I woke to the sound of muffled arguing, still in the same position I last remembered myself in: on the ground with my face pressed against the dirt.

"I had it handled perfectly fine!" Nathaniel. The sound of his whining voice alone was enough to make my blood boil. I tried to scowl but my brow throbbed.

"...an ignorant little child. She would have killed you if she escaped." A broad shadow lingered above me: Felix.
"You hit her hard. What if she's dead?" Nathaniel panicked. "Is that... is that blood?"

I pushed up from the damp dirt, managing to lift my head barely an inch. Two figures sat nearby. I squinted as I tried to focus on them, finally making them out to be Alex and Pete whispering at me, hands tied behind their backs. Only mine were free.

I had to take this chance but trying to think, let alone move, made my stomach churn. I curled my fingers, trying to feel the dirt or even the cold, to push up from the ground. Alex and Pete needed me to move. I had to get up to get them out of here.

"See! She's alive. Nothing to worry about."

I swore inwardly. If they knew I was awake, I had no chance in getting away in this state. I tried getting up once more but found it easier this time as my hair was pulled back to face Felix, ripping into my scalp so hard I almost cried.

"Stop that!" Nathaniel insisted. "We've got them. Now let's go."
"You're a little shit, you know that?" Alex snapped. "We welcomed you. We saved your life!"

Nathaniel gulped and, with a wave of his hand, my wrists were bound behind my back.
"A witch," Pete spat. "We let an actual witch into the Watch."
"Can you stand?" Nathaniel asked the three of us.

The boys stood with ease but my own legs grew heavy. The force Felix had struck me with knocked me off balance and I needed rest to recover -- rest I had a strong feeling I would not be offered.

I wobbled forward and fell back down to my knees. The world spun and I could barely see ahead of me; walking was impossible.

Felix growled. "Just walk!"
"She's concussed!" Pete snapped. "Give her a minute."
"We don't have a minute," Felix replied. "Either she gets up or dragged by her hair. Your choice, sweetheart."

My face twisted in rage and pain. I had no real choice but to get up, but I could barely see. It was useless to even try and it felt easier to give in and let Felix drag me to where we needed to go rather than fight my way to my feet.

"Erika." Alex knelt down in front of me, softening his eyes. "Come on, you can do this."
I tried to shake my head but couldn't. The ground I stared at blurred. "I can't. Everything hurts."
"I know, I know. But remember when The Collector drugged you and you made your way across the entire manor by yourself?"
It was hardly a happy memory. "It seems a lifetime ago now."
"I know. You did that all on your own. You didn't need anyone then and you don't need anyone now. But you've got someone this time. You've got me, and you've got Pete helping you. Can you get up?"

I had to try. Mustering up all the willpower and strength in my legs, I pushed myself up, stumbling forward but I stayed standing. Alex smiled.

"Good on you, Erika," said Pete.
"If you're quite finished," Felix hissed, "move."

He tapped Alex's back and gestured for Pete and I to follow. Felix headed the group further in the forest, Nathaniel guarding us from behind. My vision came back the more we walked and the strength in my legs returned, though I could feel blood trickling down my forehead.

"How long was I out for?" I asked the boys.
"Just a few minutes," Pete replied. "We didn't even notice what Nathaniel was doing until that one apprehended us." He nodded at Felix.
"I'm so stupid," Alex groaned. "I've tried including that kid in everything we've done because I believed him."
"We all did," I replied. "Don't blame yourself."
"I encouraged the rest of you to let him in." He let out a sigh. "I'm sorry. And worse, poor Flo..."

I winced. Florence would be heartbroken. She had spent little more than a few days with him but I knew how she was with boys. She got attached so quickly, and would be devastated.

"Hang on," said Alex. He leaned towards my skull, looking down at the injury with curiosity. I shrunk.
"I'm not sure if you've heard of personal space, Alex--"
"You're healed."
"She's what?" Pete craned his head to look over me, making me feel considerably small between the two 6ft giants.
"This makes me uncomfortable."
"Do you feel okay?" Alex asked.
"Apart from being uncomfortable, it doesn't hurt that much any... more."

