Jaren didn’t have the breath in his lungs to scream for help, and he knew that no one would come if he did. He was completely alone out here, by his own daft will, and he was going to die that way. He hoped there’d be enough left of him for his family to identify his remains, although the loss would be devastating regardless. The girls had just lost their beloved mother, after all. I should have known better, Jaren thought bitterly. Even if he didn’t value his own life enough to stay away from this forest and that cursed island, he should have put his sisters’ safety and comfort first.

As his feet beat down the trail, that inane, insidious song returned to his frantic mind, and to his surprise, it calmed him, in a way. He focused on the melody, rather than the fact that a beast that was all claws and fangs and hunger was just behind him, its breath hot on his back.

And with what little breath Jaren had left, he said a prayer to whoever was listening to spare his life.

Chapter Seventeen

Leelo was only halfway home when she heard the howl. She’d foolishly fallen asleep below the pine tree. Now, her entire body erupted in goose bumps, and she could feel every hair on her arms standing straight up, like a lightning storm had just passed through.

For a moment she stood stock-still, wondering if she’d imagined it. Wolves never came this far up the mountain, and this one had sounded so close it could be on Endla itself. But then it happened again and again, and Leelo felt the sound in every part of her, as if this were a song she’d known all her life.

“Tate,” she breathed.

A sudden gust of wind blew past, making the trees around her creak like old, forgotten doors, and Leelo knew this time that she wasn’t imagining things. The Forest was speaking.

And a wolf was at the doorstep.

Chapter Eighteen

At the time, the boat had seemed like the only option. Jaren had found himself between the wolf and a lake full of poison, and while the wolf hadn’t advanced on him, it hadn’t retreated, either. It sat there, staring with eyes made yellow in the moonlight, and let out three long, hair-raising howls.

Swimming was clearly not an option. Jaren thought of the rose turning to ash in its vial and shuddered. He liked his odds better with the wolf, even if the old man had been right when he said it was the size of a cow. Where had this monster come from, and why had it chased him here, of all places?