Page 22 of The Girl in the Forest

“Can you leave?” Levi demanded. “Or are you stuck in there? What’s going on?”

Telling him was a thousand times harder than I thought it would be. But as calmly as I could, I explained how I’d needed time away from everything. I was learning about failles, something that ought to be important, and I didn’t have a lot of time to do it because a day in the wrinkle was like a week on the outside, and if I waited too long, I might not come out at all.

He didn’t understand, not completely, because I left out so many details. Where not coming out at all meant coming out after he and everyone else who knew me had died of old age.

But he was also wolf and understood enough about the King of the Forest, nymphs, and witches, so he probably understood magic.

“Tell me about Oscar.” I should have asked about Oscar first, but Levi’s distress hit me the hardest, and I’d feel guilty no matter who I put first.

“After you left.” Levi had his arms crossed, and the way he rocked back into a braced stance broke my heart. “We thought he’d be alright. Everyone was worried about Leo when he turned out to be the strongest. Then Gray called a meeting—ordered the entire pack to Azul. That A-hole Mosbach revealed the traitors in front of everyone, and you won’t be surprised. Jo-Rae Bell and Karla Asper.”

My flash of anger didn’t fade until I forced it down—but I didn’t rage for myself. Those two women hadn’t hurt me with their hateful words. They hurt the families of the dead in Azul, the children who would remember the terror for the rest of their lives. The grief. I raged at two women who tormented anyone weaker than they were.

“I guess they’d been feeding information to the Alpen for years.” Levi’s crossed arms tightened. “Gray made Mosbach cut off their pack marks before he sent the women into exile. Even their mates rejected them—it got bloody, and they deserved it.”

Disgust curled Levi’s mouth, followed by satisfaction—and I didn’t allow myself to think about it.

“Then, one day,” Levi said, his voice hoarse, “Hattie came running. She was screaming about Oscar, shifting into his wolf and running off into the forest. Gray wasn’t around. There’d been trouble in the Carmag territory. Anson Salas called for help, so he’d gone. Took men with him. Fallon had her hands full, but she searched for Oscar. Mace did the same, but he had all these demands. Hattie had to go on her own and found him waiting…” Levi jabbed toward the crushed grass. “Right. Here.”

He glared at me. “You never even saw him, did you? Sleeping in the rain? Or if you did, then you didn’t care. Hattie managed to get him home, but it took her a few days.”

Levi turned away while a ripple of guilt left me shaking. My mouth dried, but when I tried to drink water to ease my throat, it dribbled down my chin. I needed to wipe it away with the back of my hand and hope Levi didn’t notice.

“Leo helped,” he said after a moment. “But like I said, Gray was gone, and it took Fallon and Mace to help Oscar shift back. He didn’t remember much, but Leo thinks that, because you helped heal him or something, maybe Oscar sensed his own energy on you and tracked it. He kept rocking back and forth, so I promised I’d come and see. Like… if you were here.”

The last dagger to the heart—Levi, coming to look for me on faith. Throwing pebbles at a rock wall because he cared enough about Oscar—who’d cared enough about me to somehow shift into his wolf and search through the forest. Sleep in the rain when he was too old. After his wolf had been silent for so many years and I’d stopped helping him because I was afraid.

When I spoke, my voice came out choked. “How long has it been?”

“It’s September, Noa. The fifteenth.”

“Your birthday,” I murmured, feeling sick. While I’d been in the wrinkle, three months had passed. “And you came here instead of celebrating with your friends.”

Levi glanced over his shoulder, held my gaze. “If you were here, there’s no other place I wanted to be.”

The full impact of what I’d done hit me. I swiped at my face. My fingers dampened. I had abandoned those who loved me. Not intentionally. I wanted to keep them safe from the feral creature I’d become. But I left them. And if I remained in the wrinkle for another few weeks, months, they might never know why I did it.

Never know it was because when they loved me, I loved them back. They were family.

Glancing at the faille journals I hadn’t yet read, I shook my head. Looked up and hoped the bleakness didn’t show in my eyes. “What happened with Carmag?”

“Creatures.”

I kept my gaze on Levi.

“They swarmed a small settlement,” he said, his voice tight. “Not Westvale. That’s Anson’s seat of power, like Sentinel Falls was ours, only now it’s Azul. We’re rebuilding. You’d never know there’d been fighting. Your posse misses you. The pink is back in their hair. I guess the parents made them take it out because the rite was a somber occasion, and…”

He shoved the lock of brown hair from his forehead; I braced myself against his growing frustration mixed with anger and concern.

“What’s happened to you, Noa? I can see your bones from here.”

I pushed to my feet, brushed the sand from my jeans to keep my hands from trembling. Moving helped with the pretense that I was fine. That I’d be okay.

“I’ve been reading journals.” I forced a confidence into my voice I didn’t feel. “Written by failles. Sometimes, I forget to eat.”

“Shit. If Gray finds you like this—”

“He isn’t going to find me. Like this.” I said the words with a biting snap, but it was to cover the trembling of my lips and not really from anger.

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