Cora was pacing near the front of her house. How was she going to go inside without her brother? Her mother would be beside herself with worry just as she was.
And what in the world had happened to Zane anyway? He was behind her and then he just… wasn't. If he were truly fine like Grayson said, then what on earth had happened to him?
She wrung her hands, desperately trying to think of a logical explanation for why Zane had just vanished. Could she trust Grayson? What if he was lying to her? What if he told her that Zane was fine just to prevent her from unleashing life on all of them in the forest tonight?
It was all her fault that this had happened in the first place. She was the one who insisted that they go to the river tonight. She was the one who panicked when Zane confessed that he knew with certainly that he was a vampire… that it was only a matter of time. She was the one who couldn't wait to get on with the process if it were true.
She groaned and sat on the front step as a wave of nausea crashed into her. If something happened to Zane—if he had become a meal—there was truly no one else to blame but herself. They would have been safe on the roof. Why did she care so much about the damn moon anyway?
"Goddess, forgive me," she whispered.
As if in an instant answer from some divine soul who was listening, she was suddenly overwhelmed with the scent of the forest. Not the white, dead corpse forest of Gray Vale. No, this was the scent of a real forest—lush and green and wild, teeming with life.
Without moving her head from where it was cradled in her hands, she took a deep breath in, relishing in whatever hallucination this was. It smelled like the forest after rain. She knew, because before they moved here she spent as much time as she could outdoors. It was her favorite source of peace and solitude. She felt the most comfortable when she was surrounded by trees. It quieted the burgeoning life inside of her, comforting her with its own life that dwarfed hers.
The forest was the only place that could make her abilities feel safe and natural, for they were so alien and noticeable anywhere else. She often wished she could just stay in the forest forever where she didn't have to be careful not to create a random sunflower sprout on her desk in the middle of algebra, for example. That had been difficult to explain to Mr. Hutton who stopped his lecture and squinted at the sudden appearance of the bright yellow flower.
Had she retrieved it from her book bag? Complete with the sweet little reaching roots that were seeking nourishment? She apologized to the bloom before crumpling it in her hand and shoving it into her back pack, her cheeks flaming pink. It was just a flower. It wasn't that odd for her to have a flower on her desk, right? At least it hadn't shot up to its full height.
But in Gray Vale, all of that comforting life that she could easily surround herself with in nature had been husked away, leaving her abilities fully exposed. The sudden return of this familiar, wild scent comforted her deeply. And for no other reason than that, despite the fact that Zane was missing, she knew it was going to be okay.
She took another deep breath and exhaled slowly through her mouth. And then she repeated it again. And again. Rather than fading, the scent was getting stronger until she felt that she had been transported somewhere else entirely.
"Thank you," she smiled before lifting her chin to the night sky. Whatever message this was from the Goddess, she was grateful. The stars twinkled and winked back at her as if they held a secret that they could not share.
An unexpected huff of warm breath grazed her arm, and she shot up in surprise. There was a wolf! There was a huge wolf standing right beside her, and it was nearly as tall as she was.
"What?" She gasped, taking a step back from the massive creature. There was a living, breathing, warm-blooded animal in Gray Vale? Was she hallucinating? Had she truly lost it? "What are you doing here?" She said, the words tumbling out her mouth without being processed through her brain first to realize that the wolf couldn't possibly respond.
The animal backed a few steps away from her like he was startled too, and then they both just stood staring at each other silently. He was gorgeous. She had never seen a wolf like him.
Warm eyes gazed at her intently like two golden crescent moons amid fur that was a thick mixture of brown and black. Black masked his face and graced the curves of his ears and lean leg muscles while flaring out wildly along his back as if he had just shaken off a good bit of rain. Brown covered the rest of him, filling in his unique markings and giving his face its friendly appearance with dots like eyebrows above his eyes and a dark brown muzzle that faded into a lighter appearance of a smile along his mouth.
She couldn't help but wonder what his fur would feel like if she were to pet him. Would he let her? She hadn't seen an animal for so long.
"It is dangerous here," she finally said, glancing around in fear that one of the creatures of Gray Vale would see him. There was no way he was supposed to be here, and she doubted that they would let him live if he were caught.
"You need to go," she urged, hoping he would understand. "Please… I don't want anything to happen to you. Go back to your home."
The wolf continued to stare at her before he swung his head toward her house, and then her front door opened.
"Cora?" Her mother appeared in the doorway. "What on earth are you doing out here? Where is your brother?"
Cora looked back to where her wolf had been standing only to find that he had disappeared.