The Look: Alpha Male, Feisty Female Romance (19 page)

“Please stop, Niklas. I never did anything to you,” Elsa screamed, tears streaming from her face.

“It ain't about revenge, ma'am. We gotta get out of this Forest. This is the only way.” He placed the match on the wood, and Elsa looked around her at the men, who stood watching. The twins observed her with similar expressions, Humburt a little concerned about having to watch a woman burn alive, Augustus curious about the whole procedure, skepticism written on his face. Niklas tried to turn away as the fire slithered over the surface of the wood at Elsa's feet. She felt the heat almost immediately on the tips of her toes.

“Oh God, no!” Elsa screamed, realizing this was the moment she would die.

“Shhh, sister,” Doctor Kirbleitz said, attempting to comfort her with his smooth preacher's voice. “It'll all be over in a second.”

CHAPTER 28

She prayed to herself that the smoke would suffocate her first, fill her lungs like impatient air in a balloon, quickly enough to smother her insides before the heat got to her. She didn't want to go out like this, but she was too weak, too tired, too confused to survive, and the werewolves standing around her were too strong to resist.

“Just you hang on dear. You're gonna be fine. Breathe that smoke in,” Kirbleitz said. The flames licked at her ankles, already singing her socks. The smoke lingered around her eyes, sinister and curious about Elsa, its new meal. And the heat grew from the bottom of the soles of her feet, slowly and more intensely up her body.

“My goodness, sister. There's no need to scream like that. Where are your manners?” Kirbleitz said.

Everything she knew about herself--her strengths, talents, and curiosities--pointed to a near-certain doom at the stake in this moment. But climbing heroically from the depths of her nature came something foreign and unfamiliar to Elsa, some part of herself that would fight harder and longer to survive than she ever could. She closed her eyes before this new facet of her personality came bursting forth.

“Wait!” she said. “I know where Prince Theo is! He sent me to show all of you the way out of this mess!” Through the smoky haze she could hear commotion among the men, but she could only actually see the face of Augustus, that same skeptical expression which anticipated this turn of events.

“Quick,” Augustus said. “Get the water from the creek. I knew this prophecy was bullshit.” The other men didn't resist him, for various reasons, but mostly they did not wish to witness such a lovely girl burn to death, even if it did mean they would finally escape the living hell that was life in the Forbidden Forest.

The heat continued its progression up Elsa's waist, and she screamed in writhing horror at the pain. She could sense from the area around the smoke that the Jordan twins were throwing pails of water from the creek on the fire, in attempts to extinguish the heat, but the fire just continued to grow. Elsa looked up to the heavens, which was blocked by the vast canopy of the forest. She could faintly see the glimmer of stars between the light through the tree limbs. At this point the pain from the fire no longer registered on Elsa, because her entire body had gone numb from the shock and trauma. She could feel a single drop of rain suddenly splash on her forehead, then one into the corner of her eyes, and another on her cheek. Her heart jumped with the possibility of relief, and then in no time at all, whole sheets of rain covered the dirty bed of the forest.

“Hail, Daeva!” Kirbleitz screamed. “It's a sign!”

“A sign,” said Niklas. They ran around in the rain together, their hands shaking with the spiritual symbolism of the rain, while the twins stood the side, watching over Elsa out of concern. Once the fire died down to embers, Augustus and Humburt pulled Elsa from the pile of smoldering wood and laid her down on the damp forest earth. Augustus pulled her socks off, revealing a perfect pair of feet, untouched or blackened by the angry fire. “Look,” Niklas said. “She really is the chosen one. She can lead us out.”

“She's not the chosen one, you moron,” said Augustus. “She's just a girl, lost.”

Elsa lay with her eyes closed, exhausted but quiet because she wanted more information on what the boys were thinking. Maybe this could buy her time to figure out what to do, in order to escape the obviously delusional werewolf men. By the way they were talking, it was clear Theo had left the forest, never to return. Their claims that Theo had left cast her hunch that the Forbidden Forest was responsible for taking him from her in a new light. She also suspected--no, was near certain--that Freja was responsible for taking Theo away from her. The woman obviously wanted her to kiss Dorien for a reason. She must have needed that crystal to glow, in order to cast Elsa out, otherwise she could have just done away with Elsa from the moment they met. Elsa was a strong woman, but she was no match for a witch, just like she was no match for a werewolf. Not physically, anyway. Instead, she needed to rely on her smarts to get herself out of the situation. Elsa regretted giving into Dorien and Freja when they asked her to participate in their sick and twisted bet, and she hated herself for making the mistake of kissing Dorien. Maybe if she had refused Dorien's offer for help, she would be closer to finding Theo. She could make her mistake right, somehow, because her fallen state of mind and heart clearly gave Freja some power to get what Freja wanted--and that had to be Theo.

