Nevermor (32 page)

Rifter looked
down at Henry and tilted his head in consideration, but did not make another
move against him.

“Maybe I was
wrong about you,” he said then.  “You’re small, but you have spirit.  It looks
like someone’s already done a number on you, and yet you’re not afraid to stand
up to me now.  Tell me, how’d you leave the asshole who did that to you?”

Henry smiled a
little at that, even though it stretched his sore lips.

“He’s missing
quite a few fingers,” Henry said with pride, but didn’t mention that he’d had
nothing to do with that part of it.

Rifter gave him
another long look and then put his own sword away, no longer seeing Henry as a
threat – as if he had in the beginning.

“Wren mentioned
that you were more than you appeared.”

Henry’s eyes
widened at that.  “So you do have her!”

“I do,” he
confessed finally, “but I don’t intend to give her back.  She belongs with me
now.”

Henry had a good
mind to rush forward and attack him right then, but the Rifter’s voice halted
him.

“However…” 
Henry perked up.  “She’s been very insistent about me coming back here for her
brothers.  So here I am to get you.”

Henry was staggered.

“Really?”  That
sounded like Wren, but Henry also had to consider that it might be a trick.

“I wouldn’t have
come back for you otherwise.  You didn’t impress me.  I guess you’ll have to
prove me wrong.  Now, are you going to come with me, or are we going to have
trouble?”

Henry wasn’t
sure that he had completely changed his mind about the Rifter being a phantom
with evil intentions, but Henry knew that he had Wren.  That was a start.  He
would go, and if Rifter took him to hell instead, at least he might have a
chance to know what had happened to his sister.

“I’ll come with
you,” Henry agreed, tucking the knife away at his waist.  “How do we get
there?”

“You sleep,” the
Rifter said, and at this notion, the glowing thing went toward Henry.  He tried
to swat it away, but his ears were quickly filled with whispers, and though he
didn’t understand them, he knew that they were telling him that he should
sleep.

As he drifted
off into the blackness, he began to dream that he was weightless, floating. 
His body lifted into the air as Rifter grabbed his foot to pull him along, and
that was the last thing he remembered.

2

The Wolf Pack
had made it back to their den.  As had been suspected by Nix, the Ren did not
try to follow them.  Somehow, as if by magic, the nightmare seemed to forget
that they had ever been there at all.  When they were out of sight, it had
forgotten what it had been doing and wandered away.

Wren was so
shocked by it all that she couldn’t say anything for a long time, but once she
had regained her voice, she began to thank them profusely for saving her life. 
They all responded with modesty and glad feelings that they were all still
alive – except Nix.  He had gone to a great effort to help her, and she was
surprised by that.  When she tried to thank him, he ignored her.

It was rude, but
she let it go.

Wren had been
trying to figure out what Sly had said about the monster tagging her. That
seemed to indicate that it had already gotten her scent, like a hound on a
rabbit's trail.  How could that be?  She hadn’t encountered any monsters when
she had been on her own.  Why did it want her?

Thinking this,
she rubbed the back of her neck where she’d noticed the small scratch.  It was
itching again.

When they were
settled, she tried to turn her attention from those questions and toward
cooking.  They'd been out for a while and the boys were hungry.  They had saved
her life.  It was the least she could do for them.

Wren was able to
lose herself in the aroma of the culinary puzzle for a while, but she forgot
all about her near-death experience when the bright light of the fairy zipped
into the tunnel, signaling that Rifter had returned.

He’s back!
  The others
were surprised at the way Wren rushed out to meet him, unrestrained, but it was
not only Rifter who she hurried out to see.  She moved into the corridor that
Wisp had come in from, hoping to see what he had brought, and she was filled
with joy when she saw that there was another figure walking with Rifter toward
the den.

“Henry!”  She
couldn’t see his features, but she knew it was her brother.

“Wren!” Henry
cried out, rushing to her.  He hugged her for the first time in so long that
she had forgotten what it was like, but he had also forgotten to resist contact
with her.  He was too relieved to see her again – to know that she was safe.

“You were
right,” he said, pulling away.  “I’ll admit that I didn’t really believe you at
first, but you were right!  We’re here, all together just like we wanted.”

That admission
did her heart good.  Yes, it was just like they’d wanted.

Rifter
approached them, carrying a sleeping bundle in his arms.  He came closer as if
to present the child to her, and Wren nudged the boy.

“Max,” she
whispered, giving him a little shake.  “Max, wake up.”

He opened his
eyes and caught sight of her there, smiling at him, but he didn’t make a fuss.

“Am I dreaming?”
he asked weakly.

“No, you’re not
dreaming,” she told him.  “I’m here.”

He didn’t say
anything else, but gave a little whine and reached for her, hiding his face
against her neck.  He just held onto her as if she would get away, but she
suspected that he would go back to sleep now.

Over Max's head,
she looked toward Rifter with gratitude, and he smiled to see that she was
happy, but then looked away as if embarrassed.

“Here in one
piece, just like I promised,” he said, fishing for praise.

“Thank you,” she
said, but that didn’t seem good enough somehow.  It wasn’t
near
enough.

“Guess they’d
better meet the Pack,” Rifter said, stepping ahead.

“Pack?”  Henry
asked hesitantly.  Neither of them answered him.

3

The boys had
only just pulled themselves out of a foul humor, and now that they saw what
Rifter had brought back with him, their expressions turned sour once again. 
Wren didn’t give it much attention, talking quietly to Max once he had woken up
a bit more, but Rifter noticed their expressions.  He saw the way that they all
glared – at Henry in particular.

