Chapter Twenty-Four

 

Adrian

Close to two weeks had passed since Scarlett threw her tea at her window and chased away Adrian as a wolf. He had hoped she wouldn’t. He had hoped that, even in the form he hated more than anything, he could stay close to her.

But she had yelled him away.

Adrian had packed up his stall and hidden all of his belongings deep in the woods, where Scarlett nor any other passerby would ever dare to tread. He had paid his bill for the room he’d barely used in Mac’s tavern.

And then he’d left Rowan and its damnable forest until he could be sure he was out of reach of Heidi’s curse.

The relief of seeing the moon with his own eyes was overwhelming, even though he had so desperately, viciously wished to be a wolf the day Heidi had outmanoeuvred him. He spent a few days in the nearest village, sleeping away most of his time in order to catch up on the hours he had lost. The rest of the time he merely lay there and mulled over what to do.

His original instinct to grab Scarlett and flee had been wrong. She would have found out what happened to her family and she would be distraught. She would hate him. She’d never want to see him again.

But most of all, Scarlett would lose her brothers and her step-mother, and Adrian wouldn’t be able to live with that.

So it was without any sort of plan whatsoever that he warily crept back into the woods of Rowan. That night, however, he did not transform.

Good, he thought with some satisfaction. Heidi has at least reverted my curse to what it was. Or is not aware that I am back.

But the full moon was approaching; by his measure Adrian had just four days before he would have to transform for three nights, following the rules of his original curse. That didn’t leave him much time at all, given that Scarlett would not listen to him if he were to approach her in public, and whilst she was in her grandmother’s house or with Sam he couldn’t speak to her, either.

Which left grabbing hold of her when she walked through the woods, alone.

Just like how we first met, he thought wryly.

And then…then he’d have to hope Scarlett believed him. He had no idea what to do.

It was with some surprise that Adrian found himself hiding in the tree-line by Heidi Duke’s house. He knew he couldn’t stop her right now, unprepared as he was. The best Adrian would be able to do is to try and prepare a curse or spell from what he had in his hidden, packed away stall, but until he was sure he had stopped what the woman was planning to do to Scarlett’s family then Adrian’s hand was stayed.

Adrian noticed, then, that he wasn’t entirely alone. For Sam was in the garden, though he wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing – he had been digging the same patch of earth over and over for at least five minutes. No, he was carefully watching Heidi Duke through the window, which was ajar.

Good on you, Sam! Adrian felt like whooping. Clearly the boy was smarter than Adrian had ever given him credit for.

It seemed as if Heidi was humming or singing or talking to herself, for Sam’s face was scrunched up in concentration as he listened to what she said. Adrian couldn’t hear, but by the growing horror creeping into Sam’s face he realised it wasn’t anything good. But it was what Adrian needed him to hear.

Sam’s complexion had gone pale and sickly, as if he might throw up, when he spied Adrian in his hiding spot. He froze immediately; what would Sam do now? The young man mouthed silent, slow words at him, over and over again until Adrian worked out what he was trying to say.

What do we do?

Adrian ushered him over with a wave of his hand. But Sam was in such a rush to comply – so relieved to be told what to do – that he knocked over a bucket and tripped on the long handle of a shovel as he tried to exit the garden. He made it halfway to Adrian when Heidi appeared at the front door.

Adrian only just managed to conceal himself behind the trees, though he felt like a wretched coward leaving Sam alone.

“Samuel, I didn’t realise you were here,” Heidi said, her voice sickly sweet and sing-song.

Adrian didn’t have to see Sam to know what kind of face he was making. “I was j-just finishing up, m-ma’am,” he stuttered. “I’m going to head back to my father’s mill, now. He needs me this afternoon.”

But Sam knew he wasn’t going to be leaving, just as surely as Adrian and Heidi knew. Adrian’s stomach twisted in trepidation as Heidi laughed.

“Oh, I don’t think so, dear,” she said. “Going by your face you heard me singing to the dolls. Magic is such vocal work, you see. I can never do it when Red is around. Or you. I thought I had been so careful.” She sighed heavily. “I was fond of you, Sam. But I won’t let you tell Scarlett, and I know you will.”

Sam bolted. In the opposite direction of Adrian he bolted, straight through the trees.

But Heidi was already weaving her words into a spell, and with a silvery pulse of light the hurried, frightened sound of Sam’s footsteps disappeared without a trace.

Humming to herself in satisfaction, Heidi returned to her house without checking to see what had become of Sam. But Adrian wanted to know. He hadn’t recognised her spell, after all. And if Sam were dead then Heidi would have taken care of the body, to ensure Scarlett didn’t find him.

Which meant he was alive…in one form or another.

Adrian stalked through the trees until he reached where he’d seen the light originate from. He didn’t need to search to find where Sam had gone or what had become of him.

For Sam stood in front of him, broad and tall and strong as he always had been.

Except, now, it wasn’t just Adrian Wolfe who lived up to his namesake.

Heidi had turned Sam into a birch tree.

Adrian wanted to laugh in sickening, frightening glee, as if he had lost his wits entirely, but he held it back with a hand across his mouth as if keeping in bile.

We’re doomed, he thought as he collapsed against the silver tree that was Sam, and cried. Adrian hadn’t wept in years.

“I always thought I’d cry over a woman,” he whispered to the tree, not knowing nor caring if it could hear him. “Not over a miller’s boy. Though I guess I’m doing both.”

He didn’t know what to do. Adrian had no plan, no allies, and, increasingly, no time. He needed something – some irrefutable proof – to show Scarlett, to make her believe in everything Adrian told her. He glared up at the sun glaring back at him in the sky. Even though it was May it still held little heat, as if it were reflecting the current state of Adrian’s heart.

But then it struck him, looking up there in the sky. Something so ridiculous that even Scarlett would be forced to listen to him after witnessing it.

It would be full in four days.

The moon.