I tried to push myself up to standing on the platform, but my leg wouldn’t have it. Suddenly, Slade and Lisa were at my sides, holding me up. I didn’t see where they had come from.
The tan-and-gray wolf caught Talbot’s arm in his teeth and flung him away. The beast stood, ready to go after Talbot. Daniel sailed at the wolf with a great superpowered lunge. He caught the wolf by the shoulders, holding the wolf’s snapping snout from his face. The wolf’s claws shredded Daniel’s robes as he flailed.
With a great burst of power, Daniel threw the wolf away from him. It sailed several feet and then slammed, back first, onto the ground. Talbot rushed up and grabbed the wolf around the neck before he could regain his footing. The beast yelped and wailed, flailing his clawed paws, unable to break Talbot’s mighty hold.
“You die now, Caleb,” Talbot snarled into the beast’s face. He tightened his grasp on the wolf’s neck. I’d seen him snap a creature’s neck with his bare hands before.
“No!” Daniel shouted. He grabbed the sword Talbot had discarded.
“What do you mean no?” Talbot asked through clenched teeth.
Daniel slammed his foot down on the wolf’s chest and thrust the knife at his face until the tip of the razor-sharp blade was only inches from the furry patch between the wolf’s eyes. “Change back,” he demanded, power ripping the air around his voice. “Where’s James? Change back so you can tell me!” He pulled the sword back slowly as if preparing to thrust it into the wolf’s head. “Change, now!”
The wolf’s body shook as it shifted back into human. Daniel now stood with one foot pinning Caleb’s human body to the ground. Talbot still had his arms wrapped around Caleb’s neck.
“Tell me where the boy is!” Daniel said. His voice had lowered, and I had to strain my superhearing to catch his words. The crowd—which had scattered out into the fields after the explosion—edged closer to the ring now, anticipating the end of the fight. Ryan had finally left his grieving place by the fire and come to stand on the platform with the others and me. Jude made his way toward us, holding his bloody side.
Caleb laughed, the noise sounded choked and desperate instead of maniacally gleeful like earlier. “A few of my boys have the child. Their orders are to kill him if I die.”
Talbot tightened his grip on Caleb’s neck. “Liar! That wasn’t part of the plan.”
“The plan?” I asked.
“I always have a fail-safe,” Caleb choked out. “You … kill me … and the last thing you will know … of the child … will be his screams.”
“His screams,” I said, trying to step forward on my broken leg. It buckled under me. Slade caught me up in his arms. “If we could hear James’s screams,” I whispered to him, “that means he’s here. He’s somewhere on the property!”
Slade sat me down on the platform. “We’ll find him for you.” He signaled to the others to follow him.
Ryan handed me the rifle. “Just in case,” he said. “But there’re only two shots left.”
Lisa sprinted toward the barn; Ryan took off around the still-burning wreckage of the farmhouse; Slade headed into the corn maze. Jude jogged slowly, still holding his side, toward the field of spectators.
I snapped my attention back toward Daniel, Talbot, and Caleb.
“You’ve got it backward,” Daniel said fiercely, with the sword still pointed at Caleb’s head. “If any harm comes to the boy, you’ll be begging me to end your screams. Now tell me where he is!”
Caleb gave him a wicked smile. “Then I guess we’re at a stalemate, my son.”
I concentrated hard on the idea of trying to send a telepathic message to Daniel that we were on James’s trail. I couldn’t just shout to him, for fear of tipping Caleb off—I didn’t want to give him any reason to try to fight back again, or worse, to send the signal for James’s death before we found him. We just need to keep Caleb at bay for a few more minutes, I thought, directing it toward Daniel. Hoping he’d sense what I needed him to know.
“I don’t do stalemates,” Talbot said, and wrenched his arms with so much force, he snapped Caleb’s neck, practically tearing his head from his body. Caleb convulsed, and his body shifted back into that of a giant tan-and-gray wolf. Talbot let go and backed away, letting the dead wolf’s head loll onto the ground at an unnatural angle.
My hands clapped over my mouth, holding in a scream. But I heard one anyway: the pitiful shrieking cry of a child echoed out from somewhere inside the corn maze beyond the challenging ring. At the same time, the walls of corn burst into flames.
Jude, from the sidelines, turned in the direction of the cry. “James!”
Daniel’s head snapped up, and he roared at Talbot: “What did you do? The boy—they’ve killed James because of you!”
Talbot was kneeling in the straw still, next to Caleb’s body. “He was never going to tell us. The boy was as good as dead already.”
My body shook with horrible cries. Daniel glanced back at me like he could feel my pain, then he reeled on Talbot, pointing his sword at him.
I could feel Daniel’s pain now on top of mine as he grappled with the decision of whether or not the thrust the sword into Talbot’s chest. Submit or die, he seemed to be thinking.
Both of our heads snapped up as we heard another shout from somewhere in the corn maze. “I found him!” came Slade’s voice. “I found James!”
“Thank you, God.” I threw my hand over my mouth. I wanted to feel relief, but a maze of flaming cornstalks still stood between me and my toddler brother—and Slade was the one who had him.
Jude took off running toward the entrance to the maze. I wished I could follow him.
“You better hope that boy survives!” Daniel shouted at Talbot. “Now submit!” He bore down on him with all the radiating power of a true alpha.
Talbot glared back at him, hard breaths ripping through his body. He shifted, so he knelt on one knee, and shoved one fist into the ground. Just as it looked like Talbot was about to bow his head toward Daniel, Slade burst out of the flaming corn maze, clutching little James to his chest. His charred and tattered robes flapping behind him as he ran as far from the fire as he could.
“James is safe!” I shouted.