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“It started with the vampyres back there,” Wolf explained. He wasn’t nearly as out of breath as I was. “They didn’t know how to react. At first, it was us against them, but something changed. The first few fae went down, and everyone panicked. It’s a survival instinct; you’ll kill anyone who might possibly be your enemy if you don’t think you can fight them.”
I didn’t think about Ashlani. Didn’t think about Voiler. Didn’t think about Lanson. Didn’t think about the evil, catastrophic scene we had barely escaped from.
“Some of them are still asleep,” I breathed.
“I know.”
“They’ll burn alive. That, or the vampyres will get to their bodies before they wake up.”
Another breath. “I know.”
Wolf kept walking, not missing a single step as we maneuvered through the thickening trees and fallen logs. He didn’t seem the least bit shaken from what we just witnessed.
“Where are you going?” I asked. “What’s our plan?”
He stopped, hands dropping at his sides, and spun to face me. “My plan is to get as far away from whatever the fuck just happened, Huntress.”
I flinched at the harshness of his words.
“Do you know what I thought when I found you unconscious? I had no fucking clue what was happening when I woke up. I thought… I thought…”
“Hey,” I said, stepping closer. This was not the time to be pissed off at him for lying to me. This was life or death, and I needed him to survive. “I’m right here. We made it out of there, okay?”
He shook his head, refusing to look at me.
“Wolf,” I repeated. I slid my shaking hands up his chest, feeling his rapid heartbeat beneath my palms. “Look at me.”
He swallowed but obeyed, eyes meeting mine with a palpable heat. “I can’t lose you. Not after all of this.”
“You won’t,” I promised. “I’m alive, okay? I’m right here.”
He shook his head again, as if refusing to see the truth. I reached out and grabbed his hand, placing it on my chest. Holding it there.
“I’m right here,” I repeated. “I’m alive.”
Wolf’s eyes fell to his hand that now pressed against my chest, just over my beating heart. I needed him to be okay, needed him to believe this. Whatever happened back there was just one of many tests we were about to face.
I needed him to fight.
His brows drew together as he pulled his hand away. “We should find somewhere safe, somewhere with high ground.”
“You could fly,” I suggested, glancing up at the darkening sky.
Wolf shook his head. “Everyone will see me flying. We already know there are vampyres in these woods, and we don’t need to draw any attention our way.”
I bit my tongue. Wolf spoke about the vampyres as if he wasn’t one himself.
He had been doing it the entire time we had been at this academy. Even before then, back when I ran into him in Midgrave. He acted like he was different from them, and maybe, in his eyes, he was.
But in mine?
I had no fucking clue what he was.
I turned away and focused on my surroundings, on the current problem. Wolf was right. As easy as it would be for him to fly above the forest, it was too dangerous. We couldn’t trust the other students, and we sure as hell couldn’t attract any vampyres.
The thick forest was damn near impossible to maneuver through. We couldn’t take a single step without pushing through sharp foliage, but we had no other choice.
Until I heard the thin trickle of water running in the distance. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start. “Then we follow the sound of that stream, and we track it uphill.”
