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Eli nodded and patted her pocket. “Sunburst is highly caustic until it’s been refined with magic. The sap will burn right through most things. Fabric, leather, even metal. We need these to harvest it safely.”
“Can we help with anything?” I asked.
Crew gestured toward the jungle around us. “Eli and I know what we’re looking for. You two keep an eye out for danger, and for your friend.”
We proceed along. I swiveled my head around constantly, peering into the trees and trying to catch Leif’s scent in the air. Behind me, Wyatt did the same. No dangerous creatures found us, but we also found no sign of Leif.
Under a thickly canopied knoll, Eli and Crew found what they were looking for. The sunburst vines weren’t what I’d expected. I’d thought they’d be thick ropes ascending a massive tree. Instead, they were thin web-like vines stretched between two saplings, with huge bright yellow flowers hanging from them. Eli and Crew worked efficiently but carefully to harvest as much as they could fit into the special pouches before cinching them tight and putting them away.
Looking relieved to be done with that task, Crew turned to us, still keeping his voice low. “Done. We’ve still got some time. If you want to find a feral wolf, there’s an area near here that’s popular with wolves. They spend a lot of time there. If you want to try there, I know a path that will bypass most danger. What do you say?”
Wyatt tensed beside me. He probably wanted to speak up and say we’d already been out too long, that it was too dangerous.
I beat him to the punch. “Let’s do it.”
Wyatt growled but kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to argue in front of Crew again, especially not out here where noise could bring out hordes of things to kill us.
Crew looked at Eli and pointed to the back of our group. “You take the rear. You know where we’re going, right?”
She nodded and stepped aside so Wyatt and I could pass. Crew led us on a circuitous route to the destination. At one point, we skirted the very edges of the swamp, getting close enough that I could hear the ghosts inside screeching and moaning. It sent shivers up my spine.
The path he led us on took us up a jagged trail to a precipice that overlooked a clearing fifty yards below. Even before I came to the edge to look down, I could hear the snarls, barks, and growls of at least a dozen wolves.
Wyatt and I lay on our stomachs and inched toward the sharp edge of the outcropping to join Crew. My jaw dropped at what lay before me.
At least twenty feral wolves stalked the clearing. The area looked to have been struck by a storm a long time ago. Lots of trees were down and partially or totally rotten. Saplings and shrubs had sprouted up to compete for the newly revealed sunlight, but wolf feet had trodden most of them down, creating an oval-shaped opening for them to congregate.
The wolves were in various states of filth. Most had matted or mangy fur. One barely looked like a wolf at all. Its fur was deeply tangled and covered in mud, and it almost appeared to have armor hanging from its body. The beasts rolled their heads, snapped at nothing, and dug at the ground in pointless bursts of activity. As I watched, two of the creatures snapped at one another until they exploded into a fight, with gnashing teeth, open jaws, and clawing feet. The fight didn’t end until one of the wolves lay dead, its throat torn out, the victor howling at the sky.
It broke my heart. They’d all been people once. At one point, they’d been shifters like me or Wyatt, men and women with packs and families, but they were now stark-raving mad and stuck here forever.
My heartache vanished when I saw Leif’s familiar wolf form lope into the clearing. Excitement and hope filled me at the sight of him, even if he was obviously out of his mind. He stopped mid-stride, shook his head, batted at his face with his paw, then growled savagely at a sapling. He even stalked toward the plant like it was an enemy before biting and clawing at it until he either grew bored or decided it wasn’t worth it. Tears filled my eyes.
“That’s him,” Wyatt whispered, pointing to Leif. “We’ve found him. What the hell do we do now?”
“Is there a way to get him back to Haven safely?” I asked.
Crew nodded, keeping his eye locked on the wolves below. “We have a holding area at Haven. It’s never been used, though. Originally, it was made in case we had to restrain an angry shifter or people I rescued who might be a little out of it at first. It should hold a feral shifter.” He glanced back at Eli, who sat hunched behind us. “Do you think you can help?”
Eli nodded. “I can calm his mind and induce sleep if I get close enough. My powers should be able to put him under deep enough that he won’t wake during the return trip.” She raised an eyebrow. “We have to get him alone first. I’m not strong enough to do it to more than one creature at once.”
“We wait, then,” Crew said. “Watch and see if he separates himself from the rest. I’ll give it an hour. Then we call it.”
“Okay,” I said, though it was a grudging agreement. I didn’t want to leave Leif here. We’d just found him, and there was no guarantee we’d find him again. But I was a guest here, and I had to follow Crew and his rules.
The minutes ticked by in silence. All we could do was watch the shifters below us wallow in their misery and madness, waiting and hoping Leif would venture off alone.
“What are you going to do about Chelsey?” Wyatt asked, and I jerked my head around.
“It’s easy to see you’re still into her, but she’s acting like she wishes you didn’t exist,” Wyatt went on.
Emotional agony darkened Crew’s face. Eli was looking at him with interest. Surely the residents of Haven were curious about their leader’s past, and his past relationship with Chelsey looked like a doorway right into it.
“That’s a long story,” Crew said. “I can’t say I’m surprised she doesn’t want to talk to me, though.”
“Maybe I could talk to her,” I offered. “I can at least ask if she’d discuss things with you. Get her feelings off her chest, if nothing else.”
His face betrayed the hope he must have felt. But Crew disagreed. “Nope. I don’t want to bother her. She’s been through too much already. She hates me, and I deserve it.”
