Trapped: the Truth (Book 2)

Chapter 7

It is just me, Steph and Nate in the little bit of light among the darkness of a cave. I use a bit of water from my bottle to clean Steph's scratch. She winces when I dab it with a tissue. She is lucky I came prepared. We are sitting on the ground with a few water drops dropping from the ceiling. Thankfully, Steph held on to a dry part of the ground, otherwise she would not have been so lucky. We talk about random things to keep Steph's mind off of the pain she could be feeling while we wait for Chris and Luke.

Minutes later Chris and Luke appear with another guy - young, muscular, dark-skinned, and wearing dark blue jeans, white shirt and slip-on shoes. What is this guy doing in a cave?

Nate and I help Steph to stand up. We support her from both sides.

"Who's this guy?" Nate points to the mystery guy.

"This is Dylan," Chris replies. "He's also a werewolf and he knows Gwydion."

"Gwydion is not who he said he is," Luke adds. "It's true that he's a wizard but he didn't tell us the whole truth about the emerald and his intentions."

So Luke is saying that the wizard hid the truth. What is the truth? Could it be possible that Dylan is lying about Gwydion?

"What's the truth then?" Nate asks them.

What Chris says next leaves me stunned. "Gwydion has been creating werewolves to keep himself alive. The emerald gives him the power to live longer. Dylan has hid the emerald deep in this cave where any kind of magic is not allowed. This is why Gwydion stopped halfway through."

I am still processing what he just said when Steph speaks up. "Can we ditch the wizard and return home then?"

"We have a long way ahead and you cannot walk by yourself," Nate points out.

"I can help with that," Dylan says. Can we trust him? He whistles and a minute later two guys appear from behind Chris and Dylan. They are just as good-looking as he is. Are they werewolves too?

Dylan answer my unvocalized question. "These are Harry and Pete and they are also werewolves. They can help you carry Steph to their car and they can drive you wherever you need. Leave the wizard to me."

"What are you going to do?" Chris is always concerned for everyone, even people he just met.

"We want to end him but not until he is weak enough for us to be able to defeat him. For now, I will distract him. You can pass from the secret passage way."

How are we getting home exactly? "We came here through a portal. How do we get back to Maine?"

"Maine?" Dylan asks. "I thought you were Canadians. Do you have passports?"

I shake my head. None of us thought to bring a passport because we had no idea where we were going.

We decide to go back to the wizard so he can take us back.

Before we leave we receive a warning from Dylan. "Be careful. Don't trust him."

We tell Gwydion that we did not find anything and we need to get back home because Steph is injured. We keep Dylan and his friends out of it. Chris promises Gwydion that we will try looking for the emerald some other time. The wizard mumbles something about how incompetent we are but we ignore that to keep the peace. Luke almost argues with him but Chris stops him.

We take turns to help Steph walk all the way back to the lake. Thankfully, by the time we arrive at the lake she feels better. We get back to the cabin the same way we arrived that is through the lake and to the bathtub. We have to walk all the way to the car looking like we had a fight in the mud. I feel disgusting and I am indesperate need of a shower. I have no idea what excuse I am going to tell Aunt Julie. Gwydion stayed behind in Canada.

When Chris's car comes into view, Luke pulls me aside while the others continue walking. "I am sorry for everything, really, I am, but we cannot continue like this. We need to have each other's back."

"You kept an important thing from me... for years... How can I trust you?"

He gives me a guilty look mixed with regret. "I cannot change the past but I can give you a better future."

I simply stare into his eyes for a moment. He truely means what he says. Can I really trust him? "What are we going to tell Aunt Julie?"

He shrugs. "We can tell her that we had a conflict and now we made up."

I chuckle. "Not about that. About this mess." I point at myself from top to bottom.

"Oh... Can we tell her that we fell into a puddle?" Sometimes he says things without thinking.

"There are no puddles."

"What if we sneak into the house and shower before she notices we arrived?" Now he has a good idea.

"Okay, we can do that."

I am still unsure about trusting Luke again but what he said is true - he cannot change the past but he does have control over his future. I guess time will prove that.