by Elle Scott
Leila turned to find Kiko rushing toward her. She threw a pointed finger to a tent behind her. “Sadie is all set.”
Nodding, Leila asked, “Is she okay?”
Summer emerged from the tent, holding the T-shirt Leila had dampened earlier. She dropped it on the ground and moved to the fire, rubbing her hands together.
“She’s resting,” Kiko replied. “We should do the same. God knows when the mark will appear and then we’ll have a fight on our hands.”
Checking her phone for the time, Leila said, “It’s only four o’clock.”
“And how much sleep have you gotten in the last three days?” Kiko said. Without waiting for Leila’s reply, she gave a sly wink, and added, “That’s what I thought.”
It sounded a lot like an insinuation. Leila crunched her teeth into her lips, realizing that Kiko knew what her and Riley had done that morning. She leaned close and whispered, “Please don’t tell Kale.”
“Oh god, no. He’d kill him.”
Leila waited for Kiko to laugh, but there was no jest in her tone whatsoever. Leila took a step back and peered around Kiko to where Riley and Kale sat. They seemed happy enough. Brotherly wrath had been averted, for now.
“I think maybe now isn’t the best time to be, you know, frolicking in the woods,” Kiko said.
Turning back to Kiko, Leila nodded like a jackhammer. “Yeah. I agree. Totally. Not the best time at all.”
A smile hit Kiko’s eyes. “Because it can be a distraction. And the last thing we need is you two off your game.”
“Mhm,” Leila mumbled, desperate to not be having that kind of conversation with the wife of her brother. “I get it. For sure.” Leila took a few steps back and turned her gaze to the trees. “I’ll do a perimeter check, shall I?”
“Sure. And then rest, right?”
“Rest,” Leila repeated. She peered over her shoulder, and quickly added, “That’s all. Just rest.”
Sadie
Barefoot and out of breath, Sadie ran. She didn’t know how long she’d been running for, but it felt like a while. Hours, maybe days. Days with no sleep or rest, no time to stop for a moment of peace. Stars were spotted across the darkened sky; the night was clear, well, the parts she could see of it. On either side of her, hedges—at least ten feet tall—enclosed her. She swept through long grass, following the path the hedges laid out for her. Left, right, and right again.
As she approached a T-section she slowed, noticing something she hadn’t seen before. A sign. It read:
Choose. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
Each choice had an arrow pointing in different directions.
Sadie jogged on the spot, feet blistered and aching. Don’t stop moving, she told herself, worrying that her legs would collapse at any hint of weakness. She gazed down each pathway, both identical. Did she really have to choose? Did it truly matter?
A thumping noise startled her. From the path where she came, footsteps grew louder. From the pattern of the running, four beats and a short break, she knew it wasn’t human.
“Extrovert!” she cried, turning right.
It didn’t take long to come to the next T-section with another sign slowing her. She read as she approached:
Which do you prefer, winter or spring?
“Duh, spring,” she said, following the path to the left.
The further down the path she ran, the longer the grass became. Using her hands to help her push through the knee-height reeds, she urged herself to go faster. At the next T-section, she had to clear the overgrowth away from the sign. As she did, the grass behind her rustled. She jerked her head around, but nothing was there, the grass keeping perfectly still. Heart pounding, she turned back and read the sign.
Where do you want to live, mountains or sea?
That question wasn’t so easy.
She grew up in the mountains, but all her visits to the coast gave her a sense of something else… something wonderful. Near the ocean, she felt the expansiveness of the world and herself. But all her friends were in Cedar Falls, they’d for sure answer mountains. So, she went with mountains, veering left again.
The pathway was long; a never-ending wade through long grass. She grazed the hedge with her fingers as she walked. Forever. It felt like forever.
Would there ever be an end?
As she pressed on, the grass turned to dirt. She almost fell as she came out of the reeds, like someone had pushed her from behind. From there she could see flowers blossoming from the hedge walls. Sunflowers on one side and orchids on the other.
A voice boomed, “choose.”
