Page 59 of Entangled in the Woods
Leo looked at me with wide eyes. “You two know each other?”
I gave him an annoyed look. He must have been too far down Jenny’s throat that night to notice me and Wilder. Although I couldn’t completely blame him—Wilder looked different. His long beard changed the shape of his face.
“Yeah, we unfortunately do,” I said, looking at Wilder with disgust.
He walked toward us, strolling slowly as if he already had us trapped. “I don’t remember it being so unfortunate. Maybe only unfortunate that we got so rudely interrupted in the morning.”
Wilder’s eyebrows lifted in anticipation of my reaction. I tried to back away, only to trip over a large root and run my back into the rough bark of the oak tree behind me. Electricity zapped at my back where I touched the tree. “Now that I have you here, Fumbles…” I gagged at the nickname. “I was wondering if you could look at my tree here. It’s been causing all sorts of trouble in the forest.”
I looked down at my feet and the brown dust that I had made with my footsteps. “I would need to take samples and bring them back to the university. Then I would have to compare data from…” I started.
“I don’t have time for that!” Wilder roared loud enough that several birds flew away from their nearby perches. “Where’s the stone?”
His question threatened me like I knew the answer. My silent shock was enough to further anger Wilder. “Where’s the stone, Elise?” he said again. “I know you have it. I could smell it on you the first night we met.”
My mind raced, trying to figure out what stone Wilder was referring to. I kept coming up blank.
“I’m a tracker, remember? The best in the pack. I can smell everything.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Wilder. I don’t have any stones.”
Unhinged, he stomped toward me, reaching into his waistband and pulling out a knife. His face reddened, and small beads of sweat popped out of his forehead.
I pressed myself further against the tree, wrapping the back of my body against it. The fear flowing through me numbed my back to the pricks of power coming from the tree. Wilder grabbed my chin with his entire hand and pulled my face up to meet his, inches apart. I could feel the icy blade of the knife resting against my throat, could see the angry veins protruding from his skin.
“Where is it?” he asked in a quiet voice then, and I wasn’t sure which was scarier.
Unable to turn my head because of the knife at my neck, I couldn’t see Leo standing next to me against the tree, but I could hear him. His voice started as a quiet monotone chant saying “Stop” over and over, like something an unsure child would do. “Stop! Stop!”
Wilder and I froze at his chants as they got louder.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” Leo was always so relaxed and had such a passive personality that this type of confrontation had to be out of his comfort zone.
Time slowed. From what I could sense under Wilder’s knife, Leo was standing against the tree next to me yelling one minute and the next, he wasn’t.
I felt a breeze as he twisted off the tree and flung himself haphazardly across Wilder’s back. His eyes met mine from across Wilder’s shoulder, scared yet determined. The knife left my throat as Wilder used his arm to fling Leo easily off his back. With no weapon, Leo was unmatched against Wilder. He landed in a ball on the ground, hitting his head on one of the raised tree roots, then he groaned and rolled onto his back.
“Fucking idiot!” Wilder cursed as he turned away from me and stomped toward my roommate’s limp body. Free of theknife, I shuffled away from the tree, trying to figure out an escape. Leo moaned as Wilder picked him up by the armpits.
“Leo!” I yelled, trying to gauge how conscious he was. He mumbled several jumbled words in response.
“Let him go, Wilder!”
As if my words meant nothing, he laughed. “I don’t think I will. He served his purpose, bringing you here, away from your dear Everett’s protection.”
The thought of Everett made my heart pump faster. If only he were here right now.
“He just attacked me. And to think I was going to let him go home once I got the stone from you.” Wilder let go of Leo’s arms, letting him fall to his knees. Leo’s body slumped over, but with quick reflexes, he caught his upper body with his hands. “No one attacks me. I am not weak. I am worthy.”
Listening to Wilder spout off nonsense made my muscles tense. I walked toward where Leo’s body lay hunched over on the ground.
“Stay back, Elise. Everyone will get what’s coming for them.” The knife Wilder held in his hand reflected in the sunlight that peeked through the canopy of the trees.
I froze as he took a step over toward Leo was and lifted his head up by his long hair. Leo groaned, still half-conscious from the hit to the head. With a practiced flick of the knife, bright red blood spilled from Leo’s neck. It happened so fast I could do nothing but stand there, fully in shock. It wasn’t until Wilder let go of his hair and let his lifeless body slump to the ground that I screamed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Wilder killed Leo.Wilder killed Leo. Leo is dead. He’s dead.
