Amber Silverblood: Rogue Wolf

Chapter Twenty Four

After the weeks I'd spent there, Granny's cottage was as familiar to me as Blister's patchwork fur. Even though I spent most of my time in the playroom, I'd been out and about enough to know every nook and cranny of her deceptively massive house. Tonight, something struck me as different. Maybe it was because all the lights were off. Maybe it was because all the other kids...I couldn't call them my cousins anymore...were asleep. Whatever it was, Granny's cottage suddenly looked dark and ominous as she carried me through it.

With the return of my memories, my natural instincts were coming back too. They were telling me, for the first time in weeks, that I was in danger. But there was something else. An almost overwhelming desire to ignore those feelings and just cuddle up against Granny. Let her comfort me, rock me until I'd calmed down, and then put me back to bed. And I wanted to. More than once, I found myself leaning forward to rest my head on Granny's shoulder.

But then the memories of what I'd done would come back, and I'd start fighting to get free again. I didn't deserve to be held like this. I needed to get free, to run, to get out of here before Granny's cottage was tainted irreversibly by my evil. But I was still trapped in a little girl's body, and Granny's arms refused to budge even an inch, no matter how hard I thrashed.

"L- Let me go!" I cried with tears running down my face.

"Shh, Amber," she said, stroking a hand through my hair. "It'll be all right."

I craned my neck around and saw that we were heading for the kitchen.

"Let Granny make you some cookies, and then you'll feel all better."

Thoughts of her cookies poured into my mind like sand in an hourglass. I pushed back as hard as I could, but I could feel myself being crushed beneath them. I couldn't let myself go back to the happy, contented little girl I had become. Not now that I could remember.

But the harder I pushed, the harder those thoughts pushed back. It was like something outside of me was trying to shove them into my head. The same was true of the other feelings too, I realized. The way my sadness and fear would suddenly blossom into happiness wasn't natural. Somebody was putting those feelings inside me. They were trying to bury my real emotions and force new ones in their place. But why?

A thought tickled the back of my brain. Something I'd learned in school a long, long time ago. The angler fish. It would lure prey in with its light, making them think they were swimming toward something they wanted, until...

Dinner time.

A terrifying calmness came over me, and I glanced up to see Granny looking down at me. She carried me into the kitchen, to the big table where we all sat together for meals, and put me down in one of the chairs. From here I could watch as she walked across the kitchen, to her oven, and turned it on. A bright, blazing fire immediately leaped up inside it. The oven was massive. It had to be for her to bake all the cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, and other sweets she made for us. But, I noticed for the very first time, it was more than big enough to fit a little girl inside.

"Amber," Granny said suddenly. I looked up, and saw that all the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies had appeared on the counter. "Why don't you help Granny bake this batch?"

I swallowed hard, fairly certain that I knew where this was going. Still, it didn't look like I had much choice. Scooting out of my chair, I timidly climbed the stepstool that had appeared beside her.

Run! My instincts demanded. Run, run, run, RUNNNN!

I didn't, though. In the middle of her house, standing right next to her, there was no way I could escape from Granny. I would have to bide my time, wait for the perfect moment to make my getaway.