Nathaniel dropped his hand as the three of us came to a halt. Felix groaned from the front of the pack but Nathaniel shook his head to not say anything.

"Now we're even," he said.
"Oh, this is far from even," Alex hissed. "But... thanks."
Nathaniel nodded. "Keep moving, please."

The two witches guided us through a narrow wall of trees into a fire lit clearing. In the centre was a stone table, atop it a bronze coffin chipped and rusted by age and weather, circled by glowing torches and watched by the cult and a sea of its sacrifices.

"This is very... cult-y," Alex whispered. I nodded, eyes flitting from torch to torch then back to the haunting grave in the centre.
"Very."

Then there she was, standing in front of the crowd with orange hair flowing behind her and a smile on her face, was Kate. She dressed differently to how I saw her before, and now draped herself in a scarlet red cloak that witches around her matched with, excluding Nathaniel and Felix. I looked passed her at the crowd: Wyatt had been taken as planned, but so had Vanessa's and Pete's groups, Lily and Lucie, and the other hunters that joined us. Before this hunt, the witches had eleven of the twelve hunters needed -- we had given them thirty-one options.

Beyond them were the original hunters, Chris Lupine at the front of the pack, sitting with a permanent frown no different to his usual expression, but his cold eyes now widened in surprise at the sight of his only daughter being dragged into the clearing. He sent me away to Edinburgh knowing I was his only chance and yet I had failed him.

"Well." Kate spun around. She cocked her head, recognising Alex and I from The Collector's disaster of a party. "Mister Arwood and Miss Lupine. How nice it is to see you again."
"A pleasure, really," Alex replied. He kept his humour, but I saw his eyes flit between Kate and his dad, who sat behind my own with a concerned countenance.
"And Mister Martin, I believe."

Pete waved dismissively with his bound hands in a way that would have made me laugh under any normal circumstances. But this wasn't normal. In fact, it was far from normal, even for a hunter.

Kate eyed me over suspiciously. "Do you have nothing to say, Lupine?"
I shrugged. "No."

She frowned at the blood dried on my forehead and tilted my head to get a better look, clutching my chin delicately like a mother examining her child. "What is this, Felix?"
Before Felix could answer, Nathaniel interrupted, "He knocked her out. I had to heal her to stop her from passing out again."
A smile betrayed her lips as she let go of my head. "That's my boy. Always more compassionate than the rest of us."
I blinked. "Your boy?"
"Compassionate?" Alex hissed.
"Put them with the others," ordered Kate. "Quickly, if you wouldn't mind, Felix."

The witch forced us into the crowd of hunters, sitting the three of us down close to our fathers. Pete rushed straight to Wyatt's side, Alex beamed as he saw Tommy again, and dad sighed as I sat down. As worried as he looked, I was glad to see him well.

"Erika."
"Evening, dad," I replied nervously.
"Why are you here?"
I shrugged and looked around the ritual site; the burning torches, the anxious hunters, the crazy witches and sense of impending doom. "I'm here to rescue you."
Dad looked around at the same scene. "I see. Is this part of the plan, I wonder?"
"Wyatt Martin was meant to be captured."
"And the rest of you?"
I bit my lip. "We've had better days."
"We've been fifty percent successful, if you want to put it into numbers," Alex added.
"That's not a good rate," Tommy added.
Dad's brows lowered. "And you are?"
"Oh! Alex Arwood, sir. I'd shake your hand but I literally can't move them."
"No need," replied dad with a frown. "I'll cope without it."

I looked around at the original hunters to see if I recognised any. There were eight men, four women, and I only recognised four of the twelve: dad, Wyatt, Tommy and Leopold, who lurked at the back of the crowd.

Just seeing him brought back the anger. I could feel the blade pressed against my throat and the fear for my family that drove me to fight back against Kate and her cult. He looked up from his solitary brooding.

