We found him!

Emily and Adelaide circled through the woods, walking crouched, quiet, pausing at the slightest sign of movement among the trees. A owl hooted in the darkness, and they jumped. Adelaide clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. 

They continued on. 

Levi was under a broken pine tree a little farther on. Adelaide saw him first, forgetting the wolves for a moment and running to where he lay limply on the ground. She reached him a second later, already opening her backpack and grabbing out equipment. 

"He needs gauze and antiseptic right away." She whispered furiously. Her voice shook, but her hands were deft, firm and competent. She checked his pulse, his breathing. He didn't seem to have any broken bones, but she was worried about moving him in case he had suffered some spinal injury. He shivered under her hands, his skin clammy. "Let's get a blanket over him." 

The light was horrible. She couldn't see anything, was working more by feel and instinct. With gloved hands she traced four long gashes that ran down from his right shoulder down his side, all the way to his thigh. 

"Is he alright?" Emily asked anxiously from behind her. 

Adelaide swallowed. "He's lost allot of blood," she said, keeping her voice even. So much blood, soaking the ground, her gloves, his pants. She felt through his jeans, found a series of puncture wounds on the left calf. Probably where one of the wolves had gripped his leg in its teeth, carrying him along. 

She pressed gauze after antiseptic gauze into his gaping wounds, but she didn't have nearly enough. When she ran out she pulled out the sports wrap. It felt like trying to duct-tape a life raft, and she was losing. The wrap soaked red as soon as it touched Levi's flesh. 

"Emily, does your magic do anything for healing?" Adelaide asked helplessly. 

"A little, but if we use any more magic it'll break the enchantment keeping us hidden," Emily said. 

"I think we're going to have to risk it," Adelaide replied. "Tell me what I need to do." 

"I haven't really learned that much," Emily said nervously. "Mostly you're just trying to get the body to remember what it was like to be whole, and then you gotta give them some rest. It takes allot of energy." 

"You said I have some of this magic stuff too, right?" Adelaide asked. "Can you use some of that?" 

"Yeah, but we're-" 

"Emily, if we don't do something right now Levi's going to die," Adelaide hissed. "Brett, you, me, we've come all this way. I can't do anything for him this way. He's lost too much. Now tell me what I gotta do, and let's get this done." 

"Okay," Emily nodded. "I'll explain as quick as I can, then. The magic I use is all about knowledge and sacrifice. Basically, that means I need you to give something up so that I can give you the knowledge of how to do what we're going to do here." 

"What kind of sacrifice?" 

"In the old stories, the Odin gave an eye for wisdom, but I don't think we need to be that drastic. A ring or something would work." 

"Like some hair, or a fingernail?" 

"No, it has to be something you'd miss." 

Adelaide took one of her shoes off. "Will this do?" 

Emily hesitated. "I think so."

Adelaide handed the shoe over. Emily took it in her hands, and a moment later the shoe started glowing, like it had a black light shining on it. It lifted from Emily's hands, and then burst into fire, the acrid smoke smelling of burning plastic and cotton. 

As the smoke hit Adelaide's nose, images and symbols bloomed in her mind. They spiraled upwards, faster and faster until she felt she was in a galaxy of miniature suns. Behind her, she could feel a warm, comforting, ancient presence, wrapping her in its arms. It comforted her with its familiarity and simultaneously scared her with its immense age. It had seen millennia, she could tell. She tried to turn around, to see the presence, but in that moment it was gone. 

"So you know what to do now?" Emily asked.

"Yes," Adelaide said. She knelt down again next to Levi. "Give me your hand." 

Emily knelt down on the other side. Emily put her right hand over Adelaide's, on top of Levi's forehead. Emily grabbed one of Levi's hands in her other, whispering, "It's going to be alright." Adelaide passed her second hand in the air over Levi. A soft silver glow emanated from them both, fading into red-black afterimage spots as the light sunk into Levi's body. 

Adelaide went deeper into the magic she could now feel Emily weaving. They were convincing Levi's body to rebuild itself, but Adelaide knew there was so much more she could do, she felt. She felt her mind diving deep, into the tendons, the nerves, the muscle fibers. She felt where the blood still leaked out, and closed the arteries. She whispered words of encouragement, and the flesh knitted itself back together. She felt along the lines of his energy, pausing here and there to encourage, revitalize. She poured some of her own vigor into him, until she felt his raspy breathing deepen beneath her hand, felt the erratic scattering of his broken thoughts smooth into theta waves, felt him returning to consciousness and vitality.

