79
Lucy
I shook his hand. "Thank you for teaching me."
He chuckled. "Don't thank me just yet. I have a feeling you'll have more than one callus by the end of all this."
He handed the pages back to the counselor. "First lesson: always activate your cloaking spell."
I frowned. He gestured to his neck. "Every anchor has one. It will keep someone from trying to take it from you and debilitate you."
I looked down at it. "How do I do that?"
"Hold it in your hand and say 'hidden.'"
I frowned down at it and held it. It felt warmer and different than before.
"Hidden."
A ripple of light passed over it, but it looked no different.
"Good. Now it's keyed to you. No one else, except for me, could take it from you."
I clutched it in my hand. "Why would you need to take it from me?"
"To charge it. To fix it. Usually, it's a matter of saving your life," he said. "For all intents and purposes, Lucy, you are now my apprentice." He smiled, and his eyes glinted with light. "Us wolves have to stick together."
My eyes widened as I realized that he was a werewolf too.
He smiled. "We'll talk more when the time comes. Why don't you let our lovely Sara show you around? It's a big place; you'll need to know where to go."
I nodded. "Thank you again, Mr. Whitetower."
"Luke," he said. "We'll be as close as family, you and I. Let's not stand on formality."
"I... don't know much about family, sir," I said.
He smiled, his eyes sad. "You will."
After the tour, I headed back to the front of the building. Araya escorted me back to Stacy's building through a portal. I had dinner, took a shower, and crawled into bed. I lay beneath the blankets, fiddling with the necklace and wondering if I was doing the right thing.
Soon, I couldn't keep my eyes open.
I was dropped into a house, into that same room from before. The toys on the floor beside me gleamed. They felt familiar. I picked up a little block with letters and numbers on every side, hoping beyond hope that this was a memory and not just a fantasy.
I tried to stay calm so I wouldn't be pushed out of it. Then, the door opened, and a man's voice spoke to me. It was still muffled, but I could at least make out that it was a man's voice. He lifted me into his arms, and I felt everything in my body relax. They rocked me, and I fell asleep to the soothing humming drifting through the air.
"Sweet little Lucy... You need your rest..."
My heart pounded. I could feel my eyes burning with tears. Lucy was my real name, not just a name picked out of a book by those people at the orphanage, but my real name.
"You're in here again?" A woman's voice came. I saw her figure in the doorway, but I couldn't see her clearly. She laughed. "You're going to make her think you're her father."
He laughed, his laughter rumbling against my chest. "I'd be more than happy with that... except for the incest part, and I'm pretty sure I'm too young?"
She laughed. "Tell that to Jamie."
He laughed, and my heart raced as she drew closer. These people had to be related to me somehow. Then, I heard something. I went still. He went still. She whirled around. All too soon, the man turned and handed me to her.
"Quickly," he said. "Quietly."
"You can't do this alone. You're too young—"
"And you can't do this at all... Let me do this for you, Allie." He hesitated. "Maybe I won't make it out, but I can buy you time... I don't know what the hell they were thinking..."
The woman hesitated as I heard more thundering and breaking sounds below.
"Okay... Just don't die."
"Not on your life," he said. "I'm still waiting for the day she calls me Dad and your husband flips out."
I felt him leave. A soft, pleading whine filled the air, and Allie shushed me.
"It's okay," she said. "He'll come back. You know... You know you're his favorite."
Her voice cracked. She left through the door and turned down the hallway. I heard people nearby, big thudding footsteps, and I felt her breathing pick up as she turned and ran in a different direction. Then, she set me down. Deep brown eyes peered at me from behind a fringe of inky curls just like mine.
The woman's face was just like mine.
"I know you're scared, Lucy, but you have to be a good girl and take the secret passage mommy showed you."
Tears streamed down my face. I felt the dream start to slip away, but I wanted to keep looking at her. I wanted to stay in the memory so badly, but I couldn't hold onto it.
Her voice grew distant. It felt like I was being ripped from her arms. My whole body went cold. I heard the roaring fire and the screaming. Fear filled me. I was running through the dark and out into the cool night. I didn't know where I was running, but I knew I was being chased.
"Run, little one!" she screamed; mother was screaming at me. Her voice echoed through my mind. "Run and forget!"
I couldn't breathe. I felt something wash over me, stealing the memories and dragging them away from my consciousness.
Forget what? That I had a family? That we'd been attacked?
"Kill her!" someone roared. The voice shook the air and rumbled through the darkness as the memories started to darken and fade.
Something yanked me around in the darkness.
"Let me go!" I heard my voice, so young, younger than I ever remembered being, screaming.
I screamed again as the force let me go. I stumbled and twirled through the air. Trees and fire, wood and glass whirled around me.
I landed and looked up at a rendering of the picture of the moon goddess I had seen in the book at Matt and Tony's house. Instead of a pencil drawing, it was a painted portrait. The woman's face was veiled, but I could see her smiling down at me.
Blood splattered across it, staining the white of her clothes red.
"Run!" the man from before screamed. "Run!"
A man cackled. "Kill them! Kill them all!"
The howling of wolves filled my mind like a strong wind. I tumbled forward in the dark. Pain ripped through my palms, but when I looked, I realized they were fine. They were just covered in sticky, thick blood. I could smell it. A scream started to build in my chest. I could barely breathe around it.
"Kill them! Kill them all!"
Fire flashed through my eyes. Burning wood and blistering hot stone. I heard screaming. Someone grabbed my arm and slammed me against the wall.
"Let me go!" I screamed, twisting and pulling. "Let me go!"
Looming red eyes looked down at me. "You look perfect for making pups when you get a bit older."
My stomach lurched, and I screamed again. The red eyes were blasted away from me.
I heard his voice again as I cried.
"Come on, Lucy," he said softly, scooping me up. "I'll get you somewhere safe. It's alright. It's alright."
I clung to him. Fear was the only thing I could hear besides the thudding of the man's heart. I screamed again as he handed me to someone else.
"Get her out of here!" he said. I still couldn't see his face. "I'll head them off."
I wailed, reaching out for the man, but whoever had me now took off running. Smoke filled my nose. Blood splashed and splattered across my vision. I fell. The person who had been carrying me grunted with pain.
"Run," she said gruffly.
I turned and ran. I heard her cry out. I heard her screaming. I heard men laughing. I heard glass break, and I ran, and I kept running through the scent of smoke and burning wood. I couldn't breathe, but my legs wouldn't stop. I broke out into the night again before I was in a long hallway that wasn't burning, but I didn't know which way to go. Everything was so big. Where was I?
How did I get out? Why was there no one to protect me?
Were they all dead? I shuddered and stumbled back against the wall. Was I going to die here too?
I can't die here... I won't die here.
"This way!" a young girl said, grabbing my hand and turning me. I ran after her. Her skirt fluttered in my vision. People screamed behind us. "Don't look back!"
Where was she leading me? I didn't know, and I didn't care as the sounds of burning wood and fighting faded behind me.
A shriek tore through the air as I felt heat on my back, and I watched her head explode in a burst of blood and gore.
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