"Good evening, Lupine. Plan went well, I see."
I forced a smile. "Evening, Leopold. How's freedom going for you?"
"You've met?" Tommy asked with a frown.
"Oh we've met," Alex replied, scowling. "If they offer, I might actually do the witches' job for them."
"You did partly by letting them take me!"
"As if you weren't selling us off in the first place!" Alex snapped.
Leopold scoffed, looking to me for a response. "Well, Erika?"
Arguing was pointless. There had to be some other way out, but if I was going to die, I would not waste my last moments on Leopold. "I hope you go first."

Pete shuffled forward and hushed his voice to address the group. "What do we do now? No-one else knows about this hunt."
"The council members do," I reminded him.
"They won't get passed all the regulations stopping them from coming here in time," dad replied.
"What about Alfie and Flo?" Alex suggested. Dad's eyes widened.
"Alfie and Florence? Diana's children?"
"They joined us on the hunt," Alex explained.
Dad sighed. "I was beginning to wonder why everything was failing."
"We left them at the Watch," I went on. "They can't help us from there. I said to wait a day before contacting Diana as a last resort."
"We could really use that last resort right now," said Tommy Arwood.
"It's not an option," I replied.
"But we have time," said Alex, a new hopeful light in his eyes. "We left Horizon's Edge at the Watch, remember? They literally can't get to it and the ritual can't be done properly without it."

There was a chorus of sighs among the hunters, some even laughing. "You managed to find Horizon's Edge?" asked dad. I nodded as a faint hint of a smile twitched on his lips. "I'm impressed."
"Thank god we thought ahead," Pete said with a sigh.
I almost laughed in relief. "Imagine if we brought it with us!"
"Nope," said Alex. "We left it at the Watch. We are perfectly safe as long as that blade gets nowhere near the hands of one of those witches."

Kate's voice echoed through the clearing as Nathaniel handed her a blade from his bag; a silver blade with a blood-red ruby encrusted in the hilt. "Let us begin."

The mood of the hunters plummeted as Alex's mouth dropped open. "Me and my big fucking mouth."
Wyatt scowled. "How did he get that?"
Pete stuttered. "I don't know!"

Everything was crumbling around us: our plan, our futures, our families. I wouldn't have been surprised if the floor started caving in any second. In fact, I would have been grateful for it. "This is one big mess, isn't it?" I sighed.

"What do we do?" Alex asked. "Dad?" Tommy didn't respond. He shared the same look his son had; the look of being so lost and having no solution for it.
"I'm sorry, my boy."
"No! There's got to be something else. Erika! What do we do?"
I looked around. There were many hunters there and most of them were more experienced than I was. "What am I going to do?"
"Something! You got us through some crazy stuff these past few days. If anyone can think of something, it's you!"

We were unarmed. Our weapons sat tempting us by a few cultist witches. All but one of them.

"Alex..." I glanced down at the gauntlet strapped to his wrist, hidden beneath the sleeve of his jacket. He smiled and gestured at the ground in front of him. He twisted around and began to discreetly saw at the ropes that bound my wrists, making faster work than my arrow did on the roots Nathaniel cast on me earlier.

"That's incredible," Wyatt praised.
"His own design," Tommy said proudly. "He does a lot."
"And he'll get caught for it if you don't quiet your voice," Alex hissed, trying to bury the compliments he was being given.

When the ropes snapped, I held them in my hands, keeping them in the same position as before to act as if they were still there. Tommy took my position and Alex began to work on sawing his ropes. There were more hunters than witches. If we could get at least some hunters free, we could take them head on.

"Felix," said Kate, eyes scanning the crowd of frightened and angry hunters, "find me the first."

The tattooed witch smiled as he strutted around the perimeter. Hunters sat up in attention, apprehensive eyes following him.

His smile grew as he reached his target: the oldest and quietest of the original twelve. Faces fell as he stood willingly and Tommy began to panic.

"Chris," he warned. "Chris, we need to do something."
Dad's cold eyes wandered over the ritual site. "There's nothing we can do."

I looked down at my unbound hands and went to stand. Dad pulled me back down.
"Don't."
"We have to do something," Pete hissed.
"You would only get yourself killed," dad warned. "We can't do anything to help him now."
Wyatt winced, glancing apologetically at the elderly hunter being taken towards the coffin. "I'm sorry, Stefan."