Sadie jumped, and then frowned. Choose? She loved both.
“Why?” she said out loud as she picked one of each and placed them behind her ears.
The earth rumbled beneath her. What once seemed like a never-ending pathway, became a crossroad. Another T-section. And along with it, another sign.
Are you True or Fallen?
“True!” Obviously.
Sadie swiveled to the right and took a step. She stopped abruptly. The path was a dead-end. She absent-mindedly lifted her hands to trace the flowers behind her ears as she scanned the area for another path. But the only way to go was with the Fallen choice.
A roar bellowed into the air and down the path, long grass moved to each side. Between the strands, rose gold eyes glowed and a tiger emerged.
Sadie swiveled on her heels. She tore down the Fallen pathway. There was no other choice.
As she ran, night turned to day, sun beaming down. The dirt beneath her feet turned to mud, sticking to her heels as she tried to move faster. An ominous growl from behind teased her.
In front of her, the hedge moved, curving in on itself creating another dead-end. A sign appeared. One that simply said:
Take off your mask.
Sadie reached for her face, feeling the lines of her jaw. “I’m not wearing a mask.”
The hedge moved closer, forcing her to step back. She turned around, hoping to find another path. But instead, she saw the tiger creeping toward her.
“I’m not wearing a mask!” she screamed at it.
The tiger leaned back on its hind legs, ready to pounce. Panicking Sadie, felt through the hedge for a gap to slip through, but the branches were too dense. As the tiger lunged for her small body, she screamed.
Sadie sprung upright, arms held out in front of her. A shrill cry that came from her own mouth, pierced her ears. Sweat poured from her forehead as she took in her surroundings.
Summer sat at the end of a tent, looking at her with furrowed brow. She touched Sadie’s knee gently and asked, “Are you okay?”
Her brain finally catching up, Sadie fell back to the pillow. She muttered, “It was just a dream.”
Summer crawled up beside her and took her hand. “Do you need anything?”
Sadie glanced at her sister’s hand. It was weird to have Summer care in that way. Weird, but nice, too.
“I’m sorry to have brought you into this crazy world,” she said, wishing that she wasn’t in it either.
Summer re-gripped Sadie’s hand. Her head shook wildly as she said, “I’m sorry you’re going through this.”
Sadie slipped her hand out of Summer’s grasp and wiped her hairline. “I’m not a very good big sister.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Summer spat. She laid down next to Sadie and threw an arm over her. “You’re the best.”
Sadie didn’t want to cry, but the tears fell anyway. The salty liquid coated her eyes, forcing them to close. And as sudden as she had woken, she felt the grip of sleep clutch her again.
Right before she drifted off to sleep, she mumbled, “This is nice.”
Leila
Leila headed out. Riley offered to go with her, but she needed time alone. His judgment was off. She could forgive Kiko for over-reacting about Sebastian and Gabby because her past made her afraid. But Riley was meant to be Gabby’s friend—he failed to see that she was still human underneath the Guardia
n. The pressure of being a clan leader had caused him to have a panic attack earlier and now it had caused him to mistrust those who were only trying to help.
After she’d ran a few miles, Leila veered around to loop back to camp. As she turned, something caught her eye. Right there, a few feet away, standing at the base of a tree was a cat.
Leila blinked a few times, just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.
Because it wasn’t just any cat. It was the gray-striped tabby that had been hanging around Cedar Falls. The very cat that had entered her house.
Its eyes met hers, two round balls of shimmering aqua. Leila half-shifted in an instant, staring at the cat with her lion’s sight. The aqua outline of a human spun on its heels, mid-length ombre hair flinging around.
“Of course,” Leila said aloud, throwing her hands in the air. “The damn cat’s a spy.”
Leila tentatively followed it, all too aware it could lead her into an ambush. By the time she reached where it was, the cat was long gone. Straining her eyes, she gazed into the dying light. A hint of aqua flashed in the distance.
