Destiny's Dark Fantasy Boxed Set (Eight Book Bundle)

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  Be careful. You’re in danger now.

  Rylie needed to talk to Seth.

  Solutions

  Rylie didn’t get the chance to catch up on her sleep that morning, nor did she get to search for Seth. She stumbled through breakfast and the morning hike. She barely kept her eyes open through the buffet line at lunch. She didn’t even notice when Louise came to stand beside her.

  “Do you see that?”

  “See what?” Rylie asked, muffling a yawn.

  “Tofu. I put in a special request for you,” Louise said. There was indeed a small container of tofu next to the salad. It looked like nobody else had touched it. “And one other thing—I sent a letter to your parents explaining that you lost your backpack, so your mother sent a care package. I put it on your bed.”

  Louise left, and Rylie took several pieces of tofu. She was kind of excited. Having vegetarian food meant she might be able to finally satiate this gnawing hunger that had been growing within her for days. Nothing else seemed to make it better.

  She went searching for a quiet table and passed by the entrees in the buffet. Folds of roast beef for sandwiches caught her eye, and Rylie hesitated. It looked good. Really good.

  Revolted, Rylie sat down without taking any. What was she thinking? She hadn’t liked meat in years.

  She changed into her own clothes before heading to the recreation hall for arts and crafts, which was supervised by a counselor who wasn’t familiar with Rylie’s antics. She complained of sickness and was allowed to sit in the corner. It wasn’t a lie this time. She laid her head down on the table and shut her eyes.

  The back door of the recreation hall creaked open and a head with shaggy black hair poked in to look around. When his eyes fell on Rylie, he gestured for her to come outside. It was Seth again.

  Rylie hurried over and slipped out the door. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to talk to you,” he said. “Are you okay? You look terrible.”

  She tried not to feel stung by his insult. Even if she was exhausted, she wasn’t in hand-me-downs anymore, and Rylie thought she looked pretty good. “I didn’t sleep last night. Where have you been?”

  “I’ve been around.”

  “Were you the one who wrote in my journal?” Rylie asked. Seth responded with a small smile, so she pushed on. “What did you mean? Why am I in danger?”

  “You haven’t figured it out yet? Do you know what happened last night?”

  She faltered. “I told you I didn’t sleep.”

  “Yeah? And how did you feel yesterday?”

  Rylie started to lie. She wanted to tell him everything was fine and that it had been a normal day. But Seth’s eyes were knowing. He would have seen right through her. “I was angry,” she said.

  “That’s what I was afraid of.” He took his bag off his shoulder to shift through it.

  “What do you mean? What’s happening to me?”

  “Look at this,” Seth said, handing her a book from his backpack. “I found this in the counselor library on my side of camp.”

  Rylie opened it to the bookmarked page. A large illustration of a half-man, half-wolf beast covered the left page. Its arms and legs were like a human’s, but it had long claws, a shaggy mane, and a snout with sharp teeth. The full moon hung over its head. All the phases were drawn around the edges of page until it became a black new moon at the base.

  When colonists first attempted to settle Gray Mountain, they found no natives to disturb. Instead, they were met with resistance from the forest itself as the animals fought to repel them. After years of battling, the forest spirits imbued a curse upon the mortals that cruelly slaughtered them: the uncontrollable ability to transform into a monstrous wolf at the apex and nadir of the moon.

  Rylie shivered even though the day was warm. “Is this serious?”

  “It’s a book of legends,” Seth said.

  “So it’s not true.” She turned it over to look at the cover, which was plain green with gold trim. It looked serious enough.

  “Who said legends aren’t true? This mountain is holy for animal spirits, like Mount Olympus for the Greek gods. You’ve got the curse. You must have gone into the wild on the full moon.”

  “That’s crazy,” Rylie said. “I’m not a werewolf.”

  “Not yet,” he corrected. “Haven’t you been feeling strange? Like your senses are keener? Are prey animals more afraid of you?”

