Chapter 219: Another Obstacle
Nina
Finally, I agreed to go to the werewolf realm with my friends. But we needed to prepare first, and we had to hurry. Time was running short; there was no knowing what Selena had done by now. If her spell on Enzo was already this powerful, then I could only imagine how much more powerful it could be within this short period of time. Not only that, but if she had the Alpha King in her grasp as well, things could go south very quickly. I also couldn’t help but wonder if Richard, Enzo’s father, was being held captive too.
For right now, though, we needed to get Enzo away from her. Once we had Enzo back and we were able to break through Selena’s spell again, then he could help us save Richard and the Alpha King
The five of us quickly ran home to gather some supplies. The sky was darkening quickly, and it would only be a matter of time before it was too dark to even traverse the forest to find the Alpha King’s mansion. None of us had ever been there before; only Luke knew vaguely where it was. The rest of us were useless when it came to navigating that place.
While Matt ran back to his dorm to pack a bag, Lori, Jessica and I ran up to our own dorm. The three of us flew into a frenzy, filling the dorm with the sounds of panicked packing and yelling; no doubt our neighbors hated us during those moments.
I packed lightly, with only a change of clothes, a hunting knife, and some granola bars in case we took longer than expected. I hoped to get us in and out of there by the end of the next day at the most, but there was no knowing exactly how long it would take us. For all we knew, Selena would catch us and we would never make it home.
I came to that realization as I was zipping up my backpack If Selena caught us, then I would be putting all of my friends in danger.
I froze, my backpack still in my hand, as the worry washed over me. My palms began to sweat and my heart started to race, and I slowly looked up at my friends, who were currently arguing over whether to bring weapons or not.
“Nina, settle this for us,” Jessica said, turning to face me. “I think we should bring this.” She held up a big, heavy bat flashlight that we had purchased during our first year living in the dorms. We kept it in the hallway, as if someone would come into our dorm in the middle of the night and kill us. At the time, when Jessica first bought it I thought that it was a silly idea, but now I knew that it was a smart decision. ” Lori thinks we should bring a kitchen knife.”
As I looked back and forth between the two of them, however, the decision only set my anxiety in stone. I didn’t want my friends to have to defend themselves like that. Maybe I shouldn’t have let them come after all. “Are you okay?” Lori asked, noticing the way that my hands were shaking What’s wrong?”
I swallowed and straightened, slinging my backpack onto my back. “I… I don’t want you to have to bring either,” I replied, my voice trembling. “I feel like I’m putting you all in danger. Maybe 1 should just go alone.”
Lori’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare say that, Nina Harper,” she growled. ” We’re your friends. And we’re coming with you, whether you like it or not.
“Besides,” Jessica chimed in, “By saving Enzo, his father, and the Alpha King, it’ll help us stop the Crescents Right now, that’s extremely important And you’re gonna need all the help you can get if you want to succeed”
Lori and Jessica were right, I wouldn’t be able to save even Enzo on my own, let alone Richard and the Alpha King There was strength in numbers, and 1 needed as much strength as possible against Selena.
I nodded. Even though there was a lump in my throat and a pit of dread growing in my stomach, I knew that I had to let my friends come with me.
“Bring the flashlight,” I said. Once we were finished packing, which only took ten minutes at the most, we met up with Luke and Matt in the quad.
“Come on,” Matt said impatiently, looking up at the building that contained the dean’s office. “Curfew is about to start. We don’t need anyone forcing us to go inside.”
For the past few weeks, aside from the night of the dance, there had been a strict curfew on both the campus and the town. The dean originally had the Fullmoons enforcing it, but when the Fullmoons left she had employed some students to basically act as glorified hall monitors.
It didn’t really work, and people still went out after dark, but the dean was sure to stop us if she found out what we were doing. She had too much faith in the Fullmoons, and she was too proud to let her own students potentially put themselves in danger because the Fullmoons weren’t being helpful.
The five of us took off once more toward the woods, and by the timе wе reached the edge of the treeline, the curfew alarm went off. Thankfully we were out of sight now.
Luke led us back to the clearing where Enzo and Selena left. He explained as we walked that portals could sometimes leave residue, which could make it easier to open another portal. And, if we used the residue from the previous portal to open a new one, there was a likely chance that we would come out at the same spot where Enzo and Selena had come out, which would mean that we would be that much closer to the two of them.
Finally, we stopped in the center of the clearing. The full moon was rising slowly above us, and the sky was darkening quickly.
Luke stepped out of the group and took a deep breath. The rest of us watched, wringing our hands nervously, as he began to make the circular motion with his index and middle fingers…
I waited with bated breath, praying that the portal would open. If Selena had just opened one, then surely Luke could open one, too. Surely she had left in such a hurry that she wouldn’t have thought to put any sort of hex on us.
But we waited, and nothing happened. No matter how many times Luke moved his hand around in that circular motion, whispering under his breath, nothing happened.
“Shit,” he said quietly, dropping his
arms to his side. “She’s too smart.”
My eyes widened and I stormed up to Luke. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Why isn’t it working?”
Luke shook his head and shrugged at the same time. “I’m not sure exactly. She must have known I was coming. God dammit.” I stared at Luke with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Try again,” I ordered him as I felt anger beginning to bubble up inside of me. But Luke only shook his head once more.
“It’s not gonna work,” he said. “Maybe
we can try again tomorrow. The hex is
bound to wear off soon enough.”
All I could do was gulp nervously while my friends stared at me with shocked, apologetic faces. We couldn’t wait until tomorrow… Enzo needed us now. Something in me somehow knew that if I didn’t get to him by tonight, Selena’s magic would grow too powerful and we’d lose Enzo, Richard, and the Alpha King.
I felt utterly lost and hopeless.
Once again, Selena had placed an obstacle right in our way.
