#Chapter 219 – Missing

“Come on, mama,” Alvin says, tugging at my hand and leading me towards the broken-down old house.

“Alvin,” I hiss, pulling him back. “We can’t go in there – it’s a ruin –“

He frowns at me, confused. “Mama,” he says, “the forest brought us to this house. Don’t you think it wants us to go in?”

I screw up my face at him, looking around at the forest. All my anger from yesterday is gone – drained from me. The questions…well, they’re still there. I certainly want answers. But I’m starting to suspect, really, that what tipped me over into anger in the first place yesterday was the forest.

The magic of this place might be mostly invisible to me, but it’s certainly working its will in its own mysterious ways.

“I don’t know if I trust this forest anymore, Alvin,” I say, looking down at him with concern. “I mean, it just separated us from your dad and your brother. How do we know that it’s friendly?”

“Can’t you feel it, mama?” Alvin asks, giving my hand a squeeze. Then he closes his eyes and smiles, breathing deeply from his nose as if he’s refreshed. “I just know it’s good.” He opens his eyes and his smile broadens. “If you can’t feel it, then you just have to trust me.”

“But why,” I say, frowning down at him. “I mean, I trust you, but why would the magic want to separate us from your dad and Ian?”

Alvin just shrugs at me. “Maybe we needed to be separated.”

I sigh, then, and let him pull me towards the house.

The steps at the front look about ready to crack as I put my feet on the first one, but I’m surprised, in the end, when it bears my weight steadily without even a creak. Encouraged, Alvin hops up the stairs, happy and excited.

I fight my fears, then, and insist upon opening the door first, not willing to let my child be the one on the front lines.

“Hello?” I call, looking into the room. No one – and no thing – answers me.

Instead…

nose in the air, sniffing, my wolf’s senses taking over. My mouth instantly begins to

in this house smells amazing. Warm, and savory, with a hint of spice and sweetness. What on earth

to his stomach. We’ve been eating regularly this whole expedition, but it’s just been

back as he moves to enter the house. “We can’t walk into someone’s house,”

audacity to roll his eyes at me then, and I glare at him a little bit. These boys – they were getting a little two saucy for me as they approached 7. “Mama, there’s no one here – the magic put that

– all that I can accept. But a magical breakfast laid out for us in the woods? Somehow, for some

his hands in the air. Then, he pokes

say to eat some breakfast,” I murmur, noting internally that we didn’t bring our backpacks with

there’s anyone in the house. Primarily because I can see the whole thing as we enter – it’s just a one-room cabin, but also because I’m starting to believe my son when he tells me the magic is working its own will,

to be, the moment I walk into it. I had looked in the window as we came up the steps and could have sworn I saw cobwebs, and broken furniture, and rotted wood. But now, inside? It’s cozy. The wood that lines the room is warm and rich. The furniture is patched but clean.

And the table…

slavering over what he sees there, and I admit that my mouth falls open when I see it. Everything I could want for breakfast, everything meal I’ve ever enjoyed,

that I swear – I swear – is identical to the ones my grandmother made me when I was a little girl, and which I haven’t seen the equal of

the lid off of this and smiles, giving it a

raised, tossing the muffin between my hands. “That’s what you want

edge of the table. “I

about this, Alvin,” I say. “I read a lot of mythology as a kid that said that the

the other side, you have to keep going deeper.” He picks up a cookie and holds it out

giving him a little bitter smile. “Fine,

he begins to ladle stew into his

sitting down at

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