Wolf Spell 1 (34 page)

I wrung my hand out. Dang, he had hard bones. He looked at me with a stunned expression. “What was that for?”

“You know how much I care about Es and you can’t stop yourself even for a minute to appreciate her or what this means. More witches, yes, bring them all if it helps her!”

“Of course you’d want them to come back to life! Have you even told her?”

“Boys!” Torres stepped in between us. “Now is not the time. I can feel something, but it isn’t right. We need to find Esmerelda,
now
.”

I stopped my anger long enough to feel the ominous feeling too. He was right. Something was amiss.
Es.
My heart sped up.

“I can’t feel where she’s at.” My eyes widened. I could feel her, but not her location. “I thought you said we’d know where she’s at!”

“The spirits have chosen one of us to know, but it’s up to them to give the gift when they are ready. Esmerelda must not be in imminent danger, or we’d know. We might be feeling something that won’t happen for a short time.” Adonia tried to reassure all of us, but I didn’t feel it.

I scanned each of their faces. “Okay, so which one of you knows where she’s at?”

Adonia looked at Torres. He lowered his eyes and shook his head.

“Ian?” Ailaina looked hopeful.

He let out a heavy sigh and grimaced. “No.”

“Me either.” She chewed on her bottom lip.

I willed myself not to panic and focus on finding her.

“We need to get going. There are too many people around to talk anymore.” Torres pointed to the group of volunteer workers searching the area for survivors.

I nodded in agreement. “Where do we go?”

“Since we don’t know where she’s at right now, we need to separate until we either find her or the spirit shows us where she’s at.” I didn’t like Torres’s idea, but it was the best we had to go on.

“Alright, so when we find her, what next?” I asked.

Adonia gestured for us all to walk as we talked. “We’ll let everyone know that she’s found, but instead of backtracking to travel together, we’ll just all meet at the tomb.”

I stepped over a fallen tree. “Where exactly is the tomb?”

Ailaina shrugged her shoulders. “In the middle of Tennessee.”

Stopping in my tracks, I looked at her. “You mean you don’t know? Just somewhere in the middle of Tennessee?” I threw my arms up in the air, “Great. Just freaking great!”

“Ailaina will know. She has the power to locate them.” Adonia looked over at Ailaina and nodded. “You can try tonight at the hotel.”

“Okay, I’ll try.”

“Fine. Let’s just go.” I took off, not waiting for anyone to say anything.

A Night Together

– Esmerelda –

November 18, 2012

Since leaving the house, I hadn’t stopped running and now my lungs hurt each time I breathed in. A sharp pain in my side made me stop and bend over, applying pressure to it with my hands. It was dark, and I knew I should turn back around and find everyone, but I didn’t know what to say yet. How long had I been gone? Two, maybe three hours?

I sniffed again. My nose still ran from crying so much. I couldn’t even do that anymore. All my tears were gone, dried up and making my eyes burn. I looked around me. Everywhere I glanced was a tree. The whole state was nothing but green and I had no clue where I was. I backed up into a tree trunk and slid down to the ground, choking back another sob.

“Esmerelda.”

I looked up and saw Luna then reached out for her. Why hadn’t I thought to call her before? It didn’t matter. She was here now. She pushed her muzzle up under my chin. I hugged her, not wanting to let go. I didn’t have to say anything. I knew she could feel what I felt.

I cried harder, tears coming from an unknown well. Why was I so stupid to leave by myself? Nicholas could be anywhere, and here I was in the middle of God knows where, the sun already set, with no protection other than my magic and Luna. Dark shadows played with my mind, and I could no longer hear the birds singing.

I silently prayed that whoever the spirits sent my location to was on their way soon. There was no way I could find my way back now. Luna might be able to help, but without light, it would be hard.

Rustling leaves and twigs snapping caused me to tense up and place my protection shield up. I scanned the area, but it was hard to see.
Please don’t let it be Nicholas.

“Princess…”

I released the breath I didn’t realize I held and jumped up. Thank goodness.

“Ian, I’m over here.”

“I wonder why the spirits sent Ian.”
Luna’s voice filled my head.

“I don’t know, but right now, I don’t care,” I whispered down at her.

Seconds later, he stepped through the trees, Dregan at his side. He had a mischievous gleam in his eye. “Waiting for your knight in shining armor?”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“I can bite him if you want.”

I held my hand up, stopping Luna. “No, it’s okay.”

“Ungrateful a little?”
I cocked my head a little as I heard Dregan talk.

 “No, I am very grateful. I’m just curious why you found me and not Jarak.”

Ian’s mouth twitched a little and a corner rose. “You can still hear Dregan?”

I lowered my eyes, looking at Luna and nodded. “Can you still hear Luna?”

“Yeah, I can, it’s strange hearing another wolf besides Dregan after all these years.” He shuffled his boot around in the dried leaves. “Why didn’t you call out to one of them? I mean you have Luna, Maztic and Dregan. Any of them would’ve been able to get to us.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “I don’t know. I didn’t think about it, and before you ask, I don’t know why I didn’t think about it either. I spaced it, okay. It’s been a long day.”