Levi breathed deeply, suddenly. His eyes flew open and he sat up, throwing the two girls off. Emily came right back, smoothing his hair, patting his back. "Sh, sh, sh," she whispered. "We need to be quiet." 

"I was going to die," he whispered hoarsely. "And you saved me." 

"It was mostly Adelaide," Emily nodded. "I don't know half of what you did," she said, glancing at the other girl, "you've got a real gift." 

"It was both of us," Adelaide whispered. "Now lets get out of here before-" 

"Before what?" A cold, growling voice whispered behind her. 

Did it work?

Ba boom ba boom ba boom the sound of the blood rushing into Adelaide’s ears was the loudest sound that she heard as Emily and she made their way to the flickering green dot that was Levi. She tried to control her breathing as they climbed through the underbrush. Having too much adrenaline wasn’t good if she needed to perform any medical attention. It was hard trying to calm yourself down when the shadows of the trees and the knowledge that there was danger all around kept making your heart beat faster. Adelaide felt like she was losing the battle in that respect.

The pine needles and leaves crunched under foot as they walked the dark paths. Emily held the phone and kept looking at it to make sure they were still on the right path. A wolfs howl in the distance made Adelaide jump and grab Emily’s hand. It was only a little comfort to have Emily hold on to her hand as tightly as she held on to hers.

“Um Adelaide...” Emily started hesitantly whispering in the darkness. “Try not to make any sound okay.”

“Why?” Adelaide whispered back curiously. “Didn’t you use a spell on us?”

“About that,” Emily began tentatively. “I’ve never used so much magic and never so many big spells at one time. I’m not even sure I did them all right.” Emily sounded like she was having a hard time admitting it along with sounding guilty.

“It’s okay Emily. We’ll just be quite and not make any…” Adelaide began and then was cut off abruptly by the deep rumble of a growl.

In the darkness golden eyes caught the small light of the moon and stars and reflected them in two visceral eyes. Adelaide grip tightened on Emily’s hand as the beast stepped out of the darkness. Paws as big as dinner plates supported the massive wolf. Adelaide had never seen a wolf as large as this. Dark gray fur rolled and shook with each surprisingly quit step. The beast growled pulling back its lips and now all that Adelaide could think about was the white teeth that seemed to spell death.

As the wolf got closer it lowered its head. The hair on its back rose to stand straight in the air. Adelaide closed her eyes sure that death would be coming for her any moment. A long piercing howl shattered the night and Adelaide opened her eyes. The wolf stared off into the night toward the direction of the howl. It turned back to the girls it eyes narrowed and indecision seemed to cross its features before it bounded off into the night as quit as it had come.

Adelaide let out the breath she didn’t even know she was holding and heard the twin of it coming from Emily. They looked at each other evident relief shown clearly in each face. Adelaide couldn’t help it and through her arms around Emily’s neck. It just seemed the right thing to do in that situation and was hugged in return.

“Well at least that seemed to have worked.” Adelaide said in relief stepping back.

“I’m not so sure.” Emily said looking worried. “That one didn’t show up on my map.”

“Well is Levi still there?”

“Yes, he should be right up ahead.” Emily said and started walking in the direction she had indicated.

1...2...3... Run!

"Give me your phones," Emily said to the others. Adelaide had a smart phone, but Brett's was just a flip phone. "Okay, you're going to have to use mine. Me and Adelaide will stick together." She drew a sigil on Adelaide's phone. It glowed blue for a second, then went out. Emily handed Adelaide's phone to Brett. "Me and Adelaide are going first. We have a... it's not exactly invisibility. It's more like a Don't Notice Me smell, so they can look right at us and think we're as important as trees. We'll go in and extract Levi from the cave where they've hidden him. I've downloaded an app so that you can track the movements of the monsters. It should be able to keep up with anything below a level 4, but be careful. Something bigger might be out there. And make sure they don't see the light on the phone."

"Can't you do the invisibility thing on me?" Brett asked.

"No, we need you to be a distraction. Don't run in though, they're waiting for you. See if you can circle around instead, take out the patrols on the edges. Get them worried about one spot and then run somewhere else. Don't stay too long though."

"I told you I can handle myself."

