Marked In Flesh

CHAPTER 28

Firesday, Juin 22

Hope stared at the sheet full of drawings and felt her stomach roll.

No. No, no, no! She’d had a happy day yesterday sketching the Wolf pups and juveniles. She’d drawn her friends as they napped and played and chased one another. Why, today, had she drawn them looking like this?

She tore the page in half, then in half again, before shoving the pieces under her bed. This wasn’t a vision drawing. It wasn’t! Her friends were whole and healthy! They weren’t missing limbs. They weren’t trying to crawl away from danger with their heads bashed to pulp. They weren’t lying in a field burned beyond recognition.

“It’s a bad drawing.” Hope sprang to her feet, intending to leave the cabin, to get away from the pencils and pastels and paper that told lies. “Won’t be real. Can’t be real.”

She reached for the door but didn’t touch the knob.

She hadn’t seen the reason for these drawings. If it was a vision drawing, she still didn’t know why the young Wolves might look like that. Would the next drawing give her the answers? Would it give Jackson and Grace what they needed to know in order to save the pack?

Turning away from the door, Hope settled on the floor with her large sketchpad and closed her eyes.

What is going to happen to the Wolves?

She opened her eyes and stared at the drawer in the desk, craving the euphoria that came from using the razor. Instead, she picked up a pencil and let the vision sweep her away as her hands drew the answer to her question.