Chapter 96

Ardal

Jack's eyes are darting wildly in the forest around us. “Shhh,” he whispers in my ear. “Someone’s out here.”

He drops his hand from my lips as I comply, obediently frozen in place, unsure of what to do. He inhales sharply and points to a juniper bush standing a few feet away. My muscles tense as I look from the juniper to woods ahead, my body prepared to bolt away - injured or not.

If I have to crawl, I will, I think. But at the same time, I know logically, I have no chance of escape.

When I don’t move, he hooks me gently, but hurriedly, under the arm. He pulls me into the shrubbery, pushing aside the soft, fragrant branches to conceal us inside like two foxes seeking refuge from a pack of wild hounds.

I shut my eyes tight, a whimper nearly escaping my throat as Jack stiffens beside me. I have no idea what he senses out there, but terror oozes off him in waves so strong I can almost taste it.

After what feels like an eternity of agonizing silence, he murmurs, "I think they've gone. We'll wait just a few moments to be sure."

I peer out the green leaves covering us to see the sky has darkened to an inky black.

"Alright, let's go," Jack whispers. "We're running low on time."

My limbs refuse to budge and my heart thunders in my chest. "Maybe it's not even silver," I say in a whisper, barely audible even in our small, shared space.

He blinks, his brow furrowed in confusion. "You think - you think I made that up," he asks in a hushed voice taut with emotion.

"I’m not sure of anything anymore," I say, my voice soft and dull. The anxiety has burned through me, using me up. Finally devoured, in the hollow void that’s left, I’m beginning to feel nearly catatonic with indecision and defeat.

"Ardal," he pleads quietly, "If I can get you out of this mess, I swear, I will spill every single detail of my soap opera life. Please trust me. We have to go and get this silver trap off of you."

I glimpse something so vulnerable in his expression that I do trust him, despite myself. We lock eyes in a gaze raw, desperate, and intense, and mine brim with tears.

His body goes rigid abruptly and his eyes widen. I start to quiver, but it’s not fear. A wave of sickness is rushing over me.

Jack puts his arm tightly around me, holding me to him. "Try not to move," he whispers urgently.

At that moment, glowing blue eyes stare at me through the brush. Kadeem shifts immediately, the blue of his wolf warming to a deep brown as he takes my hand to pull me through.

No matter the danger still present, my upside down world seems to right itself again.

His eyes take in the sight of me - my sweat-soaked body, red tear-streaked face, and mangled, entrapped leg. His breath catches before his face lights with fury at Jack who’s stumbling nervously out of the juniper.

Five little wolf pups are right behind him and suddenly transform into humans.

“Mommy,” Lottie shouts, rushing to me with eyes as big as saucers.

Kadeem quickly blocks the kids off, then turns to Jack, yanking him up by his shirt collar.

“Name one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you,” he snarls ferociously.

"Stop!”

At the sound of my voice, Kadeem’s face twists with a mixture of anger and guilt. He drops Jack, who doesn’t spare a single second.

"We've got to get her out here," he says frantically. "That's silver slicing into her leg."

Kadeem's nostrils flare with anger again, but it fades as soon as our eyes meet.

"Sit down," he says, helping me lower myself to the ground. The kids gasp when they get a closer look at my leg and Ezra instinctively pulls Lottie, who is visibly trembling, closer to him.

"I could smell the blood miles away," he says gruffly. Carefully, he inspects my leg. "How long has this been on her,” he barks at Jack.

Flustered, Jack stammers out, "I don't know, exactly - just before sunset.”

Kadeem's face becomes unreadable, but the timeline seems to stir something inside him as he starts to move with remarkable speed.

"I'm going to see if I can get my fingers underneath it at all," he says, looking to me for permission.

I wince as he tries to grip hold of it where it's cutting into my flesh. “I’m going to try bending it away some,” he says, and I brace myself.

“I thought silver was a soft metal,” he yells through gritted teeth, sweat beading his face as he struggles against it. In a moment of fury, he hurls himself up and swears loudly, taking out his anger on a sapling. He then begins to bellow out orders. "Take the kids further down the path but come back the second I call for you, Doc."

Jack complies immediately, ushering away the scared kids, while Kadeem moves swiftly, lifting me into his arms.

Cold spreads through me. With shivering lips, I watch him. My mind is floating, untethering, beginning to bob along like jetsam. Kadeem’s coal black hair is falling over his eyes as he leans down to place me securely against the wide trunk of an ancient pine. He brushes his hair back when he leans upright, and I think of falling asleep.

I jolt to awareness, my attention recoiling like the snap of a rubber band, when I hear Erbao’s voice.

“No,” his small voice declares, arguing with Jack. He shakes his head fiercely. “I’m not leaving her.”

"It's okay," I call out to him weakly, my eyes blinking in confusion as Kadeem tosses off his shirt and hands it to me.

Jack puts his arm around Erbao to shepherd him with the others.

"You know, I sure didn't expect to find the two of you snuggled up in a bush together," Kadeem quips, dimples flashing briefly. “I was hoping we could skip the love triangle.”

I close my eyes and hold back a sob. I am so relieved for his stupid jokes I can hardly believe it.

His hand is warm on my thigh and I take a shallow breath.

"I'm sorry," he says softly.

My eyes flutter open to meet his.

His face is grave with sorrow and regret.

"I'm going to do something awful,” he says quietly and I feel a resurgence of panic.

“Hold onto that tight.” He points to the shirt in my hands. “Bite it."

Before I hae time to process it, Kadeem is bracing my leg between his own, grasping the trap with both hands and using every ounce of his strength to rip it away from my leg in one, swift, brutal motion. The force of it feels as though he’s tearing my leg into two as it shreds my skin and muscle, shattering my bones.

I let out a desperate cry, somehow manage to push his shirt into my mouth, and then scream into it, the fabric clasped between my teeth while I let out muffled wails of pain.

Kadeem yells for Jack. My body is shuddering uncontrollably and my vision blurs.

"I'm so sorry," Kadeem says. His eyes are full of remorse. His hands are pressed hard against my leg, but I can feel the warm blood seeping between his fingers. My forehead is slick with sweat and my chest heaves with raspy breaths.

Jack rushes over, followed by the quints who stare at us in horror. Jack snatches the shirt from me and begins knotting it around my leg, barking orders at Kadeem to keep applying pressure while he tears off his button down to expose a white undershirt.

Kadeem keeps his hands pressed against me while Jack ties another knot with the sleeves of his own shirt. Kadeem leaps up to search for something to stabilize my leg and I fight against the fog that’s threatening to take me under.

Jack sees me fading and quickly lays me down flat. He holds both of my legs propped up and curses furiously.

“She’s going into shock.” The words are distant.

Everything becomes more and more dreamlike, with lagging, out of sync snatches of reality. I can feel the kids close by and I know they’re scared. I want to reach out, but I’m unable.

Jack’s fingers are on my neck, checking my pulse.

An almighty roar rolls through the trees, like the rushing of ocean waves - and it’s the last thing I remember apart from the full, yellow moon glistening above me.