"Brett, pay attention." She flipped open her own phone. She clicked an icon like a shield made of the wings of two crows. A map of the park zoomed into view. Three little green specks sat huddled in the parking lot, while all around them red specks circled. Dozens of them. About three hundred yards into the forest, another little green dot flickered.

"There are 37 wolves. Can you handle 37 wolves by yourself?" Emily asked sarcastically.

Brett stared at the screen, mind blank. A cold chill shivered up his spine. I would have walked right into that, he thought. I wouldn't have stood a chance.

"Brett! Pay attention!" Emily snapped.

"All of those red dots are giant wolves?" Adelaide asked. She sounded remarkably calm about it. "But they can't see us, right?"

"They know where Brett is right now, but they won't as soon as he sprints away from the car. I set up an enchantment so that they'll sense three different Bretts running in different directions. That way he has a chance to draw them off. We'll already be heading to get Levi, and the wolves should be too preoccupied, and my enchantment should hold." Emily shook her head. "I'm not going to lie, this is insanely dangerous. I, ah, didn't expect..." she swallowed. "There are allot more fenrir than I expected." She glanced down at the screen, then outside. "Okay, looks like the wolves are getting antsy. Time for us to go. Count to 10 before you head out, or the wolves might trip over us, and they would definitely notice that."

Emily opened the car door a crack and slipped out into the still night, Adelaide close behind. "And Brett," Emily whispered. "I'd take off my shoes and socks if I were you. It'll help. Trust me."

Brett swore at the girl's retreating figures, quietly. Gritting his teeth, he shucked his shoes off, counting to ten as he did so. "One," he grimaced.

He hoped the girls would be okay. This was a horrible plan. "Two," he whispered quietly to himself.

Was that movement under that tree? "Three"

Both his shoes and now his socks were discarded onto the floor of the car. A rank, toe-like smell wafted up. "Four."

Definitely movement. Coming from two different directions. "Five."

He glanced down at the phone. Maybe eight of them were circling his car, just outside the parking lot. "Six."

His breath came faster. "Seven."

"Eight."

"Nine." One was running towards his car.

"Ten!" Brett launched himself out of the vehicle, slamming the car door into the wolf-creature's face as he did so. He rolled on the ground and pelted in the opposite direction of the girls. He felt a sensation like two shadows crossing over his shoulders, and a moment later out of the corner of his eyes he saw two mirror images of himself streaking in opposite directions. Laughing madly, Brett leaned into the run, sprinting through the cool night air.

Brett was probably the best football player on his team. He played varsity as a freshman. He knew how fast he was, how strong. He'd been getting into fights for years. He'd never lost once. This was his field. Brett knew it, he could feel the wolves coming for him, faster than linebackers, faster than startled deer, and still they seemed to move through molasses. This was his game.

He could feel one of the wolves closer than the rest, her breath- he could tell it was female somehow- damp-hot on his legs. He leaped towards a tree, kicking off just as the beast sailed below him, pulling out the nail and twisting in mid-air to avoid another wolf-monster's swiping claws.

A moment later he held a sword in his hand.

Brett didn't let them get close enough to grapple. One on one grappling was fine, but a death wish against so many. Brett slashed in a wide arc with his sword, directing it towards movement more felt than seen. The blade sang through the air, and a moment later monstrous howls of rage filled his ears.

He glanced down at the phone in his other hand. Ten more were headed in his direction to join these three. Brett ran again, bursting between the two in front of him with a quick jab into the ear of the right and a quick slice of the sword across the hind quarters of the left. They fell back a moment, disoriented, before hurtling like comets of fur and fury at his heels again.

Brett realized he was still laughing. He stopped abruptly. A short bluff loomed up ahead. Brett leaped, sword changed back to nail and in pocket, phone between teeth, leaped and scurried up the shear rock wall like a lizard. Down below the wolves scrabbled after him, but they weren't built to climb. The cool stone was welcoming beneath his feet. He reached the summit and kept running, grinning into the darkness.

They wanted to hunt him, did they? He would show them who was hunter, and who was hunted.

Stop!

            Malaspina Park didn’t look like much and was hard to get to. The park didn’t have any real open spaces and was pretty much just a bunch of trails that ran through the woods. Brett didn’t feel like walking to the trailheads so he went up some windy roads until he could pull off onto a dirt power line road that went by the trailheads. All the trees had been cut back to make room for the power lines so you had a thirty foot wide snake of space bordered on both sides by trees. On one side just a little past the trees was the North Vancouver suburbs and on the other was a vast never ending forest.

