“I could scream,” I told her. “I could scream right now. A woman grabbing a boy like you are. You wouldn’t get far.”
“Aren’t you a feisty one. Tell me, Gordo, do you really think you can outsmart me?”
“I know what you are.”
She leaned forward. “And what am I?”
“A hunter.”
“Of? Say it, Gordo.”
“Wolves.”
She stroked my arm. “Good. That’s good, Gordo. Scream if you want. Scream as loud as you can. In the end, it won’t matter. Not this close to the full moon. Because even now, a pack of wolves has gathered in the woods to revel in their bloodlust. Monsters, Gordo. They are nothing but monsters who have sunk their teeth and claws deep into you. I will free you from them.”
My head felt stuffed, my skin hot. “You won’t get close.”
She grinned. She looked like a shark. She let go of my arm and reached down into her lap. She pulled up a small walkie-talkie and set it on the table between us. She pressed the button. It beeped once. “Carrow,” she said.
She let the button go.
There was a crackle of static.
Then, “Carrow here, over.”
She said, “Are you in position? Over.”
“Yes, ma’am. Ready. Over.”
“And the wolves? Over.”
“Here. Gathered in the clearing. Over.”
“And you have them surrounded? Over.”
“Yes. Ah—there’s, ah. Children. Over.”
She nodded slowly. “All of age,” she said. “They have been lost to their wolves.”
“Don’t do this,” I said. “Please don’t do this.”
Meredith King said, “It is my duty. By the grace of God, I shall wipe th
em from this earth. Tell me, Gordo. Do you love him?”
“Who?” There were tears in my eyes.
“That boy. The one who came to see you yesterday. The wolf. I thought he would smell it on me. The blood of the others. But you distracted him quite nicely. Do you love him?”
“Fuck you.”
She shook her head. “The other packs. They didn’t have a witch. They were… easy. But I have been building toward this moment. This day. Here. Now. Because if you cut off the head, the body dies. The king. The prince. You will thank me. In the end.”
I placed my hands on the table, palms up.
She shifted in her seat and—
A sharp pain in my wrist, like a bee sting in the middle of summer.