Chapter 297

[ 1,267 words ]

~Diana~

Lila was leaving.

I saw her from the tent. She thought nobody was watching but I was. Devon was sleeping next to me but I couldn’t sleep because my head hurt from the necklace thing.

Lila was walking toward the trees. Moving really quiet. Like she didn’t want anyone to hear.

“Devon.” I poked him. “Devon wake up.”

“What?” He made a grumpy sound.

“Lila’s leaving. Without telling anyone.”

That made him open his eyes. “Where’s she going?”

“I dunno. But we should follow her.”

“Mom said to stay in the tent.”

“Mom’s sleeping. And Lila might be going to find Grandma’s friends. The other Silver Claw people who are dying.” I grabbed his arm. “We gotta help them.”

“We’re gonna get in so much trouble.”

“We’re already in trouble. Might as well do something good first.”

Devon made another grumpy sound but he got up. We put on our shoes really quiet and snuck out of the tent.

Purple was outside. He looked at us and tilted his head.

“Come on, Purple.” I waved at him. “We’re following Lila.”

Purple’s ears went flat. He didn’t move.

“Purple, come.” Devon tried.

Purple whined. Looked at the trees where Lila went. Then looked back at us. Then whined again.

“He doesn’t wanna go,” I said.

“Too bad. We need him in case something bad happens.” Devon grabbed Purple’s scruff and pulled. “Come on.”

Purple came but he kept making sad noises. Like he was saying this was a bad idea.

We followed Lila into the forest. She was pretty far ahead but I could see her silver hair in the dark. It glowed a little bit.

We walked for a while. The forest got darker and darker. The trees got closer together. I started feeling weird.

“Devon, I don’t like this.”

“Me neither. But we’re helping. Remember? Helping is good.”

Purple stopped walking. Just stopped. Then he started pulling the OTHER way. Away from where Lila was going.

“Purple, no.” Devon pulled back. “We’re going this way.”

Purple whined louder. Pulled harder.

“He really doesn’t wanna go this way,” I pointed out.

“He’s just scared.” But Devon didn’t sound sure.

Purple bit Devon’s sleeve. Not hard. Just grabbed it with his teeth and wouldn’t let go.

“Ow! Purple, stop!” Devon tried to shake him off but Purple held on tight. Started pulling backward, trying to drag Devon away.

“Something’s wrong.” My tummy felt sick. “Purple knows something.”

“Like what?”

“I dunno. But he’s never acted like this before.”

We both looked at Lila. She was even farther away now. Almost hard to see.

“If we don’t follow her, we’ll lose her,” Devon stated.

“But if we do follow her, maybe something bad happens.”

“We don’t know that.”

“Purple knows.”

Devon looked at Purple. Purple looked back with really sad eyes. Still holding Devon’s sleeve.

“Okay.” Devon let go of Purple’s scruff. “Let’s go the way Purple wants.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Purple’s saved us before. Maybe he knows something we don’t.”

I felt a little better. “Okay.”

We turned around to follow Purple.

Except the path we came from wasn’t there anymore.

“What?” I turned in a circle. “Where’d the path go?”

“It was right here.” Devon pointed at trees that were too close together. “We just walked through there.”

“No we didn’t. We walked through there.” I pointed the other direction. But that wasn’t right either. Too many bushes.

Purple was whining really loud now. Running back and forth. Sniffing everything.

“The forest is wrong.” I felt really scared suddenly. “It’s moving.”

“Forests don’t move.”

“This one is. Look.” I pointed at a tree. “That tree wasn’t there before. I remember. It was just empty space and now there’s a tree.”

Devon looked where I pointed. His face went white. “You’re right. And that rock moved too. It was on the left side and now it’s on the right.”

“The forest is moving around us.” My voice came out really small. “We’re trapped.”

“We’re not trapped. We just gotta find the way out.” But Devon sounded scared too.

We started walking. Trying to find the camp. But every direction looked the same.

And the forest kept changing. Paths appeared and then disappeared. Trees moved when we weren’t looking. Rocks showed up in places they weren’t before.

“This is shadow magic,” I whispered. “Like what Uncle Killian has in his veins. The bad black stuff.”

“How do you know?”

“I can feel it. It’s cold and yucky and it’s all around us.” I grabbed Devon’s hand. “Someone’s doing this on purpose. Trying to make us go somewhere.”

Purple was still pulling. Trying to lead us away from something. But every time we followed him, the forest changed and we ended up back in the same spot.

“We’re going in circles,” Devon said.

“No. We’re being pushed.” I pointed ahead where the trees were thinner. “There. The forest wants us to go there.”

“Then we go the opposite way.”

“But the opposite way closes up every time we try.”

“So what do we do?”

I was crying now. “I don’t know and I’m scared and I want Mom!”

“Don’t cry.” Devon hugged me. “We’re okay. We’ll figure it out.”

“We won’t! We’re stuck and something bad is coming.”

Purple barked. Really loud. Then growled at something behind us.

We turned around.

There was a wolf there.

Not a normal wolf. This one had purple eyes. And black stuff dripping from its mouth. And it smelled really really bad.

“Shadow wolf,” Devon whispered.

The wolf took a step toward us. Its mouth opened and I saw too many teeth. Wrong teeth. Sharp and broken and gross.

“What do we do?” I was shaking.

“Use your purification power.”

“I’m too scared!”

“You gotta try!” Devon pulled out the silver whistle from his pocket. The one we made. “I’ll help. On three.”

“Devon.”

“One.”

The wolf took another step. Growling low.

“Two.”

It crouched down. Getting ready to jump.

“Three!”

Devon blew the whistle. No sound came out but I felt it. Like a wave pushing outward.

I closed my eyes and pushed with my power. The purification thing that lived inside me. The silver light.

It hurt coming out. Like something was pulling it from my chest. But I kept pushing.

The wolf screamed.

I opened my eyes and the wolf was on the ground. Rolling around. The black stuff was burning off. Smoking.

“It’s working!” Devon blew the whistle again.

I pushed harder with my power even though it really hurt now.

The wolf screamed louder. Then stopped moving. Just laid there breathing hard.

The purple left its eyes. Turned normal yellow.

“Did we kill it?” I whispered.

“I don’t think so. I think we fixed it.”

The wolf lifted its head. Looked at us. Then got up really slow and ran away into the trees.

“We did it!” Devon hugged me. “We purified it!”

“My chest really hurts.” I felt dizzy. “And my nose is bleeding again.”

“Mine too.” Devon wiped under his nose. His hand came away red. “Using the power makes us bleed.”

“I don’t like bleeding.”

“Me neither.”

Purple was nudging my leg. Whining. Looking behind us.

“What is it, Purple?”

Then I heard it.

More growling. Lots of growling. Coming from all around us.

More shadow wolves. Way more. At least five or six.

“We can’t purify that many,” Devon said. “We’ll pass out.”

“Then we run.”

“But we will be running in circles?”

“It doesn’t matter, we just need to get away from the bad guys!”

We ran. Purple ran with us. The wolves chased.

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