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FORTY-FIVE | THE PUMPKIN FAYRE (PART 2)
“Okay,” I laughed, shaking my head in disbelief. “This is incredible.”
The dusky purple twilight, masked by a few thin, grey clouds, shone above the meadow. But the field below was cast into darkness, save for the flickering of a few dim solar lamps stuck into the ground. There were no children up here, and the meadow felt still in the comparative silence.
The sounds of the Fayre carried – we hadn’t walked far – but the atmosphere was starkly different up here. The meadow was teeming with pumpkins, many of which had been carved into, forcing gory, threatening grins and narrowed slits for eyes into their rounded faces. Above, there was a brief buzzing sound, followed by a sudden shock of light. There were great bulbs strung across the meadow, too, it seemed, but as quickly as they’d come on, they shut off again.
The sheer volume of pumpkins was what made the display
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She Runs with Wolves FORTY-SIX | THE PUMPKIN FAYRE (PART 3)
The scream echoed in my ears, long after the sound had stopped ringing through the meadow. The jovial chatter had silenced, and the coil of sirens was burning through the cold night air.My breath came in short, quick gasps as I ran. I could feel Skye behind me, could feel his footsteps ricocheting off the pavement as we thundered down the high street. I needed to know where Kathrena was. I needed to know that she was safe. If she wasn’t – if she was hurt – it would be my fault, all over again.I’d underestimated the attacker. I hadn’t thought that they’d risk an assault here, not somewhere so public. But, as I scanned through the crowd, pushing against the tide of people, I realised that somewhere public was the perfect place to commit such a crime. They could blend in, merge with the tide like a pebble being dragged across the shore, falling, seamlessly, back into the sea.There was a huddle of people just past the coffee shop, and I pressed myself to run faster, just a little furth
She Runs with Wolves FORTY-SEVEN | LANDSLIDE
“Hey.” I swallowed, my tongue suddenly feeling too big for my mouth. I could see Kathrena, out of the corner of my eye, still beside me, and she cocked her head, watching us with a deep, simmering curiosity in her dark eyes.“Hi,” Skye murmured. He swallowed, too, and then said it again. “Hi, El.”“Skye,” I smiled, trying to force down the awkwardness, and the residual fear, and the uncertainty that was rising rapidly within me. “Are you okay?”“I was so worried about you,” he breathed. He took a lurching step towards me, and then faltered, his golden eyes flickering to Kathrena.“Skye, this is my sister, Kathrena – for all intents and purposes, anyway. Kath, this is Skye. My… nightmate.”Kathrena’s eyes were so wide that I could see white all around her dark irises. “So that’s why I kept smelling werewolf in your truck.” Then she shook herself, and, keeping her eyes on me, her expression quizzical but trusting, she stuck her hand out towards Skye. “It’s nice to meet you.”“And you,” r
She Runs with Wolves FORTY-EIGHT | BIRCH AND OAK
The site of the attack was deserted. Even the last of the curious onlookers had tired of staring, and there was nothing there but half-dried blood and billowing police tape. The wind had picked up, rustling the nearby fir trees and blowing orange and burgundy leaves to the ground.Skye stilled beside me, dropping my hand as he crept around the bloodied imprint. “I’ve smelt this before.”I raised one eyebrow. “Not a vampire?”He shook his head. “No, it’s the same smell that lingered after Pera was attacked. Not a vampire… I’m not sure what it is.”Kathrena frowned, stepping closer. I was scared to move more than an inch towards the blood: it was less appealing to us once it had congealed, its life force diminished, but the scent of it was still thick and heady in the night air. The sky had darkened fully now, and the glow of the streetlamps
She Runs with Wolves FORTY-NINE | UNNAMED
“Are you sure you don’t mind waiting?”“Of course not.” I smiled at Kathrena. She was dithering, stood outside the truck but still hanging onto the edge of the door. She tucked her other hand into her pocket; I knew her well enough to know that, whilst she was aiming for nonchalant, her position meant that she was feigning it.“Thank you, El. Will you be okay out here?”“Yes,” I laughed, though it sounded empty, hollow. I was feigning, too – pretending that the attack, and the blood, hadn’t affected me as much as they had.“I won’t be long,” she promised, yet still she hovered by the door.“Kath,” I said, raising my eyebrows and levelling my gaze at her. “Go.”She huffed out a breath. “Okay. I’m sorry. I’m just… toni
