I glanced to the west and saw that the sun was half gone. As soon as the sun was wholly gone, they would ring the bells and call us back to the Bonfire. We would link hands, circle the Bonfire, and raise the power and magic of Samhain while we breathed in the smoke. Then we would dance to the beat of the drums, and it would be a new year. I was ready for a new year.
A distant howl caught my attention, pulling me out of my fantasies of dancing in the healing smoke. A chill ran down my spine when an answering howl echoed from a different direction. I didn’t know if those howls belonged to Jameson’s pack or Tollis’s, but I wished with all my heart that Jameson’s pack could’ve been at the festival. Jameson would never put innocent people at risk by bringing his pack to a festival during a full moon though. He was strong enough to control the bloodlust of the pack, but tempting them with so many people was just dangerous. Instead, they would run through the woods and the mountains outside the city. I wondered if Tollis would be as considerate. Would he keep his pack away from the city? I hoped so.
I turned back to the fairways and saw Ronnie’s red curls through the heads and shoulders of so many people. As I made my way to her, I saw the shock of Joey’s pink hair, and I managed to get to them with little trouble. When Joey saw me over Ronnie’s shoulder, she smiled brightly enough to make her lavender eyes sparkle. She bounced on her toes and waved. When I reached her side, I saw what had made her so excited: she’d bought a new pet.
On her shoulder was the world’s tiniest, fuzziest dragon. It was pale cream with little tuffs of green fur at its pointy ears, knees, and the tip of its serpentine tail. I touched its stub nose with the tip of my finger and laughed when it tried to breathe fire. All that came out was a puff of white smoke.
“He’s too young for real fire,” Joey said, touching the top of his head with her fingertips.
“He’s adorable.” I took my hand back before he bit one of my fingers.
“I know!” Joey said, bouncing on her toes again. “I love him already!”
“What’s his name?”
“Smert!”
“Really?” I asked.
“Why? I think it’s a great name!”
Before I could argue the quality of the name, Ronnie interrupted us. “Where’ve you been?” Ronnie had to raise her voice to be heard.
“Around.” I shrugged.
“Did you eat?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, we were just about to get something.”
“I could eat again,” I said.
“Of course you could.”
I stuck my tongue out at her before turning to lead the way to the clearing, planning to arc around the crowd to the food court rather than fighting our way down the merchant stalls. Joey hurried ahead of me, her excitement over the tiny dragon quickening her steps. I tried to keep up with her, but an excited pixie was like a puppy on a sugar high—I just had to hope she’d slow down eventually.
I felt Ronnie tug on my arm. I twisted to look at her, trying to keep my footing as we pushed through the throng of people.
“See that guy?” Ronnie had stopped, her fingers holding the sleeve of my sweatshirt.
I followed her pointing hand to the clearing where the Bonfire stood. A man stood by one of the unlit torches. He was smoking a dark cigarette, probably a clove, with a flat cap pulled low over his eyes and the collar of his jacket turned up as if he was trying to hide his face.
“What about him?” I asked.
“Just watch.”
So I did. Soon the man turned his head in our direction, and I caught the glint of yellow in his eyes.
My heart shot up to my throat, and I realized I recognized him. “I saw him at the gypsy camp.”
Ronnie nodded. “That’s what I thought. See his eyes?”
“Of course I see his eyes.”
“What in the name of toadstools is a Were doing here around so many people?”
“I shudder to think.”
Before I could make any guesses, the Were dropped his clove and snuffed out the bright burning cherry with the toe of his boot. He gripped the torch and yanked it free from the ground.
“Um…” Ronnie tilted her head as he hefted the six-foot torch on his shoulder and walked away, disappearing behind the Bonfire. “Maybe he’s taking it to be lit? You know, to bring it back to light the others?”
“Do you really think so?”
“I hope so.” Ronnie shrugged.
We stood there for a little while longer, watching the other torches, but no one else was lingering in the ring, and no one came up to take any of the other torches.