Stefan nodded gracefully as if he heard him and knelt down with a proud smile on his face as Kate pressed Horizon's Edge to his wrinkled neck.

"We will endure."

Kate flicked her wrist and robbed Stefan of the remainder of his life. Hunters winced, gasped and someone screamed as Stefan's blood poured to the grass below. As his body fell, a torch flared up brighter than before, yet the clearing had never felt darker.

"You see!" Kate called, beaming. "It is over in an instant. A quick, painless death as opposed to what? A short life full of suffering only to end in agony at the hands of some demon? I am blessing you all with this ritual. Every one of you will go to a better place for a better cause."

"Crazy," Alex muttered, quietly sawing at dad's set of ropes. "Very, very crazy."
"Now. You," Kate hissed.
Alex froze. "Me?"
"Lupine."

I swore and looked to dad. He kept his glare locked on Kate, daring her to even try despite him being so powerless. She couldn't take dad. I needed to save him somehow. My hands were free -- that was all I had.

Kate walked up to us, both hunters and witches watching with fear and curiosity at one hunter being singled out so boldly. The sacrifice of the other hunters was necessary; this one was personal. "You've been a pain in my neck since the moment I met you."
Dad scowled. "If you think you've been so pleasant--"
"How arrogant you are to think I'm speaking to you."

My mind did the cruel maths. If she wasn't talking about dad then--

Kate dragged me up by the back of my shirt and the hunters exploded in rage. Every one of them expected the original twelve to be sacrificed. Their children were taken as spares, it was true, but Kate had expressed a willingness to let them live. Dad was an option to her, and she still picked me instead.

"Kate she's a child!" Dad roared.
Kate scowled. "A child that killed Viviane. I wanted to leave you alone, Lupine, but you've given me no choice."
"You have me, Kate. This is between us -- not her."
"She made it between us when she killed my friend," Kate choked. "This is on her."

Pete flinched and I shook my head. He ignored my warning and lunged at Kate. Before he could reach her, he keeled over as Nathaniel cast from the other end of the crowd. Kate glared down at him.
"You just made yourself third."
"Kate, please!" Wyatt cried.

I kept my mouth shut. I wasn't ready to die -- I didn't want to -- but the only other option was dad and I couldn't let him go. Ollie needed him, so did Diana and the twins. If I made a fuss, Kate could have easily chosen to sacrifice Pete or even Alex first. They needed time to save themselves.

But there was still a chance. I kept my hands locked behind my back as if still bound. This gave me an advantage.

Kate dragged me towards the coffin as hunters shouted pleas and abuse directed at the witches.

"Is this what your son really wants?" I asked quietly.
"Nathaniel knows why this must be," she replied, pushing me down on my knees. "He may not like it but he understands."
"Forcing your son to lie and kill for your cause." I twisted my face in disgust. "Some mother you are."
She scowled. "Am I so different to that man over there you call 'father'?"

Immensely. To compare her treatment of Nathaniel for the sake of the cult to typical hunter training was almost blasphemy. I clenched my jaw and followed with my eyes to see where she held the hilt of Horizon's Edge.

My hands were unbound. If I was fast, I could duck and grab the knife or at least grapple for it before she had time to cast and restrain me. She barely had a hold on me now. Her faith that I would sit quietly, losing all hope of surviving, was entirely misplaced.

I had to be quick. Every breath was timed as Kate faced me towards the bronze casket, pleading shouts of my family and screams of frightened hunters muting into background noise; nothing more than the ambiance of the trees and the clearing. Everyone was frantic. Everyone but Alex. He had called my name until I managed to lock eyes with him, being the only one looking at me and not at Kate. He calmed as we locked eyes and with a subtle nod, he settled down, understanding me completely as he shuffled closer to the witch guarding the crowd.

Kate lifted the knife a pressed it against my skin. 'Be quick' I told myself. I had to duck just at the right time.
She drew the knife forward and, among the shouts and screams of the hunters, prepared herself to pull it back.

She stopped as a truck broke through the lining of the trees and charged straight for the ritual site.