Helping the Wolves (Madison Joshi and the Wolves series- Book 2)

|37| Madison

The four of them stayed in the same place, waiting for the faeries to regroup and come back for the egg. As time passed, Maddy became more and more uncomfortable. The faeries were probably cooking up an effective strategy.

Sometime later a clock showed up indicating that there were five minutes left. It was in front of Maddy, just above her line of vision. There were only five minutes left. If they could somehow keep the egg to themselves, they would win.

All of a sudden, Maddy saw Axel running towards them. Maddy immediately sprang up and took a defensive position. The others too shifted immediately. Xander had given up trying to keep Maddy away from the fight. As Axel came closer, Maddy wondered why he hadn't put an illusion over himself.

The moment he came within fighting distance, he threw his hands up in surrender. "I am not here to fight you. Please, listen to me."

Maddy loosened up slightly. Faeries couldn't lie, she reminded herself.

"You need to leave now," Axel said as he looked behind his back as though he was afraid of someone listening. "You all are in danger. If you don't leave now, you might die."

Xander padded forward with his teeth bared. Although the others had loosened up, he still took an offensive stance.

"I can lead you out of here and then you can find your friend."

Jeremy immediately shifted back. "You can lead us out?" he asked hopefully.

Axel nodded. "You need to bring the egg with you. It is worth a lot of money and using that money you can buy your friend back from whoever initially bought her."

Maddy's eyes lit up with excitement. The plan was perfect and Axel wasn't lying. Maddy nodded and turned to Xander. "This is the best shot we have at getting Leia back. We need to hurry up before the faeries arrive."

Alexa shifted back and rushed to wherever the egg was being hidden. Clutching it tightly, she ran back.

"This way," Axel said and was about step forward when Xander pounced on him. He shifted while he was jumping and grabbed Axel by the throat. It was such a graceful shift that Maddy was left with her jaw dropping open.

"Tell me that you are helping us and are not leading us into a trap," Xander growled. "You said that you can lead us out of here but you didn't say that you will get us out of here. There is a difference."

Maddy's breath hitched. She had been so excited about the prospect of getting Leia back that she totally forgot that it could all be a trap. Axel struggled against Xander's grip but didn't say anything.

Maddy immediately realized that it was a trap. She quickly turned to Alexa. "Hide the egg!"

But it was too late. Faeries swooped in from above and grabbed the egg from Alexa. They were high up in the air so Maddy took some snow from the ground and tried to hit the faeries but this time the faeries dodged the flying balls of snow.

The four of them started running behind the faeries. They were less than five minutes left for the game to end. As the four of them ran, the clock too moved with them. They had to dodge trees while the faeries flew freely. There were times when they nearly lost track of the faeries because they were too slow.

Finally, the faeries seemed to have gotten tired of flying and stopped near a particularly huge pine tree. Cordelia, who had the egg perched on top of the tree while the others were resting on the ground.

Maddy skidded to a stop with confusion. Why were they just sitting there? Was the game over? Filled with dread, Maddy glanced at the clock. There was hardly a minute left and the egg was high up in the air, away from their reach.

Xander didn't waste his time. He immediately leapt on top of the tree and tried to get to the egg, ignoring all the others faeries while Jeremy and Alexa approached the other faeries to keep them busy. The tree started bending with the weight of two beings on it. Xander started trying to climb the tree. At the last moment, Cordelia leapt away from the tree with a sudden burst of energy and the tree went tumbling down.

Maddy glanced at the clock. Forty seconds left.

"At the end of the hour, whichever team is holding the egg, will be the winner," Tatiana had said.

Suddenly Maddy got an idea. Maddy glanced at the clock once more. For her idea to work, she needed to time everything perfectly. She would have only one shot at it. After that, the time will be over and the faeries would win.

Maddy ran up to Jeremy. "Jeremy, you need to fling me towards Cordelia when I tell 'now,' okay?" Maddy said hurriedly.

Jeremy looked confused but didn't argue. They didn't have any time left to discuss.

Her plan was simple. Kinda like the scene from the Wonder Woman movie.

Maddy kept her gaze firmly on the clock. At the perfect timing, Maddy shouted at Jeremy to give him the indication. Jeremy grabbed Maddy by her hips and flung her like a ragdoll.

For a few seconds, Maddy was flying and it was the best feeling ever. Maddy forced herself to concentrate. When she reached close to Cordelia, Maddy stretched her arms out and took hold of the egg. For a second, both Cordelia and Maddy held on to the egg, pulling it towards themselves and at that moment the clock dinged indicating that the time was up.