            “What is she doing?” Brett asked and not for the first time as he pulled onto the dirt road. “We’re almost there.”

            “Brett shhhh.” Adelaide said quietly. “Emily said she needed to concentrate for this to work.”

            Emily the weird had been sitting in a trance like state for the last ten minutes. It had been so frustrating to have her say ‘oh there is so much stuff I know Brett but your too dumb to understand it all, you’re just going to have to wait until I find my picture books, I’m not sure I can teach jock monkeys to read’ okay she hadn’t said it like that but that’s what it had felt like she had been saying. Telling them she knew about what was going on than saying she would explain it latter and then telling them they had to be quite so she could concentrate and hopefully get them all back alive.

            Emily started speaking under her breath in some language that Brett had never heard but that sent shivers down his spine and made his hair stand up. The quick glances that Brett had sneaked as they drove along showed Emily head bowed and eyes closed mumbling and moving her arms and hand in funny gestures. Adelaide looked on with a face of worry and concern. Suddenly Emily’s hand shot out and griped his arm “stop the car” she said in an urgent horse whisper.

            “Now what?” Brett sighed as he stopped the car.

            “There are too many of them. Even you would be overwhelmed.” She said with certainty. Again she didn’t tell them how she knew.

            “I’d like to see them try.” Brett growled and almost kept driving but the tightening of Emily’s hand on his arm stopped him.

            “Brett, please don’t be an idiot. We need to use the subtle approach here.”

            “I don’t know if Brett knows how to be subtle.” Adelaide said a little smile twitched on her lips.

“I know how to be subtle.” Brett said defensively. He was glad it was dark so the girls couldn’t see his face. It felt hot.

“Well you don’t show it very often.” Adelaide said with a giggle.

“I’ve been using magic and contemplating. And I think I now a way to get Levi out without getting any of us killed in the process.” Emily said with confidence. But Brett could see the worry lining her face.

Another Car Ride

They got to Adelaide's house a few minutes later. She was sitting on the porch, her white hair giving her a faint halo from the moonlight and porch light. Her first aide backpack was next to her, and as soon as she saw them pull up, Adelaide hopped to her feet and ran to the car.

"I told my parents that I needed to help some friends from school with some things," she said breathlessly. "Well? What's going on?"

"Well," Brett began, a little disgruntled that she had also sat in the back seat.

"Oh, I'll explain it. You'd just mess things up," Emily said crossly. She turned to Adelaide. "I know you've dealt with some crazy things before. Unusual injuries," Emily waved at Brett in the front seat. "Perhaps seeing unusual things, something like that. The reason I know that is because everybody here has experienced something similar."

Adelaide gave herself some time to think while she pulled a dry towel out of her backpack for Emily. "I've always been really good at medicine. People say it's because I'm smart, and I really do love learning about how to help people, but sometimes," She said, "Sometimes I feel like I'm healing people with magic or something. Like I will them better." She looked at the other two curiously. "I kind of figured something similar might be happening with Brett,"

"Does everybody know my biggest secret?" Brett interrupted incredulously.

"You're a rather obnoxiously obvious target," Emily stated. She toweled her damp clothes vigorously, as well as her hair.

"I figured Brett might have had something similar going on," Adelaide continued, "but I didn't think you might have..."

"There are quite a few of us here at school." Emily said, still toweling. When she finished, she looked pointedly at Brett, who stared back until realizing he was still sitting in front of Adelaide's house. Muttering about obnoxiously bossy females, he started the car up again and started driving.

"I can't tell you who everyone is yet, but that's not the point. The point is that there are monsters as well as kids with gifts. Monsters that really want to kill the kids with gifts. Most of the time we manage to hide the people from them before it becomes too much of a problem." Emily went on. "The bracelet I gave you for you birthday? That's a protective charm. It keeps the monsters from noticing you. I never did manage to give one to Brett though."

Adelaide tugged self-consciously at the braided hemp bracelet set with a single carved green stone.

"Wait a minute, who's we?" Brett interrupted.

"I don't have time to explain everything right now," Emily shot an irritated glance at the Brett, and then continued on. "The most important thing right now is that somehow Levi got involved with all of this. He's a normal, but I think some monsters are using him as bait to get Brett to come and save him. I'm not sure why."

"I killed one of them earlier today," Brett growled. "Just like I'm going to kill the rest when we get there."

