A Dangerous Deceit in Faerywood Falls

by Blythe Baker

  My heart was in my throat. How much had he seen? How much had he heard?

  The wolf’s round silver eyes stared up at me, and there was an understanding there that sent a chill down my spine.

  “Wait – ” I said, taking a step toward the wolf.

  But the pup took off into the trees, disappearing among the shadows.

  Uh, oh…Athena said.

  “Yeah…” I said. “Uh, oh is right.”

  7

  The experience of shifting left me unsettled. I felt weird in my own skin, worried that at any moment, I might shift back into the body of a fox.

  That did happen once on the way back to the cabin. Athena and I were making our way through the trees when my whole body contorted, my mind numbed with pain, and I collapsed on the ground. The next thing I knew, I was a fox again.

  We managed to get back home, but I couldn’t seem to get out of my own head. Athena murmured encouraging things to me as we went, and I reluctantly let her lead me. Fear was enough to make me hurry to a familiar place where the wolves were nowhere to be found.

  Sheer exhaustion caused me to fall back asleep after we returned to the cabin, and when I woke up the next morning, I was human again.

  “That’s it,” I said. “I am going up to Dr. Valerio’s and am going to demand to see Alessa, so I can give her this power back.”

  Have you figured out how to give it back? Athena asked eagerly.

  I paused. “No,” I said. “But I think that if I want to enough, I’ll figure it out. I can’t – I don’t want to go through that again.”

  Athena warned me about it, but I didn’t listen. I wanted to be rid of this. Much like the ghost speaking ability, I had no interest in it.

  I’d experienced shifting, and I didn’t see the need to ever do it again.

  I drove up to Dr. Valerio’s estate, my heart beating faster with every mile I drove. I feared that he wouldn’t be home, or that Alessa would refuse to speak with me.

  I had to convince her, somehow. I didn’t know how I’d do that without telling her what I was, but I had to figure out some way to do it.

  The log cabin seemed quiet when I pulled up. My car was the only one in the drive, and the doors to the three car garage were all closed.

  I shivered. I wasn’t sure I was welcome here any longer.

  I walked up toward the front door and rang the doorbell.

  My heart raced as I stared up at the massive, wooden door. A wolf knocker hung there in front of me, menacingly.

  I swallowed hard, looking around.

  Two people standing in the front yard caught my attention, an older man standing beside a younger one. The older man held a pair of hedge trimmers in one hand, and was leaning over a blueprint that the young man was holding. He was nodding his head, the bald spot in the midst of his greying hair shining in the afternoon sun.

  I could see the young man’s face, and he looked strikingly familiar. He had similar features to Dr. Lucan; the same high cheekbones, the same tall stature. He couldn’t have been much younger than I was. He had dark hair, and a beard that he kept closely trimmed had hints of red in it, almost like copper in the light of the sun.

  He turned to point out something to the older man near the trees, and I noticed his other arm that had been hidden from me was tied up in a sling.

  The old man nodded, and tucked his hedge trimmers into the back pocket of the overalls he was wearing. He pulled out a pair of work gloves from a basket on the ground at his feet, and set off toward the tree-line.

  The young man looked up and saw me standing at the door, and he started toward me.

  Oh, great…I thought. Not again.

  “Hi there,” the young man said brightly. “Are you here to see Dr. Valerio?”

  “I am, yes,” I said.

  “Well, come on in, then,” the young man said. “I’m sure he’s in his study. I’ll take you to him.”

  “Thanks,” I said, somewhat in disbelief. He was just letting me inside?

  I saw him struggling to push the full weight of the door open with one arm injured, and so I rushed to help him.

  “Thank you,” he said with a small smile. “I’m not used to being so helpless.”

  “How’d you get injured, if you don’t mind me asking?” I asked, turning to push the door closed behind me.

  “It’s kind of embarrassing, actually,” the young man said, rubbing the back of his neck with his good hand. “It was an unfortunate hunting accident. Totally my fault. I take responsibility for it. But yeah…not fun.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that…” I said.

