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Chapter 26
Dorian
We were able to hitch a ride on the back of a farmer’s old trailer to our destination. The next remote village was closer to the mountains and more dependent on the land than anywhere else we’d been. According to Lena, they held a market that people from the compound used for trade. If we were lucky, we might find out something useful. We didn’t find anyone in the village who spoke English, at least not to us, but Ryan and Niall managed to awkwardly communicate what we wanted.
From what they gathered, there were trails we could follow into the mountains that would eventually lead us to the compound. Those trails were far from the more regularly used pass through the mountains. The people at the compound had to have made at least one safe trail between their home and the village, so the journey couldn’t be that difficult, despite Lena’s warnings.
Byron looked up to the sky, his eyes narrowing. “Smells like a storm.”
“We won’t make it across the mountains tonight unless we leave now,” Ryan said. “The weather’s about to take a turn for the worse. If we don’t leave, we might be stuck here for a few days until the weather improves, but if we do, we could end up trapped on the mountainside.”
“We don’t have time to hang about,” Niall said impatiently. “Margo’s waiting for me.”
“Then we’ll work on supplies,” Byron said. “We’ll leave within an hour.”
My phone beeped. “Wow,” I said. “I got reception on my phone again. Wonder if it’ll last long enough for a phone call this time.” But when I checked my phone and read the waiting message, my stomach dropped. “It’s from Margo.”
“What’s wrong?” Byron tensed. “Did something happen to Perdita?”
“No,” I said. “She’s warning us. I don’t know. She says not to bring her father to the mountains during the storm because he won’t be able to run away fast enough.” I gazed at my phone. Reception had dropped again, so I couldn’t ask any questions. Margo’s message was weirdly specific, and yet I still didn’t understand it. “What the hell?”
“How did she know?” Ryan said. “Is she psychic now to know we’re planning on going into the mountains during a storm?”
“She senses death,” Byron said. “Perhaps her connection with her father is strong enough to reach all of this way.” He sounded doubtful, but what other explanation did we have?
Niall was staring at his feet in silence.
“Either way, you should stay behind,” I told him. “Margo sent me that text for a reason. She must know something. She’s been right too many times to question it.”
“We’ll find you a lift back,” Ryan said. “You can wait at the hotel for us.”
“How can I sit there and wait?” Niall said in a low voice. “How can I be completely useless to my own child?”
“You’re not useless,” Byron said in his firm but reassuring way. “Margo will worry if she realises you didn’t listen to her warning. We should go on together on four feet anyway. It’ll be quicker. You could go back to Lena, see if she remembered anything else, or try to find someone who knows more about the orphanage. We’ll aim to return tomorrow, the day after at the latest.”
Niall still looked disappointed, but he nodded. “I’ll do whatever I can.” He looked at me. “Be careful out there. The people at the compound might have some connection to Margo, but I find it hard to believe that she’s anything like them. We have no idea what they’re capable of.”
“At least now we have a chance of finding out,” I told him. “You should get reception back at the hotel. Let Margo know not to worry as soon as you can.”
“If we don’t get answers, I’ll have to do something drastic,” he warned me. “If we can’t protect Margo from people, we’ll have to take her somewhere remote, to keep her away from people. Maybe that’s why this compound exists, to stop these harbingers from being hurt by other people.”
It took us a little longer to prepare, seeing as we had to gather supplies and find a way for Niall to get back to the hotel. Before the day was out, we were on our way to the Carpathian Mountains.
“You realise we’re doing this based on the word of an old woman we’ve met once,” Byron told me as we hiked. “Doesn’t mean there are harbingers out there. Doesn’t even mean we’ll find whoever is out there.”
“If anyone wanted to hide a compound, this part of the mountains would be a decent place,” Ryan said. “Vin used to hide the pack in mountains often enough, but never here. I used to wonder why. Maybe now I have my answer.”
“They must have left trails though,” I said. “I mean, they’re not exactly hiding if they come out to trade.”
“We shouldn’t follow the trails,” Ryan said. “We need to observe them before we openly approach them, and that means taking the sneaky route. We’ll find our way through the mountains safely enough, but we can’t trust these people.”
Byron nodded his agreement. “I don’t like the idea of telling them about Margo out straight. She was dumped at the orphanage, possibly because her mother was afraid. I’m not sure I want them to know where she is now.”
“We keep it vague then,” I said. “But what if we meet her family?”
“We’ll deal with that when we come to it.” Byron hesitated. “It might not be a happy reunion, Dorian. Many people who give up their children force themselves to forget all about it.”
“All I need is answers on how to help her,” I said. “Margo doesn’t need them for anything else. She has her parents. The ones who have taken care of her, who raised her. That’s enough for her.”
