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“I think she’ll understand.”
Radulf nodded. “Goodnight, little wolfling.”
“Goodnight,” I echoed.
With that, he was gone, and Tallin and I were left alone in the room. He was already making himself comfortable on the pile of furs. When he was done making himself comfortable, he looked up at me. “It has truly been a long day,” he said.
“Day, night… who’s to say anymore?” I asked.
“Perhaps it would be best if we took things one day at a time from now on?”
I nodded. “That might not be a bad idea. At least until things settle.”
“Whenever they do… know that I will be there with you.”
I walked over to him and rubbed the space between his antlers. “Thanks, Tallin. And likewise.”
Tallin tucked his head into his paws and almost immediately began to snuffle. He was exhausted, the poor thing. I was, too, but I was a lot bigger than he was. He really had given me way more of himself than I could have ever asked for.
Feeling the weight of exhaustion starting to fall over my shoulders, I let myself rest on the bed I had been given. I wrapped myself up in warm furs almost immediately, shutting my eyes as soon as I felt like I was comfortable. If my parents were here by the time I woke up again, I wouldn’t be surprised. I couldn’t think about that right now, though.
I couldn’t think about anything.
There was only the warmth, the encroaching dark, and my aching bones.
And then a spine-tingling voice whispered into the space between my ears just loudly enough to wake me up with a start. “Amara.”
I perked up, noticing instantly that the tent was way darker than it should’ve been. I couldn’t hear anyone, I couldn’t see… anything. Nothing. It was pitch dark… save for a soft, purple mist that seemed to be crawling along the ground.
I looked over at the bed next to mine. Tallin wasn’t there.
“Who said that?” I asked.
“The one who will give you what you desire most,” came the reply, soft, and distant, and yet spoken directly into my brain, it seemed like.
I felt like I couldn’t resist, or maybe I didn’t want to. Slowly, I got up and out of bed, stepping into the purple mist… and I followed it out of the tent.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Iwas dreaming—or maybe I wasn’t. I couldn’t tell. The tent I had woken up in was as dark and as quiet as the world beyond it. Tallin was nowhere to be found, neither was my brother, or Gullie, or anyone for that matter. I felt alone, standing on the frozen dirt, with tendrils of purple mist coiling around my ankles.
“Hello?” I called out, but there was no answer, no reply.
Slowly, I ventured further away from my tent, trying to find signs of life. I couldn’t believe that the village I had come to, a village that was so full of life, and sound, and movement was as deathly still as it was right now. This had to be a dream.
Right?
I couldn’t tell, and that made me nervous. I could feel panic’s cold hand closing around my throat, but I didn’t let it take me under. I needed to keep my cool, regain my composure, and figure out what in the world was going on.
“Amara,” came a soft, feminine voice. It was the same one that had woken me up.
“Who said that?” I asked, turning sharply on my heel once, twice. All I could see were dark, empty tents. There was no one out here.
“This way,” said the voice, and I watched as the soft, purple glow begin to rise in intensity, then fall again.
There was a path between the tents, where the mist was at its thickest. That was where the light had come from. Every instinct in my body told me this was a bad idea, that I was headed for trouble of some kind, but I also felt drawn to it. Compelled to follow the trail and the voice to its source.
I couldn’t decide whether or not I was totally in control of my own actions. Then again, this was possibly a dream. If it was, then it was the most vivid dream I could remember… well, thesecondmost vivid dream.
