Wolves and Paths by Holly Hook

Author:Holly Hook [Hook, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1533648522
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2016-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Morning came too slow. The wolves' sorrowful howling slowly faded in the distance. Maybe they had gone in search of their leader. Their friend.

No wonder they didn't want Alric to win. I'd seen what had happened to that wolf. How it had changed. It had turned from an ordinary wolf into some beast. I remembered the struggle I'd seen in the other wolves' eyes in the dark spot. The red, trying to creep in.

All creatures would turn like this if Alric won and the fairy tales fell.

Tate and I climbed down from the tree once we determined it was safe. When I was at the bottom, I scanned the forest but spotted only a hare hopping through the flowers, munching on some dandelions. Even Fable dealt with weeds.

"I think we're safe," I said. "We need to find Macon."

Dread crept up into my gut as soon as I spoke those words.

We would be going off the trail and wasting more time. My grandmother might even be eaten by now and sitting in the belly of that wolf that Alric had turned to his side last night. Terror squeezed at my heart. I wasn't supposed to do this if I was going to win. But I couldn't go to my grandmother without the huntsman, either.

We had to go down that path where the old woman had taken him.

And we had already wasted too much time hiding in the tree, but there was no way we could risk going through the woods at night.

I headed back to the spot on the trail where the old woman had been lying the night before, screaming for help. The clearing was still there, but it was different this morning. Right where the old woman had fallen, there was a new dark spot. It wasn't big--just a bit bigger than her body--but the grass had turned dark, and the few flowers growing there had turned black and red, as red as blood.

As red as my hoodie.

I had just noticed it. My hoodie had turned from dark green back to bright, bright red--and the Disney logo had vanished from the front.

"Tate!" I shouted.

"Huh?"

It took him a minute. Then his eyes grew big. "How did that happen?" he asked.

"I don't know." Stilt had said something about your story always following you. Maybe this was it. It was a way it was catching up with me. My hoodie must have reverted to its regular color overnight. The last thing I wanted to go through the woods wearing was bright red. I took the hoodie off and hung it over a tree branch. Then I thought better of it and slung it over my shoulder. We couldn't leave this out here in case Alric returned with that evil wolf. He'd know we went this way. It was best to blend in as much as we could.

The path was almost invisible, and it cut right through the new dark spot. Terrible sign. The woman might have done something to the land. What if we had to go into a more expansive dark area to find Macon?

"Let's go," Tate said.

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