“That was weird,” I said.
“Yes, it was. We should go find Joey.” Ronnie’s voice was halting, as though she didn’t really want to take her eyes off the Great Bonfire. Neither did I.
“We should.” I nodded, finally blinking when my eyes began to burn. I had been holding my breath and keeping my eyes open, worried I’d miss one telltale sign that something was about to happen.
“C’mon,” Ronnie said, turning toward me and pushing my shoulder to get me to walk.
I tripped over my own feet, but I caught my balance before I actually fell. I pulled my eyes away from the clearing and hurried to catch up to our missing pixie.
Chapter 15
We found Joey in line for funnel cake. Ronnie hated funnel cake, but I wasn’t surprised the pixie wanted fried dough coated in powdered sugar and topped with a mountain of whipped cream. Sugar was like a pixie’s life’s blood. Ronnie disappeared into the crowd to hunt for something she would eat. With her picky eating habits, I wasn’t sure she’d find anything she’d like. Maybe the spiral-cut fried potato on a stick?
I hadn’t had a funnel cake since I was a kid, so I stayed with Joey and Smert. After we both had plates full of promised heart attacks, we found a couple of empty hay bales where we could sit and wait for Ronnie. Joey had in fact gone for nearly a whole can of whipped cream, but she’d also added a lake of chocolate syrup. I’d gone with an impressive amount of chocolate and cream, but I’d topped mine with sliced strawberries. At least I could lie to myself about the fruit being a healthier choice.
Joey fed Smert tiny pieces of the fried dough while I scanned the area around us, just people watching as we waited for Ronnie to find us. The drums beat in the distance, and children danced in the center of the food court, tumbling and twirling, not keeping time with the drums at all. A group of elves sat a few yards away from us, strumming stringed instruments and singing in their foreign language. Somehow, their music went with the drums.
The sun was gone, just a deep orange-and-red tint in sky with long-reaching beams cutting through the park. The moon was visible now, however faint, and I tried to ignore the splash of red across its surface.
A man cut through my line of sight, and when I made eye contact with him, I saw the yellow glow of his irises. The berries didn’t taste so sweet suddenly. I turned my head back and forth, realizing there were more and more yellow-eyed people around us.
“Okay, this is bad,” I said, licking the sugar from my fingers.
“What?” Joey looked up, Smert nibbling at her fingers.
“See anything strange?”
Joey scanned the crowd, her thin pink brows drawn together and forming a tiny wrinkle between her eyes. “Are those guys Weres?” She turned her confused face toward me, her brows climbing her forehead and her eyes going round.
“Yes, they are.” I set my plate on the hay bale and stood, clapping powdered sugar from my hands.
At least half a dozen Weres mingled around us, but one Were, across the way, had caught my attention. One Were who wasn’t too tall, but had an easy smile. One Were who was trying to hide his face under a black baseball cap, but I was sure I’d seen him before. I was sure I was looking right at Tollis.
“Stay here,” I said to Joey. “Wait for Ronnie.”
Joey said something, but I was already moving, and her voice was swallowed by the drums, singing,
and general noise of so many people. I was shouldered and knocked into. Moving through people with their hands full of food and drink felt like swimming upstream through rocks and glass. I kept my eyes on Tollis, watching him watch the people around him. I was almost upon him when he realized I was approaching him. His eyes shifted left, then right, as if he was debating trying to run away.
“Don’t even think about it, fur face,” I said when I was close enough to be heard.
Tollis rearranged his face quickly and smiled at me. It was that same slow, creepy smile he’d given me at the encampment, but tonight, the smile was full of so many razor-sharp teeth, I wasn’t sure how he was keeping them all in his mouth. He touched the bill of his cap with two fingers, pushing it up slightly so I could see his face better. His eyes were just a little bigger than I remembered and his cheekbones a little sharper. When the breeze cut through the food court, I caught the musky scent of fur and damp earth.
“Well hello, Ms. Kavanagh.” Tollis tipped forward, giving me a half bow.
