Page 19 (1/2)

Mr Langdon stays bythrough the ferns and overgrown vegetation He’s trying to be kind by staying withI need I have to find Ulrika and silence her My hand tightens around the hilt of e?" I ask too loudly, rowth Patrick throws me an idon replies "Sodon shoves me, and I fall to the forest floor with a heavy thud Harriet and Drew laugh Mr Langdon points toward a wire snare on the ground, partially hidden beneath some dead leaves I notice the other end of the wire is tied to a branch about twelve feet overhead

"Spring trap," he says "If you’d stepped on it, you’d be hanging upside down from that tree by now"

Patrick walks over to us and helps esture "The Lupines have snares all over the forest to trap deer, so watch where you put your feet,up at the branch above us "Seeround"

Patrick shrugs "It keeps the catch away fro slightly If I were out here on ht be venison, but they will take the occasional human--as proved over the past six weeks--especially if that huht into their traps

Harriet and Drew s through the forest I sigh, dusting myself off, and follow thee whispering sound as the breeze passes over the a daht Whisper, its body defordon takes the leaf from me and turns it over On the underside are some very thin, tubelike veins It strikes me that I’ve never properly inspected the leaves of a Carrow tree before, even though we have thearden

"That’s what causes the trees to talk," he explains, pointing to the tubes "The wind blows through theo of the leaf and it flutters to the round "Your mother used to love the sound of the trees e came out here"

My eyes widen "You came into the forest withthe trail marked out for us by Patrick and the others They’re a hundred feet ahead of us, so they can’t hear our conversation

"Cassie and I used to sneak out here after your grandfather went to bed," he says I re ine what they were getting up to Gross "She loved it out here She found life in A, trapped within those stone walls, but out here there was freedo atinto the forest, though Back in those days, this place was crawling with Darklings"

A shiver trickles down aze I look away, terrified he’ll see throughin the silent space where erous tih" He shakes his head "She didn’t think the Darklings were demons Cassie wasn’t a follower of the faith"

"What?" I touch the circular pendant around my neck--a symbol of our faith My hter; how could she not have faith? I frown I’ve heard a lot of terrible rued herself and now this? I don’t knohy it bothers me so much, but the fact that she wasn’t a believerwell, I’th; it’s kept me on a true path all these years I think about Catherine and the sweet taste of her blood on htens around the pendant I won’t ever do that again

"I couldn’t irl who didn’t have faith, so we parted ways," Mr Langdon says

Ah So that’s how he ended up with Mrs Langdon? She was his second choice

"I’ood wife to me, and we havehadtwo beautiful children" A sob escapes his lips, takingat his grief when I’m the cause of it Patrick snatches a look over his shoulder and notices his father crying Patrick and the O’Malley siblings race over to us, their feet crashing through the undergrowth

"What the hell did you say?" Patrick yells at !" I reply

Patrick throwsan arm around his father’s waist to support hih the forest toward the Claw It’s much farther away than I realized, and by lunchtime we’re still a few miles away from the mountain I don’t mind The trees, which I once found sinister, now seeate the uneven ground, barely snapping a twig Soon I’ ahead of the others I look back and catch Harriet watching ht I can hear the roar of a waterfall I checkwater until I find a natural pool nestled ae I’m about to dip s I scrunch upfrom the pool

Drew ambles toward me and pinches his nose "Geez, Edmund, was that you?"

I flush "It’s the water"

Drew s into it," I murmur

"Don’t stress about it; the volcano’s been dormant for centuries," Drew says

"Why don’t we rest for a while?" Mr Langdon says, sitting down on the ground

I don’t object My feet are aching and I’m exhausted from the hike The others sit down beside the pool while Patrick collects some wood and starts a fire Harriet cooks some tins of beans over the flames, and everyone heartily tucks into their lunch I poketo eat the, I toss the food into the nearby foliage

I patlike I’m full Patrick narrows his eyes at le at my insides like an itch I can’t scratch Does he suspect what I aoing to grab an hour’s shut-eye, if that’s all right," Drew says

"I’ll keep watch," I say

Harriet snorts, but Mr Langdon gives me a sleepy set killed this tilower at her Patrick sits down and leans against a tree while the others lie down on the ground beside the fire, using their bags as a pillow I take a pew on a rock near the waterfall and check my rifle to make sure it’s loaded Patrick silently watches randfather said a Lupine killed Catherine," Patrick says

My grip tightens around the gun I look up, trying not to let my panic show

"That’s what he told me too," I reply

"So you weren’t there when it happened?"

Yes "No"