Shadow of the Day (Wolf Moon Sequel)

Chapter 55: Scars

Ivy POV

I'd gone a whole day of school without talking to anyone really and now that I was home--Joe's home anyway--I was all alone again. Joe was out and I was sitting around the house bored out of my mind because there was no TV to watch and I'd finished all my homework during lunch and I had no idea who to text or what to do until dinner time, but I'd never felt lonelier and more trapped with my own thoughts, all the doubts and lies and stories I kept hearing swirling around like a tornado until I was dizzy with stress.

I gave in and called Dom, who was happy to hear from me and he didn't give me any heebie jeebies or guilt, at least not anywhere near the extent that everyone else seemed to these days.

The guilt was pretty bad though, no matter what I still felt a prickle of it every time we hung out because I knew Lila and Dad didn't like him much or trust him, but right now I trusted them even less.

Even though we were hanging out and playing cards and chatting, nothing could lift my spirits at all. It couldn't distract me from everything that was going on right now and since Dom was, in some ways, my only friend at the moment and one who had knowledge of the situation and didn't seem to mind sharing, I gave in.

"How did Caleb and Lila meet?" I asked during his turn, unable to hold it in any longer or find a polite segue into it. It would just be a waste of time.

He nearly dropped his handful of cards. "Excuse me?"

"Why were Caleb and Lila fighting?"

"I don't know either," Dom said, instantly looking uncomfortable as he scraped his cards back into his hand, shuffling them into a neat fan. "Why?"

"I just don't know what to believe anymore." Lila still scared me though, being around her unsettled me in such a visceral way that I couldn't understand. Overnight she had become a stranger to me and I missed her being just my sister. I missed the way things were before I found out she could change forms and especially before she had a body count. No matter all the lies that were floating around, everyone seemed to agree on one thing: she had killed Caleb.

"Did something happen with your sister?"

A lot of things, but how could I tell Dom without looking crazy?

"Yes. I just need some distance from her right now." I discarded a random card, motioning for him to take his turn.

"Did you fight?"

"Not exactly." I'd left before we could. How could I fight a werewolf? She could just kill me too if things got too heated and I disagreed with her. The thought made a pang of guilt sting my chest, that maybe I was being unfair. Up until then, Lila had just seemed like my regular sister, who sure kept secrets but was still a good person who joked around and was perfectly normal. She hadn't killed me yet, or even threatened me, and if she was going to then why wait this long?

Dom picked up a new card, studied his current ones and slid it into its place. "She seemed concerned. About you, I mean. Living with your dad and all."

"How would you know?"

"...she might have come to see me," he mumbled as he discarded a card.

"What? Why? When? What did she do to you?"

"The night I dropped you off she showed up asking me to tell her how to find you," he said. When I opened my mouth, he hurried to continue. "She looked really broken and scared so I told her, I didn't know what was so wrong but figured it would be better to tell her. The things she said..." The frown lines around his mouth deepened.

"What did she say?"

"I don't know. A bunch of stuff." He shifted in his seat, glancing between me and his cards. "Point is, she was looking for you and scared you were in trouble. That Devin was involved somehow because he never left town."