Everwild (The Healer Series, #1) (10 page)

She heard Declan curse and looked up at him.
His face was covered in scratches as well as his arms. His hair was
wildly tussled everywhere and his shirt was torn, but he was
staring at her with wide eyes full of concern. “God Willow,” he
said and inched closer to her. “What can I do? How can I help you?”
He touched her stomach lightly and she jumped. It wasn’t from pain,
though, it was just unexpected. “I’m sorry, God, I’m so sorry.
Um…let’s get this bag off you.”

Willow just watched with wide, teary eyes as
Declan knelt on his knees and tenderly helped her take the bag off
her shoulders. The weight lifted from her and she drew in a deep
breath, which hurt her body even more, but her skin had already
closed and her body tingled and warmed as it cured. Declan opened
the bag and started rummaging for something frantically. He pulled
out the bottles Carmela put in there, reading each one. He went
through about three until he found something.

“Try this,” he offered her the bottle.
“Healing elixir.”

“Declan,” Willow moaned. It hurt to even
talk! “I’m a Healer, remember?”

“This will speed it up,” Declan prompted.
“Just drink a little.”

“We need to save that,” Willow said, “What if
something worse happens?”

“Look at yourself Willow,” Declan said
worried, “what could be worse than that! Please, just do it.”

“It looks worse than it feels.”

“Stop being so stubborn and drink,” Declan
reprimanded uncorking the bottle. “Or do I have to force it down
your throat?”

“Fine,” she relented and reluctantly took the
small bottle from him. She drank about one third of the soft pink
liquid that slid easily down her throat. It was cold. Really cold.
She coughed as the elixir slowly settled in her stomach. Then, her
stomach burned and Willow sat back on her hands and closed her
eyes, letting the elixir work its way through her system, a burning
sensation rippling all over her body. It hurt and felt good all at
once. Ten minutes passed and she could breathe better. Another five
and the soreness receded. Willow opened her eyes minutes later and
looked at her arms and legs. Her body was healed. No scars, no
blood. She lifted her shirt. The bruise had vanished. She glanced
at Declan and he watched in awe.

She handed the bottle back to him. “Now your
turn.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“You’re covered in cuts too…”

“I don’t need any. We need to save it.”

“So it’s okay for me to drink it but not you?
How is that fair? You practically begged me to drink elixir, and
when I want you to, you don’t?”

“Yeah,” Declan said condescendingly. “My cuts
aren’t as bad as yours. You need it, I don’t. End of story.”

“My body heals itself, Dec,” she said
grumpily, feeling cheated into taking the elixir when he wouldn’t.
“I didn’t need it either.”

“Well you should listen to me either way,” he
scolded. “I’m just trying to help you.”

“I don’t
need
to listen to you if I
don’t want to, Declan,” Willow said and crossed her arms. “And I
can take care of myself.”

“Sure you can,” Declan said sarcastically.
“Let’s see, I helped rescue you from Hekate, I chopped down all
those vines and branches to make a better path for you, and I
caught you from falling to your death from the crazy willow tree.
Yeah, maybe you’re right. You could’ve handled those situations by
yourself.”

“Ugh!” Willow threw her hands in the air.
“Out of all the freaking warlocks in the world, I got stuck with
the know-it-all who thinks he’s Mother Teresa!”

Declan just laughed at her. Willow sat
brooding at him until he asked, “What made you take off like that,
anyway? You ran like something was chasing you and your life
depended on it. I didn’t even have a chance to blink and you were
gone!”

“I thought I heard the river, the one that
Carmela talked about.”

“So you just decided to leave me in the dust
and take off by yourself in the Everwild?” He was angry.

“Well…I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“Obviously,” he said and frowned. “You
could’ve been killed Willow.”

“I’m sorry okay! But I didn’t think I would
be in danger of a tree!” She looked back at the tree, it was still
wiggling and whipping it branches around wildly. “It really is a
Willow Tree,” she thought out loud watching the long branches and
the wispy leaves flowing from them. It was beautiful (from a
distance). It was like the tree had its own mind, creating its own
wind, swaying and beating and reaching out to nothing. It looked
like an octopus out of water. Perhaps that was why there were no
other trees grew near it. The flying limbs wouldn’t let anything
come close to it.

“Yeah. A Willow Tree,” Declan said shaking
his head.

