Chapter 45 Chapter 45
Amber
It swung open almost immediately, like the owner had been waiting for us, revealing a cramped interior filled with shelves upon shelves of glass bottles in various sizes and colors. The air inside was thick with the scent of herbs and something else I couldn't identify but made my nose wrinkle.
A woman emerged from the shadows at the back of the shop. She was tall and thin with long, greasy hair that hung past her waist and a nose that was distinctly crooked, like it had been broken and never set properly.
"What do you want?" Her voice was as rough as gravel.
"I need a potion," Ellie said, her voice only wavering slightly. "Something to help awaken my wolf." She checked back her paper. “Lupine Awakening Potion”
The woman's expression changed immediately, becoming almost predatory. She grabbed Ellie's hand and pulled her deeper into the shop.
"I have just the thing," she said, her tone suddenly persuasive. "But first, let me show you my other wares. I have potions for strength, for beauty, for luck in love."
She started pulling bottles off shelves at random, shoving them at Ellie with increasingly elaborate descriptions of their supposed effects.
"This one will make your hair shine like moonlight. This one will give you the stamina of ten wolves. This one will make any man fall madly in love with you."
"I just need the awakening potion," Ellie said, trying to pull her hand free.
But the woman wasn't listening, already reaching for more bottles, clearly trying to sell as much as possible to us naive academy students with money to spend.
I moved closer to the window, keeping an eye on the street outside and noticed shadows moving.
Four men or maybe five were lurking in the shadows across the alley. They weren't doing anything overtly suspicious, but something about the way they kept glancing toward the shop made my instincts scream danger.
"Ellie," I said urgently. "We need to hurry."
"Right, yes." Ellie finally managed to interrupt the woman's sales pitch. "Just two bottles of the Lupine Awakening potion, please."
The woman's smile widened, revealing yellowed teeth. "Of course."
She grabbed two bottles from a locked cabinet behind the counter, not three, and set them on the surface with a heavy thunk.
"That'll be two hundred dollars," she said.
"Two hundred?" Ellie's eyes widened. "I was told it would be fifty per bottle."
"Prices have gone up," the woman said with a shrug. "Supply and demand, you understand."
I was still watching the men outside, and my unease was growing by the second. They'd moved closer now, and I could see them more clearly, their rough clothing and the weapons tucked into their belts.
"Ellie, pay her and let's go," I said.
Ellie fumbled with her purse, counting out the dollar bills with shaking hands while the woman watched with that disturbing smile still plastered on her face.
"Pleasure doing business with you," the woman said as she pocketed the notes.
"Is there a back door?" I asked.
The woman's smile turned sharp. "Why would you need a back door?"
"Just answer the question."
"There is," she said slowly, "but I'm afraid I can't let you use it."
She stepped deliberately in front of the narrow hallway that presumably led to the back exit, blocking our way.
"What are you doing?" Ellie asked.
"Earning a bonus," the woman said, her eyes gleaming with greed. "You see, there are people willing to pay quite well for young students who wander into my shop. Especially ones foolish enough to come alone."
So my instincts had been right that this was a trap.
I didn't give her time to say anything else. I grabbed Ellie's hand, pulled her close, and shoved the woman as hard as I could.
She stumbled backward with a shriek, crashing into a shelf and sending bottles tumbling to the floor with the sound of shattering glass.
"Run!" I shouted at Ellie.
We bolted for the back door, threw it open, and started running. Because of the loud crash, the men who'd been waiting outside immediately barged in.
"There they are! Catch them!" one of them shouted, pointing at us.
We didn't stop and I kept Ellie’s fingers interlocked with me as we ran towards the academy.
Behind us, I could hear the men giving chase, their heavier footfalls gaining ground.
"Keep running!" I panted at Ellie, who was already struggling to maintain the pace.
We tore through the village, weaving between small houses, jumping over obstacles, taking turns at random just trying to put distance between us and our pursuers. My lungs burned and my legs ached, but adrenaline kept me moving.
Ellie wasn't as fast and fear was making her clumsy. I could hear her gasping for breath.
"Almost there," I lied, having no idea how far we actually were from the academy grounds.
We burst out of the alley and into a small clearing, and I could finally see the academy walls in the distance.
We just needed to make it a few more meters.
"Amber!" Ellie's cry of pain made me whip around.
She'd tripped over an exposed tree root and gone down hard, her ankle twisting at an unnatural angle.
"Get up!" I ran back to her, grabbing her arms and trying to haul her to her feet.
She tried to stand but immediately collapsed with a cry of pain.
"My ankle!"
"You have to keep moving," I said desperately, glancing over my shoulder.
The men were getting closer. I could hear them crashing through the underbrush, calling to each other.
I frantically looked around and that's when I saw Damian.
He was leaning against a tree maybe twenty feet away, partially hidden in shadow, watching us with that same infuriatingly bored expression he always wore.
Relief and fury crashed through me in equal measure.
"Help!" I screamed at him. "Damian, please, help us!"
He didn't move, didn't even acknowledge that he'd heard me. He just stood there, arms crossed, like he was watching a mildly interesting play.
Maybe he hadn’t heard me? I thought and shouted again but he stretched his hands, yawning loudly.
"Bastard," I snarled under my breath.
Fine. If he wasn't going to help, I'd do it myself.
I bent down, grabbed Ellie around the waist, and hauled her up with her arm draped over my shoulder.
"Hold on to me. This might hurt," I told her.
She nodded, tears streaming down her face, and we started moving again. She tried to keep weight off her injured ankle, hopping along while I supported most of her weight, but our pace had slowed to a crawl.
It took us a lot of time to cover a short distance and I kept glancing back every now and then, urging Ellie to move faster.
We passed directly by Damian, and I shot him the most venomous glare I could manage while struggling to carry my friend.
He didn't react and simply watched me struggle as I kept forcing myself to move.
The academy walls were so close now. We needed to cross just a few more feet.
But I could hear the men right behind us, could hear them shouting that they'd found us.
I looked over my shoulder and saw them bearing down on us, maybe five seconds away from grabbing Ellie and me both.
And then Damian moved.