He held his arms up. “Whoa, slow down Princess. I was just curious. You don’t have to get mad at me. I’m the one who came to help you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why is no one else with you?”

“We split up, thinking we could find you faster that way. I just got a vision of you about an hour ago. I wasn’t far.”

I shrugged. “Okay. So where are the others? Where do we meet them?”

He chuckled a little. “We have to wait for Ailaina. She’s gonna try to locate the tomb tonight. Adonia seems to think she can do it now that she’s close to it. Ailaina said that it’s somewhere in middle Tennessee, but she hadn’t gotten it pin pointed yet.”

I slumped back down to the ground. I was too exhausted to ask more about it. A part of me was grateful that the tomb was somewhat close. We wouldn’t have to travel far to get to it.

Ian sat down next to me. “You know, we could find a place to stay. You can get some rest and then in the morning or whenever we can find out what Ailaina finds out.”

I glanced sideways at him, not sure of his intentions, but I was extremely tired and sleep sounded fabulous. “Really?”

He stood back up and offered me a hand. “Really.”

I took his hand and he helped me up. We both stood there close together, and I got lost in his eyes again. The moonlight made them look like silver pools that were easy to drown in.

“Esmerelda…”

Luna’s voice shook me from the moment, and I backed up. She stared up at me as if she was mad at me. I looked back at Ian. A small smile played on his lips.
What is with me?
Jarak was probably worried about me and here I was, staring at his brother. Guilt formed inside my heart.

“Luna, you’re a kill joy,” Ian said before turning around and started walking.

I let out a deep breath and followed him. Afraid he’d leave me behind. “Hey Ian.”

“Yes Princess.”

I resisted the urge to argue his annoying pet name for me and continued. “Can you please do me a favor and call Jarak? Let him know I’m okay. I left my cell with my bags at the hotel. Oh! And can you call my mom and have her grab my stuff from the hotel? Ailaina will be pretty mad if I don’t tell her that I’m okay, and then she’ll never get the location of that dang tomb.”

“Sure. Why not. I love to be the messenger.” His sarcasm rolled out thick.

“Thanks.” I stayed close behind him, almost wanting to grab his hand to stay with him but restrained myself.

– Ian –

I watched as Esmerelda fixed the pillows on one of the beds in the hotel room. Her long red hair hung freely down her back. I wanted to run my hands through it, and feel its thickness run through my fingers. She sat down and stretched as she yawned. I couldn’t help but smile at her.

Every time I saw her, my heart still raced. I couldn’t let her or anyone I knew about how I’d dreamt of her, even before meeting her. It killed me every time I saw her with my brother, but she was probably better off with him anyway. I shook my head trying to clear my thoughts. My dreams made me feel as if I would find love, but now I just think the universe teased me. Things I saw in them couldn’t possibly happen now that she was with Jarak. My heart ached for me to touch her as I once had in my dreams.

I looked away. It was too painful. I opened my cell phone and pretended to dial Jarak’s number. There was no way I would tell him that I found her. Not yet. I wanted some time alone with her before I had to give her back to him.

I held the phone up to my ear. “Hey. It’s me. I got her.” I paused, letting her think he talked on the other end. “Yeah, she’s fine but tired, so we’re going to get some sleep then call tomorrow and see what Ailaina finds out.” I paused again for good measure. “Yeah. Bye.” I pretended to end the call on my touchscreen.

“Was that Jarak?” She looked at me with her eyes softening.

I bit my tongue before answering. “Yeah, he said not to worry and get some sleep. He’ll see you soon.”

She slumped a little. “He didn’t want to talk?”

“He’s gonna call your dad and let him know. They were all worried that’s all.”

“Okay. So after you call my mom, you wanna watch TV? Maybe there’s a good movie on or something.” She scooted back up against the headboard and crossed her legs, relaxing on the bed.

I nodded, wishing I could watch it next to her. “Yeah we can do that.”

I fumbled with my phone. I hated lying to her, but I just couldn’t stop from wanting this time alone. “Adonia, it’s me.” I paused. “Yeah she’s fine just tired. We’re gonna sleep and then we’ll call in the morning so we’ll know where to go. She also wants to know if you’ll get her stuff from the hotel when you leave.” One more pause. “Okay, sounds good, bye.” I turned my phone off. I didn’t want anyone to find us yet.

I looked up at her. She watched me intently. “Something wrong Princess?”

She scrunched her face. “I can’t hear Maztic. Is that normal if we are far apart?”

I got up from the little chair and walked over, sitting next to her on the bed. I was afraid to hope what that meant. “Can you hear Luna and Dregan?”

She nodded. “Yes, it’s just Maztic that I can’t hear. Is he okay?”

“As far as I know. Maybe you’re just tired.” I wanted to reach out and touch her, reassure her, but I didn’t. I got up and went to the other bed instead. Stretching out.

“Yeah, maybe,” she whispered.