  A hunting accident, huh? That seemed like a rather odd coincidence with that hunter ending up dead and all.

  “Gian, is that you?”

  A voice trailed down the staircase. I looked up to see Dr. Valerio making his way down.

  Wait. Gian? Wasn’t that Alessa’s brother’s name?

  I glanced down at his arm. Hunting accident…and he was the one who made those medallions with the wolf heads, the same medallion the hunter had been wearing when he died.

  Despite this newest revelation, my heart skipped like it always did when I saw Dr. Valerio. Immaculately dressed like always, he smiled as his eyes fell upon me.

  “Well, well, what a pleasant surprise,” he said, his golden eyes lighting up. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

  “I, uh…had something that I needed to talk to you about,” I said. I glanced at Gian with a sidelong look. “Something that is for your ears only.”

  Gian let out a chuckle. “Wow, cousin, way to go.”

  Dr. Valerio arched a single eyebrow at him. “Thank you, Gian, but wasn’t there somewhere you needed to be?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Gian said.

  “Nice meeting you,” I said as he hurried away.

  “You too!” he said over his shoulder, disappearing down a hallway.

  Dr. Valerio’s gaze shifted to me, and I cowered beneath the weight of it. “Well, Marianne, I’m surprised to see you here. Especially after what happened with my cousin.”

  My skin prickled. “Yeah, I…that’s why I’m here,” I said. “I wanted to talk to you about all that.”

  Dr. Valerio’s gaze was not hard, but it was cool, which seemed strange when he was always so warm toward me. “Very well. Why don’t you join me out on the terrace and we can talk about all of this?”

  His gaze lingered on me for a moment before he turned away and walked back up the stairs.

  I followed after him, my heart in my throat. Something told me I wasn’t going to enjoy this meeting with him.

  We went up to the second floor, my eyes glued to his back as we walked across the landing to a pair of double glass doors that lead outside.

  The view was breathtaking. The balcony I stepped out onto had a view of the pond-like pool and the mountains beyond. At the foot of the valley, the heart of Faerywood Falls sprawled out among the trees, as pretty as a painting.

  “Please have a seat, Miss Marianne,” he said, gesturing to a seat at a round teak table. “I will have some tea ordered for us.”

  He stepped back inside briefly, leaving me in anticipation of what was to come.

  I sat there, my hands intertwined in my lap, staring out over the beautiful vistas, and unable to appreciate any of it.

  “My apologies,” Dr. Valerio said as he joined me again out on the balcony. He sat down at the seat across from me. His gaze had softened somewhat. “As I’m sure you know, my cousin Alessa told me about your visit the other day.”

  “Yes,” I said. “I came to see you, and wanted to ask you a couple of things.”

  Dr. Valerio’s face remained calm. “I heard that you were looking around the grounds for me?”

  “I was,” I said. “I know it must have looked bad for Alessa to find me when she did, but it’s the truth. I came to speak to you, and it was so urgent that I decided to do a dumb thing and wander around to find you.”

  Dr. Valerio�
�s face slipped into a small, brief smile. “Yes, well…I didn’t think you were here to do anything devious, despite what my cousin says,” he said. “So what did you want to discuss with me?”

  I tried to swallow, but it felt like I’d swallowed an egg whole. “I wanted to discuss…”

  Suddenly, it felt foolish. The whole thing. Going way out of my way to bother him like this seemed so petty, especially when I wasn’t involved with the murder of the hunter at all. But now that I knew his cousin was the one who’d made the medallion…

  “Gian is your cousin, right?” I asked, deciding to change tactics a little.

  “Yes, he is,” Dr. Valerio said. “Why do you ask?”

  “Did you hear about the hunter who was found dead in the woods nearby?” I asked.

