We Walk As Wolves

Chapter 23

Cass

Case could feel the island's struggle, like a body in the ocean. Above the water one moment, locked beneath the waves the next. The cycle repeats, and it repeated in his blood, in his bones, in his head.

He had been asleep on the floor when the chaos started. But the island always seemed to have a faint trace of utter disarray, so he decided he'd woken up when the chaos grew louder. The ocean sounded closer than usual. The trees had started to whisper, but he couldn't understand them. Some of it was words, the rest was just a feeling deep beneath his skin.

Now, he lay flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling and trying to unravel the message. It should have scared him, what with the way the trees were attempting to communicate, but a calm had slipped through his blood, even with the unceasing pound of the island's struggle tromping through his body.

The message was scrunched, spinning wildly in a loop. But he could almost hear it, and parts of it sounded something like:

HasBegunHasBegunHasBegun

An echo, Cass decided, which somewhat disturbed him. An echo had to come from somewhere. And he didn't know what exactly had begun.

"How long have we been sleeping?"

Though it was only a whisper, the question rocketed through his head, like a crack of lightning in a silent sky. The jumble of empty words dove down further as he tried to slow his heart, settling into the reticent parts of him he couldn't reach.

"Yeah, how long?" Another whisper.

It was the children, whispering amongst themselves like Cass and Bella did just before racing down the stairs on Christmas morning.

"Finch'll know,' Reed answered. "He keeps count."

In the dark, Cass saw Finch sitting by the entrance of the den, leaning his back against the wall. "Ten hours."

Cass lurched upright, wide eyes searching for a window. There weren't any, not in the den. He rushed to his feet, nearly tripping over Fig who was still waking up.

He scratched at his eyes and yawned. "What's going on?"

Cass stumbled toward the hallway. Ten hours since they'd gone to bed, and the air outside the cottage still howled with the scents of monsters. Ten hours, and the room was still haunted by the night. Cass knew how dangerous the other parts of the island became once the red moon rose and enshrouded the land in thick black. But the Lost Forest was a different beast.

Cass bolted into the kitchen, swirling around on his heel when he found it empty. "Dells?"

"This way," Finch called from his left.

Cass followed, slipping through the front door after him. Finch held tight to his spear, the broken end tied back together with wide vines, and Cass immediately regretted leaving his sword inside. He could feel the Lost Forest's monsters crawling through the trees, like ants under his clothes.

He glanced back at the door as something rustled in the bush beside him. "Finch, we need to go back inside."

But Finch marched forward, oblivious to the things going bump under the thick sheet of night. Or he was just ignoring them, like a child who thought the monster wouldn't hurt him if he couldn't see it.

Cass hurried after him. He'd never had that luxury. Beasts came out of the darkest corners of London, darted around the ends of alleyways with hard grins and sharp knives. Back home, the things you couldn't see were the only things you feared. The visible monsters were ignored.

"What is it?" Finch called out.

Cass glanced over the top of Finch's cloak, and found a dark shadow standing in the forest, unlike any shadow Cass had ever seen: stiff and unmoving and tense. But on a closer inspection, he recognized the vest, the wide shoulders and the slight slouch in his knees.

Dells stood in the clearing, hands looped in his belt, head tilted back. Without a word or a glance behind him, he pointed up. Cass followed the gesture until he saw the moon. It seemed bigger than usual.

"Hasn't moved at all," Dells said. "It's like someone pinned it in place."

Even if he couldn't hear the fear in Dells's voice, Cass heard it in his own. "Can he do that?"

"He never sleeps this long." Dells gave a quick shake of his head, but he continued to watch the moon. "Trust me, kid. He ain't happy about this either."

Footsteps padded from behind, and Scout saddled up beside Finch. "Where's the sun gone off to?"

"Yeah, why hasn't it come up?" Reed added from a few feet back.

Cass resisted the urge to push them all back inside the cottage. Instead, he glanced at Dells. "Do the days coincide with the island's magic?"

With a stiff neck, he nodded once.

HasBegun. Even as the question left his mouth, Cass already knew the answer. He was just praying Dells thought something different. "It's the curse, isn't it?"

The deep sigh, the answer Cass never wanted, echoed through the Lost Forest. He shuddered. The curse had begun.

"The curse?" Finch looked between the two of them, his voice rising. "The curse did this?"

"Eternal night?" Reed eyed the moon with a nervous shimmer. "We're trapped with all the wolves and the -"

Dells finally turned. "I don't know."

Finch shook his head. "That's not good enough."

Cass watched the anger unfurl like a ship's sails, snapping out in thick surges. He stepped closer to Dells, blocking Finch. "Do we have a plan?"

"Yes," Dells said, "but it involves leaving the Lost Forest. The wolves use the night as a protection to move, to feed. It ain't safe here anymore." His eyes were confident, but his words spilled out like he was just repeating things that had once been said to him.

Poe, who had snuck up from behind them, stood next to Finch and crossed his arms. "It ever was?"

To Cass's surprise, Dells let the comment slip. "Your village is now the safest place," he said. "It's above ground, and it's never had a wolf problem."

"Redd keeps them away," Finch countered.

Dells ignored him. "The problem is getting to the village. Marching through the Island in the middle of the night usually ends in a nice, long blood bath."

"What do you have in mind?" Cass asked, hoping it would move the conversation along. All he wanted was to get the boys back inside before a monster picked up their trail.

Dells's eyes ran over the Lost Ones, like a snake searching for a mouse in the field. "You all seem to rather enjoy ambushes from the treetops, which means you must be relatively good at climbing."

"Is there a point to this?" Poe asked, arms crossed over his chest.

Dells tossed out the quick flash of a smile. "You think you boys can make it back to the village from the trees?"