She Runs with Wolves FIFTY | A BLACK ROSE
My phone felt like lead in my pocket as we recounted Toby’s attack to Aradia and Ezrand. They listened intently, wearing identical, worried expressions that pulled their mouths into grim lines and narrowed their eyes. I’d replied to Skye’s message before we’d come inside, but we’d not had a chance to talk properly yet. He was with Pera, and I had responsibilities of my own. As such, we’d agreed to meet on Monday afternoon, straight after school, in the Hawthorn Central Library. It gave us a safe place to discuss Pera’s attack – and Toby’s – and also provided the perfect opportunity for us to approach Herb.Ezrand heaved out a sigh, leaning forwards and pressing his elbows against the kitchen table. He held his chin in his upturned hands, and slumped his shoulders dramatically. His patterned shirt was too bright for the conversation, dotted with pink palm trees and neon green seagulls. “It’s getting worse, Ar,” he muttered, the top of his head moving up and down in a freakish, comedic
She Runs with Wolves FIFTY-ONE | MONDAY
“And you’re sure it wasn’t there when you woke up?” Kathrena asked, cocking her head at me. We’d gone over the case of the missing note a thousand times on the drive into town – and all of yesterday, too – and it was beginning to wear on me.“Positive,” I sighed. “Look, Kath, it’s probably nothing. The window was open, so it probably just blew under the bed or something.”“But you checked under there.”“Yes, I did. But I’m not Sherlock, I don’t carry around a little magnifying glass everywhere I go. I could’ve missed it.”“Okay.” She levelled her gaze at me. “But Sherlock didn’t have supernaturally charged vision, which is why he needed the magnifying glass. You do, which is why you don’t.”“Fine. I’m certain it hasn’t just blown under my bed. I’m also certain that it was there when I went to sleep, and it was gone by the next morning. But we’re running this subject into the ground, and we aren’t getting anywhere with it. And things do just go missing sometimes, Kath. I’ve lost hundred
She Runs with Wolves FIFTY-TWO | BOOK OF SHADOWS
“She was unconscious for days,” he began. At our blank expressions, he sighed. “For a wolf, that’s weird. That’s bad weird. Werewolves are protectors by nature, so we need to heal quickly – quicker than the average human by a long way. And when we fall unconscious – which is very rare in itself – it’s never for longer than a few hours at most.” He took a breath, and I felt a small sense of pride shoot through me. Skye seemed less nervous around Kathrena already, and, if I was not mistaken, he was taking a beat to add to the drama of his story. Sure, his leg was still jiggling beneath the table, but he was learning. “We think that something was keeping Pera under,” he continued. “Something supernatural, with enough power to control a wolf. And there’s something else,” he added, his gaze dropping to the warped wooden table. Someone had scratched their initials into it, a wonky R and something too distorted to read next to it.“What?” I whispered, touching his forearm softly. The small h
She Runs with Wolves FIFTY-THREE | BLACK MAGIC
“But that doesn’t explain why you think the smudges on the trees are linked,” Kathrena sighed, sitting back in her chair.“Because our witch talks about that, too,” I said, pulling the book into my lap and fiddling with the pages. “In the list of creatures. It doesn’t say what it is, but she has made notes on it. At the end here, look,” I added, placing the book back onto the table, open on the correct page, now, and facing Kathrena.She traced her finger over the words, her mouth moving too quickly for me to read her lips as she muttered them aloud to herself.Skye had flipped up the pages that Kathrena wasn’t reading, his head tilted to the side so that he could see the handwriting, even looking at it side-on as he was. His eyes were narrowed, and I shrugged to myself. Kathrena and I could fill him in, anyway.And I couldn’t deny tha
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