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“When do you suppose we should tell them?” I asked Celia as they disappeared into the forest. I felt Artie come up behind me and leaned his head into my back.
“About what?” Celia asked. She peered into the darkness and we watched as Azolata stepped out of the treeline.
“That the Ascendancy killed their parents too,” I said.
Artie sighed.
“I would wait on that,” Azolata said and patted me on the shoulder. He leaned against the railing of the porch and glanced the way that Lou and Dante left.
“Why?” I asked.
"Because Dante doesn't know the true meaning of his strength and Lou is more likely to take out innocent people if his emotions get the best of him. Let them join the pack, officially, first and when the time comes, you will tell them," Azolata said.
“When is the right time to tell them that the same people that killed our parents brutally murdered theirs?” Artie asked.
“Humans are fickle things. I can’t answer that.”
I frowned at him. “Are they human?”
“I can’t answer that either.”
“You are a fountain of information.”
“It’s been said.”
“Enough. We have to plan. We have to figure out what our next step is,” Celia said and turned on her heel to head back inside. She opened the doors to our father’s old office and stepped inside.
The town center was in the middle, with the marble fountain that always looked a little out of place. The rest of the town fanned out from there; the hospital in the northeast corner, the elementary and high school in the southeast corner, the police station in the southwest corner and the college in the northwest corner. Between those four points and the town center was a myriad of residential and commercial areas. The forest was thick beyond the four landmarks and it even invaded the town at certain spots.
It was often the reverse of humans invading forest land out here; the forest fought back and invaded us just as much. Unless you grew up here, it was often hard to tell which was which or where things were. The streets twisted and turned in a manner that seemed designed to confuse visitors but made perfect sense to residents.
Although to be fair, Glenwood Lock wasn't a tourist mecca.
“We should find their newest homes,” I said and pulled a bright red pin that we used to mark the Catholic church where Father Timothy lived and worked out of.
“Let’s put a question at the college,” Artie suggested.
I pulled a yellow pin on the dorms near the college.
“She will be bringing in more people. That’s what they always do in the beginning,” Celia said.
“How many were at the meeting this morning?” I asked and pulled a piece of paper from the desk.
“Ten that were present,” Celia said and tapped her foot. She seemed to be thinking hard on something that she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around.
“What?” I said.
Celia glanced at Azolata who was seated in a large leather chair. He gestured to her as though to say, It’s your decision.
“She gave us five days to find out what the magic was and where it went to and give up the people that it found a home in,” she finally said.
“Oh,” I said.
“Fuck,” Artie said.
*
THE NEXT MORNING, WHEN I woke up, I felt like I was going to vomit. When I got the courage to open my eyes, the light was blurry and I thought that I was going to faint again. I felt cool air brush past my cheek, saw blurry images rushing past me.
“Okay, we’re almost there,” Eli whispered.
This was obviously a dream. A wet dream in which Eli appeared in pajama pants and a black tank top, carrying me from my warm bed into the cold woods where the duende watched and pointed him in the right direction and clicked at us. I was touched, they sounded so concerned.
“You with me? Say you are because Artie said that if you weren't, I was in trouble and he and Azolata are working on something to help you right now," Eli encouraged.
“Bwlrgh,” I replied.
“I’ll take that,” he said.
He was running, I realized, running as fast as he could and I wondered where Dante was for a brief moment before he stopped and I did almost puke on him.
“Dante didn’t know the way,” he said.
I felt the stone circle this time instead of seeing it. It was like when I had a fever and my mom would put a cool washcloth on my forehead. Probably didn’t help me physically but it sure did feel good.
Eli put me down gently on the dark soil and the duende were gathered the same as last time. I saw one hanging from the band of his sweatpants, watching me with dark, concerned eyes.
“You can’t hurt us. You don’t have to hold back,” Eli reminded me.
I tried to breathe but my throat was closing and it felt like my back was on fire. I wanted to go back to that first night and drink until I couldn’t move and we were forced to stay in those shitty dorms. I turned so that my face was in the dirt and for a moment, the chattering of the duende increased but all I could see was the black soil and all I could hear was the ringing from the trees increasing until I wanted to scream and beg it to stop.
It was too much to bear for one person. Whoever chose me for this task had gotten it all wrong and here was where it ended. Here was where it all went dark and stayed dark.
“Hey. It’s okay. I’m here. We’re all here. I’m not going to let it take you. But you have to let it go,” Eli whispered in my ear. His fingers laced into mine and I stared at his strong fingers wrapped around mine. If Eli, one of the strongest people I had come across, thought I could do this, then maybe I should listen to him. The magic was pounding in my head, wrapping itself around my throat, killing me all over again.
I let it all go.