Her plan now was to get the boys convinced she could lead them out of the woods, far away from the influence of the evil forest, where Theo would help them become normal again. If she could keep the twins, Niklas, and above all, Doctor Kirbleitz sure that Elsa knew where Theo was and that he could heal them, she would be fine. Her goal was clear: find Theo, as he would be able to protect her. Even though Elsa knew Theo most likely was under some kind of spell and that Freja was lurking not far from him, if not right next to him, on his arm, she was sure he could fight whatever Freja had in store for Elsa, or whatever wrath the werewolves would dole out once they realize they have been lied to.

Then, there was the problem of Dorien the dragon, who most likely remained on the edge of the Forest, guarding its exit. She would get the wolves' help with that.

Such a dire situation she found herself in, Elsa. What a mess, she thought. Then she slowly opened her eyes.

CHAPTER 29

“I'm telling you, August. She can save us.”

“No she can't Niklas. You're delusional. Just like my brother was delusional. First you were willing to sacrifice her, to burn her at the stake. All because your precious preacher leader told you about a half-baked prophecy, which DOES NOT EXIST. He made it up, to keep you with him.”

“I did no such thing, young man,” Kirbleitz said.

“You did, just like you told everyone the forest would destroy Theo. You said it would draw him back here and make him a pale remnant of the person he used to be, darker and far more corrupted. But where is he? None of the things you have said would happened have come to pass. You're a fraud, Kirbleitz.”

Kirbleitz walked up to August and punched him in the mouth. “I believe in everything I have told you. I have witnessed it in the past,” Kirbleitz said.

“With who, then?” Humburt said, as his brother nursed his blood lip.

“We must not speak of these things,” Kirbleitz said, turning away from group. From Elsa's perspective, she could see the good doctor, who tried more than rest of the pack to burn her at the stake, stroke his beard in worry, unable to face his acolytes. From her perspective, Elsa could see, despite his obvious murderous impulses, that the man truly believed what he had experienced. He was no psychopathic leader hell-bent on sending the people who trust him on a path of self-destruction. Instead he wanted to help them, and it was clear his conviction that leaving the forest would result in total annihilation of their souls was true for him.

“Tell us, dear leader,” Augustus said, defiant and unwilling to back down to the man who was inarguably older, stronger, and more experienced. “Who left, besides Theo? You know, I bet you are making all this stuff up. You just want us to stay with you because you're lonely and don't have a family. You're just mad you made mistakes and you want everyone to wallow in misery forever with you.”

“Lies!” Kirbleitz said. Niklas and Humburt stood between the two men, to calm down a brewing fight, but Augustus talked over their shoulders, provoking Doctor Kirbleitz.

“Tell us then! I swear there isn't anything stopping us from leaving. We all can just walk out right now--no serpents, no possessions, no consequences, period. It's all a lie, I'm telling you!”

“Brother, calm down. You're making things worse.”

“No I won't. I'm tired of all this bullshit, Humburt. Think about how much time we have spent in this god forsaken place. We have lost everything! Don't you want to LIVE? This isn't life! It's death and regret. We can't keep going like this, brother. So tell us, Doc, buddy ol' pal. Who left and what happened to him?! TELL US! Or I'm leaving all this bullshit behind now.”

Doctor Kirbleitz looked back, ready to spill the beans. He took a soft breath, then sat down on the earth, crossing his legs like a monk preparing for dinner. “I have long feared he would come back to haunt me, and I've tried everything I can to protect you boys from what might wait for you in the deeper parts of this forest, but you won't listen, so I guess there's nothing else I can do.” Augustus rolled his eyes, but Humburt and Niklas stood wide eyed at the only father figure they likely have ever known. They approached him the way two small kids would approach a loving guardian they accidentally wounded without realizing their own strength. Their worried expressions weighed them down, with the thought that Doctor Kirbleitz would not forgive them their trespasses. They sat down slowly so as not to interrupt Kirbleitz's confession.

