Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 130955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
“I want to make things work, Mom, but you have to let me do things my own way. Now that you know what I am, you must understand I can’t keep the farm the way it is. I’ll be buying the Golonkos out.”
Mother swallowed hard and clutched at her injured arm. “I… I understand. Of course I do. But what will we do? If you let all the foxes loose, how will we survive? We’ll have to sell… everything,” she said, her pitch growing ever higher.
“No. You have trust me. No matter what, I’ll take care of you. I’ve got this plan to turn the farm into a fox sanctuary, I’ve seen some videos of something like that in Japan. We’ll have tourists come over and make an income that way. I’ll ask Emil to help me get a grant, and I’m already thinking of running a hostel or a B&B alongside it all. I want to stay in Dybukowo and make a life there. For you, for me, for Yev, and for the foxes.”
Mother swallowed and brushed her tears away again. “Just… if you could, please talk this through with our financial advisor. Just in case.”
“I will!” Radek smiled, despite his heart aching every time he looked at her bruised face. Because that request meant she didn’t outright hate the idea, that she could see he was a grown-up and had a plan that could succeed.
The door handle rattled, and Radek jumped to his feet to unlock the door.
Yev smiled at him from behind a tray of steaming paper cups. “I’ve got the wafers too, Mrs. Nowak,” he said and placed the tray on the side table, next to the chocolates. “Can I steal Radek for a second?”
Mom nodded, likely still chewing on the revelations of the past fifteen minutes.
Radek whispered as soon as they were out in the corridor, his face getting hot with the growing excitement of it al. “I showed her Ember. I’ve got so much to tell you.”
But Yev pressed his calloused finger to Radek’s lips and showed him a raven perched on a ledge outside the open window. Radek didn’t understand what this was about at first, but then noticed a piece of paper in the bird’s beak, with something written at the front.
As they walked up, the bird kept still until Radek finally got a glimpse at the note the size of a folded postcard. It had both their names on it.
“It wouldn’t let me have it, so I thought that maybe we both needed to be there?” Yev put his fingers on one corner of the letter, Radek on the other, and this time, the raven released the note and flew away, as if it had been an unwilling messenger, charmed until it performed its task.
Yev whistled and opened the folded paper. It couldn’t have been a long note, because he was done within only a couple of seconds and looked up at Radek with a frown. “We’re being summoned.”
Chapter 27 – Yev
It was dark by the time Yev and Radek reached the woods, and darker still when they entered the hidden valley of endless summer. With no time to pick up alternative footwear, they left their boots with their outer clothes, at the entryway into the witch’s sacrum. They walked on barefoot, the cool moss and grass tickling their toes as they hurried through the tangled woods.
“We shouldn’t get our hopes up,” Yev said, for the nth time.
He didn’t know details about the purification ritual, but now that he’d been summoned to the witch’s domain, the puzzle pieces fell into place. His dad did have knowledge passed from alpha to alpha, but for all Yev knew, he couldn’t do magic. It made sense that he took the widows to someone who could.
If Father chose to ask for their presence instead of sending Olek with a letter, did that mean he was ready to bless Yev and Radek’s union?
Radek shook his head, getting far too distracted by a pair of snow-white bunnies. Yev pulled him closer when he spotted a warm, bright light between the trees ahead. And it didn’t look like a torch. Was she having a bonfire outside? Tiny insects floated through the air, dancing in the faint glow of the flames as if they were sparks.
Radek must have picked up on it too, and he frowned. “Wait. What if this is bad? Like… she's made an agreement with your pack, and they’re all here to roast us alive?”
Yev stilled, his heart about to stop, but he squeezed Radek’s shoulder and walked on, even though his throat tightened. “My father wouldn’t have. But in the unlikely case you’re right, run straight out of the valley. Okay?”
Radek’s face twisted in that worried expression Yev couldn’t help but find cute, but he nodded, which built Yev’s confidence in the situation. Radek trusted him and would do as told.