Page 67 of The Girl in the Forest

Noa

The air was harsh with rain that fell punishingly on my head, my face, flooding into my eyes until I could scarcely see in the grainy light. A keening wind thrashed through the groaning oak trees surrounding Sutter. Dark pines clustered ahead. The backpack thumped against the small of my back. My hastily braided hair felt like a wet rope. I’d stopped thinking about the cold within minutes of being back in the storm; all distractions were wiped by the adrenaline throbbing through my body.

Grayson gripped my hand so I wouldn’t stumble. We followed Adriel, her spikey hair now flattened against her head. She looked too young for this life, too thin to be darting through the trees and living the life of an insurgent.

She glanced back, then spun and ran toward me. With mud in her hand, she rubbed it against my hair—the streak of silver that would be a beacon in the low light. When Adriel would have turned away, Grayson touched her arm. Signed emphatically. She nodded, breathing hard, signing something in answer.

“Jodan had people watching the witch cave,” he said to me. “A second patrol from the Mule passed by—they started following our trail.”

My stomach dropped. “We led them to Sutter?”

“They won’t find it.” Grayson held out his hands. “Trust me.”

I hesitated only a second, then folded my fingers around his, and the cold, raging power that rushed from him to me brought back all the times I’d destroyed things. When the energy controlled me instead of me, being in control. Blood pulsed through my veins, followed by an unending heat. The heat of a distant star and the heat of a trembling flame. A heat from the treacherous witch cave that took me outside myself.

I tried to pull back, but his grip tightened. “Take what I give you, Noa. Then reverse the flow.”

Calm confidence was in his eyes, that I’d do as he asked, and I couldn’t look away. Wouldn’t, not when I breathed. Not when his power became a glorious, riotous surge. I gathered it, turned it. Forced it back toward him, my dread lord. The Alpha of Sentinel Falls.

Grayson’s gaze locked on mine while, around us, the sound of grinding stones matched the storm’s thunder. My weight shifted as a current jumped from him to me. I thought of half a circle, where the heat flowing back to him was the other half of that circle. And if I let go before it was done—

Through a new deluge of rain, I blinked, glancing over his shoulder as the trees moved. Branches waved and tangled in a windy storm. Boulders rolled into new positions. The grass around them swayed. Low shrubbery rose and fell with undulations lost in shadow.

Moments later, Grayson released my hands, signing to Adriel while he spoke to me. “I used the Green Man’s magic to alter the forest around Sutter. The trail the Alpen follow will head in another direction.”

She nodded, not quite believing him. But I’d seen it happen before, knew how disorienting it could be.

“Thank you,” I said to him. “Will Adriel find her way back?”

“Yes.” He signed each word we said, so she’d be included in our conversation. “Everyone in Sutter will know where they are, how to get back. Only the patrol will be confused.”

Adriel turned, and as we followed, the brutality of the Alpen lands became stark and pitiless. The wind scraped the ground bare, leaving rough rock with no vegetation. A restlessness filled me, as if I wasn’t put back together. But I was a faille, and with the amount of energy I’d absorbed and released today, wasn’t it normal to feel that way?

The miracle was that I still stood, and I stopped analyzing every random thought, digging for failure. Instead, I slogged forward. Found hiking to be soothing, even through an unforgiving environment. I could be silent, let the rain wash away ragged memories and dead witches.

But when I recognized the metallic tang of magic against my lips, I stopped. Adriel was already standing beside Grayson. Both of them stood in front of a darkened passageway, and as she signed, he translated.

“This is an old smuggler route, but people still use it.” He coughed, his voice strained as he said, “Leads into Sentinel Falls territory. A passage I didn’t know was here.”

I elbowed him. “Better tighten up those wards.”

His eyes narrowed, although a smirk curved his lips. “I could order you on ward duty, since you work for me.”

Uncertainty pinged in my chest. “I wouldn’t know a ward from a rock.”

“Mace will teach you.”

Adriel thumped the middle of his chest, her glare intense as she signed furiously. Grayson gave her his full attention. Even I became edgy, watching their interaction, silent because whatever she was telling the Alpha of Sentinel Falls, it alarmed him.

Adriel touched the silver streak in my muddied hair and continued to sign.

Grayson answered, then cupped her face, leaned in to kiss her forehead. A blush stained her cheeks.

When he turned, his hands closed around my arms and his eyes pinned mine. “She says there was a girl like you, with silver in her hair.”

“Here?” I barely breathed.

“Not now. The vampires have her.”

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