  “No,” she said stubbornly, but she couldn’t help considering what Seth suggested. It would explain the horses. It would also explain why she craved red meat. “Why should I trust you?”

  “Because I’m the only one who knows what’s going on,” Seth said. “There have been attacks before, so I knew you were in danger.”

  “Oh yeah? And how do you know that?”

  “Like I said, I was doing some reading. I think these camps were originally built to guard Gray Mountain. There were never meant to be kids here.”

  “Then we should tell someone,” Rylie said. “We should clear out the camps.”

  “Who would believe us?” Seth laughed. “Even you don’t.”

  She bit her lower lip. “No, I believe it. Look at this.” Glancing around to make sure nobody could see them behind the building, Rylie pulled aside the neck of her shirt to show him the scars. “They appeared after the full moon.”

  His laughter faded. “That looks bad.”

  “Yeah, I know. But why do you care?”

  “Let’s go for a walk,” Seth said.

  Rylie nodded. She wouldn’t risk letting Seth out of her sight. Who knew when she would see him again?

  Somehow, the horror of what Seth was trying to tell her seemed to recede a million miles away when they snuck down to the lake, dodging hikers and staff on the way. They slid down the boulders to reach the narrow shore where nobody could see them and walked along the sand.

  Seth spoke before Rylie could start asking questions again. “So where are you from?”

  “The city. I’ve lived there my whole life.”

  “I can tell. You’re not much for the outdoors.” He scooped a round, flat rock off the sand and bounced it in his hand, seeming to judge the weight.

  “Not really,” Rylie admitted. “But I’m starting to like it more. It kind of feels like I’m home here.”

  “Are you sure that’s you talking?”

  She ducked her head. “I’m not sure of very much anymore.”

  He whipped the rock out across the water. It skipped on the surface of the lake four times before sinking. They stopped to watch the spreading ripples.

  “There are more books at the camp library,” Seth said. “It sounds like it takes the curse a few moons to really settle in, so you’ll have a couple weeks or months before you become a wolf. Until then, you should have partial transformations.”

  “You actually believe this stuff? Legends and werewolves? That’s crazy,” Rylie said.

  “I guess I’m a crazy guy.”

  She took the diary out of her pocket, running her hand over the scratched cover. “How did you know this was mine?”

  “I didn’t. I was guessing. You look like the type.”

  “And what type is that?” Rylie asked.

  Seth flashed a grin at her. “Beautiful.”

  Her cheeks got hot all over again, and Rylie pushed a lock of hair behind her ear as she tried to suppress a smile. “It sounds like you’re dodging the question to me.”

  “Maybe. They’re going to notice you’re gone soon, so you should go back. What are you doing after lights out on Thursday?”

  “Sleeping,” Rylie said.

  “Meet me down here,” Seth said. “I’ll see if I can get my hands on more books for you. There must be something we can do about this werewolf stuff.”

  “That sounds good.” She felt light-headed. It wasn’t a date, but she couldn’t seem to convince her nerves of that. “I want to see the books myself. Will you bring them?”

  “I don’t think
I can get them out.”

  “Then I’ll go to the library,” Rylie said.

  His grin widened. “You’re more trouble than you look. Okay. We’ll go over together Thursday night.”

  Seth started to walk across the beach, but she called out to stop him. “You never told me why you’re helping me!”

  “I said I’m a crazy guy, didn’t I?” He laughed and broke into a jog.

  Rylie watched him disappear before returning the recreation hall, a smile stuck to her face. Nobody noticed she didn’t have the same lanyards and milk carton candles as everyone else when they left.

  Amber and her vicious clique kept talking about her at dinner, but Rylie barely registered it. She didn’t care anymore. Her head was swimming with visions of Seth—their walk around the lake, his slanted smile, the way his muscles flexed when he skipped the rock across the water.

  He was cute. Very cute.

  But she was scared, too. She touched the faint ridges of scarring on her shoulders. Was she really going to become a monster?