The girls sat in uncomfortable silence after that last comment. Outside houses gave way to gas stations and strip malls, and Brett started driving faster. Adelaide said, "Shouldn't we try focusing on getting Levi safely out of there, instead of walking into the trap like this?"

"That's what me and you are here for," Emily said, smiling. "Levi is probably seriously injured; they're likely to try using him as a bargaining chip with Brett, to get him in a vulnerable position, and then take him down. But they don't know about you or me. Our job will be locating and extracting Levi while Brett keeps the fenrir occupied."

"I thought they were werewolves," Brett said.

"I'll explain that later too, I promise. But right now the most important thing is making sure Levi is safe." Emily shook her head. "I'm breaking so many rules today," she said wryly, "But monsters have been moving allot more openly lately. Maybe it's time for people like us to do the same."

"And Brett's going to take care of the wolves," Adelaide said, doubt in her voice. "By himself."

"I'm going to give him a little help before he goes in," Emily assured her. "And both of us will be there if things get too hairy." She pulled a couple nails, big as railroad spikes, out of her coat pocket. "Each of you take one of these."

Adelaide took one dubiously, but her mouth firmed a second later. "I'm ready. Just," she said, patting Brett quickly on the shoulder, "Just be careful out there, okay?"

Brett blushed a little, but when he spoke, his voice still carried angry undertones, like the distant rumble of an earthquake. "Don't worry. I can take care of myself."

Well this is Painful

Pain shot through Levi’s entire body. He didn’t want to move or open his eyes. It hurt even to breath. Each one shot lances of pain through his battered frame. One of his ribs must be broken Levi thought dully. Although right now nothing seemed to be working and everything might be broken for all he knew.

The last thing Levi remembered was walking home. The light from the sun had set and now the twilight glow was all that was left. His phone rang again; he looked at the screen monotonously. It was Emily; she had been calling for the last hour. He watched his screen until the light stopped flashing and it went blank. He sighed, he felt guilty for not answering. But at the moment he didn’t want to talk to her.

He was almost home, his steps slowed noticeably as he got closer. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his foster family. He did, but then again he didn’t. Interesting would be the best word for them. Levi’s foster father drank a lot and played jokes and pranked people a lot. When asked what he did he always had a different answer but Levi always thought of him as a con artist. Levi’s foster mother worked long hours at a butchers and always wanted to know where he was at and what he was doing. Half the missed calls on his phone were from her. There was the older Goth sister who liked to play zombie. She was okay half the time. There was the older brother who worked at the pet store. He shaved his head bald and had a snake tattoo that covered his entire body. Then there was the dog. Levi didn’t know why he always included him with the family but it just seemed right. It was the biggest dog that Levi had ever seen. Levi foster father laughed and said he was some malamute, husky, wolf mix with horse thrown in for good measure. He was chained up in the back yard and stayed there with his head poking out of his too small dog house. Baleful eyes watching and waiting for someone to make the mistake and come to close to his domain. Ironically it was Levi’s foster father’s girlfriend that Levi liked the most. She was nice and loved horses and liked to tell Levi about them.

Lost in thoughts about his foster family and how he was going to convince Brett he didn’t tell Emily anything. Levi had no idea what happened. He was walking the next thing he knew he had the wind knocked out of him and his face smashed against the sidewalk. He was desperately trying to suck in air when pain ached up his body from his arm and he blacked out.

Levi opened his eyes now. Squinting down he tried to look at his arm. It was hard to see anything it was so dark. He had his back against a pine tree and it looked like he was in the forest that surrounded North Vancouver. He was shirtless and cold. He could tell his back was scrapped up and he was sure that he had cuts all over his torso.

The ground elevated to the right and was the forest proper. To the left the ground sloped down and Levi could see a ways into the distance the forest broke in a long clearing a road running through it. Further and a little past the clearing and road Levi could see house lights.

Turning again to the right his view was obscured by white teeth and yellow eyes. Levi screamed and fell over onto his side coughing and curled up in pain. For a moment Levi thought it was the family dog. But the giant gray wolf wasn’t him. There was the crunch of boots in the dead foliage and Levi looked up into the face of what he thought was Camdon, before realizing it wasn’t him, a moment before he blacked out once again.

Levi is still alive, the note said. Barely.