“Who’s this?”
Finn asked.  His voice was low and defensive – not at all like how it had been
when he'd met Wren.

“Wren’s
brothers.  It’s only fair that her family is here if she wants them to be.  I
didn’t deny the twins that,” Rifter said in his defense, but they all knew that
was because he hadn’t known which of them had been the dreamer when he’d gone
to snatch them away.  They had tricked him by claiming that they shared the
same dreams as one person.

The Pack didn’t
argue with him about it as they had with Wren, though if Rifter had brought
these two instead of the girl in the beginning, they would have received the
same reception as they were getting now, boys or not.

“Of course
there’s no reason why we can’t do what needs to be done with this one,” Nix
said suggestively, motioning toward Henry.

Rifter smiled. 
“Exactly.  Just leave the little one alone, but do what you have to do.”

“Not a problem.”

Henry was
watching them carefully as he stayed close to Wren, listening to every word. 
He didn’t ask what they meant, but it was clear on his face that he didn’t like
the sound of it.  A couple of the boys leaned in together and began to talk
secretly, discussing his fate.

Rifter gave no
attention to that.  He was watching Wren, glad to see that she was happy, and
perhaps that was his only motivation behind what he had done.  She was smiling,
and he was glad to see that he had put it there on her face.

“Rifter,” a
voice said secretively, and he looked down to see that there was a twin on each
side of him.  He’d never been able to tell them apart and didn’t much care that
he should, so he didn’t know which of them addressed him now.

“There’s
something you should know,” said the other one.

“Tattling, are
you?” Rifter asked jokingly.  The twins often dealt in secret information, but
they looked very serious now.  “What’d they do when I wasn’t looking this
time?”

“Nah, it’s not
like that.  This is important,” a twin insisted.  “Today we were out hunting
and we were attacked by that creature, the Ren.”

Rifter heard
this, but he was only interested in one thing.

“Did you manage
to kill it?” he wanted to know.  He wasn’t too concerned about what they were
telling him, especially since they all seemed to be unharmed.

“No.  We ran,”
the other twin admitted.  “We only barely escaped it, but there was something
very strange about the whole thing.  The beast was coming for
her
.”

This caught his
attention.  “For Wren?”

They nodded. 
“It was like we couldn’t do anything to distract it.  It wanted her
specifically.”

“Sly even
thought so,” said one.

“It was pretty
obvious,” said the other.

Rifter’s face
had contorted in anger.  He knew what this meant.  There were only two reasons
why a creature targeted someone.  Either Wren had made it angry in some way
before, which just wasn’t possible, or…

Rifter’s eyes
locked on Nix, and the other didn’t see him coming before he had rushed in.  He
went forward and gripped Nix’s collar roughly in his fist, pressing him against
the wall.

“Did you do
this?” he demanded to know.

“What the hell
are you talking about?” Nix returned, putting his own hand near Rifter’s throat
to guard.

“
The Ren
. 
The twins said it came after her – that it was honed in on her specifically. 
I’m asking if you made it happen.”

“Back
off
!”
Nix growled, but Rifter wouldn’t budge.

“Not until you
confess!”

“Would I draw
that thing in when the rest of us were in the way?” Nix demanded.  “You
know
it wasn’t me.”

Rifter studied
Nix’s face, and he had to honestly admit that he believed the boy was telling
the truth – but he didn’t say it out loud.  He let go of Nix, and he considered
that good enough for an apology on his part.

“How about you
then?” he asked, pointing at Finn.  “Or one of you?”  He looked toward Toss and
Sly now, but none of them seemed to understand.

“We don’t know
what you’re talking about, Rifter,” Finn said.

“The creature,
you fucking morons!” he spat.  “Which one of you made it seek her?”

They were all
silent – glancing at each other, down at the floor.  Wren herself looked
bewildered as she stood there with her brothers, who had grown quiet.  She had
her hand pressed against the young one’s ear to guard against all the curses
that were flying, but she didn’t speak out.  Still, none of them would take
responsibility.  Rifter felt the need to clarify it for them.

“Someone had to
lure it!  Confess!  One of you had to have done it!”

“We don’t like
being accused of something we didn’t do,” Nix told him with a twisted lip.  “We
put our asses on the line to save her from the thing, if you must know!”

“It’s true,”
Wren spoke up.  The sound of her voice soothed him, but not quite enough.

“Then who else
could have possibly done it?” Rifter asked, ignoring Nix’s comments and
refusing to calm down.  “Are you suggesting that she got close enough to the
monster that it could catch her scent?”

“We couldn’t
have done it,” Finn defended, getting visibly frustrated himself.  “We know where
it sleeps.  There’s no way we could have gone that far and gotten back before
it would be obvious that we were missing!”

It didn’t ease
Rifter’s mind, but he knew that Finn was right.  They knew where the beast had
made its den, but it would have been hours of travel on foot.  They were not
that fast.  Someone among the group would have noticed that a member was gone.

“Rifter,” Sly
said once they had all quieted down, drawing his attention back.  “There is
only one of us that could have done it.”

He didn’t go on,
and Rifter grew impatient.

“Who then?”

Sly sighed. 
“The only one who could have gone all that way in a hurry and come straight
back without us noticing that she was gone.”

The impact of
those words came down on Rifter like stones, barricading him up with the only
possible answer.  Still, he didn’t want to believe it, even though it was right
in front of his face.  He looked around the room, though of course he didn’t
see the one that he was looking for.  She was hiding, listening as her secret was
undone.