“Tollis.” I didn’t bow or smile or put on any of the bullshit airs he was. I waited for that fake smile to fall from his face, but he managed to keep the mask in place even under my stare. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean?” Tollis wrinkled his brow and shook his head. “It’s a festival, open to the public. Isn’t it obvious why I am here?”
I crossed my arms. “No, it’s not. It’s a full moon.”
“And a beautiful one at that,” he said, taking a deep breath through his nose. He arched his back and lifted his hands over his head. When he looked at me again, he was all teeth and bright, glowing eyes.
“Tollis, what are you doing here?” I tried to put an edge to my voice, but I was sure I sounded more worried or scared than intimidating. I was seriously missing my silver knives.
“Celebrating.”
“Celebrating what?”
“The new year.” He smiled, and it wasn’t a nice smile. “Samhain is a time of cleansing, ridding ourselves of the fetters of troubles and woes, and beginning anew. Tonight we will begin anew. This city will be the start of a new life for us.”
I spread my hands in front of me. “What are you talking about?”
“Matilda, aren’t you tired of conforming to the laws set on us by the humans?”
“What?”
“Jameson bends to their will, forcing his pack to do the same. It is unnatural. We are superior beings. The humans should be bending to our will.” Tollis had taken a step closer to me, putting his face nearer to mine.
I could smell the iron tang of his breath as it washed against my face. I tried to talk around the lump in my throat. “Tollis…”
His eyes were indeed bigger now, and the bones of his face were shifting under his skin. “It is time, Matilda. Don’t stand in our way.”
I shook my head, my mouth opening and closing as I tried to think of something—anything—to say, but words failed me. The madness in his eyes was mesmerizing. His passionate words, his very energy, it all worked to speed the beating of my heart. For one moment, I understood how a Beta Wolf had managed to become the leader of a pack.
“Tollis, whatever you’re planning…” I touched his chest, feeling the intense heat coming from his body. “Don’t do this. These are innocent people.”
“No, they are not.” He lifted his hand and placed it over mine, pressing it against his chest. Power snapped to my hand in my panic, the shocks slipping into his body, and he didn’t even flinch. “Anyone who helps in the oppression of their own race is not innocent.”
I twisted my head around, trying to find Ronnie and Joey, but I couldn’t see them through the constantly shifting crowd. I felt Ronnie’s name rising to my lips. I was ready to scream for her when the pressure around my hand was gone. I turned back to see that Tollis had disappeared, melding seamlessly with the crowd. I had no idea where he had gone. I screamed his name, causing a few people to turn and look at me, but not one of them was the Were I was looking for. The multicolored costumes, hundreds of faces, and the lights of the food court swirled around me. Tollis was gone.
I rushed forward, fighting my way back through the crowd to find Ronnie and Joey. When I reached the place where I’d left Joey, she was gone. My plate with my half-eaten funnel cake was facedown on the ground, ants already converging upon the sugary mess. I yelled both of their names again and again, but neither answered. I doubted they could even hear me.
My heart was trying to rip its way through my chest, and my hands shook hard enough to hurt. I dug into my pocket and pulled out my cell phone. It took two tries for me to punch in my password. When I finally found Jameson’s number, I almost screamed when it went to voice mail without even ringing. I tried two more times with the same results before I moved on to Kyle’s number. Kyle’s rang, but he didn’t answer.
“Kyle, you guys have to get to Summerwick.” I pressed the phone close to my mouth, cupping my hand around it, and hoped I could be heard clearly over the cacophony. “Tollis is here, and his pack, they’re going to kill people. Kyle, please!” I hung up and stared at my phone, willing it to ring and hoping to see Jameson or Kyle’s face cross the screen.
I glanced at the sky. The moon was full and bright, and I thought I heard howling in the distance. I knew the pack would be in the mountains now, a good thirty or forty minutes away. There was no way I could get to them before Tollis started whatever horror show he was planning.
