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A hand grabbed at his wrist -- Ta terrified but deter to drag hi after that happened very fast Ta went out fro painfully into the stony ground Taesture like she was throwing a baseball A circle of fire shot from her palm, toward a wolf that was suddenly very close

The fire exploded along its fur and the wolf howled, baring a-- in fact, its fur was now standing on end as if it had been electrified Its red tongue lolled from its mouth as it stalked closer and closer It was only feet away fros under hi down to slide her hands under his ar to haul him up The Chaos-ridden couldn’t be chased off like a wyvern They didn’t care about anything but teeth and blood and madness

"Tamara! Call! Get back here!" Aaron shouted He sounded scared The Chaos-ridden wolves were stalking closer, surrounding Call and Taotten Alex was in theirthe unconscious Drew Alex looked frozen, his eyes andTaaze with the wolf closest to hiold, the color of fire

This is it, Call thought Hisunderwater

My father was right All along, he was right We’re going to die here

He wasn’t angry … but he wasn’t scared, either Ta to pull him backward But he couldn’t h hi knot under his ribs He could feel the strange wristband on his arm throb

"Tamara," he breathed "Go back"

"No!" She yanked at the back of his shirt Call stu

Someone -- h the air, terrible and beautiful, its coat shedding sparks Call began to raise his hands

A shadow passed across Call’s vision -- so to a stop between hiht hair, someone who planted his feet and thrust out both his arms as if he could hold the wolf back with his hands Alex, Call thought at first, dizzily, and then, with a cold sense of shock: Aaron

"No!" he called, jerking forward, but Tao "Aaron, no!"

The other apprentices were shouting, too, calling to Aaron Alex had left Drew’s side and was pushing his way toward them

Aaron didn’t round, it was as if they had taken root there His hands were up, pal like smoke -- it was blacker than black, dense and sinuous, and Call kneithout knowing how, that it was the darkest substance in the world

With a howl, the wolf contorted its body, twisting aside so that it landed aardly on the ground, only feet from Tatheir voices to the ?" Tamara said so quietly that Call wasn’t sure Aaron heard her "Are you doing that?"

But Aaron didn’t seem to hear Darkness poured from his hands; his hair and shirt were stuck to his body with sweat The darkness swirled faster, velvety tendrils of it wrapping around the Chaos-ridden pack The wind picked up, round shook The wolves tried to back up, to run, but they were fenced in by darkness -- darkness that had beco prison

Call’s heart was ha terror at the idea of being trapped inside that darkness, of the nothingness closing in, erasing hi hih the trees now, obliterating sound "Aaron, stop!"