“It’s home,” he said.
I sighed into his arms, realizing that in a day’s time, I had no idea what home was going to look like anymore. If we failed at the Challenging Ceremony, this family that I’d been fighting so hard and so long to restore—to make whole again—could possibly be torn apart completely. I could lose everyone I loved.
But if we succeeded … If we got James back … If Daniel and I were to become the alphas of a whole new pack, I still had no idea what home would look like then. Would we be forced to leave Rose Crest to lead the Etlus? Leave my finally reunited family behind?
SATURDAY MORNING, FIFTEEN AND A HALF HOURS UNTIL THE CEREMONY
I awoke to rays of sunlight streaming through the seams of the boarded-up front room window. Daniel and I had moved inside when it had gotten too cold for me out under the tree. We’d sat on the front room sofa, tangled in each other’s arms. Daniel asked me to give him a word-for-word retelling of our engagement. “I want to be able to at least pretend I remember it,” he said, but I knew he was looking for something to distract him from his inner battle against the white wolf’s pull.
I told him stories until the heat of his body cooled, and he fell asleep with his head tucked against my shoulder.
He stirred next to me now, looking like an angel the way rays of sunlight danced off his golden hair.
I could hear my family in the kitchen, and the sounds of car doors opening and closing outside. The lost boys’ voices drifted in through the broken window. It sounded like they were loading something large onto the back of Talbot’s truck.
Daniel yawned and stretched next to me. “What’s going on?” he asked, sounding slightly disoriented by sleep.
It was Saturday morning. The start of what would probably be the longest day of our lives.
“It’s beginning,” I said.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, EIGHT HOURS TO GO
Daniel and Jude both chose to forgo Talbot’s battle-training lessons, instead spending the day meditating with Gabriel in the grassy fields on the back acres of the farm. As much as I wanted them ready to fight, I knew it was a smart choice. With every hour that got closer to the sunset, even I could feel the pull of the full moon.
Lisa must have noticed, as she removed her teardrop moonstone earrings and offered them to me.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I owe you. I mean, I’m totally hot enough to pull off the one-eared look. But still, I’m grateful I don’t have to.” She gave me a devious smile. “I’ll just have to make sure I don’t go wolf tonight, though. Wouldn’t want to accidentally kill you instead of a Shadow King.”
“Thanks,” I said. I closed my fingers over the two small stones and kept them locked in my fist all afternoon.
ONLY TWO HOURS LEFT
Mom served up a late dinner for everyone, and we spread out in the front yard of the farmhouse, filling our stomachs with as much as we could force ourselves to eat—for energy stores and all that. The way we all sat in small clusters, sharing plates of fried chicken and mashed potatoes, any passerby might assume we were at a family reunion. Only we were preparing for battle, not three-legged races or a water-balloon toss.
I sat on the front porch with Daniel, my parents, Jude, April, and Charity.
“Have any interesting plans for tonight?” April asked the group.
Daniel gave a slight laugh.
Charity picked up the fried chicken leg from her plate. “James loves these,” she said. “He thinks they’re little microphones. Remember how he’d pick a drumstick and hold it like this and sing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’?” Her voice caught, and she put the drumstick back on her plate. She wiped tears from the corners of her eyes.
I put my hand on her back. “Except he always gets the words wrong,” I said. “And he sings ‘Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Star’ instead.”
Charity gave a sad smile, but then she started crying harder. “What if they don’t bring him tonight? What if he’s already … ?”
“We can’t think like that,” Mom said. “He’s coming back to us. I know it. Grace and Jude will bring him home.”
Jude lowered his head, and I watched as he clutched his moonstone pendant against his chest.
A few minutes of silence passed. I picked at the chicken on my plate.
The front door opened, making us all jump at the noise.
Gabriel stepped out onto the porch.
I looked up at him.
“It’s time,” he said. “The others will be here soon. Let us finish preparing.”
Daniel and I stood and followed him into the farmhouse. The rest of my family followed us, while the Etlu Clan scattered to their various prearranged positions for the ceremony. April picked up two black garment bags from the musty old sofa in the living room. “I thought you two should have robes for the ceremony. Like everyone else,” she said. “I made them myself.”
“Thank you.” I took the bags and handed the one marked with Daniel’s name to him. I hung my bag over my shoulder and turned to my parents. I pulled the keys to the Aston Martin from my pocket and pressed them into Mom’s hand. “I want you guys to take Charity and April and start driving. Just keep going as far and as fast as you can. Go to Carol’s or Grandma’s. Just someplace far from here. In case something goes wrong.”
Mom looked at the key and then back at me. “No,” she said. “They’re bringing James here. I can’t take off to some other state. I need to be here for him.”
“Mom, it’s too dangerous. You can’t be here.…”
“Meredith,” Dad said, placing his hand on the small of my mother’s back, “how about we drive a few miles down the road, out of harm’s way. Grace can call us as soon as they’ve secured James, and we’ll come for him.”
Mom thought about it for a moment and agreed. “You won’t come with us?” she asked me. “Even if I beg?”
“My place is here.”
She nodded.
Dad stepped forward and hugged me. He traced a cross on my forehead. “God be with you.”
Mom and April took turns hugging Jude and me tight, and then they left wth Charity and my dad.
Brent, Ryan, and Zach came into the entryway. Ryan and Zach held two hunting rifles at their sides—the same ones I’d stolen from those hunters who had tried to kill Daniel.