Deliah, purred Inigo in the darkness. Deliah's eyes briefly stirred. She felt as though she were being cradled by Inigo or maybe it was just the void. She wasn't too sure.
Yes? Deliah said groggily.
Are you tired?
I want to do nothing but sleep, Deliah confessed. She felt more than tired.
Why?
Because then I can be here and forget. she felt a gentle hand rest against her cheek and she leaned into it.
What happened?
I fought my brother. He hates me for what I am. She felt the space around her stiffen as did the gentle hand on her cheek. Sometimes I think I should just leave.
No.
Either that or everyone dies, Deliah said with a heavy sigh.
Maybe everyone should die. Maybe it is time for this miserable forest to end.
Deliah broke away from the embrace and her blood ran cold. Whatever connection she had built with Inigo started to crack and splinter. She could feel it as her heart seemed to fracture with anger and hurt.
No. I want to save them. All of them. Even...if it kills me. Deliah confessed.
You can't save something that refuses to be saved, chided Inigo and Deliah bristled with anger.
I can't alone but, maybe it is time the Wolf god walks among us once again.
Aren't you scared of him?
No, Deliah said and it was the truth. She had never been afraid of the Wolf god just afraid of what would happen if the story her mama told her was true. If the Second coming of the Saint of Wolves really did have something to do with the Wolf god. If She would...be something to him. Whenever she thought of that it made her feel like she was teetering on the edge of a great cliff. Not really sure if she would be safe or if doom would befall her.
I----
Whatever Inigo was going to say got lost in the swirling blackness of the void. Their connection was growing thinner and soon Deliah was left to face the void by herself.
................................................................................................................................................................
"Wake up. We have to go sweety," Granny said gently shaking Deliah. The girl grumbled from underneath her quilts and burrowed further into the warmth and far away from the old witch's voice. All Deliah wanted to do was sleep. Ever since the battle at the Fae colony and her enter with Colton a deep weighted tiredness had eaten at her bones. Granny had just barely managed to drag Deliah home because of this looming tiredness. It had only been a day but somehow it felt like eons. Ironic considering, she lived with an eons old being. The very one that was now striping her bedding and all but dragging her out of bed. Deliah rubbed a heavily sleep crusted eye and blinked a few times as the old woman bustled around her room. Her very few prized possessions were shoved into a cloth sack and tossed to the floor. Then her old quilt was expertly tied into a larger sack and her scant wardrobe and shoes were stuffed there. Deliah watched all of this in a sleepy haze. At one point shrugged and tried to crawl back into her bare bed. Granny's chilly needled claws yanked her back.
"Can't you clean my room another time?" Deliah whined.
"Deliah. We need to leave now. They're coming."
"Who?"
"The Fallen."
Those two words jolted Deliah awake. Her tired stupor was replaced with jittery fear, because now she could sense something terribly wrong. Despite all the noise Granny was making the whole forest was quiet. Quieter than it had been the morning after the battle at the fae colony and even after her parents' funeral. It felt as though something very, very, very terrible was coming. Not for Granny but...for her alone. Something filled and fueled with nothing but anger and burning hatred. It was quiet but intense. It had silenced the forest completely. This angered and terrified Deliah.
"Granny...they're really angry," Deliah whispered.
"Yes," Granny said snatching both sacks and shoving Deliah out her bedroom and down the stairs.
"Where are we going?"
"To pack Seven."
Deliah froze. Granny groaned and tried shoving the girl the rest of the way down the stairs. They were losing precious time.
"We can't go there. The fallen won't rest until I'm...gone. I won't go."
"I wasn't asking," snapped the old witch as she crossed her arms.
"If I go, they'll all die."
"We can't know that for sure," said the old woman as she shooed Deliah and her concerns into the cold lifeless kitchen.
The hearth wasn't lit today and the old dried herbs rattled like skeleton bones. It gave Deliah chills and she froze her anger and fear of the Fallen fully forgotten by the creepiness of the dried herbs that still hung from the rafters. It was mostly wolf Reed with its thin and reedy stalks. But there was also some ancient, almost petrified rosemary and mint. The perfume had long since gone. She abscently brushed a hand gently over a petrifed wolf reed stalk. For a brief second Deliah felt jolt of electricity move from the plant up her arm. Her eyebrows rose and she snatched her hand back from the plant. Maybe she had imagined it but her hand still tingled, a reminder that something had happened. She stared at her hand in shock.
"Deliah!" Snapped the old witch. Deliah reluctantly met the Forest Witch's haunty eyes. The witch seemed to be in no mood for Deliah's ditsyness. The old woman held and an air of jittery impaitence. Deliah suddenly felt a jolt of anger that was not her own pass through her body. It felt as though she had been hit in the gut by a heavy stick or like she was being stabbed in the stomach by a thousand needles.
"Granny," Deliah said through clenched teeth. She gripped the old table for support as she curled her shoulders inward with each vicious stab of anger. Deliah felt as though the world were starting to spin. Granny put an arm around her waist and half dragged, half carried her to the back door of the kitchen. Deliah couldn't find it in herself to argue with all the pain she felt.
The witch towed Deliah out the door and into a thicket of oak trees. They were so close together that even in the dead of autumn they still provided a great place to hide. Granny gently nestled Deliah in between the oak trees' roots.
Deliah didn't argue even as she felt a sickening wave of nostalgia. When she heard howling off in the distance her blood was pure ice. She turned her head frantically from side to side-looking for Winnie or....Colton. She had to warn them! Tell them to leave...before...
"Shhh, Deliah, sweety...stay very quiet," whispered granny gently. Deliah could only manage a weak nod and blink away her tears. The smell of decaying leaves and rott brought her back to the present. The past was done. There was nothing she could do to change it. No matter how much she wished too. Still guilt shackled her stomach and she could only weakly curl into the root of the oak trees and try to slow her breathing.
The howling had stopped but, not the quietness of the forest. Everything was still dredged in a terrible liquid hot anger. It was getting closer and closer as the silent minutes ticked by. Deliah could feel them and their collective burning rage. Just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, they descended upon her house like rabid wolves on a rabbit. She didn't dare look. But she could hear their swearing, snarling, and smashing as they raveaged what was left of the only home she had known after parents' death. Her own anger rose and for a moment the anger of the fallen ceased its terrible stabbing-it was bliss. Then she blinked and her anger was snuffed out by the Fallen's. Soemthing was terribly wrong. because their anger wasn't just cold and twisted. It was...uniformed, calculated and...singular. It was wrong. Really, Really wrong.
When Deliah felt the emotions of wolves she felt multiple emotions all at once. Each wolf's emotions slighty different but always faintly connected. It was beautiful when there wasn't death or war. However, it was a though the Fallen had erased all other emotions accept for a collective anger. She couldn't disguish which anger belonged to which wolf like at the battle of the Fae colony. Instead it was nothing but a blanketed emotion that only seemed to get stronger and stronger. Deliah couldn't get over how wrong it felt.
"Where is that geezer of a witch hiding that unnatural child," sneered a wolf that was meer inches away from the thicket of oak trees. Deliah blinked and she realized Granny had cast a cloaking of spell. The faint glimmer of silver danced between the clearing and the oak trees.
Dear Reader,
I am sorry for the delay on this chapter. I am still moving everything around but I had time to create this chapter. The reason why its taking longer with this book is because I started writing the other chapters but then redid them because I saw the story going in another direction. Rest assured that the book is not ending yet. There is still some sparks to fly and a nice...slightly steamy romance to occur. It's just veering off in a different direction than I thought it would when I began writing. So sit tight the fun is about to begin.