I’m really scared. Will you tell my dad to stay with me?
Of course. He’s not going to leave you. I promise. Let me talk to your dad again for a second, okay? Just hang on, and I’ll be there to help.
Simon refocused on the phone at his ear. “Gray, Garon is asking me to come and help him. I told him I would.” While he talked, Simon grabbed his car keys from the hall table and shoved his feet into his bright yellow Crocs.
“You can help?” Gray asked.
“I don’t know. But I’m going to try.”
“I’ll call the gate and let them know to let you in.”
“See you in a few. Call me if there are any changes.”
“I will.” Gray hung up the phone as Simon started his car.
It seemed to take forever for Simon to get to the pack’s compound. He drove as fast as he could. He talked to Garon through their mind-link, the only way he knew to comfort the scared little boy.
By the time he arrived, his anxiety was at an all-time high and threatened to overwhelm him. He tried to keep his fear hidden from Garon.
The gate opened the moment he arrived. Two guards waited for him. The big bald guy—Cade, Simon thought—came to the passenger door and tried to open it. Simon’s doors locked automatically, and he fumbled with the switch to get them open.
When the lock clicked, Cade pulled the door open and got into the car. “Go,” he commanded.
So Simon went down the dark road into the compound. It required his total concentration, the headlights barely lighting the path in front of him. They reached a T in the road.
“Left,” Cade directed.
Simon turned left.
Cabins lined the path, tucked back into the woods. Simon barely noticed them, keeping his eyes on the drive. The narrow road madehim nervous, and he tried to keep from slipping off the edge of the graveled area. “Stop here,” Cade said.
Simon’s brain took an extra moment to relay the message to his foot, and the car came to a stuttering stop. He parked in the middle of the road, but before he could ask where he should go, Cade jumped out of the car and came around to Simon’s side. He moved fast and had opened Simon’s door before Simon could even gather his thoughts. Simon blinked at him a moment, his head and stomach aching fiercely and his thoughts racing.
Cade reached in, grabbed Simon’s arm, and pulled him out of the car onto the pavement. Simon stumbled, his body not accepting his commands.I’m here, Garon, he whispered through the link.I’ll be right beside you in a moment.
He didn’t get a reply.
Cade led him into a large house, but Simon couldn’t even focus enough to take in his surroundings. He knew there were stairs and remembered climbing them and Cade’s arm steadying him as they went.
Gray stood in front of a door. Simon felt a slight ease in his aching body in the alpha’s presence. It came right back the moment he stepped into the room and saw Garon’s small body curled up on his twin bed.
The blankets were dark blue, nearly black in the darkness of the room. As Simon got closer, he could make out little stars and planets decorating them. “Can you turn on a light?” he whispered. Gray turned on the little lamp on Garon’s bedside table.
Simon’s eyes were drawn to Garon’s face, his pale cheek resting against a yellow circle that must be the sun. He ran his hand over Garon’s forehead and felt the unsettling coolness of his skin. Simon knelt beside him and brushed Garon’s hair back. With a deep breath to fortify himself, he opened his magic.
He cried out in pain. Something was there, inside the boy. Something magical, and it drained Garon of any magic he held. Simon couldn’t grasp more than that through his own agony. Something was hurting Garon.
He heard a frantic voice behind him, Gray’s words loud in the otherwise quiet room. “Simon, what is it?”
Simon shook his head, waving Gray away. This couldn’t wait for explanations. Garon didn’t have enough time for that. Whatever this thing was, it had to be stopped before it killed Garon.
He heard Gray’s voice again in the background. “Call Aunt Maggie. Get her here. Call the other parents. Have them check the rest of the kids.”
Oh God, Simon thought,the others. He couldn’t worry about them now. They weren’t here. Garon was. He had to fix this before he could do anything for the rest of them.
Simon concentrated and tried to get a feel for the magic.There. He could just see the little lines of current sucking power away from Garon’s magical core. A dark spell, different from anything Simon had ever seen before, stole the life from this little boy, eating away at him from the center of his being.
A nebulous void, it surged and sparked with each passing second as it fed on Garon’s life force. Simon felt the moment the parasite became aware of him, of his magic. He sensed it reaching out to him, trying to attach itself to him in its hungry quest for more, but it couldn’t breach his shields and turned back to finish draining the little energy left in the boy. The light around Garon’s small body faded, the dim glow of his aura barely visible.
