Chapter 25: The Wilderness Wolf

Salem

For the first time in a month, my head felt clear. While my endowment had not completely come back, I could at least read the thoughts of the people who were in the room with me. Everyone was in awe of the amazing things Infinity could do. She had fallen into a very deep sleep after healing me. She slept on the couch in grandpa's living room under his watchful eye while I had to go to the hospital with Emee Meng for a series of tests. I was labeled cancer free. It was a miracle, one that Dr. Dobinski was able to recognize as Infinity's work. "I understand that you're not living with your father anymore. You may not know of some of the things that have happened, but the night that Infinity got her father back, Manfred was attacked my leopards. She saved his life, you know."

"…She did?" I was shocked. I had known nothing of this leopard attack. I assumed Manfred had tried to sabotage their attempt at waking Lyell up and had gotten hurt in the process, yet Infinity still spared him.

"She saved his life, but she made sure he still suffered. He's lame now and every word he speaks causes him pain. He has four large scars on his face from his forehead to his chin. Our plastic surgeons could only do so much with unhealed tissue. They told him to come back at a later date so they could do more work."

"That's my brother, Emee." I looked over at my grandmother. "I can't believe she saved his life. Why would she do that?"

"She's a special girl, my dear." Emee squeezed my hand. "She didn't want you sad, even if it meant putting her own personal revenge aside."

When we returned to the house, it was empty. Infinity was no longer asleep on the couch and grandpa and Naren were nowhere to be found. I almost began to panic when Emee pointed to the barn. The lights were on. When I walked out and opened the door, I was surprised to see that Naren, grandpa and Infinity weren't alone. Two hooded figures sat huddled close together with Infinity sitting across from them. She still seemed weary, but she had a look of determination on her face.

"What's going on?" I asked. The two hooded figures snapped their faces up to look at me and I was hit with such shock that I almost fell backwards. Four pairs of yellow eyes had honed in on me. I couldn't quite understand what was looking at me. They were almost human, but they were both quite hairy. I was able to tell that one was male and one was female.

"These are Asa's parents." She said softly. "Don't speak so loudly, Salem. They've been through a lot." She patted the hay next to her and I felt that I had no choice but to sit next to her and hear what they had to say. I knew Asa had helped with waking Lyell up, but I didn't know what was going on. Asa has been missing for six weeks. They're telling me why.

"I'm sorry if I frightened you…" I murmured, feeling like a child who had done something wrong. "I'm Salem."

"We know who you are." The man said indignantly. "Your father is the man who is torturing my son."

"I promise I have nothing to do with that. I've been quite occupied since Infinity's dad woke up." I said defensively.

"I don't think he's blaming you." Infinity put her hand over mine and I suddenly felt calm. "What happened, Mr. Pike?"

"You and your brother are the reason this happened, Miss." His voice seemed to teeter between upset and angry. His fists were clenched and his eyes watered. "But I'm not angry… I am proud. I am proud that his morality shifted to the right side. He betrayed the Bloors in a big way though, so they took our boy and they tortured him." He looked up at Infinity. "The gift you gave him, they took away. He can't control himself anymore. They kept him in the dark so long that they turned him back into a beast against his will. He's locked in a cave in the wilderness and not even you can get through those bars. And they won't give him back until we give them what they want."

Something clicked in Infinity. "My brother and uncle saw you in our house… They sent you to look for something that my father may have hidden, haven't they?"

Both of the Pikes looked uncomfortable but Mrs. Pike nodded. "They wanted us to find a box. A box inlaid with mother of pearl. We can't find it anywhere. Whatever is in that box, they don't want your father to find it first."

I bit my tongue. I knew what they were talking about. A long time ago, a will was made that gave complete control of the academy to one person. There was a fight. Septimus Bloor made the original will and gave it to his daughter Maybelle on his deathbed. This made her sister Beatrice, who was a witch, very angry. Maybelle, who had married Lucius Raven, had known that Beatrice would retaliate and put the will in a box and gave it to her daughter Evangeline. Beatrice forged a new will and gave it to her brother Bertram, who passed it on to his son Gideon, who passed it to his son, my Great Grandfather.