  Dr. Valerio’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, I did. What I want to know is why you have come here to ask me about it.” He blinked slowly at me, his wolfish eyes boring into my very soul. “Alessa told me you were asking about that hunter’s death. Why do you assume that my pack was involved?”

  “I came to ask if you’d seen anything strange in the forests, maybe the animal or creature that had killed him,” I said. “I never implied it was your family. But, I did find it interesting that your cousin is the one who made the medallion the hunter was wearing around his neck when he died – ”

  At my mention of Gian’s medallion, I was startled at how quickly Dr. Valerio’s mood seemed to change.

  “How did you know that?” he asked, smacking his hand against the table, making me jump. His eyes narrowed as he leaned across the table toward me. “You weren’t there when it happened, were you?”

  “No, but I happened to drive by after the fact – ” I said.

  Dr. Valerio frowned. “A likely story. So, you’ve come here to ask if my cousin was somehow involved in that man’s murder? That is absolutely ridiculous, and I will not stand for such accusations.”

  He rose to his feet, buttoning the front of his dress coat, and turned to glare at me.

  “I must ask you to leave, Marianne Huffler. You are not welcome here as long as you choose to treat my family with such disdain.”

  I rose, too, looking at him, hard.

  I noticed how he had conveniently avoided telling me if what I was saying was the truth or not…just like Alessa had.

  I frowned at him as he gestured toward the door.

  I’d resolved to tell him about taking Alessa’s power, but in my anger, I decided not to say anything about it. I didn’t want him to use that as any more ammunition against me, regardless of the fact that I couldn’t control it in the first place.

  If he wasn’t going to trust me, then I didn’t have any other choice, either. Dr. Valerio and his family, and the rest of the pack for that matter, couldn’t be trusted.

  “Fine,” I said. I marched toward the door and pulled it open. I heard his footsteps behind me as I hurried toward the stairs leading back down to the front door again.

  “Dad!”

  A little voice piped up from an adjacent hallway.

  “Not now, Niccolo,” Dr. Valerio said. “Go back to your room, I’ll join you momentarily.”

  I glanced down at the boy as I hurried past.

  A pair of silvery eyes stared up at me in a round, pale face.

  My stomach flipped inside out. Were those the same eyes that I’d seen in the young wolf in the forest?

  I didn’t have time to think, but the boy’s eyes widened as they met mine, silver to silver.

  He recognized me, just like I recognized him.

  I turned away and rushed down the stairs, my cheeks turning bright pink.

  “Goodbye, Miss Marianne,” Dr. Valerio said from the front steps as I raced toward my car.

  I just glared up at him as I hopped into my SUV, the blood pounding inside my head.

  8

  So, not only is he hiding something, but he also has a son? Athena asked that night.

  Yes, I said back to her. It’s making me sick just thinking about it.

  The moon was still nearly full, and so I spent some time experimenting with the shifting ability. I failed the first dozen or so times that I tried to use it, but with enough focus, I was able to turn back into the fox.

  I knew I wasn’t going to sleep, not with everything that had happened at Dr. Valerio’s hanging over my head.

  Why don’t we go for a run? Athena said. Burn off some of that nervous energy?

  It sounded better than pacing around my tiny cabin.

  Once transformed, we hurried out into the night.

  As we ran, Athena worked with me on mind-speak. I was awful at it, still, but the more I did it, the easier it became to focus. Athena asked me a lot of simple questions, and after a few hours of running through the forest, I was able to have a generally intelligent conversation, save a few minor distractions.

  The thought of Dr. Valerio having a son was a greater shock than I’d expected. In all the time I’d known him, I’d never seen him wear a wedding ring. And I’d never heard him mention a wife. Not even a girlfriend.

  I couldn’t imagine the mother of his child being exactly pleased with the idea of him flirting so shamelessly with me, or having me over for dinner, or visiting me at the antique shop regularly.

  Why didn’t he ever say anything? I said. Is he cheating on his wife? Did I get myself caught in a web?

  You’ve said yourself that the two of you aren’t all that close yet, Athena said. Maybe there’s another explanation.