“Long ago,” Kirbleitz continued, “When I first entered the forest, I met a man, the only person who had been here longer than I have. His name was Zamir, and his story is the most tragic of all ours. He was the first werewolf, the Alpha among all shifters--more experienced and more powerful than Theo's lion or his brother's dragon.”

“Theo has a brother?” Niklas asked.

“He does, but Dorien was never meant to be part of our pack. I told you there were many creatures hidden in the recesses of this Forest. You may not know them, but I do. None of them have the strength to leave the forest, except for two. Theo and Zamir.”

Elsa's heart quickened, as she thought back to the wolf she encountered on the way to Dorien's cave, the same beautiful black wolf she saw when she first entered the forest, watching her, observing her.

“Zamir was a magnificent wolf, the most beautiful you could imagine,” Kirbleitz went on. “But he was dangerous, prone to violent outbursts and uncontrollable rages. He had no choice when he changed into a wolf like you boys can. So one day, carefully, I asked him, as we had at that point become good friends, on his better days, anyway. I asked him how he ended up in the forest and what happened when he left.”

“What did he say?” Niklas asked.

“He never told me how he got into the forest, refused to admit anything about what happened to his family. But he did tell me what happened when he tried to leave.

“When he got to the edge of the forest, he said, something would happen to prevent him from leaving, so he thought. A wall would form, or some magical creature would emerge from the darkness to take him back to the abyss of the woods. When he reached the border of the forest, he waited silently for a few moments, then stepped out. Nothing happened, he told me. Not a single thing.”

“See, it's bullshit,” Augustus said, as he leaned up against the edge of a tree trunk, several feet away from Elsa and even further from Humburt, Niklas, and Doctor Kirbleitz.

“Not so fast,” Kirbleitz said. “Initially, nothing happened. He told me he entered the town, got a job as a carpenter for a local shop. He was all ready to resume his normal life, and no one knew about his past. The.urges.to transform all but disappeared. He thought he could have a normal life once and for all.

“But after a few weeks, during his sleep, he had the most horrible nightmares--about the sun exploding, or finding a lake of fire and jumping into it to save himself. The worst dream he had involved him chasing a family through the forest, as he was so hungry to eat and could not stop himself from tearing them to shreds and eating their meaty parts. At first he thought they were just dreams in the beginning, but then the local villagers began to turn up missing, and that's when he knew--”

“No,” Humburt said.

“--that the dreams, the nightmares, were real. His life during the day--normal, quiet, calm--was the opposite of his life at night. The more good and decent of a man he tried to be, the worse he became at night, when he transformed into a wolf. He told me the forest drew him back into its clutches farther and farther into the untouched parts.”

In one dream, Kirbleitz said, Zamir was prowling around the heart of this black forest, and he could sense a sharp hatred emanating from a white cottage. The cottage had red shutters, broken windows, and a pale white color. There was a small lake in the front yard, full of black and shiny oil, with a little scarlet wind mill, which creaked sadly in the soft yet toxic wind. The whole place seemed plucked out of a sunny, beautiful place, and plopped right into the middle of these shadows. When he was sure the cottage was empty, he sniffed through all the whole place using a heightened shifter sense. Objectively there was not anything he could point toward as being the cause of his anxiousness. The place clearly had been abandoned long ago, and yet there was a demonic presence which weighed down on his chest. He compared the feeling of being near the cottage to being near a town recently destroyed by some strange, deadly electricity. The magic of place had an effect on him with ever increasing intensity the longer he stayed. But there was something he was searching for, despite the danger and irreversible damage being in the cottage was doing to him. He didn't know what it was that he was looking for, but the hunger to discover it compelled him onward, using his powerful black nose and box-like paws to search under dilapidated desk drawers, decrepit hallways, and incommodious rooms, long locked away by some feeble spirit, which had now left the place. In one room in particular, on the far side of the kitchen, the moonlight shot through a broken and dusty window, illuminating a small square box that called to Zamir. He transformed himself into human form as he approached the box and lifted the lid a tiny space, where he found a glowing rock, a concentrated form of the forest's evil waiting for him.