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“WOLF!”
Lyric opened one eye. He heard the familiar shouting, but this time, he paid little heed.
“WOLF! THERE’S A WOLF!”
A few seconds later, Aurora rubbed her eyes, having also been roused from her sleep. “What’s that?”
“St. John’s grandson, remember?” Lyric asked with a yawn. “That little liar. If he was my grandson, I’d roast him over a spit!”
Lyric’s yawn was contagious; Aurora yawned too. “If he was your grandson, it would make a lot of sense.”
“What? And why is that?”
Aurora tapped him on the nose. “Familial resemblance.”
“WOLF! EVERYONE, WAKE UP! THERE’S A WOLF!”
Lyric sat up and cradled the back of his neck. “All of this sleeping on the floor hasn’t been gentle on me.”
“A crick in your neck again?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“What time is it?”
“I have no idea. But it’s still dark outside.”
“Lay back down. It’s too early to wake up.”
One minute, they were conversing as casually as ever. The next minute, their hut burst into a million pieces, erupting in a hailstorm of straw. Aurora ducked, shielding her eyes from the whirling hay.
“What’s going on?!” Lyric shrieked. “What happened to our house?! Why did it just—”
His gaze was pulled to the left, where he found his answer. A giant wolf, much larger than a bear, was wreaking havoc on the town. This time, St. John’s grandson wasn’t lying.
“Cerberii!”
Lyric was on his feet in a second. “Cer-WHAT-ii?”
“Cerberii!” Aurora leapt to her feet and grabbed Lyric’s hand. “That’s the wolf that attacked me in the woods!”
“What? You got attacked by a wolf?”
“Yes!” Aurora shouted “I was telling you about it last night! Weren’t you listening?”
“Uh, I suggest that we not stand around chatting about the wolf. I suggest that we run into the woods and leave the wolf to our corpulent cronies.”
Aurora might have agreed with him, had her eyes not been drawn to the terrifying scene that was unfolding. She spotted the little girl from yesterday—the girl who delivered the basket—just a few feet away from the wolf. Cerberii wriggled his claws as he closed the gap between them.
“Greta!” A familiar voice shouted. “Greta, run!”
Laurie was trying to warn the little girl, who finally recognized her predicament and made an effort to flee. But she wasn’t fast enough. The wolf lashed out at her, ripping the bottom of her dress with its jagged claws. Aurora hoped its claws were making contact with fabric, not flesh.
Greta was running in their direction, and so was the wolf. Aurora grabbed the sleeve of Lyric’s shirt and tried to encourage him to take flight, but he did something uncharacteristically courageous. Shaking off Aurora’s grip, he ran toward Greta, scooped her off her feet and tucked the little girl under his arm. As small as she was, he knew there was no way she could escape from the wolf on her tiny legs.
“LYRIC!” Aurora watched in horror as the wolf swung a massive paw at Lyric’s head, narrowly missing its target.
“Aurora, go!” Lyric shouted at her. “Go, go!”
Aurora spun around and made a dash for the woods, which was not quite the safe haven she was hoping for. Cerberii was following her; she could hear the wolf panting as it made its pursuit. She hoped Lyric wasn’t too far behind, but she didn’t dare to look over her shoulder. What if the wolf got him? For some reason, she felt as if her entire world would end if something bad happened to Lyric.
She ran until her legs no longer felt like her own. She ran until her cheeks were stung by the frigid morning breeze. She ran until her heart was overflowing with fear—not fear for herself, but fear for Lyric.
Then she heard his voice.
“Keep going!” he shouted at her. “I think we’re losing it!”
Aurora followed his advice. After a few more minutes of sprinting, they reached a small thatched cottage in the middle of the woods. When Lyric caught up to her, he was still carrying Greta, who was tucked under his arm like a small satchel. As soon as he lowered her to the ground, he doubled over and gasped for air. Aurora lay against the side of the cottage and swiped the cold sweat from her brow.
“Do you think it’s still coming after us?” she asked.
“I... I don’t... don’t know,” Lyric murmured. He was still in the process of catching his breath.
“Don’t you think we should find someplace to hide?”
“That might be a good idea.” He eyed the cottage for a few seconds. “I’d knock on the door, but we’ve had some bad experiences with cottages, so—”
“You mean talking bears?”
Lyric nodded.
“Don’t be silly, Lyric. What are the odds that that would happen again?”
“Pretty damn high, if you take into account the village of talking pigs. And we were just chased by a gigantic wolf, might I add.”
Neither of them noticed that Greta was clinging to Lyric’s waist. The little girl must have deemed him a hero.
“Well, right now, I’d take talking bears over a giant wolf. Who knows? Maybe some sweet little old lady will answer the door?” Disregarding Lyric’s reservations, Aurora tapped on the cottage door. A few seconds later, a little old lady did open the door. Her head was a mass of downy white curls, and her face was kindly and wrinkled.
“Yeeees?” the old woman answered in a sing-song voice.
“Um...” Aurora decided to do the speaking. If she let Lyric explain, she knew he would find some way to make a mess of it. “Hi. Um... we were wondering if we could take shelter here for a few minutes. There’s a wolf in the woods. A big wolf.”
“Ahhh... yeeeeees. I’ve heard about that,” the old woman croaked. “Do come in, do come in.” As she ushered them through the doorway, the smile never left her face.
