Chapter 31: Lost

Astrid

The camp woke early, mist still clinging to the grass when I opened my eyes, the fire from last night reduced to nothing but gray ash, still slightly embarrassed about how peacefully I’d slept beside it the night before.

Ivy noticed immediately. "You look suspiciously well-rested."

"I slept," I said.

"That’s not what I meant."

Before I could ask what she did mean, the morning horn cut through the camp, and everyone gathered for Lyra’s instructions.

"Today’s exercise will test tracking, navigation, and pack coordination," she announced. "You’ll be divided into teams and sent into different sections of the forest to locate marked points and collect tokens. The route will not be marked."

That last part landed heavier than the rest. Yesterday had been hard enough with a trail to follow. This sounded considerably worse.

My group included Reed and Xander. Xander looked entirely too pleased about it.

"Well, this is convenient," he said.

"For you," I said.

"Exactly."

Reed studied the map without acknowledging either of us, explaining that our assigned section was larger than the others.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we’re supposed to be the strongest group."

Xander grinned. "Translation: we’re expected to win."

"Of course you care about winning," I said.

"I care about excellence."

"He cares about winning," Reed said flatly, not even looking up.

I laughed despite the tension building in my stomach.

We entered the forest not long after, the wolf students shifting briefly to scout ahead before returning to human form to report back. I watched them with a complicated mix of feelings, not quite envy, but something close to it, a quiet wondering what it might feel like to have that kind of certainty built into your own body.

A student near us asked, "Do you want someone to stay with you?"

I bristled. "I can walk."

"Nobody said you couldn’t," Reed said, calm and immediate, cutting the moment off before it could turn insulting.

I appreciated that more than I said out loud.

Deeper into the forest, I started noticing details again, broken branches, disturbed soil, footprints that felt oddly familiar. I stopped walking.

"What is it?" Reed asked.

"Nothing," I said, though I looked again.

The marks reminded me of the strange tracks from before, except this time there were several sets, some older, some fresher. I filed the observation away without saying anything yet.

Our first marker was easy to find. The second sat much farther out, and a few students suggested splitting up to save time.

"Stay together," Reed said immediately.

Xander agreed faster than I expected. "The forest is bigger than it looks."

One student pushed back anyway, and eventually the group split into two smaller sections. I stayed with Reed and Xander, and we pushed on toward the next marker.

The sky darkened without warning, rain starting light before turning heavy fast, drumming loud against the canopy overhead until visibility dropped and the marked trail disappeared entirely beneath fresh mud. We tried to regroup.

A distant howl cut through the trees.

I froze. It wasn’t one of the students.

Reed noticed immediately. "Stay between us."

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

"And because apparently I’m the only one allowed to be stupid," Xander added.

I almost laughed despite everything.

Another sound came from deeper in the trees, and the wolf students instinctively shifted, moving toward it before I could process what was happening. I was left behind for only a moment.

Then the ground gave way beneath me.

I slipped down a muddy slope, catching myself hard against a tree trunk, and by the time I scrambled back up, everyone was gone.

I called out. No answer. I tried again.

Nothing.

My heart started racing. No phone. No map. No landmarks I recognized. Just endless trees pressing in on every side.

For a moment, the old instinct to panic clawed at me. Then I remembered Lyra’s words.

Survive without your wolf.

I forced myself to breathe. "Okay," I said aloud, mostly to steady my own voice. "Think."

Instead of running blindly, I examined the ground around me. Footprints, our group’s, then something else entirely, a fresh human print pressed into the mud that didn’t belong to anyone I’d walked with.

My anxiety sharpened into something closer to alertness. Someone else was out here.

I chose the safest visible trail rather than following the mysterious print, and eventually found a fallen tree large enough to shelter beneath while I waited.

A few minutes later, I heard movement. I braced myself, ready to defend if I needed to.

Reed appeared through the trees, soaked through, breathing harder than I’d ever seen him. His expression shifted the moment he spotted me.

"Astrid."

"Hi," I said, trying for casual.

He stared at me. "What happened?"

"I slipped."

He looked at the muddy slope, then back at me. "Are you hurt?"

"No."

He checked anyway, careful hands examining my arms, my knees, his focus entirely on me.

"I’m fine, Reed," I said, painfully aware of how close he was standing.

He finally stepped back. "Good." His voice dropped lower. "Don’t disappear like that again."

"You were worried?" I asked.

He paused. "Obviously."

That caught me completely off guard.

Xander crashed through the trees a moment later. "There you are! Do you have any idea how long we’ve been looking?"

"You missed me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Unfortunately." Then, softer, "Yeah."

A small silence followed before Xander ruined it entirely. "But don’t get sentimental. You’re still carrying the water."

I laughed. Reed shook his head, and the three of us started walking again.

As we made our way back toward the others, I noticed something carved into a nearby tree, a small, old mark, and beneath it, another one, fresh.

I stopped. Reed noticed. "What?"

I touched the carving. "Someone’s been here."

Xander studied it, all trace of humor draining from his face. "This isn’t academy work."

Reed looked deeper into the trees. "We’ll tell Lyra."

I nodded, though something about that mark stayed with me longer than it should have as we turned to leave.

We finally heard the rest of our group calling out somewhere ahead. Xander walked on first, and Reed lingered beside me a moment longer.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah."

He glanced toward the trees behind us. "Stay close."

This time, I didn’t argue. I walked beside him without protest.

For the first time, being watched over didn’t feel like being treated as fragile.

It simply felt like someone didn’t want anything to happen to me, and I decided, walking through the wet undergrowth beside him, that I could live with that.