I thumbed through my contacts until I found Fletcher’s name. Vampires didn’t usually come to these gatherings because business at the Esterwyn over Halloween weekend was busy. I just prayed I could get ahold of Fletcher. He answered on the second ring.
“I need your help,” I said before he could even finish saying hello.
“What’s wrong?”
“Tollis, that rogue Were? He’s here, at the festival.”
“What?” I had to pull the phone away from my ear when he yelled.
“And he has other wolves with him.”
“Mattie, you have to get out of there.”
“I can’t. I don’t know what he’s planning, but there are people here, and I think he’s going to kill them.”
“Mattie, you’re people.” Fletcher was moving. I heard the change in the background on his end of the line.
“I know,” I said, touching my forehead as I scanned the crowd, looking for my missing friends. “He said something about a new year and a new start and that humans should be bending to his will.”
“Mattie, it’s Samhain and a full moon,” Fletcher said. I heard the sound of a car door slamming shut. “They won’t just be Weres, do you understand?”
“The Madness,” I whispered, remembering Jameson and Kyle’s conversation.
“Yes, the Moon Madness. You have to get somewhere safe.”
“No, I need to find Jameson,” I said. “Jameson could stop him.”
“Where is he?”
“In the mountains somewhere.”
“Fantastic.”
“I tried to call him, but he’s out of range already.”
“Even better.”
“Fletcher…” My voice caught in my throat when a clear howl rang through the air. It cut through the drums and the singing and the noise of the crowd. A chorus of howls answered.
“Mattie,” Fletcher yelled into the phone, startling me. “Get out of there!”
“I can’t! There are children here, and Ronnie and Joey! I can’t find them!”
“Mattie—”
“Just find Jameson, please, Fletcher.” I hung up, cutting off whatever else he might’ve said, and jammed the phone back into my pocket. I turned and ran for the Great Bonfire, remembering the Were taking the unlit torch.
It was the screaming I registered first. Once I stepped into the clearing with the Great Bonfire ready to be set aflame, I saw people running for their lives. I froze, and the bracelets around my wrists hummed with life. A woman was frantically searching for
her baby. I heard it crying to my right, its wails lost among so many other voices. I dashed in its direction and found a small boy, not even two years old, hidden by a trash can. His onesie was torn, and his face paint was smeared with tears and dirt. I scooped him up and ran for the woman.
“Oh bless you!” she cried as she took her baby, leaving me with only a smear of blue paint on my shirt. “What’s happening?”
“It’s the Madness,” I said, pushing at her shoulders to get her to run. “Run, leave, get to shelter.”
Her eyes were impossibly wide, but she nodded and ran. When I turned back to the clearing, I saw what I expected to see: all of the torches were missing. They were trying to make sure the Great Bonfire wouldn’t be lit.
In the shadows, I saw figures running around the mass of wood, attacking and tackling people. I heard the snap of bones and a sucking noise that made my stomach roil. The sounds of howls and barks cut through the screaming, jarring me to the bone. One of the moon-stricken raised his head from his victim’s limp body. I slapped a hand to my mouth. He was half-man and half-monster. The bones of his face had elongated, stretching the skin. His eyes were black and glinted in the moonlight. His fingers had long and sinister claws, and blood dripped everywhere.
I ducked behind a trash can before he noticed me. My bracelets vibrated against my wrist, nearly burning me. Those weren’t werewolves; they were monsters, pure and simple. I leaned around the trash can to risk a glance and regretted it the second my eyes focused on the scene around me. There were puddles of blood and broken bodies littered around the Great Bonfire. Across the way, a familiar figure stood with his hands on his hips, grinning from ear to ear as he stared at the unlit mass of tinder.
They don’t want it lit because it would cleanse them. I watched Tollis point at one last torch that someone had forgotten. He barked an order at a half-shifted Were, and the furry-faced man snatched the torch out of the ground and broke it over his knee before running away with the remnants.
Samhain (Matilda Kavanagh Book 2) Page 17
