Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Panic swept through me.

What had I just done? I'd been so caught up in a stupid argument that I hadn't even noticed

Myra arriving. My emotional reaction was possibly going to cause the death of an innocent girl.

Cai and I both immediately jumped to our feet and scanned the area. Straight away, we saw

the four wolves surrounding her, just like they had in my vision. And though I was relieved to see

her alive, inside, I was tormented, reliving the horrific sight I'd seen in the classroom all over again.

I knew that at any minute now the brown wolf was going to jump and kill her within seconds; her bic

anything other than having to witness her die again.

But I had to keep going.

“Take down the brown one first!" I yelled to Cai, snapping myself out of my fear.

He didn't even hesitate as he jumped from the bushes quickly, beelining towards the largest wolf.

The four wolves looked up, surprised to see that someone was charging at them, but they were too «

Cai immediately tackled the brown wolf to the ground and they began a rolling dance for the upper

I took this opportunity to run to Myra whilst they were distracted. She was on the ground, clearly tra

was shaking, trembling to the point I

was worried whether I'd be able to get her to walk. This was probably the last

thing she had expected when she came into the woods today.

“Myra,” I whispered, gently shaking her shoulder.

She looked up as if I'd just shocked her with electricity and immediately jolted back from my touch.

“Myra, shhh,” I said, putting a finger up to my lips.

Recognition finally crossed over her face as she realised who I was. Immediately, tears started to stre

“No, not here,” I whispered, gently pulling away. “We need to get to safety first.”

Myra nodded her head shakily and I began to support her weight as she got to her feet. I could feel I

step, but I needed to get her to safety as quickly as possible. I needed

to get back to help Cai. He was stalling for time but I knew there was no way he would be able to ha

We'd almost made it out of the clearing when suddenly her foot caught

on a rock under her. It was such a surreal moment, something like out of a movie. One of those scen

right in front of you in slow motion. I watched as Myra fell to the ground, crumbling in front of me...

Because behind me, the wolves went silent.

Legnili JIRILEN

I quickly grabbed Myra’s arm and pulled her back onto her feet, holding her face in my hands so she

“Myra,” I whispered, trying to sound calm. “...Run.”

Whether it was a shot of adrenaline or that she“d finally come to her senses, Myra started sprinting tl

But behind me, I could hear the paws of at least one of the wolves coming towards me. They were cl

I knew it was too late to fight back in the current

situation, and so I did the only thing I could. I dropped myself to the ground quickly, roughly falling

Barely even a second after my chest had hit the ground, the shadow of a sandy coloured wolf soarec

as it missed hitting my body by inches.

They

spun around to face me, their snout curled into a snarl. Seeing them up close now, I realised how ver

However, there wasn't much time to assess the situation further as they lunged for me again. Swiftly,

their face with a sickening crunch on impact.

A loud, satisfying whimper escaped them and they limped off to the side to recover. I took the oppo

To my right, Cai was

still fighting the largest wolf, Neither looked to have gained any advantage over the other yet, but C:

The sandy wolf then growled, bringing my attention back to him. He was angry and I could tell he wz

I was ready this time and managed to dodge smoothly out the way. But, unfortunately for me, he dic

This went on

for a while, soon becoming a repetitive battle of the sandy wolf lunging, and me dodging. The more

The issue was that neither of

us were making any ground in terms of offensive attacks against the other. Before long, it was just a

“You need to run!” I heard Cai yell out after a few minutes had gone by.

“And leave you here to die?” I called back. “Yeah sure, why not?”

Sandy wolf's jaw came awfully close, taking advantage of the fact I'd been distracted. I could feel his

Luckily, I jumped back several feet just in time, and created a safe distance between us again.

"Do you even realise what will happen if you get killed here?!” he yelled again. “And not just what wil

I wanted to scream that Aleric wouldn't give a crap if I got killed, but it really wasn't the time.

unapie Sixteen

"Stop worrying about me and just focus on yourself!” I shouted back irritated, the sandy wolf's attack

close once more.

I could feel I was running out of stamina fast but I kept going nevertheless. At this point, I'd basically

my lungs were burning inside as every muscle in my body ached. And whilst I could tell my opponen

“Don’t be stupid, Aria! You don’t want to be treated like a child and yet you're acting incredibly selfis

“Selfish?! I'm trying to help save your life, you idiot! Do you want to make it all four wolves on you?!

But I couldn't finish my sentence as I began screaming out from a sudden pain to my shoulder.

Fangs were imbedded deep into my flesh, pulling me down to the ground. My natural reaction

was to turn my head to see the new wolf that had grabbed me but I didn’t have time.

Sandy wolf started to jump towards me again from the front and I instinctively did my best to calmly

He lunged and went to strike at my neck but I intercepted him, lifting my lower body up to catch his

But I still had the upper hand over him.

Without hesitation, I took advantage of

his position and wound my legs around him as much as possible t o pin him to the ground.

It was then that sandy wolf looked up at me with wide eyes, realising the situation he was in. He star

Behind me, I could feel as the second wolf realised what was going on and began to bite down hard:

make me let go. I cried out at the pain, tears streaming down my face, but I still held on. Though on

I knew I needed to end this. Now. Before it was too late.

With one swift movement, I mustered up all the remaining strength I had left and grabbed sandy

wolf's face tightly.

I grabbed his face, looking him in the eye one last time... and then snapped his neck, killing him inst:

The wolf behind me let my shoulder go immediately, howling out a piercing wail as he saw his pack I

I quickly rolled out of the wolf's attack radius and tried to get up, but

my legs weren't responding. Every time I tried to get up, they would just shake before making me fal

I cursed internally. It seemed I really had used all my remaining strength to take out the

sandy wolf, my body now feeling useless.

Whilst the exhausted limbs were bad enough, the most concerning part was the blood. The bite into

stop it, I covered my neck with my hands and applied as much pressure as possible to the wound.

But this ended up being the

least of my worries as something far more worrisome was then brought to my attention. Something

Chapter Sixteen

Because I could hear footsteps coming closer. Closer and closer the steps came until I was looking uj

into the eyes of a dark grey wolf, his murderous blue eyes boring into mine. There

was no mercy in them, no chance of compassion.

This was it. There was no way for me to escape this time. 2

I closed my eyes and awaited his fatal blow.