  She was grateful to find the cabin empty when she got back that evening. Rylie wanted nothing more than to spill her thoughts onto the pages of her journal. Scaling the ladder to her loft, Rylie froze at the top.

  Someone had been through her stuff.

  Her bed was torn apart. The drawers were pulled open and spilled across the floor. Her clothes were everywhere, and the package her mother sent was laid out as though someone had examined each item.

  She hurried to pick it all up. Everything looked like it was intact, so the intruder hadn’t found whatever they wanted. Rylie stroked Byron the Destructor’s red nose with a frown. What did she have that someone would try to steal?

  There was only one way to find out.

  Rylie stalked out of the cabin. She found Amber chatting with another girl by the campfire, who fled as soon as she saw Rylie coming.

  Amber covered her bandaged nose with a hand as if to protect it. “What do you want?”

  “Why did you go through my stuff this time? Looking for something new to torture me with?”

  “What?”

  “Don’t play dumb. I saw what you did! Why won’t you just leave me alone?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Amber said. She looked genuinely confused. “God, you’re such a freak.” There wasn’t much venom in her tone this time. She looked afraid Rylie would attack her again.

  “Then who was it? Patricia? Kim?”

  “We didn’t do it, okay? Go away!” Amber hurried to follow the other girl out of camp, shooting a frightened look over her shoulder.

  Rylie believed her. The intruder wasn’t Amber. She was too scared to talk to her, much less invade her privacy again.

  But if it wasn’t them, then who?

  Golden Lake

  Waiting to see Seth again made the days drag. Rylie found herself watching the second hand creep around the face of the wall clock in the cafeteria when she should have been taking her turn wiping down tables or meeting with her group to go on a hike.

  But evenings were the worst. She lay awake in bed most of the time, unable to sleep. Her mind spun with images of wolves and claw marks and full moons.

  She wished she had some way of talking to Seth when he wasn’t around. Rylie felt completely alone at camp. Nobody else knew what she was going through, or why she twitched every time something rustled in the bushes. She could hear and smell everything in the forest now. Her senses got sharper all the time.

  Thursday came after eons of waiting. Rylie was so preoccupied with the idea of sneaking into the boys’ camp that she couldn’t make herself eat that night, and she ended up tossing her entire plate of vegetables into the trash.

  After Louise turned out the cabin lights, Rylie snuck from her window and made her way down to the lake. She didn’t need a flashlight. The night was bright and clear.

  Picking her way down the rocks, she walked along the beach in search of Seth. The water lapped gently by her feet, which sank into the ground with every step.

  “Seth?” Rylie called. The night was quiet enough that her voice carried farther than she expected, and she clapped a hand over her mouth as if she could take it back. Nobody responded.

  She hugged her arms around herself as she waited. It smelled like fish this close to the water, but it wasn’t an unpleasant odor.

  Rylie took a deep breath. It painted a clear picture in her mind of deep, cold places and silvery fish flitting between swaying plants. It was hard to distinguish the different kinds of fish. She only knew the kinds that came in a can.

  Something paler than the water splashed in the lake. Rylie stared as it approached and clearly became someone swimming.

  Seth emerged from the water bare-chested and glistening. Rylie realized her jaw was hanging open, and she snapped it shut. He walked over and shook the water out of his hair.

  “Aren’t you cold?” Rylie asked in a tiny voice.

  “It clears my head. Throw me the towel?”

  She managed to look away from him long enough to find his towel folded neatly behind the rocks. Rylie was thankful the dark night hid her red cheeks, and she tried not to stare as he dried off and got dressed. “You didn’t swim over, did you?”

  He laughed as he sat to pull on his shoes. “No.”

  “How are we getting over there? It’s kind of a long walk.”

  “I borrowed a canoe from the recreation shed,” he said. “It’s moored over there. Come on.”

  They rounded an outcropping of boulders. A small metal canoe was tied to one of the rocks, and Seth waded into the water to pull it halfway onshore. He held it while Rylie climbed in. The seat was damp and the metal was cold, but she kept her complaints to herself for once.