“Well I didn’t know!” Willow turned to him
frustrated, “That’s what you call me! I thought you were yelling at
me to stop! How was I supposed to know that I was in danger of an
actual
Willow Tree?”

“Well, I was calling you that at first
because I couldn’t find you,” he admitted and stood to his feet.
“But then I saw the tree and I panicked…”

Willow stood too and brushed herself off. She
felt 100% better. “Note to self: watch out for trees.” Willow said
and hastily pulled twigs and leaves from her unruly hair. She
deeply regretted not having a hair tie. It was beyond unmanageable.
She didn’t even want to see herself in a mirror. To her surprise,
Declan walked around her and helped pull some of the leaves from
her hair. “Ouch!” she whined as he yanked particularly hard at one
twig that was twisted within her tangled curls.

“Old Man Willow got you beat?” a silky, deep
voice announced. Willow froze as spine-tingling terror shot through
her. Declan’s hands dropped from her head and he pulled her against
his chest defensively. Willow’s heart fluttered wildly as they
searched for the voice. No one was in clear view.

“Who’s there?” Declan yelled drawing his
sword and pushing Willow behind him, away from the direction of the
voice. The sword glinted in the daylight, and even though they had
the light on their side, it didn’t hinder the anxiety that was
coursing through her.

“Don’t you mean, who’s
not
there?” the
voice taunted. It came from the right and high. Willow whipped her
head up and searched the trees. There was no figure, shadow, or any
sign of anything around. Her panic heightened.

“Show yourself!” Declan said, his voice even
and confident. “Or I swear I’ll kill you.”

“Ohhhhhh,” the voice said sadly, “oh that
hurts,” the voice quieted. Seconds passed before they heard
anything more. Then, very faintly, they heard the distinct sound of
crying.
Crying
? The sound increased until a loud wailing
bellowed around them. It was a genuine, guns blazing, cry your
heart out sound, as if someone’s heart had shattered into a million
irreparable pieces.

“Stop it and show yourself!” Declan said and
started walking towards the sound. Willow followed on his heels.
Suddenly, in the trees, a very large raccoon looking creature
emerged, looking down on them with large, round neon green eyes.
The eyes had no pupils and didn’t blink. The raccoon was a dark
gray with black rings on its tail and it was rather round in the
middle. What was even more stunning was that the creature didn’t
have a nose but a wide mouth with rows of razor sharp teeth in it.
The creatures’ ears were three times the size of its body and were
long and pointy like a rabbit. He also had large, black bat-like
wings sprouting from his back. This creature was beyond bizarre in
appearance.

“What are you?” Declan bellowed as they came
to the bottom of the trunk where the creature sat. He pointed the
sword at the creature which was several feet higher than them; far
out of reach to do anything about it.

“Why should I tell you?” the creature cried,
with actual tears that fell in streams down its face. “You’re just
a big meanie that wants to kill me!”

“Well, it wasn’t nice to hide and scare us
like that,” Willow said softly from behind Declan’s back. The
creature stretched its neck out to peer around Declan curiously.
Its ears twitched. Declan’s body was covering most of her, and the
backpack he had on blocked the creature from seeing her face.

The raccoon paused for just a second before
howling with laughter. It laughed and laughed and held its belly
with its tiny paws, rocking back and forth on the tree limb,
hysterical laughter radiating from him. What was going on? This
thing was just crying a second ago and now he was laughing? Declan
glimpsed behind him and gave Willow a questioning look before
turning back to the creature.

“Oh, witches and warlocks,” the creature said
wiping the tears that were now from laughter away from his eyes. “I
forgot how gullible they are!”

“Will you please tell us who
you
are?”
Willow said angrily stepping out behind Declan. That seemed to get
his attention, and he turned to her, watching her with those
glowing orbs of green.

“Well…if it isn’t a Healer,” the creature
cooed. “I knew it. I could smell your power from a mile away.”

“How do you know who I am?” Willow
demanded.

The creature shrugged and pointed to his
head. “Intuition.”

With fury behind his words, Declan said,
“Just shut up and tell us who the hell you are!”

“Oh…you’re not fun. He’s mean that one…” the
creature pointed at Declan and began to cry. His big mouth pouted
as tears started falling from his eyes.

“Stop it, you faker!” Declan howled at the
creature. He dropped the sword and jumped up to the first branch to
pull him up. The creature just hopped to a higher branch and
laughed.

