Slam!
Selena rushed out of the room, feet bare. The cool terracotta floor clung grit and sand to her soles.
Lucian's door stood agape. "No" She should be worried about Callum. She should go after him. Yet she found herself at his door against her own wits.
Whispers arose, sipping out from the interstice between the tiles. They were whispers of his name. Her wolf growled inside her. An image flashed through her eyes. Lucian howling in pain. Her chest tightened. She couldn't breathe.
She was at Freya's door in a breath. Freya had a relationship with her cousins more than she had with her own brothers, she knew. But right now, they were probably tearing each other to shreds.
"Who's there?" came Freya's muffled voice on the other side. The door drew back and she stood there, lips stiff with a frown lingering on her face. Her blonde hair was once fur ball of a bun. She tilted her head. "Yes?"
"Have you seen Lucian?" Selena blurted.
Freya shook her head.
"Cal?"
"I don't know, he's your boyfriend?"
Selena's stomach twisted. Freya waited for her to run off before she had simply shut the door.
Selena started for the guard post. "Have you guys seen Lucian today?" she demanded.
There were five of them. She caught them raising their brows and giving each other looks. They shook their heads. "Uh, no" they murmured.
She went outside. It was starting to get chilly out. Her bare arms erupted with goosebumps. She scanned the courtyard. Empty. Their trucks were gone too.
She closed her eyes for a moment. Claws tearing into flesh. Deep slashes.
Had they morphed?
Her legs fell light and she gripped the wall, nearly passing out. She blinked back tears and turned around.
She collided into someone. She couldn't really make out who it was in the darkness. "Whoa. Easy there," Rowan's voice came out unsteady, catching her elbows.
"Sorry…" she looked up at him. "Rowan, can I borrow your truck?"
He peered at her. "Are you crying?"
"Can I borrow it or not"
He scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know. What for?"
"Just–" She cut him off. "Do you know where Lucian went?"
"No?"
"Callum?"
"No"
"Okay, where could they have gone?"
"Wellll, Lucian for one might have gone to the quarry. You know, that old training pit he and Cal used to spar in. Don't ask me why—they always end up there."
How could they have gone so far in such a short time? You couldn't use a portal to get there. "Okay, thanks"
She paused as she started up a run. She almost forgot. "Can I have the keys?" She opened up her palm.
"Wait. You want to go meet him?"
"Rowan, I don't have time"
"Why"
"Just please" Her voice cracked.
He sighed, defeated and fished into the pocket of his canvas work pants. He took out the jingling keys. He held them back in the air just before she was about to grab them. "Please don't scratch my truck" Not like that could stop her. She was at eye level with him. "And please don't come back tomorrow," he managed to fix in, before she snatched the keys from him and bolted.
Freya watched her with tired eyes as she zipped past, arms folded. "Selena!" She called out to her. "Where are you going?"
"To the quarry"
"Huh?"
"Your brothers are about to kill each other!"
But it looks like there's gonna be a storm!"
"Trust me, I have bigger storms going on!"
"What?!"
But Selena was already out of earshot.
Rowan's old wooden pickup truck was carefully parked under the shed of an oak tree. The truck smelled of vegetation and old paper. Very peculiar indeed. There were pine needles punched in the seat next to her. Dried flowers and old sketchbooks on the dashboard. Crumpled sheet music littered the seat. A whole world of his quiet artistry pressed against her panic.
She looked over at the back seat. Her eyes gleamed with the vision of not Lucian, but Callum this time. His head lay upon a boulder. He sat still on the ground. Maybe a little too still. She gasped.
Driving at night wasn't fun. The village folk kept cursing at her for blaring the headlamps in their eyes. And then the people grew sparse, making the road lonely.
The path was bumpier than she had imagined. But thankfully, Rowan's truck took it loyally. It was as nice and smooth as Rowan's personality.
She adjusted herself in the seat again. She couldn't remember the last time she had sat behind the wheel. She was always a passenger. Callum's passenger.
A lance of pain seared her temple. Lucian's back smacking a wall.
At last, she had reached the quarry. She looked over the dashboard. The place stretched before her. Pools of murky water reflected the silvery moonlight. The air was damp and heavy. Claw marks raked across its walls.
She pushed the rickety door open and hopped down.
Her boots crunched leaves along the dirt track. She couldn't see anyone. The silence drove her mad.
She stepped closer.
Blood. So much blood. Its metallic stench filled her lungs until she gagged.
Her vision blurred.
What? What was this? Her wolf whimpered.
A guttural scream escaped her chest, piercing through the silence of the quarry. The veins in her neck bulged. Her snowy skin diffused in crimson. Her voice reverberated against the hollow quarry walls.