I cough out a laugh. “You think I can control it?!”
“Yes,” he answers, soft blue eyes turning vengeful and black.
“Why would I intentionally send us to Vexamen before Aunt Ruth and Uncle Warrose made it safe? Why would I leave Uncle Niles behind and not go back for him already?!”
The fire crackles and pops before he thinks of a reasonable answer.
“Because you’re a psychopath like your parents.”
Normally insults to my parents don’t bother me. I say worse things in my head. But in this particular situation, that onehurts.
“I don’t know how to send us back.” My hands clench into painful fists at my sides. “Can you help me control it, Dellilian?”
Sitting close to the fire, Dellilian finishes off the last of the rabbit, licking the bones clean. She’s sort of adorable, blissfully unaware of us talking anymore.
Niklaus explodes.
“Did I say you could eat our food?” He stomps aggressively in her direction, forming a puff of dust and dirt around his boot. “Get out of here! Go!”
Dellilian scurries away from him, limping toward me as if she’d been struck. Her soft whimpers tug at my heart.
I glare up at the monster guarding the leftover rabbit bones. “AndI’mthe psychopath. She’s here to help us, you idiot!”
Dellilian sits by herself in the dark, her head hanging, pouting in silence.
“Please,” I whisper softly to her. “Can you help us get back?”
The midnight animal glances up at me in sorrow. “Can follow and protect. Cannot lead.”
“So, she’s fucking useless.”
Anger simmers under my skin, prickling at my nerves.
“Then leave! Have fun trying to get back to save your dad without me! Or getting back to our own time for that matter.” I stare him down for several seconds. “No one’s stopping you. Go on, leave!”
Niklaus moves toward me, dilating pupils, tightening jaw, like he has something evil to say. Something to wound me with. But after a single deep breath, he turns around.
“I’ll find more firewood,” he says coldly.
The rigorous tension in my muscles and bones begins to deflate. I fall to a seated position, unsure if I want to cry or scream. Wishing Krimson was here. Wondering with racing, unstable thoughts if I’ll ever see my mother again.
“Dellilian sleep right here?” the gentle creature says, reaching into my mind to snag my attention.
My face drops into my hands as I nod. “Yes. Let’s sleep now.”
9. When She Screams
When I was nine, asquirrel ran up to DaiSzek as he was lying on the front porch, watching the sun set.
He was so still. The small rodent must have thought he was a majestic statue.
Krimson and I watched quietly, waiting for the great and powerful RottWeilen to pounce. To hunt that squirrel before we even would have a chance to blink. But instead, we witnessed the squirrel coming to the realization that there was breath puffing out of DaiSzek’s nose. It stood upright, still, and unsure as understanding draped over its small body.
And just as it took off in a sprint of survival, Krimson and I jumped to our feet, hollering for DaiSzek to hunt it down. We were children desperate to see if the stories and legends about his power were true.
But DaiSzek adjusted positions to sleep on his side and closed his eyes for the next nap of the day.
I kicked dirt and swore up and down that he was no predator. Just an old pup.
