Chapter Twenty-Four

Gabi and Renn start taking the path to make their way home. Following them is Lucy, her parents, the four Luminar men, and Carl.

Gabi and Lucy start talking about their childhoods, their likes, and dislikes, taking the time to get to know each other.

Lucy is having a hard time understanding how Gabi has never heard of the bands she listened to, different types of candy that were her favorite, but most of all, she has never heard of a cell phone.

Lucy stops in her tracks.

“I’m sorry. I need a moment here. I can’t believe that you don’t know what a cell phone is. I can’t go anywhere without mine,” she says as she pulls out her phone and shows it to Gabi.

“Not only can I keep in touch with all my friends and my parents, but you can listen to music, watch videos, and play games,” she explains to Gabi, showing her all the different features the phone can do.

“Wow.”

Gabi is shocked and impressed that something so thin and small can do so much.

“I get the feeling that I’ll be introducing quite a few things to my little sis,” Lucy says as she puts her arm around Gabi.

Gabi rolls her eyes. “We’re twins. You’re not that much older than me.”

Lucy shrugs as she removes her arm and starts to move ahead, and then turns around and walks backward, looking at Gabi and saying, “Still older.”

They both laugh.

The group starts walking up a hill that Gabi recognizes being close to the town that was having that—what was it called? Carn, Carni, Carnival! That’s right. When they get closer, Gabi looks confused for a moment and stops walking as she stares down into the town.

Lucy stops beside her.

“What’s wrong?”

“There was a carnival here the last time we passed through. And now it’s gone.”

No more fun house, or the big wheel with the carts, not even the photo booth. It is all gone, and the town looks bare without it.

“Carnivals don’t usually stay in one place; they typically travel to other towns or cities. It’s how they’re able to make money throughout the year,” Lucy explains to her.

Renn notices that the girls have stopped and are looking down at something. He walks over to them to check what is the matter.

“What’s wrong?” Renn asks.

“Gabi says there was a carnival here last time,” Lucy tells him.

Renn looks down into the town and notices how empty the small town looks without all the lights and different rides it had. He looks over at Gabi. She has wrapped her arms around herself. He can tell that she is sad about the carnival no longer being there. They had a fun time at the place, experiencing so many things they would never have done if they had stayed back in the village with the clan. Renn walks over to Gabi and puts his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug so that he can hold her and try to take away her sadness.

“Hey, just because it’s not here right now doesn’t mean we’re not going to ever get to enjoy it again. I’m sure it’ll be back,” he whispers in her ear.

Gabi nods. She takes a deep breath, taking in Renn’s scent and finding a calm travel throughout her body. How is he able to make her feel better with just a simple hug and his scent? If everything they’d found so far shows that Dyrk is not her father, then Renn is not her uncle. He can be…

Something more?

Gabi pulls back from Renn and gives him a small smile. “Thank you.”

Renn simply nods and continues to start walking again.

Gabi turns to start walking, but Lucy pulls her back to wait a bit so she can talk to her.

“What’s going on with you and Renn?” Lucy whispers.

Gabi smiles and shakes her head.

“Looks like I have a lot to teach my older sister about wolves. They have really good hearing and can still hear people whisper within a certain distance.”

She whispers, “Renn.”

He turns his head and winks at them, before turning back around and continuing to walk.

Lucy turns a certain shade of pink.

“Good to know,” she says with a nod.

“To answer your question: nothing. We are really good friends. Actually, he’s my best friend. And until now, we always thought that we were related. But even if there was, I don’t think I could do anything about it. I don’t want to lose our friendship. He’s all I’ve had for so long.”

Lucy puts her arm around Gabi. “You have me now, sis. It sucks that we didn’t know about each other sooner but at least we do now. And sorry to say, but you’re kind of stuck with me.”

Gabi smirks.

“Glad to have you in my life, sis.”

“Here, let’s take a photo,” Lucy tells her.

“But how? We don’t have one of those photo machines around us.”

Lucy drops her head and shakes it as she laughs.

“You’re killing me, sis. I can take a picture of us with my phone. See, there’s a camera on the back and on the front. If I turn it this way, we can see how the picture will look before we take it. Okay, here we go, look right here, and smile. Great! Wow, that looks awesome,” Lucy tells her and shows the photo to Gabi.

Gabi is overwhelmed at the moment. For as long as she can remember, she has always been the odd one out, never picked to hang with the other young wolves. Neglected by the only parent she knew. The only people that she had that truly cared were: Renn, Mori, and Oka. But now? Now she has a sister, one who wants to be a part of her life. She is going to do her best to keep her sister in her life.

“I’ve got to figure out a way to get one of these,” Gabi whispers.

Renn walks up to them.

“We’re almost to the river. We’re close to the territory,” Renn tells them.

Gabi nods.

“Okay, let’s wait for everyone to get to this point and figure out what’s our best plan to get across the river and how we should handle Carl.”

“What do you mean handle him?” Lucy asks.

“Well, as we get closer to the territory, he’ll be able to feed on the power of the clan and break free. Plus, I don’t want to risk anyone getting hurt. I know the Luminars can protect themselves, but if we can do this without anyone else getting hurt…”

Before Gabi can finish her sentence, she is grabbed, as are the rest of them.

Lucy’s parents and the other Luminars are still back a bit but have seen the capture. It takes everything they have not to run towards them, but they know it will start something even bigger, and they don’t have enough Luminars to even make a dent if it comes down to a fight.

“Wait.”

The voice comes from the prisoner in the cage.

“They’ll be able to sense something if you get any closer,” Carl informs them.

Steven walks over to him. “Why should we believe anything you say? You tried to kill us back at the house.”

“I’ve been a pawn in the scheme of all this. Besides, Gabi could have had you kill me. But she didn’t,” he tells them.

“There’s another way we can get across the river without them sensing us. But it would be a lot easier if I was not chained up.”

Steven looks at Mark and the others. Mark nods before taking a key and unlocking Carl.

“That’s more like it. Follow me.”

***

Gabi, Renn, and Lucy are bound with their wrists behind their backs as they are dragged into the main hall where Dyrk’s throne is positioned, so he can see everything that was happening around him.

He sits there with a look of disdain as the three are pushed in front of him.

“You have a lot of nerve coming back here, girl.”