Page 51 of Ensnared
I find the flashlight first and turn it on with a gasp. Its bright beam blinds me at first, so I point it away from me and blink until the spots disappear from my eyes. Then I search for the phone and breathe a sigh of relief when I find it. For a dreadful moment, I worry it’s locked with a pass code or a thumbprint scan, but it’s an older model, and Aiden obviously didn’t think anyone would dare mess with his phone. I find Jack’s number in the menu and press dial.
It rings and rings without answer. I shiver and sob, then locate Ty’s name and try again. No answer from him either. Then I remember how Aiden behaved earlier today. They probably want nothing to do with him at the moment.
I open the message app and type out a clumsy text with my left hand.
It’s Skye. Hurt. Pls call.
I send it off into the ether, hoping Jack will see it soon. If he doesn’t, I’ll have to try the other villagers in Aiden’s phone, which will mean exposing at least some of what’s going on. Why else would we be stumbling through the woods at night? They’d take one look at Aiden, their clan leader, and see that I’d done something terrible to him.
I remember my bracelets then. I’m not wearing them, and given how agitated I am, I could fry the phone and the flashlight at any moment. Then I’d be stranded in the dark, and Jack would have no way of contacting me. I pat my pockets and pull out the pair, but there’s no way I can put a bracelet on my injured wrist. Just the one will have to do for now. I slip it over my left hand and hope for the best.
Seconds later, Aiden’s phone trills in my hand, startling me. It’s Jack.
“Yes?” I answer, and I’m kind of proud at how level-headed I sound.
“Skye! Where are you? What’s going on?”
I want to remain calm and collected, but I’m in pain, and my adrenaline crashes hard the moment I hear his voice. I curl up, put my forehead to my knees, and weep silently, already knowing everything will be okay.
“Skye? You’re freaking me out. Where are you?”
“Put her on speaker,” Ty says from the background, and then, louder, “Skye, are you hurt? You have to tell us where you are, baby, or we can’t come get you.”
There’s some shuffling. “We can try to track your scent, but you’ve been all over this place,” Jack calls. “We can find you much faster if you give us a good idea of where you went.”
“And where’s Aiden?” Ty demands. “Is he hurt?”
It’s the thought of Aiden, lying alone in the dark forest, that snaps me back to myself. “Yeah,” I croak. “Sorry. We, um, went out on the path behind the last cabin, then left it, turned right, and went straight through the forest for…ten minutes. Maybe fifteen.”
“Are you still inside the fence?” Jack asks, his voice sharp.
“Yes,” I reply. With every logical question they ask me, my panic recedes. If they can be calm and competent, so can I. “I broke my wrist, and Aiden is too weak to walk. We left the phone outside my destruction range, so I had to go back for it. I couldn’t carry Aiden,” I explain, guilt threatening to swamp me.
“Of course not,” Jack says. “Listen. Do you have a flashlight?”
I peer down at it. “Yes.”
“Keep it on. We’ll find you,” he assures me.
Ty adds, “And don’t hang up. I want to hear you talking to me all the while.”
I sit back against the birch tree, leaning wearily on the trunk. Now that the adrenaline has worn off, I realize how exhausted I am—not just from the pain but from the work, the swimming excursion, and from trudging through the woods with Aiden. Then there’s the added issue of my magic. I don’t know whether I used exclusively Aiden’s tonight or a combination of both.
I need those freaking books. If Alice wasn’t so hostile toward me, I’d have asked her for more than just my copies of the grimoires. Maybe I could find something online. Auction houses sometimes sell witchy books without even knowing what treasure they have. Now that I’ll be getting a significant payment for my work here, I could even afford to bid. But the chances of getting exactly the right book are slim.
“Are you still there?” Ty’s voice filters through the speakers. “We’re passing the last cabins now, so we should be with you in ten minutes or so.”
“And I’m still here,” I say. “With my flashlight on.”
“In a couple of minutes, wave it around a little, okay? I’m not sure which way you’re facing,” Jack instructs.
I don’t wait that long. With a labored groan, I get to my feet. My butt is cold anyway, and I don’t think it would do me much good if my muscles get all stiff. Keeping close to the birch tree, I turn in a slow circle, shining the light into the trees.
A pair of eyes glints at me from the darkness.
I shriek and drop the phone. The beam of the flashlight jumps erratically, bobbing up and down.
“Skye!”
