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Camryn
The further we got in the woods, the more frustrated I became. I had no idea what we could have been looking for, and so far, I hadn’t spotted anything that was even slightly gold in color.
A thought dawned on me then. I turned to Ace, unable to hide the worry that had crossed my face. “I just thought of something.”
“Me, too!” Ace replied.
“Oh. Well, you go first,” I told him. Maybe his idea was better than mine.
“So, I’m thinking some bacon would be really good right about now. And some eggs. Do you like eggs?” He paused, as if considering it himself. “I don’t think I like eggs all that much, but they go really well with bacon. Just like peanut butter and jelly. I hate jelly. It’s like smooshed up fruit that drowned in sugar or something. But you can’t have peanut butter without jelly. Unless you have honey and bananas. If you have honey and bananas, then you can forget all about the jelly.”
“How can you even be thinking about your stomach at a time like this?” I snapped, rolling my eyes at him. How had I even gotten stuck with him as my partner?
“My stomach. It won’t stop growling,” he explained. “Anyway, what were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that we might be looking in all of the wrong places. The clue said that whatever we’re looking for is in the woods, but what if it’s really well hidden?” I asked.
“So, what are you suggesting?” Ace asked, his face full of confusion.
“What if what we’re looking for isn’t even above the ground? What if it’s buried?”
His butterscotch colored eyes lit up. “Like buried treasure, you mean?”
“Yeah, sort of. I don’t know that it would actually be treasure, though.”
“But it sounds like it could be treasure,” Ace insisted. “It is gold, after all.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” I sighed as a realization set in. If I was right – if whatever we were looking for was buried – then that also meant that we weren’t going to find it so easily. These woods spanned miles upon miles. For us to dig up each and every area of ground to find whatever it was... Well, it could have taken weeks. Months, even. There was no way we were going to find it overnight. And it didn’t seem likely that we would find it before midnight.
Then again, we were werewolves. If anyone could dig through dirt fast, it had to have been us. We had more strength than humans did.
“I have an idea,” Ace said then.
I rolled my eyes at him. “Don’t tell me it’s that you want sausage and toast with your bacon and eggs.”
His face twisted as he considered it for a moment. “I mean, that does sound really good,” he admitted. “But this time, my idea wasn’t about food.”
“Oh? What was it about then?” I asked, unable to hide my surprise.
“What if we got a metal detector? If whatever we’re looking for is actual gold, then the metal detector would help us find it.”
“That’s... actually a really good idea,” I admitted. Way better than digging up every inch of ground in Devil’s Falls to find what we were looking for. “But where would we find a metal detector?”
“I have a metal detector,” a voice said from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder to find that Demetrius and my mom weren’t too far behind us. “Do you have it on you?”
“Yeah, I bring it everywhere,” he replied with a nod.
“Why?” I asked. It seemed like such a strange thing to pack along for this trip.
“You never know when you’ll find a map that will lead you to a pirate’s treasure,” he replied with a straight face. When I just stared back at him, he laughed. “Metal detecting is one of my hobbies, Camryn. I know this may be hard to believe, but it actually helps me de-stress. My metal detector is in the car. I can go get it right now.”
“Okay,” I agreed with a nod. Once Demetrius had taken off in the direction we had just come from, I turned to my mom. “I think whatever we’re looking for could be buried under the ground.”
“It’s possible. We should be as thorough as possible.” My mom paused for a moment and then glanced at me. “Camryn, how are you holding up? We haven’t had the chance to speak much since you were taken.”
“I’m... okay,” I replied with a shrug. “I’m just nervous about Jax.”
Ace took a few steps away from us then, giving us some privacy to talk.
“We all are, honey.” She rubbed my shoulder. “We’re going to win this game, though. We’re going to get him back. It might not be easy, but between all of us, we should be able to do it.”
“I know, Mom.” I knew that if anyone could do it, it was us.
“I also feel sort of bad for Josephine,” I admitted.
“Josephine?” My mom’s eyebrows shot up.
“She was the soul that was living inside of me. Natalia did something – well, it wasn’t really Natalia, exactly. A demon sucked Josephine’s soul out of my body,” I explained. I paused. “I know this probably sounds crazy, but I want to try to find her soul.”
“Oh, Camryn. It’s not your soul to worry about,” my mom said with the wave of a hand.
“Mom, you don’t understand. This girl was forced to keep her soul inside of my body so that her father would never find her and kill her. In some weird way, it almost feels like she’s a part of me. I feel like I need to at least try to do something to save her now that Hans has found her.”
“I understand how you feel, honey,” Mom replied. “But right now, you need to focus all of your attention and energy on solving this game and getting Jax back.”
“I know,” I agreed. “Jax comes first, obviously. But once we get him back”—If we get him back, I thought to myself— “I want to at least try to do something to help Josephine. It only seems right.”
“Let’s worry about that crossing that bridge once we get to it,” my mom said, touching my arm lightly.
I stared into her face. Her doubt was written all over it. “You don’t believe we’re going to get him back... do you?”
“I don’t know, Camryn,” she admitted. “I just don’t know.”
As she wrapped her arms around me, embracing me in a big hug, I knew that she was probably thinking the same thing I was.
If we didn’t get Jax back – if we didn’t find him – this would be one of the last hugs that we would ever share with one another.