Actually, it was beautiful at this fork in the road. Where one could not really speak of a path, but rather of a murderously uneven trail.

I looked at Julian again, who hadn’t taken his eyes off me until now.

“Yes...” he whispered and looked even deeper into my eyes.

His seemed to take on a different color in the sunlight, a softer green. This time I also saw the little yellow sprinkles that I hadn’t noticed the last time.

Wait, had he just said yes?

“Do you think there are wild animals here, something like wild boars?”, I tried to avoid the wild wolf topic in order not to scare myself.

I looked at him in disbelief, but immediately regretted having asked this question. Because suddenly he twisted his mouth into a grin again and ran his hand through his slightly tousled hair.

I gave him an annoyed look. “What? You said dark creatures.”

“And the first thing you think of is wild boars?” Julian laughed, visibly amused.

“What else?”

Not fucking wolves at all.

I prayed he wouldn’t bring up the subject. On campus, fine, but please not in the middle of the woods.

He didn’t answer me. Instead, he moved a little closer.

“Listen. Actually, I wouldn’t care if you weren’t the daughter of the woman who used to invite us for dinner.”

Now, I had to grin.

So that’s how it had been. Pretty typical of Mum. Once again, I realized that she must have actually had a life here, besides Sacramento.

Partly, the thought stung my heart. After all, she could have told me something. Instead, she had preferred to remain silent and had said nothing about the Bardots, nor about her past here.

I suppressed the rising feeling. It was not my right to be angry. Mum was going through so much I couldn’t even imagine. Maybe it had made her uncomfortable, and she wanted to keep her past away from me. But why? Why did she always make such a secret of everything?

“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here,” Julian remarked again, a little more seriously.

“I should rather ask you that,” I returned.

He was just like my mother, who was also dodging my questions.

Because he wasn’t responding, I gave in. “I’m looking for Emely.”

“Emely? What do you have to do with her...” For a very brief moment, he looked at me in thoughtfulness, until his expression softened. “Oh, I see, you share a lodge, don’t you?”

I nodded dumbly.

Yes, I had ended up in a fucking house with Emely. And I was starting to get the feeling that all these girls here hated us on principle.

Emely wasn’t the worst one there, and I couldn’t blame her hostility toward Vivienna, Amber, and Barbie either.

Julian eyed me, still searching. His eyes were locked on mine. His jaw was tense, and his lips were pressed together.

Did he want to say something else?

Before I could ask him, something happened that left me completely speechless. His eyes turned slightly yellowish.

I jerked back. In doing so, I stumbled over the root again, but he reflexively grabbed my arm without breaking eye contact.

There was a clatter as the white-blue box hit the ground, and the little white pills scattered across the dusty forest floor.

But I didn’t move because Julian’s eyes were the only thing I could focus on.

We had kept eye contact. Something wouldn't let me take my gaze away from his fascinating eyes. Something about his yellow irises triggered a strong feeling inside me, like I was in control of something. Something very powerful. This feeling was so intoxicating that I stared at Julian even more insistently and stepped closer again.

His eyes were wide, as if he was seeing something he had never seen before. I intensified my gaze and tried to concentrate, wanting to see more, to feel more of this sensation, even to dive deeper into it and surrender to it completely.

Finally, the loud pulse beat made me startle, and I glanced at my arms, where the veins stood out suspiciously dark.

Shit. Not now. Not here. Not in front of Julian.

Quickly, I stepped back, this time without tripping over that stupid root.

Protectively, I held my hands over my arm, but I couldn’t stop it from showing anyway. You could see the veins disappearing all the way under the sleeves of my dark blue t-shirt this time. And out of nowhere, my body began to shake.

In a moment, I would get the worst headache and would have to lie down on the forest floor. I could already feel my legs trying to give way under me. I felt nauseous. Then I heard a distant voice calling my name, but a loud beeping almost drowned it out.

“Bayla?”

“Hey, Bay, can you hear me?”

I was shaken badly.

Finally, I collapsed.

All around me, things went black. And the last thing I heard was the thunder in the distance.

Chapter 24

Larissa

“Come here, Sweetie,” the soft female voice said, and I spun in a circle. Everything around me was white, as if light was flooding me. “Over here.”

I cautiously took one step at a time, feeling my way forward because wherever I was, there were no ups and downs. There was only light here.

“You’re almost there...”

The voice was closer now. And then I spotted the hand reaching out to me.