The real will, after it had been given to Evangeline, was given to her nephew Hugh and his new bride Sally on their wedding day. Hugh and Sally passed it on to Rufus and Ellen Raven on their wedding day. They did not know what was in the box, they just knew it had to be kept out of Bloor hands until it could be figured out. Rufus feared that he wasn't strong enough to protect that box and gave it to Lyell Bone for safe keeping. My great grandfather made sure that Rufus and Ellen would perish in an accident because he had paid a mechanic to sabotage their car with faulty wiring, but their son Billy had lived. The academy rightfully belonged to Billy Raven but my great grandfather wasn't willing to give it up and would kill anyone who got in the way.

"I wish I could help you… But there's no way for me to know. I didn't even know Lyell was my actual father until a year ago." Infinity frowned.

"Even if you did know, I wouldn't let you give them that box." I said. My comment took everyone by surprise. "I know what's in that box and they can never ever have it. I will figure out how to save your son, but you have to promise me that you won't look for that box anymore." I looked over at Infinity. "And if you really want me to tell you what is in that box, then you can't leave my side. You have to stay with grandfather and I and you can't go back to the academy or your brother. Will you do that? If I tell you, will you stay?"

I was asking a lot of her. I was asking her to pull herself out of school yet again, risking her chances to go to the best college and I knew that my father was threatening her with scholarships. "Yes. I will stay." She smiled softly at me. "As long as you tell me what's in that box later."

The Pikes left to keep Asa company. I could still hear him howl occasionally and I wondered if it carried into the city. That night, we all sat around the fire and grandpa and I told Infinity what was in that box. She almost didn't believe us, but eventually came around. "So everything really belongs to Billy?" She couldn't believe her ears. "No wonder they tried to kill my father… And he knew what is was, didn't he?"

"Yes. But it was no use if there was no way to open the box and give someone solid proof." Grandpa said gravely. "Now that you know, you have to stay with us until you're safe because we will be telling you more secrets. They have a new way of looking into the brains of people. Your great aunt, the clairvoyant one, is getting stronger and has some degree of mental awareness. If they get even an inkling of any of this, you're as good as gone. That's why your father and mother have left and they keep Charlie and Paton in the dark. You need to be with either Salem or myself at all times."

"But my family will worry." She looked over at Naren who was nervously biting her nails and staring at the window. "Naren, can you tell Charlie that I'm safe?"

"Yes. His window is open tonight." She said wistfully. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a glove that I recognized as Charlie's. "He knows you are alright."

"Would you look at that?" I put my arm around Infinity's shoulder. "You and I are on the run again."

Monday night seemed like a normal night, at least until right after I was about to fall asleep. I was woken up by the sound of grandpa yelling at all of us to pack up our stuff and get in his van. He said that hunters were coming and that we would be discovered if we didn't move fast. Packing up our stuff was difficult, but that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest part was getting Infinity into the van. "They're going to kill Asa!" She cried. "We have to do something."

"Asa's parents will make sure nothing happens to him." I grabbed her and pulled her back, restraining her arms. "The city people are idiots. They'll end up killing each other before they even get their so called Wilderness Wolf."

We got her into the van and began to drive away. Just as we were about to exit the city, a gunshot was heard. Infinity let out a loud sob. "What if he's dead? I could have saved him. You should have let me stay. I could have saved him." She cried. When I looked at Naren, her eyes were watery too. She closed her eyes and leaned further back into the seat.

We traveled to a tiny village an hour away from the city where one of grandfather's traveling buddies put us up in his rental cottage. It was a tight squeeze for all of us, but we managed. Grandpa and Emee had their own room, and Naren and Infinity shared a room, which left me out on the couch but I didn't mind. It was no different than the place we had been living before. The roles had not changed either. Grandpa sent Naren and Infinity to the store to get supplies, Emee cleaned up the house and grandpa and I chopped wood.

"I have a secret to tell you." He told me as I worked. "I'm only telling you because you are capable of protecting your mind from being read. You cannot tell Infinity or the whole plan will be ruined."

"Then why tell me?" I asked.

"Because I am taking my daughter and wife and leaving to go far away very soon. I will have to leave you both here. You'll have to go back to the city."

"What?" I was confused. "But Infinity knows everything, and if they know that she knows everything, then they'll kill her. And they'll probably want to come after me."

"Please… just listen to me before you get angry." Grandpa's features softened and I nodded. "Lyell and Amy aren't on the sea. I will not tell you where they are or what they are doing, but they are not on the sea. I will be going in their place and I will bring Meng and Naren with me. They will not go on the sea with me, but you cannot go because you are needed here. You and Infinity need to stick together. I know you can keep her safe. Your father has found a very dangerous man by the name or Grimwald. He can bend the oceans to his will and has been tasked to find the boat that Infinity's parents are supposedly on and he will kill them. There is more to this plan that you will find out later, but it is important that they think Lyell and Amy are far away, on that boat."