“BINGO!” it said happily and pranced around
as if to taunt Declan. Declan groaned and dropped back to the
ground.

“I should have known,” Declan grumbled and
turned to her. “I’ve read about these things before.”

“What is it?” Willow asked.

Declan looked back and eyed the creature with
a death stare. “A Faker.”

The Faker laughed out loud and clapped its
tiny paws together saying, “Not as dumb as they look my
friends.”

“And what exactly is that?” Willow said
looking back at the Faker.

“You mean, you’ve never heard of me before?”
the Faker asked dramatically. “How rude.”

Ignoring him, Declan explained, “A Faker is
just like it sounds. It’s a
thing
that acts a certain way,
but in reality is pretending. Isn’t that right?”

“Well,” the Faker regarded him calmly, “I
do
have a name warlock. And
thing
is not it.” The
Faker looked down and started itching itself, suddenly uninterested
in the conversation.

The Faker didn’t say anything more.
“Well…what is it?” Willow asked impatiently.

“Well I’m sorry if I don’t tell you who I am
right away!” The Faker yelled at them, hissing with its teeth. “I
don’t know you! You don’t know me! So what! Stop trying to pry
information from me!” With that, the Faker fluttered to another
tree, then another, getting farther and farther away from them.
Willow followed on the ground keeping her eyes on him so she
wouldn’t lose him. She was totally bewildered, and slightly awed by
the mysterious creature.

Declan pulled her arm stopping her. “Just
leave him,” he said, “he’s nothing but trouble. He’s just faking
he’s angry. It’s what he does.”

“He knows I’m a Healer, Dec,” Willow
reasoned, “what if he knows something? He could help!”

“He won’t,” Declan said. “Let him go,
Willow.”

“No,” she said tugging her arm from his hold
and looked back to the trees. The Faker was gone. “Now look what
you did, Declan!” Willow snapped at him. “What if he knows where
the river is? What if he could lead us there? Ever think of that?”
Declan stared at her, eyes narrowed dangerously, but she continued
without pausing. “Of course not! We’re just gonna walk around in
circles getting nowhere all because you scared him off!”

“Hardly,” a voice snorted below her scaring
her so badly she jumped back into Declan’s body. Willow’s heart
raced as she took in the Faker, now several feet below her on the
ground. He looked up at her with his unblinking green eyes.

“Faker!” Willow said, slightly relieved at
seeing him, but still on edge from the shock, “What are you doing
here?”

“Funny,” the Faker said cocking his head, “I
was beginning to think you wanted me for some reason.” He sniffed
acting upset and tucked his ears behind his head. “Guess I was
wrong…”

The Faker’s head was bowed and he turned away
and lifted a paw, getting ready to walk away. “Wait!” Willow
exclaimed. “Don’t go.”

“Oh, I wasn’t,” the Faker said and gave a sly
smile, “I just wanted to make you
think
I was leaving.” He
laughed and smiled peculiarly.

“See?” Declan spoke up pointing at the
creature. “Impossible! We can find the river on our own…”

“River?” the Faker asked perking up. “You’re
looking for the river?”

“Yes!” Willow said shooting Declan a knowing
glare, “Do you know of it?”

“Of course I do,” the Faker sighed, “It’s
just the only and most important source of water available to any
who live in the Everwild. Duh.”

“Can you take us there?” Willow asked
hopefully.

“Well…I don’t really want to, but
unfortunately I owe Carmela a debt. So why not? Follow me.”

The Faker started trotting away. “Hey! Wait!”
Declan stopped him. “You know Carmela?”

“Am I working with imbeciles here?” The Faker
stopped and turned to them. “Or is there just an echo? Ugh, well, I
guess I have to answer them.” Willow watched the Faker talking to
himself out loud. She wanted to demand answers from him, but
apparently, Fakers didn’t like to be helpful. The Faker flapped its
wings to meet Willow and Declan at eye level. “If you must know,
warlock, I do know Carmela. She came to me a while back requesting
payment for the debt I owed her and she told me about you. That’s
how I know you’re a Healer, girl. How did I find you? Well, that
was easy. I can smell you. You have a unique scent you know.
Anything can smell you if they know what to smell for. Anyway,
Carmela told me to look for you and steer you in the right
direction and our debt is squared. Of course, it was rather
exciting to come across you when Old Man Willow was having his
fun.”