68

Scarlett shifted in the car. She grimaced as she peeled her sweat laden back from the leather. Sunburn stung her shoulders as she faced into the window to take advantage of the slim, barely present breeze.

"Are we there yet?" Jake asked for what had to be the twentieth time. Both the adults sighed deeply, drawing breath up from the depths of their weary souls.

"Almost," Scarlett muttered.

They were doing well over the maximum legal speed—almost hitting 90 miles an hour. It wasn't abnormal on this motorway, with very few other drivers keeping to the limit. Riley weaved in and out of the lanes with skill and reaction speeds that were better than any human, but he was becoming tired.

"We'll need to take the exit soon so stay in this lane," Scarlett warned him, looking at her map.

Riley nodded. He hadn't spoken much since their rest stop at the diner. Maybe he was too busy concentrating on the road... or maybe he was thinking about the bombshell Jake had so casually dropped.

They sat in silence for the rest of the journey, aside from Jake's ramblings. Every so often he would feel the need to point out some landmark on the horizon—a passing train or a windmill.

When they finally arrived at their destination, the one given by the boy, Scarlett was somewhat underwhelmed. It looked like an ordinary house. A modern redbrick terrace nestled within a line of identical houses, differing only in door colour. Some had a painted fence—white or a pastel colour. This one was plain and weathered, boxing in a garden of patchy grass and weeds.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" she asked Jake.

The nodded. "Uh-huh. This is the place."

She followed him to the door and waited as he pressed the bell. After a short pause, he pushed it again. Then again. As he went to press it a fourth time, Scarlett grabbed his impatient little hand.

"Enough," she muttered.

After a moment of silence, a rustling came from inside. It sounded as though someone was raising from a sofa, maybe placing a newspaper on a coffee table. She was picturing an elderly man and was shocked when the door finally opened.

A handsome young man stood in the doorway. He did not smile or greet them, just stepped back and waved them in.

"Well, get inside then." He tutted. "There isn't time to waste."

Clocks ticked in the hallway as Scarlett followed him into a room similarly filled with clocks. The sound was irritating, almost unbearably so.

"Sorry," the man said, sensing her discomfort. "Follow me into the garden."

They did so, jumping over a pile of children's toys and through a stairgate.

'He has kids?' Scarlett pondered, confused by this. Wasn't he some mystical being?

Everything just seemed too... normal.

"I need it now, Father," Jake stated. It was the first time he'd spoken in such a serious tone.

Riley and Scarlett exchanged glances as the man stared blankly.

"Need what?" he asked.

"Mother said I had to receive my power from you... that you would give me something to activate me once the time arrived," Jake explained.

"Oh." The man laughed gently as he took a seat. He indicated for the others to join him at the garden table. "I guess they did that so you wouldn't take over the pack at age five."

He smiled, squinting in the sun. "You already have everything I can give you. My blood. My DNA. There is no magic item or spell to activate it. You simply have to do it."

Jake frowned. "How?"

"Go. There isn't time." The father stood. "You will know what to do when you see it."

He ushered them through the back gate and out onto the street, waving as they got into the car and drove away.

"I feel like that was an utter waste of time—" Jake began.

"I'm so angry!" Riley raged. He thumped the wheel of the car. "They lied to you so that stupid woman could hold on to leadership a little longer. And what for? She was a rubbish leader."

Scarlett found herself smiling despite the dire situation they were in. He clearly had no feelings for Adrian's mother, other than anger at her bad decision.

"I'm sorry guys." Jamie shrugged. "I don't have any idea how to make my true power come out."

"Don't worry," Scarlett reassured him. "When the time comes you'll either have a revelation and we'll beat him... or you won't... and we won't be alive to worry about it."

"That's... oddly reassuring." Jake laughed.

Riley snickered and began to laugh as the boy fell into hysterics. By the time they made it back onto the motorway all three of them were laughing like lunatics.

Scarlett sucked her chest in, taking a deep breath. "Oh damn. We're all going to die, aren't we?"

"Probably." Jake shrugged.

His nonchalant attitude struck her as funny, and the laughter started again.

To a passerby, they must have looked like a happy family making their way to the beach to spend their holidays in the sun.

That couldn't be further from the truth.