As she took a step, gracefully placing the soles of her shoes without a sound, her name echoed through the forest. She halted, the noise startling her back to human form. Turning, she watched a white wolf stride toward her. When Riley reached her, she mindlessly ran her palm through the silky fur on his head.
“You’ve been gone a while,” he said, returning to human form.
Leila dropped her hand and sighed. “You really need to stop worrying about noth—” she stopped herself and glanced into the depths of the forest, where an aqua glow had been moments earlier. Correcting herself, she said, “… about me.”
Riley swallowed. He pressed his lips together and his mouth formed a smile. “Don’t think I could ever do that.”
The look on his face made her want to scream. How could he gaze at her so lovingly one moment and betray Gabby the next? She pushed her anger down, knowing there were more pressing matters at hand.
Riley’s smile turned upside down as he raked a hand through her wind-swept hair. He lifted his eyes to the treetops, shaking his head. “The Fallen are out there Leila… closer than you think. Tessa and her clan are out there. I know what she’s capable of. We can’t be lax about things.”
“You’re right.” Leila sighed. He didn’t even know just how right he was. She hated that. Swallowing her pride, she grasped his hand. “Riley. We have to move spots again.”
“Why?”
“I saw the cat.”
Confused creases appeared between his brows as he asked, “The cat?”
“The one that’s been hanging around. I saw it out here.” Leila gawked into the darkness. Her eyes widened as she faced Riley. “It was sitting on your freaking lap.”
Riley half-shifted, head darting in every direction. “Where is it?”
She knew he meant right at that moment, but Leila stepped back, recalling all the times she had seen the cat. “In the forest, when we were practicing the surge. At your house… twice. At my house when we saw Tessa.“ She threw her hands in the air. “And there you were saying, don’t shift in front of domestic animals, you’ll scare it. I would have seen who it was, truly. Not a domestic animal.”
Riley’s face dropped, realization settling in. “It sat on my freaking lap.”
“A cat?” Kiko said, eyes dancing between Leila and Riley.
“Where are we gonna go?” Riley asked, visibly tensing. “Into Oregon? Cali? Back home?”
“All right, settle down.” Kiko calmly turned to Leila. “Are you sure it was a Guardian?”
“I couldn’t get a proper look at them. But they were definitely glowing. Definitely a Guardian.” Seeing Summer leave Sadie’s tent, Leila whispered, “Do you think that cat works for the Fallen?”
“No doubt,” Kiko replied. “Smaller Guardians like cats and owls make great recons.”
“What’s happening?” Kale asked, stepping into the close huddle.
Leila let out a groan. “There’s a Guardian spying on us.”
“Just what you thought!” Kale said, looking at Kiko.
“That’s not all.” Leila swallowed. “We’d seen it before. Around Cedar Falls… at our houses.”
Kale swept his hands over his buzz cut. “Jeez, Leila.”
“These things happen,” Kiko said, reassuring Leila with a sympathetic smile. “It’s been following us, I assume. Probably even marked Sadie.”
Riley coughed once. “I thought you said it was Sebastian who marked Sadie?”
Kiko inhaled sharply. She placed her hand on Riley’s chest and said, “Can you do a quick sweep around the perimeter, we don’t want to be ambushed? We’ll start packing up here.”
Riley paused for a moment, eyes dropping to Kiko’s hand. As his head rose, a stoicism washed over his face. He nodded, shifted into his wolf, and ran. Leila watched him until she couldn’t see him anymore.
“Let’s be quick!” Kale snapped, already stomping on the smoldering fire.
Kiko spun on her heels and marched for her tent. Leila peered into the forest, trying to catch a glimpse of Riley, thinking maybe she should have gone with him.
“Leila?” Odette called, running over.
Leila let her eyes drift to Gabby, sitting against the tree with ropes wrapped around her body. Gabby leaned as far forward as she could go, worry written all over her face. Leila met Odette away from the others.
“Has something happened?” Odette asked.
Nodding Leila said, “There’s a Guardian out there. One we don’t know. We’re moving again.”
Odette clasped two hands around the back of her neck. She shook her head and turned around without saying another word. She ran to Gabby, quickly untying the ropes that bound her to the tree.
