Wolves: Chapter 11

The Washington D.C. subway isn’t exactly the safest place to take a group of young girls, but it was safer than the alternative we had left. The portal put us in the middle of a station so crowded, no one even realized we appeared. There was no time for the girls to take in the vastly different world we were now in. They clutched at each other for stability as I led them through the maze of the underground. When we finally made it up a final flight of stairs to the sunlight, Kailah caught up with me, breathless and full of questions.

“What is this place called?” she panted, a smile already forming on her face.

“Washington,” I answered. I was happy for her enthusiasm – it would be vital for her adaption – but needed to get them to the house as fast as possible. Street signs were a tool I had to recall how to use. We started down a street thankfully only a few blocks from our final destination.

“Where are we going?” Kailah continued to pepper.

“My house.”

“Your house?”

“My parents’,” I amended. “My father is a doctor and my mother is a lawyer, so they have a pretty nice place here in the city. They help all my girls get settled in when I go back. You will love them. They are very kind.”

“You mean you’re from this world originally?” Kailah’s mouth dropped open.

“Yes.” I directed the group to the left.

“How did you end up...there?”

I could see my parents’ luxury apartment building in the distance and subconsciously quickened my pace, ready for my racing heart to finally slow. “I didn’t have a formal magic teacher until I met Faula so when I lived here, I just messed with it. I ended up discovering a portal and accidentally traveling to the other world. The masks quickly found me and…well. I was at a Dark House until Faula found me. She helped me come back and I set it all up with my parents. Then the portals collapsed and I had to rebuild. But this…” I motioned to the group of girls. “I know I found that first portal for a reason. This is my purpose.”

Kailah nodded understandingly. “I wish I had magic so I could-”

A scream erupted from behind me and I whipped around, immediately paralyzed by what I saw. The portal ash had trailed with us, allowing the combined magic of the masks enough power to create a big enough portal to reach through and grab Annette’s wrist. They were dragging her backwards into the other world. As soon as I could process the scene, I leaped forward, grabbing Annette around the waist and pulling as hard as I could. The masks’ magic was too strong for one person alone to withstand, and we lost precious inches in a matter of seconds.

I knew what I had to do before I could even formulate the words. Annette met my eyes and she knew. I don’t know how, but she knew exactly what I was going to do because she immediately began pleading.

“Don’t do it, Maylie, I’m not that important, just go.” Their grip was beginning to tear the skin on her arms.

“Don’t be a fool,” I hissed, tears forming in my eyes. “Take them home, Annette. Take them home.”

I gave a brutal push of magic to separate Annette from their grasp and dove headfirst into the portal. I landed on the other side, where wolves were already striking, tearing into the masks. But their strength would only be a distraction, a mere diversion before the masks regrouped and poured into Washington. I didn’t have a choice.

Through the portal I could see Annette, Kailah, Cara, and the others I loved so dearly even after such a short time. They would be safe with my parents, I knew, but it still pierced my soul. Tears streaming down my face, I withdrew every ounce of energy I had poured into the portal, extending even to the original magic I had set in place a decade before. Ten years of dedicated, exhausting work to create a portal was sucked into the Void, forever sealing my girls away from the horrors the masks had planned.

As the sun set on the Nolus forest, I slipped into my wolf form and plunged into the fray alongside my brethren.