  I growled as we leapt over some rocks along the creek.

  As painful as shifting was, I was starting to enjoy the freedom of being in animal form. I was so much more graceful on four feet than I ever was on two. I could run and run and not get tired. The improvement to my vision and hearing was incredible, and worth it for that alone.

  I’ve never seen him that angry, either…I said. The way he was looking at me…it was like I’d betrayed him.

  I imagine it isn’t easy to be in charge of such a big group of Gifted people, Athena said.

  No, I’m sure it’s not, I said. But I think I got too close to something. I think it frightened him.

  Do you think his cousin was the one who killed the hunter? Athena asked.

  I can’t know for sure…I said. But that wound on his arm, he said he got it from a hunting accident. What if he was there in the woods, and the hunter spotted him, and took a shot at him, thinking he was just an ordinary wolf?

  Or, what if the wolf attacked first, and the hunter was just fighting back? Athena asked.

  That was a rather grim thought. You might be right…I said. Which would explain why both Alessa and Dr. Valerio got so upset about the whole thing…

  We came to a clearing in the forest, and Athena slowed down, turning to look at me.

  Well, regardless, we’re back at square one, she said. I don’t think it would be wise for you to go over there anymore.

  You’re right, I said. After seeing him that upset, I don’t think I want to push things.

  And I’m sorry…Athena said.

  For what? I asked.

  I know how much you like him, Athena said. And for him to get so upset like that.

  There was a burning in my chest as I turned my face up toward the moon. Like you said, I hardly know him. How can I like him when I don’t really know him?

  I sniffed at the air, looking around. Something smelled…off. I was used to the sweet pines and the mossy earth. But this smelled like rot. Or like something gone bad.

  Athena’s head snapped to her right, and she hunched over, a low growl rumbling from her chest.

  What is it? I asked.

  There’s some kind of animal over there…she said. An animal that I don’t recognize. It’s familiar, but…it doesn’t belong in the forest.

  I smell it, too, I said. It’s an animal?

  Yes, she said. But let’s proceed with caution, okay?

  Okay, I agreed.

  We slowly walked toward t
he cover of the trees again. My heart was racing as I willed myself to see further ahead.

  A shape appeared out of the shadows in the forest. It was nothing but a blockish form at first, but as we were shrouded in shadows, I caught the faintest whiff of burning wood.

  The hulking shape soon became the outline of what looked like a cabin. A cobblestone fireplace was built into an entire wall of the tiny place. Smoke billowed up out of it, and a faint light could be seen through the small windows, like the flickering flame of a single candle.

  What is a cabin doing out here? I asked.

  I’m not sure…Athena said. I’ve never seen this place before.

  Never? I asked. Could it be magic?

  I don’t know, but I wouldn’t rule it out, she said. Come on, I think we should –

  Her words were wiped from my mind when the sound of a snarling growl filled my ears.

  I hunched over, fear stabbing my heart like a thin tendril of ice.

  What was that?! I shrieked in my mind.

  Athena’s ears were flat against her head, and her mouth was peeled back, revealing her teeth.

  My heart thundered against my tiny fox chest, and the urge to run overwhelmed me.

  My legs wouldn’t respond, though…because two pairs of eyes were glowing in the dark a short distance away.

  Hulking figures stepped out of the shadows, easily two or three times my size. They had four massive paws, muscular bodies, and heads that were as big as watermelons.

  I cowered near the forest floor, staring up at them.

  Great Danes. Covered in sleek, black fur, they blended in to the darkness and were almost completely imperceptible. Their lips were curled back, revealing their shining white teeth. Their large black noses snuffled at the air around them, low rumbling growls echoing inside their massive chests.

  Even as a human, these dogs would have almost stood eye to eye with me. And while I loved dogs just as much as the next person, dogs of this size were definitely unsettling if I wasn’t familiar with them. Or, more aptly, if they weren’t familiar with me.