A Gift from the Goddess novel Chapter 155

“Is that…?” I tried to ask.

But I didn’t get the question out as I heard Clarissa begin cursing next to me, doing so whilst struggling to get out of bed.

“What are you doing?” I gasped, seeing her shaking with the sheer effort required.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” she snapped. “Fucking help me up already.”

“Hey! Stop being so rude to—.”

“No!” she yelled, cutting me off. “From here on out you shut up and listen to my instructions. Now pick me up.”

“What?”

“Pick. Me. Up. Onto your back. You’ll need to carry me for this.”

Stunned, I started to help her out of bed, but couldn’t stop myself from asking another question anyway.

“What’s happening, Clarissa? Are those howls…?”

“What’s happening is that we’re going to run and get Myra,” she said, speaking as if I were a child. “Hopefully before it’s too late.”

“Too late for what?”

And she paused then for a moment, just long enough to look up and allow me to feel the full gravity of her words.

“…They’re here,” she said. “The hunt begins.”

I didn’t ask anything else after that, simply following her instruction. Something told me that I probably needed to listen to her if we were going to make it out of this.

“Myra is asleep on the couch,” she directed as I lifted her up onto my back. Her arms immediately wrapped around my shoulders to hold on. “Once we find her, we’ll only have two minutes to get out of the house.”

“How do you— Nevermind.”

And I started running down the stairs to where Myra’s tiny frame had passed out, just as Clarissa had said.

“Myra, we need to go,” Clarissa yelled. “They’ve found us. This idiot led them to our doorstep.”

“…What?” Myra mumbled, waking up. “What’s going on?”

“We’re running. Come on, we don’t have much time.”

Myra’s eyes instantly became alert, the situation finally settling in. “Who?” she asked.

“Silent Forest.”

Evidently, Myra knew exactly what this meant without further explanation and nodded her head.

“Okay, let’s go.”

But I hesitated, unsure how best to leave here safely, especially noting that I had Clarissa on me.

“I have a car,” I provided. “It’s parked a few streets away. If we can make it there, I can—.”

“No,” Clarissa cut off. “We have to go out the back and into the forest. They find us before we get to the car, not to mention it’s too easy to track.”

‘They find us’…? Didn’t she mean ‘they *will* find us’?

The way she kept speaking, it was almost as if she knew what was going to happen. But that was impossible, right…?

Unless…

And Myra’s words then came to mind, listing off the different abilities of the original children.

‘…One child held the ability of strength… another with foresight….’

Foresight.

Could she really…?

“MOVE, RHEYNA,” Clarissa then yelled in my ear, snapping me out of it. “Time to run.”

And I found my legs kicked into gear automatically, sprinting towards the back door where Myra was heading.

We ran into the night, the crisp air holding a chill within it, and at the pace we were going, it wasn’t long before we entered into the forest. The branches and sticks tore at my clothing and skin, stinging me. But all I could really feel right now was the adrenaline pushing me to run faster.

“About one minute,” Clarissa then said suddenly.

“One minute…?” I huffed out. “Until what?”

“…Until the first encounter.”

I swallowed back my discomfort and kept my head straight, forcing my legs to keep moving.

Was I meant to fight the person off? That was going to be difficult with Clarissa on me. Maybe Myra was stronger than she looked?

But as I recalled her defensive greeting from the other day, I realised she hadn’t appeared that natural when holding the dagger. Perhaps I could give her Clarissa to hold instead?

“Can we maybe swap—.”

Only, I didn’t get the question out.

The sound of twigs snapping and leaves rustling quickly caught my attention, coming from somewhere to our left. Just as Clarissa had said.

“Myra!” I yelled. “Get back!”

She had been running ahead of me to lead the way, her clearly knowing the woods far better than me. This had been the place she’d grown up, after all.

At the sound of my voice, she slowed down to regroup and turned to the direction of the noise.

“Someone is here,” I said, my eyes scanning the area.

The only light source was dim, coming from the moon above through the leaves. It wasn’t nearly enough to spot anything through the thick brush.

“Where?” she asked.

But the question was then quickly answered as a wolf leapt towards us.

“MYRA!” I screamed

She noticed the wolf a second after I had and reached towards it, grabbing it by the throat mid-air. Despite her looks, she did seem to have a lot of strength in her small body. It was just her skill that was lacking in terms of actual fighting technique… as was evident in how she clumsily put the dog down.

“Time to keep going,” Clarissa hurried once it was done.

And Myra quickly nodded her head, running to the front to continue leading the way.

“The others find the body soon,” Clarissa said, a few minutes later. “We need to make sure that we’re already past the clearing by the time the main group finds it.”

“And if we don’t get past the clearing?” I asked.

But Clarissa didn’t reply.

I took that to be an answer in itself.

Faster and faster, I pushed my body to move. Putting more into this than anything else I’d ever done, the weight of their lives on my shoulders. Because I had done this. It was my fault. Clearly, whatever I’d done at the Silent Forest pack hadn’t been enough, leaving a trail right to our location. It probably hadn’t taken long for my claim of being a Lycroft to be proven false, it then bringing a revelation from Ashwood that a devil was still alive.

…And why else would a devil be heading south?

No, I had to keep going… keep moving… but, just as I saw the clearing up ahead, I then heard Clarissa’s voice behind me. Words I hadn’t wanted to hear.

“…We’re not going to make it,” she said quietly.

And my heart dropped.

“What do you mean?” I asked, panic rising inside me. “What’s going to happen?”

But she didn’t reply, her silence incredibly foreboding.

“…Clarissa?!” I yelled. “What’s going to happen?!”