next. In the small clearing where the moonlight flickered through, I saw one Dred Wulf in all of its terrifying glory.
Its razor-sharp teeth bared at me, and its eyes narrowed. Its body was a misshapen mix of muscle and fur. Its shoulders rippled with every step it took toward us, and its thick claws sliced through the deep snow. I couldn’t look away from the Dred Wulf as it stalked closer, gazing deep into my soul. It licked its chops with a venomous snarl.
“Take out the large one, the Alpha. It’s the only chance we have,” Max whispered beside me as he gazed at the Alpha creeping closer.
I noticed the other Dred Wulfs waited for the Alpha, listening for the command to attack.
“Aim for just below their armpit,” Max said, reminding me of the small opening to its heart there.
I nodded and pulled my arrow back. My thumb rested against my cheek, and I stared down the long arrow toward the Dred Wulf. Its eyes shone bright in the night.
I waited.
We had one shot, one chance before all hell broke loose. I didn’t want to be the one to take the first shot so I waited for Max to size up the Alpha. I kept my arrow trained at the Dred Wulf stalking toward us.
There was a sharp twang and then a piercing howl. My eyes widened when I saw the arrow strike the Dred Wulf’s side. I aimed mine to the same spot. It hit the mark, digging deep into the Dred Wulf’s thick fur.
The others ran at us, clawing like a mad herd at that tree below. They threw each other off in hopes of being the first one to devour us.
Max aimed another arrow at the Alpha, and it let out another ferocious growl. Down below us, a Dred Wulf had climbed halfway up and had its eyes set on Max.
I strung another arrow and launched it at the Dred Wulf. The angle was sharp, and I couldn’t reach its armpit so instead I had aimed for the glowing yellow eye still trained on Max. The Dred Wulf roared in pain and clawed at the arrow deeply lodged into its eye. It fell to the ground with a hard thud, taking a few other Dred Wulfs with it.
Max aimed one more arrow toward the Alpha, but it had already begun to retreat from us. The arrow hit just at its feet, and the Alpha roared a command for the rest of the Dred Wulfs. They turned and followed. Blood stained the white, snow-covered forest floor, and silence filled the air.
I loosened a breath and so did Max but he kept his focuse on where the Dred Wulfs had run off. We waited for a few more minutes before I released the bowstring and allowed my arms to drop.
“They’ll be back,” Max said, still looking out to the empty clearing. “Maybe not tonight, but they’ll follow us, and they’ll attack again.” He allowed his bow to rest on his lap, but he still didn’t look at me.
“Get some rest. I’ll keep watch tonight,” I suggested. He shook his head, and I knew neither of us would sleep that night.
~
We still had two more days of travel. Two more days for the Dred Wulfs to get their vengeance, and I knew they’d try. We’d pissed them off. Not only did we ruin their dinner plans, but we also wounded their Alpha.
By mid-morning, we had descended from the highest elevation point of the Muted Forest, and the terrain became more manageable. We jogged whenever we could.
I didn’t give myself the time to be tired. We kept moving, and I focused every step on getting farther away from this horrible place.
The second night, we found a crevice in a cliff that we were barely able to squeeze our way through. It was so narrow we had to spend the night standing. But since it was so narrow, we were safe from the Dred Wulfs who later that night stalked the opening, clawing and scratching at the impermeable entrance to our cave.
It was on the third day that I knew we’d face the retribution of the Dred Wulfs. We were closer to the boundaries of the Muted Forest where Max knew they wouldn’t venture, but we wouldn’t make it during the light of day. We had to spend one more night in the forest.
We’d made our way back to the cave that we’d spent our first night in. The wide river to the side with the waterfall nearby sent familiar sprays of freezing cold mist our way. Though the cave was exposed, it gave us a clear view of anything coming from a long way away. Behind us was the thick rock of the cliff that would be our only escape should our plan fail. The plan might as well have been a suicide pact. All we could do was hope our limited arrows took a few down, and pray to the stars above that one of those arrows would hit the Alpha.
The Dred Wulfs had been following our scent the whole way
. No amount of sap would hide us now. The rushing water and the cool wind that flowed through the area wouldn’t carry our scent away. They had too strong of a taste of it.
As the sun descended on that last day, I wondered if I’d see the sun the next morning.
Chapter 46
No amount of training could’ve prepared me for what we faced. Fear overwhelmed my senses, and I had to swallow at the tightness in my chest that threatened to consume me. The sky was clear, and the moon shone down bright and full.
Piercing howls in the distance spoke to the moon as if to thank it for the clear, illuminated path to our camp.
Max had his bow out and his hunting knife at his side with another knife across his back. I also had my bow out with knives hidden any place I could stash them. We were prepared for a fight, and I wasn’t about to go down without one.
The Dred Wulfs’ presence stilled the water, and the crashing waves grew quiet.
In front of us, across the large field separating the Wulfs from us, a line of trees beside the river sparkled with yellow dots. The Dred Wulfs had arrived, and this time they had brought a few more friends.
I stopped counting after twenty, blinking a few times to make sure fear hadn’t blurred my vision and multiplied the Dred Wulfs before me. It hadn’t. Max leaned into position. We’d go into this together, no matter what the outcome.
A chorus of feral cries accompanied a distant howl. The cries filled up the night sky and seeped deep into the marrow of my bones. A tremble resonated throughout my body when the Dred Wulfs stepped out from the forest and into the light of the moon, revealing their numbers. Far too many for the two of us to defeat.
My heart was in my throat as I looked to Max. He glanced at me and gave me a nod. With the whisper of a promise lingering between us, he launched his first arrow. It arched high in the air before it fell like a rock and hit a Wulf in its sharp shoulders.