We had been walking for at least two hours before we spotted any real sign of life.

Verity lent down to examine the tracks, which from where we standing looked like paw prints.

"Too big to be coyote" she murmured to herself while running her hand across the dirt, "I think they are wolf tracks," she said without taking her eyes off the ground.

I walked closer to her and knelt down beside her to take a better look.

"Do you think that they're from wild wolves?" I asked, looking up at Asher.

He knelt down beside us and studied them closely.

"Too big," he said standing back up straight "We have to keep moving, we're not the only ones travelling through this forest" he finished quickening his pace.

I sprung to my feet and caught up to him quickly.

"Asher?" I questioned, looking at his worried features.

he turned his head to face me slightly and smiled unconvincingly, I raised my eyebrows at him causing him to drop his happy act.

"Whats wrong?" I questioned.

"Its just the people who survive out here are known to be ruthless" he explained with a distant look in his eyes "we don't want them to find us, the darkness can only offer us so much protection"

I nodded my hand and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder before dropping back to walk next to Orpheus.

"Hey stranger" I greeted nudging him slightly.

I couldn't help but notice how quiet he had been over the past couple of days.

"Hey" he greeted with a warm smile that seemed to brighten up his ocean blue eyes.

"Are you ok?" I asked with concern.

I had been so focused on finding Chase that I had neglected Orpheus completely, he had almost killed his brother and then blamed himself for Chase's capture. He was literally walking through hell.

"I'm fine" he claimed with a pained look in his eyes.

I knew that he was lying but I didn't want to push him, he has never liked showing his feelings especially when they were filled with pain.

"Ok, but know that I'm here if you ever need me," I said thoughtfully.

"Thanks," he said pulling me into a small side hug.

Shade looked over his shoulder, accidentally catching my eye contact. He smiled awkwardly before fixing his gaze forwards.

"Ugh... Aurora?" asked Orpheus.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"Remember when I disappeared for a while before the house games?" he questioned.

"Mhmm" I replied while nodding my head, eager to finally know what he was up to.

"I was getting you this," he said pulling a dagger from his belt.

He handed it to me with a smile and watched my reaction carefully. I accepted it gratefully and drew it out of its beautifully decorative case. I gasped in shock as I studied the fine dagger. The silver blade contained various types of unusual carvings and patterns which all seemed to flow neatly into the handle, while the pommel contained an impressively large ruby.

"It's beautiful" I gasped putting it back into its case, turning it around slowly.

"Max had told me that your birthday was coming up so I got you this, although I figured that it's more useful to you now" he explained with a shy smile.

"I love it!" I exclaimed giving him a small hug. "Thank you"

He nodded his head and opened his mouth to say something when a fierce howl shattered the surrounding air, we all jumped back into a circle and held up our blades. Two more howls sounded, shaking the ground with their ferocity.

"They must have found us by scent" called Asher. "the dark shield can no longer protect us, get ready to fight!"

I backed up until we were all in a tight circle and waited in anticipation for his signal knowing that there were only two species that could produce a howl like that, demon dogs or werewolves.

"Aurora now!" he commanded.

I held my daggers up into the air and brought them down swiftly, dropping the dark shield. I was completely surprised to see that there were both werewolves and demon dogs attacking each other, which made me believe that they must have had some sort of cloaking spell for them to go unnoticed for that long, I also notice that the three werewolves were outnumbered by at least five to one.

We wasted no time and all ran forwards taking the demon dogs by surprise, I decapitated two of them easily and moved onto the next, avoiding its snapping jaw as I jammed my blade through its heart.

I saw that a lone demon had pinned down one of the wolves, I contemplated my options before swiftly decapitating the beast before its teeth came into contact with the wolves neck. The wolves curious blue eyes met mine for a split second before it continued to sink its teeth into oncoming demons.

Once the fight was finally over, demon corpses were covering the forest's floor. My friends realised that we had won and formed a v shape behind me, facing the three wolves who were growling lowly.

"Change" commanded Asher, who was the closest person to my right.

The wolves looked to the centre wolf who let out another growl of refusal.

"Aurora, Shade, if you will" smirked Asher gesturing to the wolves.

Shade and I stepped forward and stood side by side. We both concentrated on our wolf forms and let out a thunderous growl that echoed loudly through the trees, sending any form life fleeing or flying away from the forest at a great speed.

The three wolves before us whimpered at our earsplitting growl and cowered to the floor, changing back to their human forms involuntarily.

"Thank you" grinned Asher, running a hand through his snowy white hair.

I walked towards them confidently, with Shade by my side and the others following close behind. I towered over the three and growled lowly, warning them not to do anything stupid.

"Who are you and do you work for Sebastian?" I asked getting straight to the point.

The blue-eyed wolf from earlier looked up at me and smirked while shaking her head.

"I'm Kate, and I was about to ask you the same thing" she replied, pushing a strand of her sandy red hair behind her ear.

We stared at each other for a couple of seconds while I tried to figure out what to do.

I finally decided that she seemed to be telling the truth, so I wasn't going to pass down the extra help. Like Asher said, the people out here were known to be ruthless so I figured that they could be a good help in finding Chase since Sylvia had to stay behind to help guard the school.

I held out my hand to her and smiled.

"I'm Aurora" I greeted.

She accepted my hand and allowed me to pull her to her feet.

"I know who you are" she laughed "word travels surprisingly fast around here"

Her two friends got to their feet and dusted themselves off.

"This is Luna and Brandon" she informed pointing them in turn.

Brandon was tall and had unusually bright, emerald green eyes with dusty brown hair that hung down over his forehead slightly while Luna was slightly shorter and had darker, hunter green eyes with steel grey hair that ended just above her hips.

All three of them were dressed mostly in back with various weapons strapped to their belts for protection, the only coloured part of their outfits were their muddy brown cloaks that that helped them to blend in with the scorched area.

Brandon looked up and gave us a warm smile along with a small wave while Luna just looked at us with suspicion. I turned back to the others who all introduced themselves in turn before walking forward to face Kate who seemed to be their leader.

"Since you already knew who I am, I'm guessing that you know why we're here," I said strongly.

"Of course" she confirmed with a serious expression on her face

"You have a choice" I began looking at each of them in turn "you can either help us to save our friend, or you can continue to wander these forsaken lands alone"