  He pushed it out into the water before jumping in. Seth propelled them across the lake, the muscles in his arms flexing with every pull of the paddles.

  “How do you feel now?” he asked.

  “Stronger,” she admitted. “More sensitive. I think I can smell better.”

  “You probably can. Your senses will never get to be as good in human form as are as an animal, but there’s some bleed over. Are you getting more aggressive?”

  Rylie frowned. “Aggressive? Why?”

  “Another symptom.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. I’m not like that.” Not usually, she added silently, but Rylie couldn’t help but think back on her fight with Amber.

  “Yeah? What are you like?” Seth asked. “What do you do when you’re not rebelling at summer camp?”

  Rylie trailed her fingers in the water. It was very cold, like any mountain lake at a high elevation. She couldn’t imagine swimming in it during the day, much less at night. Seth wasn’t even shivering. “I like art and movies. I go to a lot of museums. I write in my journal. What about you? What do you do when you’re not hanging out with scary monsters?”

  “I’m always hanging out with monsters,” Seth said with a slanted smile.

  “I’m serious, Seth.”

  He considered the question without breaking rhythm. Their canoe sluiced through the water and the other shore grew closer and closer. “I spend a lot of time with my family.”

  Something in his tone of voice made Rylie ask, “Do you like them?”

  “Not always. But they’re family, you know? You don’t have to like them, but you need to love them.” Seth changed the subject. “We’re going to have to move fast when we get to camp. The counselors take turns walking around at night, and we can’t be seen.”

  “Okay. Where are the books?”

  Seth’s sideways smile grew. “In one of the counselor cabins. It’ll be a challenge.”

  “I’m up for it,” she said with confidence she didn’t feel. He lifted the paddles when they reached the shallows and drifted toward the shore. There was no sand on this side; the rocks jutted into the water and became a jagged cliff. Seth jumped out in the waist-deep water, guided their boat to a safe spot between the boulders, and lashed it into
place.

  “Can you climb?”

  Rylie eyed the rocks. They looked at least thirty feet tall. “Maybe.”

  Seth hauled himself onto a rock and gave her a hand up. Grabbing what looked like a good handhold on the cliff, she was surprised to find she could lift her bodyweight effortlessly. Once she got going, he had to hurry to keep up with her.

  “Not bad,” Seth panted.

  “Thanks,” she said, looking down at the water. The cliff seemed even taller from the top.

  The layout of Camp Golden Lake was just like its sister camp. The main office was near the shore, and they had to crouch behind a tree to avoid being spotted by a stocky counselor as he passed.

  “Come on,” Seth whispered as soon as the counselor’s back faced them.

  They crept along the wall of the office and hurried past the big fire pit. Seth led Rylie toward a squat log cabin behind the dining hall.

  “Which one of the groups is yours?” Rylie asked, examining the trail directory nearby.

  “Oh, that one.” He waved vaguely in the direction of the water. “Quiet. Someone’s coming.”

  Rylie got on her knees behind the sign, trying to make herself as small as possible. She felt like her pale blonde hair and white skin made her too visible in the darkness, unlike Seth, whose dark coloring didn’t reflect the light as well.

  The patrolling counselor passed. Rylie recognized his short yellow hair and wide shoulders: Jericho. His eyes swept over her hiding spot, and she tried to be invisible. Fortunately, his eyes didn’t settle on them, and he moved on. She let out a heavy breath.

  “How much further?” Rylie whispered.

  “This is it,” Seth said. “It’s where the counselors hang out when they’re not working.”

  “And they keep those books in here?”

  He nodded. “The library is in the back room. Kids aren’t allowed.”

  “No wonder, if they’ve got stuff on werewolves,” Rylie muttered. “How do we get in?”

  “The front door, of course.”

  She watched while he crouched in front of the door and inspected the lock. “You do have a way to get in, right?” she asked. He produced a leather wallet filled with rows of thin metal hooks. Her eyes widened. “Are those lock picks? You brought lock picks to camp?”