Page 77 of Tangled Fates

The woods, his breathless voice said. I’m in the woods, but I tripped. I tripped, and slid, and crashed into something. I’m having a hard—hard time mo—moving.

My voice squeaked out. “He’s—he’s hurt. In—in the woods.”

“Push his voice to us,” Dean said.

I furrowed my brow. “What?”

Someone took my hand, I assumed it was Dean, and they squeezed it tightly. “Push your magic toward us the way you did when we were in the woods. You teleported us, for crying out loud. Maybe if you push your magic our way, we can hear him, too.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Hudson murmured in my ear.

I didn’t know how the hell I had done that before, but I wasn’t about to tell them that. So, instead, I closed my eyes and focused. I girded my gut, pushing like I was about to shit myself as my entire body began to shiver.

Wolfy, if you’re there, I could really use some help.

NOTED!

And as a wave of energy burst forth from beneath my skin, I opened my eyes to find the four of us cloaked in some sort of… bubble.

A hazy, sparkling, cloudy—yet see-through—looking bubble.

“What the fuck?” I whispered.

Guys, can you hear me?

Hudson was the first to answer. “Brody, tell us exactly where you are. What do you see?”

Darkness, his voice choked out. It’s so dark.

Dean shook his head. “It’s three in the afternoon. Why is it dark where he is?”

“Are you sure you’re not in a cave or something?” Levi asked.

No, no cave. Just dark, and pain. I feel leaves. Maybe a rock, at my foot?

I hopped up from the chair. “We’re coming for you, okay? Do you see anything else around you? Really try for me, Brody. There are a lot of woods that surround this place.”

Hearing him grunting and groaning shattered my heart. But then, he offered up one of the best pieces of information we could have received.

The creek! I hear the creek! In the woods, Raven! You remember the creek?

I smiled as I looked around at the guys. “Oh, do I ever. You keep yourself alive, Brody. We’re coming for you right now.”

And as the bubble popped, spraying the air with glitter that twinkled to the attic floor and disappeared into thin air, I charged back toward the ladder.

“Come on, you guys,” I said as I hopped down, “we’ve got a cousin to save.”

26

RAVEN

The second we poured out of the house, all of us shifted. We leapt off the porch as humans and landed onto the ground as wolves. And together, we took off.

Everyone, keep an eye out. There’s still much we don’t understand about this scenario.

I hated not knowing. I hated not having the answers. I hated not knowing why Brody had been taken, or where they had been holding him hostage, or what their greater plan was in all of this. The ground beneath our feet thundered with our strides. Animals scurried out of the way and birds took to the sky, cawing out into the world the warning that we were on our way. Wind whipped through my fur, standing it on end as the trickling sound of the creek finally reached my ears.

I pivoted in its general direction and lunged forward, striding toward the head of our brigade.

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