“We had a pretty dangerous encounter with the wolf,” Aurora continued to explain. She finally noticed that Greta was clinging to Lyric, who was practically dragging the little girl with him as he stepped into the cottage.
“Oh, dear! That must have been terrible!”
“It was!”
“And this little girl? Is she your daughter?”
“What?! You mean... OUR daughter? As in, mine and his?”
“Yeeeeees. That’s what I meant.”
“No! No! No way!” Aurora adamantly shook her head. When she stole a peek at Lyric, she was surprised to see him grinning.
“I hope I didn’t offend you, dear. I didn’t think she was your daughter. I didn’t think you could have a daughter as old as that... what is she, six? Seven?”
“I have no idea,” Aurora answered. “I don’t know anything about her, except her name. I think her name is Greta.” She looked to the little girl for confirmation, but she didn’t nod or shake her head or anything of the sort. In fact, Greta buried her face against Lyric’s shirt.
“Well...” The old woman patted the top of Greta’s carrot-colored head. “Would Greta like an apple?”
Greta didn’t come out of hiding, nor did she say a word.
“A shy little thing, isn’t she?” The old woman noted. Her cracked, thin, wrinkle-laden lips tried to work their way into a smile. “Your boyfriend is quiet, too.”
Aurora rolled her eyes. She didn’t have the willpower to explain, yet again, that Lyric wasn’t even close to being her boyfriend.
“Well, then.” The old lady took Aurora by the elbow and proceeded to steer her into the adjoining room—a living room that smelled like moth balls and tonic. Lyric, with Greta attached to him, followed. “Why don’t you make yourselves comfortable? Have a seat and I’ll get you some refreshments.”
Aurora sat on the sofa, which squeaked and popped when she sat. “That’s too kind of you.”
“Would you like something to drink, Aurora? Some lemonade?” the old lady asked.
“That would be great, thanks.”
“And you two?” The old woman turned her attention to Lyric and Greta, who simultaneously shook their heads.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll pass.” Lyric had to use both arms to extract Greta from his midsection before he joined Aurora on the couch. As soon as the old lady shuffled out of the room, he said, “Well, that’s odd.”
“What’s odd?”
“You mean you didn’t notice?”
“Notice what?” If he was talking about the odd smell, it was hard not to notice.
“She knew your name,” Lyric said. “You never told her your name, but she knew your name!”
“She did?!”
Lyric nodded. “Uh-huh.”
Aurora swore she could feel her heart sink. She silently chided herself for putting too much trust in strangers. “We have to get out of here.”
“What? Why?”
“We just do! We need to grab Greta and get out of this house!”
“And leave our safe haven? Why would we do that?” Lyric draped an arm across the back of the sofa, giving her the impression he wasn’t going anywhere.
“She knew my name! What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. Probably nothing. Don’t overreact. Maybe you introduced yourself and I forgot? That’s possible, right? I wasn’t really paying attention.”
“No, you’re right! I’m pretty sure I never said my name! We have to get out of here.” Aurora leapt from the sofa, grabbed both of Lyric’s arms, and tried to pull him up. “Come on!”
He begrudgingly followed her lead. “Alright, alright.”
Aurora spent the next few minutes trying to find an alternate exit, but the cottage was tiny. She had to pass through the kitchen to get out, and unless she wanted to escape through a window, she had to pass the old woman along the way. Lyric was right—she probably was overreacting, but she thought she was better safe than sorry.
Aurora motioned for Greta and Lyric to follow her, and proceeded to tiptoe into the kitchen. She hoped the old woman was hard of hearing and would not hear them pass, but that wasn’t the case. The floorboards creaked, and the old woman—who was preparing fresh-squeezed lemonade—turned around.
“Ohhhhh, no! Are you leaving already?”
“Um, yeah. Sorry. I just realized we have to be somewhere... and we don’t want to burden you.”
The old woman spoke slowly, tremulously. “It’s not a burden. I’m just a lonely old woman in the middle of the woods. I’m happy to entertain guests.”
“But we really should be going.”
“You won’t even stay for lemonade?”
Aurora shook her head. “It sounds nice, but I’ll pass. I’m really, really sorry.”
“But the wolf might still be out there!’
Lyric was already reaching for the doorknob as Aurora continued to make excuses. “I’m sure the wolf’s moved on. We’ll take our chances.” When the door opened, Aurora gasped. There was a familiar figure standing just beyond the doorway—there was no mistaking the dark robe and cavernous hood. “Noxor!”
Or so she thought. The robed wraith grabbed her around the waist and jostled her into the cottage. He shoved her with so much force, Lyric had to grab her around the waist to stop her from falling.
Aurora shouted at the old lady. “Quick! We need to get out of here! This is not our friend!”
“Oh? But he’s my friend.” The old woman croaked. “I was hoping we could do this the easy way. Unfortunately, it cannot be so.”
When the old woman grinned, the lines around her mouth started to vanish. The deep wrinkles on her forehead seemed to melt back into her skin, and her wiry white hair softened, changed pigment, and grew to the middle of her back. Her burgundy hair was a stark contrast to her pale ivory skin; her searing eyes were reminiscent of a snake’s.
The frail old lady was gone, and a handsome woman was standing in her place.
A familiar woman.
The old lady was none other than Aurora’s aunt, Medea.