“Watch out!” Kale hollered, helping Mr. Robertson lug a massive cooler.
Leila jumped out of the way. She glanced into the forest again, lifting her palm to her heart. She and Riley were Imprints, surely she’d know if something was wrong?
The click of two fingers barely inches from her face brought Leila back to earth. Kale’s smirk came into view. He mocked, “Daydreamer. We should leave now, not in five years.”
Leila poked her tongue out and instantly felt like she was ten-years-old. She snapped her lips shut, with tongue inside, and glanced around the camp. Summer peeped through the smallest gap in a tent’s opening.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “What were they saying about someone marking Sadie?”
Leila headed over. “We’re moving again. I’m sorry.”
“You were talking about someone marking Sadie. Was it a cat?” Summer’s wide eyes, almost identical to Sadie’s, told more than she spoke.
“Yes?” Leila said the word, urging for more information.
“A stripy one. Mostly gray?” Summer asked.
“Yes! Where? When?”
“When Tessa brought us home. I saw a cat run across your lawn and into Tessa’s car. That’s kind of odd, right?”
Leila felt her heart double time. That confirmed it. Tessa did mark Sadie and the cat Guardian was going to report back to where she was.
“Kiko!” Leila cried, leaving Summer and rushing to the other side of camp.
Kiko stood on top of half a dismantled tent. She turned to Leila, puffing. “What a cruel joke, huh? Putting things up just to tear—”
“The cat’s in Tessa’s clan!” Leila interrupted.
“Well, duh,” Kiko said unsurprised. She looked behind Leila and lifted her chin. “Riley’s back.”
Riley walked toward them, raking his hands through dirty hair. Eyes wide and panicked he stumbled toward Leila. She felt his shaking hand as he grabbed her wrist and brought her closer to him.
“What is it?” Kiko asked, already searching the forest around them.
“The cat,” he said, wincing.
“You saw it. It’s a Guardian, right?” Leila urged.
“Mmm.” Riley
dropped her wrist, averting his gaze to the ground. “I know who it is.”
“Who?” Kiko asked, panic in her voice. “It’s someone from your sister’s clan isn’t it?”
“I don’t know her name.” Riley forced his eyes onto Leila’s. “I just know her face.”
Leila knew then, exactly who he was talking about. It was the girl he slept with.
Leila
Leila couldn’t say anything, she couldn’t even look at Riley. His unbrushed hair and mournful eyes were too much for her to bear. Her insides ached like he’d grabbed her heart and crushed it. She knew it wasn’t his fault, not really. But that didn’t make it better.
That cat better not show her face here, Leila thought, marching toward Riley’s car with a scrunched-up tent in her arms. Or I’ll tear her in two.
She wished she’d shifted when she first saw it in the woods, or even in Riley’s room when it made itself comfy on his lap. The tiny excuse for a cat had hissed at her, too.
“Bitch,” Leila muttered to herself.
“What’s that?” Riley asked, opening his trunk.
“Nothing,” she muttered.
“Leila, listen,” Riley said, taking the tent from Leila’s hands. He placed the tent into his trunk and turned to face her. “I know you’re not happy with me right now. You think I’m awful for agreeing to send Sebastian away and for tying Gabby up… and maybe for knowing who that cat is but—”
“Are you ready?” Kiko said, walking around Riley’s car.
Riley winced as though annoyed at the interruption. He placed a fake smile on his face and nodded at Kiko. “Yeah. Can you just give us a few minutes?”
“Don’t be long,” she replied. She spun on her heels and called out, “Jay? Carry Sadie to Riley’s car!”
Riley eyed Kiko until she was out of earshot. He took Leila’s hands in his and looked down at them, prodding her knuckles with his fingertips. “Leila, please trust me. I know it seems like I’m making all the wrong choices, it’s not easy for me to agree to things that hurt you. I hope you know that.”
Leila didn’t reply. She wanted to believe him, but every damn choice he took made it difficult to believe anything.