"Grimwald." I had known that name. "Great Grandfather had asked a favor of a man named Grimwald over a year ago, before Charlie was a person of interest anyway or else maybe he could have stopped it." I sat down. "All I know as it had to do with a man by the name of Ailwyn Llewellyn."

"Ailwyn Llewellyn?" Grandpa's eyes widened with surprise. He looked like he had figured out some great mystery that had been bugging him for a while. "How much did you know about Infinity prior to meeting her?"

"Close to nothing." I admitted. "I knew that the Bone family had once had another child but she had been put up for adoption and taken to the states. They just told me who she was when she came back."

"When Infinity was adopted, she was adopted by her mother's sister and her husband. I had been there that day and I tried to talk him out of it. I didn't like the look in that woman's eye. She had the look of someone with ulterior motives. She didn't even want to give the baby her married name, she seemed so disgusted with it. I told him that if he really wanted to get rid of her, that I would take her. Lyell was like a son to me, a better son than your ungrateful father ever was. I would have done anything for him but he told me that if Amy's sister took the baby, it would put her mind at rest and they could see her any time they wanted. They didn't want to stop me from traveling." He looked down at the floor. "Infinity's adopted father was Dr. Ailwyn Llewellyn, a marine biologist."

"…Grimwald killed Infinity's adopted father. But why would they have ordered it? No one knew Infinity would be endowed until Eustacia told them." I was confused. "I knew that Infinity's aunt had been bribed into adopting her by Mrs. Tilpin. She had nothing to do with my family at that time. She knew nothing of them and we knew nothing of her. How did they know where Infinity was and who she was with? I was told that Grizelda wasn't present the day of Infinity's birth. I don't think she even knew Lyell and Amy were together and that she was pregnant until after Infinity was adopted, so how could they have even known who adopted her?" I stopped and thought about it. "Eustacia must have had her premonition long before she admitted it. They knew she was going to be a witch, and a very powerful one. They killed off Ailwyn, the only person who actually cared about Infinity, and bribed that awful aunt of hers into bringing her back and leaving her here. I bet that woman was elated. She was given money to adopt Infinity, and then was given more money to just give her away again." I sat my axe down and sat down on the chopping log. "I don't think Manfred knew much of their plan either. He almost killed her last year and I don't think I had ever seen my father so angry. I think they wanted her to bring Borlath back to life if they couldn't succeed, but she proved to be too difficult to control. That's why Ezekiel wanted to try and siphon her powers. He used the shriveling shroud on her…" I shuddered. "I can't even stand to think what could have happened if I didn't have the endowment that I do."

My endowment hadn't completely come back, but it was getting there. It felt like I was discovering it all over again. I couldn't read the thoughts of people unless they were standing near me, but I was definitely able to communicate again. I still had my photographic memory and I was able to still see and alter the memories of people who were near me. I had tested it on a few strangers since I had been healed. "You'll return to full power again." Grandpa put his hand on my shoulder. "You just have to keep working at it."

I went to speak to him again, but I was interrupted by yelling. I stood up as quickly as I could and scanned the area. Naren and Infinity were running towards the cottage with their baskets and bags. For the first time since she had heard the gunshot, Infinity was smiling. "Bart, something wonderful is happening. Asa is alive!"

"What?" Grandpa grabbed her shoulders. "Did you see someone?! You didn't tell them where we live, did you?! Were you followed?"

"Uncle Paton sent my neighbors, the Browns, to find you. He needs your help to rescue Asa. I told them not to follow me. They're waiting at the pub and need to speak to you. They haven't told me everything, but they did tell me Asa is alive and that Charlie is going to rescue him Monday night." She was giddy and excited. I knew she missed Asa and that he had done a lot for her, but a pang of jealousy still tore through me.

I am assuming that we will be leaving town Monday night. Tell her you both will be returning to the academy with Charlie that night. I will go speak with who Paton has sent. Grandpa's instructions were clear. I knew Infinity wouldn't be happy to know that we would be returning to the academy. I wondered if I could bargain with her and ask her to allow me to have her forget what I had told her about the deed of Bloor's Academy. I decided against telling her that Lord Grimwald was responsible for Ailwyn's death, and decided to inform her of our new plan.