you.”
Alex huffed, startled. I put a hand on his neck.
“But then…how…?”
“Very old magic. I foresaw the trouble wolves would encounter, so long ago I set up a web of magic to help the one destined to open the path to salvation.”
“But you can touch things. You gave Alex real clothes.”
Her eyes twinkled like they held a secret. “That is why I was the best.”
I sighed, frustrated. There was so much here I didn’t know. I touched the key around my neck. “What do you mean, ‘open the path to salvation’? I thought I was just a Guardian?”
“You are,” she said, becoming grave. “What you will do will save all wolves.”
I laughed bitterly. “Right. Sure. I’ve been doing a bang up job so far.” Then a thought hit me. I held up the key to her. “Can you change them back? Marianne and my brother?”
She shook her head. “My magic does not extend that far.”
I slumped back. The fire crackled between us. I pushed the end of a stick into it with the tip of my boot.
“So,” I said at length, “why are you here?”
“I am here to help and give you the things you need.”
“You gave me a necklace that almost got me eaten by harpies.”
“No. I gave you a necklace that allowed you to fly. You almost got yourself eaten by harpies.”
She had said that the necklace was to keep me grounded. I folded my arms, knowing she was right.
“What did you say to Wolf that day?”
“I told him something he didn’t want to hear.”
I wondered what that could have been. Maybe that he would die before seeing me frozen for all eternity. Maybe that I would kill him. I shook away the thought. He’d hurt me tremendously and I hated him, but the idea of actually pushing a blade through his heart was too much for me to conceive. Now the werewoman on the other hand…
“So what do you have for me this time?” I asked.
Her eyes twinkled again and she reached inside her tattered clothing, producing a small vial of crystal clear liquid.
“Lavawort flower extract.”
She handed it to me. I turned it over in my hands.
“What does it do? Does it heal like lavawort?”
“Indeed, it can. But it is also the most deadly poison within the three kingdoms.”
I scrunched up my face in confusion. “How is that possible?”
Alex sniffed at the vial.
“It is a very unique flower with very unique properties. Lavawort leaves have a fraction of the oil as the flower. Gum leaves are only used to temper the painful sensation that lavawort can inspire. Those who are healthy and drink the flower extract, die. Only those who use it in the direst of situations may be saved, but with great pain.”
I fingered the vial. Strange. With it I could save someone who was dying, or I could use it to kill others. I considered dipping the tips of my remaining crossbow bolts into it.
“So what happens now?”
“Now you do what you have to do.”
I pressed my head to my knees for a moment before looking up again. “Are you like my fairy godmother or something?”
But the old witch was gone. So was the fire. I sighed, cool springtime air washing over me. Alex was asleep. I would have wondered if it had been a dream if I didn’t have the vial of lavawort flower extract still in my hands. I tucked it inside a coat pocket and settled closer to Alex for warmth. The sun would be up in a few hours and we would have to go. Until then, I wanted to get in as much sleep as possible. Things were far from over.
I awoke, cold and wet. For the first time since my stay in this world, sad gray clouds blanketed the sky and a light rain fell. Springtime rain, helping the ferns and flowers along in their bloom. It had the opposite effect on me. Stiff, miserable, I got to my feet and rummaged through my pack. Alex woke, shaking water off himself. I had the pathetic hope that perhaps my rain jacket would be in it, but apparently when the werewolves went through it, they’d taken it out and never put it back in.
“Damn it!”
I resisted the urge to throw the pack on the ground. Wet and cold in the woods was not a good combination. I touched the key, suddenly glad that Marianne wasn’t herself. This situation would be worse on a child. I tasted the water on my lips