Just as I ask for clarification, I notice a line of shadows moving through the red dust cloud in front of me.
“I am your predecessor,” Elias repeats. “We all are.”
The shadows emerge from the dust. A line of werewolves as long as the horizon. Each wearing clothes from a different era, like I’m riding Spaceship Earth at EPCOT, or seeing every exhibit at the Natural History Museum all at once. There’s a woman in full hippie regalia, bell-bottoms and a frayed leather vest. A guy in a letterman jacket with greasy hair. A woman with a bustle the size of a house protruding from the back of her dress, which is buttoned up to her throat. Further down the lineare people in traditional Native headdresses, or the furry skins of the Inuit people. There are tunics and regency dresses. Outfits I can’t even describe except to say they look like they’ve stepped out of some fantasy novel.
The line of historical figures approaches until they’re standing right behind Elias.
“Who are you all?” I ask. “What is this place?”
“These are our soul lands,” he says. “A part of the Lunar Plane that’s just for us and our kin.”
“And I’m your kin?”
Maybe this guy is an uncle I’ve never met.
“Yes,” he says. “Because you bear the mark of the blood moon.”
I stare down the line of wolves, noticing a crimson glint in each of their eyes.
“Blood wolves,” I say, a sense of recognition, familiarity, blooming in my chest. “You were all blood wolves.”
A woman steps forward. She wears a floral dress with a leather jacket over the top and combat boots, her hair is frizzy and reminds me of someone.
“We are,” she says. “We are the blood wolves of the past and present.”
She sounds just like her too ...Agatha.Didn’t she say her sister was a blood wolf?
“Are you ... Jenny?” I ask.
She nods.
“And are you all”—I look down the line—“dead?”
Jenny smiles. “No. While the majority of us have passed to the eternal Lunar Plane, some of us are still alive. Elias here is sitting on his porch somewhere near Wyoming right now.”
“How are you all here? How am I?”
“Max,” Elias says. “We’re here because you’ve tapped into the true power of the blood moon. You’ve seen the destruction the power of the blood wolf can bring.”
My gaze darts to my feet as shame brings tears to the corners of my eyes.
“I wanted to kill them all,” I say. “I wanted to destroy them.”
“Our powers have the potential to cause great harm,” Jenny says. “And learning that is an important step on the journey of a young wolf, like yourself. But we, more than any other wolves, have the capacity for great empathy. Harnessing that is the true path of a blood wolf.”
“And we’re here now because it’s important that you know you don’t need to walk that path alone.” Elias gestures down the line of blood wolves, all looking on, all watching me. “You are just one in a long line of blood wolves. You carry our history in your soul. And so you carry us with you.”
“You also bear a great responsibility,” Jenny says, jumping in. “Anger may help you access your powers, but it is not the path you were meant for.” My fists clench involuntarily. Is she suggesting my anger was unwarranted? That I should have empathized with my enemy, the one who may have still taken Jasper from me? “Anger took me from my family,” she continues. “From my life, and I do not wish that for you.”
I relax my hands and remember what Agatha said, that Jenny was put into a hospital, that it was like the life had left her. Is this where she ended up? Am I going to be trapped here if I can’t find empathy for the wolves who want to see me hurt?
“But how am I supposed to empathize when there are wolves who want to burn everything I care about to the ground?”
They look at me with this cloying sort of pity. It’s patronizing and suddenly I want out of this vision.
“You already know the truth, Max,” Elias says. “You have the power to stop the war that’s sprung up in your backyard. Butviolence will only beget more violence. You have to find another way.”
Jenny steps forward and places a hand on my shoulder. I want to shirk her off. I want to retreat or back away. But I don’t.