Brett bristled, but stepped out onto the porch and closed the door quietly.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed. "I don't want you, or Levi, or anybody coming around he-"

Emily thrust the shirt and note at him. "Before you ridicule me, perhaps you should consider the consequences of your own actions."

Brett took them without thinking, grimacing at the wetness of both. Halted mid-rant he glanced down at the shirt and caught his breath. It was Levi's shirt, green with a Chinese dragon printed across the back. It was ripped, and mud and deep red spattered his hands where he touched it.

"Couple of wolves just left that on your porch. Horse-sized wolves. I ended up in your neighbor's kiddy pool to keep them from smelling me," Emily said, tossing her wet hair. "Did you read the note?"

Your friend is still alive, godspawn, scrawled in blotchy, spidery black letters. Will you be, before the night is over? Come to Malaspina Park. Hurry. My wolves are hungry, hungry for vengeance. The little one might not last much longer.

Brett felt a wave of heat, then chills, sweep over his whole body. He crumpled the paper, his whole body trembling. Pebbles on the ground started trembling. Without a word he started toward the car.

Emily jumped into the back seat with him before he'd started the ignition. "Adelaide," she said. "We need Adelaide. I don't know how badly Levi's been injured." She pulled out her phone, already dialing the number. "Hopefully my phone still works after that dunking."

Brett glared back at her furiously. "Get out, you-"

"It's your fault," Emily said. "You pushed him away. You left him defenseless." The phone in her hand was ringing.

"Shut up," He said quietly. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"What possible reason could you have for abandoning him like that?"

"He told you about me! He told you about the wolves, the goblins, and now you're sticking your nose into my business! You want to get Adelaide mixed up in this crap too? I'm trying to protect you, you idiot! I'm trying to keep the nightmares from getting you, like they- like they-" Brett stopped, his voice stuck in his throat. He realized vaguely that pebbles floated lazily around the car. That's new, he thought, vaguely disconnected. Everything seemed so unreal. All his life, Brett had been confident that whatever happened, he'd be able to handle it. Now Levi was gone, and Brett couldn't handle it. He'd never felt helpless before.

"Levi didn't tell me anything," Emily said softly. Her eyes burned in rage. "Not. One. Thing."

A click on the other end of Emily's phone brought them both up short. "Hey, Emily. What's up?" Adelaide's voice seemed to drain the tension out of the too-close atmosphere of the car. Still, neither Emily or Brett spoke. "Emily? Is everything okay?" Adelaide's voice asked.

"Adelaide, I-" Emily stopped for a moment when Brett motioned. "Hold on, somebody wants to talk to you.

Brett took the phone. "Adelaide?" He asked, his voice uncertain. "I, um." He took a deep breath, held it.

"Brett? What's going on?"

"Nothing's wrong Adelaide," Brett said.

"Brett," Adelaide said. "It's going to be okay."

"No it's not," Brett said woodenly. He took a deep breath. "I messed up, Adelaide, and now Levi's- hurt. Maybe. I don't know. Everything's messed up." He wanted to crumple the phone in his hand, but he forced himself to keep talking. "I need to do something really dangerous tonight, and I- well, I don't want to get you involved. But you're probably the best person, the only person I would trust to help, and-"

"Come over to my house, I'll have my stuff ready by the time you get here," Adelaide hung up.

Brett crushed the phone in his hand.

"Start driving," Emily ordered from the back seat.

"You still here?" Brett asked sarcastically. He turned on the ignition, his mom's little car roaring to life. She'll probably want to know where I had to go in the middle of the night, he thought to himself. Another lie. The lights puled on and he backed into the road, then roared down the street, slightly faster than necessary.

"I assume you know where Adelaide lives," Emily said. "You owe me a new phone, by the way."

"If Levi didn't tell you about stuff, how do you know?"

Emily chortled unpleasantly. "Oh, this is too rich. You actually thought you were the only one?" Brett glanced back. Emily's eyes glittered like chips of moonlight. "I knew what you were from the first moment I saw you."

She looked out the window, up where the night twinkled with stars. "It took a bit longer for me to identify others. Adelaide is one of us too."

"Godspawn?" Brett recalled the word from the note.

Emily hesitated for a moment. "I'm not sure. I can see the power lingering around certain people, like sparks hover around a campfire. You have it really strong. Adelaide has less." She shivered, her clothes still damp. "I saw it on the wolves too. And I've seen it on others. When I first met you, I thought you were one of the monsters."