This time, when I came to, I was facedown in the dirt, and one of the duende was peering closely at me. When it clicked at me, it was slow and questioning.
“Yeah, I don’t know either, buddy. I thought the tattoo was supposed to help too,” I groaned and rolled over. When I did, I came into contact with something warm and I remembered very suddenly that Eli was the one who brought me out here.
I sat up and my head swam and I looked down at him. His eyes were closed and he was very, very still.
I reached out a hand and he whispered, “Don’t touch me. Don’t move. I think I died.”
“Me too,” I confessed but poked him anyway.
He grunted and swatted my hand away.
“Really, are you okay?” I asked.
“That was... a lot.”
“Tell me about it.”
“It kind of hurt.”
“Sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
We fell silent.
“Why didn’t Celia come?” I asked and held a hand out to one of the duende. It placed a fierce looking spear into the ground and touched my hand. Satisfied with whatever it found, it climbed up my shoulder and began to pull on my hair. “What is it with these guys and hair?”
“She's out looking for where the Ascendancy might be hiding. They are tidy folk. I'll let you figure out why they are always after your hair," Eli said and sat up with a groan.
“Artie?” I asked.
“He woke me up and sent me to you. He and Azolata are working on something else for you, to help you," Eli said. He slowly climbed to his feet, wincing as he went.
“That guy needs a nickname,” I remarked as Eli pulled me to my feet. I groaned.
“Who? Azolata?”
I nodded and brushed off my pants.
“Risk your own neck,” he muttered and we shuffled out of the forest. The duende on my shoulder pulled my hair to the right and I went where he directed, so he could leap off of me and land on a nearby boulder. I waved. He waved back.
“This isn’t the last circle we came to,” I noted.
“No. There are a couple dozen of these, Artie says. He set them up for himself as a kid, as a way to protect himself.”
“Protect himself?”
“I mean, he’s my kid brother but that doesn’t mean I know what he is talking about half the time.”
I laughed and then stopped. I turned around and listened as the wind began to die off but ran through my hair anyway. The ground shifted uneasily underneath my feet, even though we didn’t move.
“What’s wrong?” Eli asked.
“There’s something-” I said and turned once more.
I felt Eli grasp my shoulder and jerk me away only a split second before I heard the shot ring out. The boulder that I was standing by splintered and I felt the shards pierce my cheek just as another shot rang out.
Eli pulled me against a tree and pushed me up against it, pinning me between him and the tree. I looked up at him, overwhelmed by the sudden shift in mood. He looked down at me and opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but no sound came out.
Another shot ran out.
That’s when I felt the warmth and watched as Eli’s face drained of color.
“They shot me,” he muttered and I could feel his blood on my arm. I saw that it was pulsing from a hideous wound high on his left shoulder.
“No,” I said, matter of fact, even as Eli leaned harder into me and then began to slump to the ground.
“No, this isn’t happening,” I informed him, even as he fell to his knees and then to his side.
“Fucking- cinder,” he gasped.
There was another shot and it was too close, far too close.
I put my hands over the wound on Eli’s shoulder as his eyes began to close.
There were no phones, not way out here. Not that I could find my way out even if I wanted to.
“Run,” Eli ordered.
“No. Not leaving you here,” I said.
His mouth opened and he might have been trying to argue with me, but instead, he coughed and I felt the warm splatter of blood on my face. I jerked back but then returned to his side.
I looked up and around. Not even the duende were here with me now. I felt the panic rising inside of me, but with that, I felt a kind of rage that I wasn't familiar with. The wind above us gusted and the angrier I got, the harder it blew.
There was another shot and I ducked over Eli’s shoulder, trying to protect him from anything else. The rage subsided and it was replaced with desperation.
I needed help, but there was nothing out here to help us.
Then I heard a whisper of something and remembered that these woods were here to protect us as much as they were to teach me.
“Protect us,” I begged. “Please, someone, something, protect us.”
I bent my head and put it on Eli’s chest where I could hear the rattle of his breath in his chest and it felt so close, close enough for me to touch.
And really, if you thought about it, it was such a small rattle. Nothing, really, for his body to repair. It would be easy. He was already better than most at healing himself and I knew that this was within his power too.
He could heal from this, I was completely confident. I imagined the vessels repairing themselves, the blood going back to where it belonged, which was not in his lungs, and the bullet being pushed out of the terrible hole that tore through his rather incredible body.
No, this wasn’t where Eli ended. He wouldn’t die here, not in this forest, not with me so close at hand and his siblings so far away. He had so many adventures to go on yet. He had children to raise, people to love, and one special person to love for all his days.
I wouldn’t let that be taken from him.
It wasn’t right.
It wasn’t time.
When he took a deep breath, I knew I was right. I knew he would be just fine.