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A twig snapped, and I jerked to the sound.
Listening carefully, I scented the air. There were no out-of-place aromas and no beat of hooves or scurry of wildlife that came with the sound, which meant it wasn't wild-game. My eyes fell to Lex's shiny skin along his arm, and I wondered if he'd be able to fight if I couldn't.
Outside of one small—albeit fierce—omega, we were defenseless.
My instincts tingled, and I reached for Joon. I heaved him over my shoulder again, every muscle in my body screaming out at once. The alpha mumbled a few protests but didn't attempt to fight me off, his body going limp the second I had him in place. He was soaked with sweat. We both were.
"Byriel!" Tzidal yelled, her voice high-pitched. "He was in the middle of saying something!"
"We need to move." I walked, my feet like lead. I marched past the furious omega, but she kept pace, trying to scold me. The urge to smack her mouth for speaking to an alpha in such a way surged through me, but I beat it down. Instead, I concentrated on the pain throbbing through my body and the sound of delicate movement in the trees around us.
Whoever was tracking us was close.
We needed to get to the witch's hovel. And fast.
The Willow Tree
Tzidal
* * *
I kept pace behind Byriel,my eyes never leaving Joon. He passed out again, his arms swaying gently with each of Byriel's steps.
I clung to the fact that Joon had not just woken up, he had spoken as well. It was only for a few moments, but he spoke in full sentences with his eyes focused on mine. It was more than I had gotten out of him in weeks, and my heart was bursting with hope.
"Only a witch would live inside a fucking tree," Lex sighed, glaring straight ahead with his hands on his hips. "It's a little cliche if you ask me."
I stepped around Byriel to see what they were looking at.
An old, cracked willow tree sat just off in the distance. A few evergreens and massive oaks grew near it, as did some bushes and flowers that were a little too lush for the colder weather. A hazy puff of blue smoke drifted up from the center of a few mistflowers, painting the air a gentle shade before being carried off by the wind.
It all looked normal.
"Is she inside the tree?" I asked, still not seeing whatever told him it was a house. "How do you know?"
Lex smiled sweetly, then pulled me close to him. "Look through the mistflower smoke." He angled down so his head was level with mine, then moved my shoulders a bit, forcing me to look directly through the mist.
The blue haze twisted upward in the breeze, and the longer I looked through it, the clearer it became. The movement of the wind seemed to pull at the bark on the willow tree in the distance, somehow shifting it. The rough texture of the tree swirled, then drifted with the wind, displaying a perfect, little yellow door.
I straightened my back and looked at the tree. The yellow door stayed in place, greeting me brightly. "How?" I asked, my mouth open in awe.
"You have to know it's there to see it," Byriel groaned, adjusting Joon before walking forward.
"But I didn't know," I said, still not understanding. "So why do I see it?"
"The flowers told her secret," Lex smiled.
"That makes no sense."
He winked at me, then moved toward tree. Moments like these made me miss the simple world of my old life: werewolves, status, and a clear order of things. My life was so neat and simple then. But outside my village's borders, everything was confusing and painful—even getting an answer to a simple question was more work than it was worth. How the hell did flowers share secrets?
Byriel worked quickly to pull the enchanted charm off his neck, then he stuffed it into his pocket. I wanted to ask him why he had taken it off, but before I could speak, he knocked loudly on the little door with a fierce boom. The aggressive pounding of his fist made me jump. If I lived here, I would never open the door to such a hostile greeting.
"What do you want?" a woman's voice yelled from the other side. She sounded a little raspy and irritated.
"Help," Byriel barked.
"With?"
