“You don’t think your father can handle himself?” he mocks against the shell of my ear.
I can’t blame his tone. We’re both non-believers of the endless stories. The sleepy growl of that trapped beast sounded like a caged titan. My father is no match for that kind of feral, brute strength. He’s only a man.
There are muffled words coming from the hole. The feline snarl of the creature. Dellilian leans forward with perked ears, waiting for something.
A thick drop of chilled sweat runs down my spine. What’s the right thing to do here? Help? What if this wasn’t supposed to happen? What if we’ve already changed something and kill my parents before I’ve been conceived?
My mother lets out a blood-curdling scream.
Shit!
Niklaus lurches forward first, acting on instinct to help before I get the chance to react. But something snaps like a whip through the trees, cracking through branches, and splitting leaves in half with the sheer ferocity behind a blast of movement.
The blur of blackness shoots across the forest floor like a train.
An animal.
A wolf.
ARottWeilen.
I stumble back into Niklaus’s hard chest as DaiSzek—myDaiSzek—gallops like a rabid stallion into the hunter’s trap after my parents. His roar and attack can be heard miles away. Teeth ripping through flesh, bones, and vital organs.
Goose bumps ripple over my cool skin, and a ringing echoes violently through my ears.
“Holy shit,” I breathe.
He looks so much…younger. That can’t be the old boy DaiSzek I grew up with. The same sweet boy who sleeps on the porch at sunset, eats scraps out of Grandpa’s hand under the table, and always gets in the way when we’re trying to cook.
My parents climb out of the hole, covered in dirt and splatters of blood.
“Just don’t look at it,” Patient Thirteen says as he peels off his shirt. “I’ll patch it up when we get out of here.”
My mother stares at him with parted lips, gawking as if her brain has temporarily fried. I’ve never seen that look on her face before.
The beast in the pit yelps, snapping my mother out of her trance as she whips her head to the left. “DaiSzek!” she yells. “Oh, Dessin! Is he okay?”
My father leans over to examine the inside of the hole, exposing his bare back to my side of the forest. Scars. Huge, raised scars in the shape of wooden slats. Burn scars. I narrow my eyes and glance back at Niklaus. He looks away quickly, as if those marks are none of his business to inspect.
I’ve never seen them before.
My mother shrieks as DaiSzek leaps gracefully from the hunter’s trap. Blood drips down his chin, and he does his best to shake it off like an unwanted insect.
“Is he hurt?” my mother gasps.
But my father doesn’t seem too concerned as he checks DaiSzek for any injuries, then slaps him on the butt.
“We need to put as much distance between us and your parents as possible.” Niklaus spins me around to meet my eyes. “We’re not going to want to have a run-in with your dad.”
It looks like it pains him to admit he’s scared of the infamous Patient Thirteen.
“Thought you didn’t believe the lore about him?” I taunt.
“I don’t. But are you prepared to gamble with your life on his temper and paranoia for strangers watching him in the forest?”
My eyes dart back to my father, lifting Mom off the ground and carrying her away.
“I guess not.”
