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“I get it, buddy. I hear you,” I say, petting him. I pick up my fork to start eating, and Thuly nearly jumps in my lap.

“Something is wrong!” he shouts at me before eating my lunch. “Something is wrong!”

“What the fuck?” I say, confused.

“What happened?” Dad asks as they come running over.

“I don’t know! Ewayla brought me a plate of food, and Thuly freaked out and knocked it out of my hands before he ate it,” I say.

“Something is wrong,” Thuly says again, the urgency is still there, but it’s not as loud.

“I get it. Something is wrong. Can you say anything else?” I ask, getting frustrated.

“Poison,” Thuly says before snatching Leli’s food and eating it.“Someone trying to hurt Mom.”

“What?” Dad asks.

“He said poison and that someone is trying to hurt me,” I say. “Are you sure, Thuly?”

“Something is wrong,”he says again.

“Alright. I hear you,” I say as I stand up. I look up, and everyone is staring at us.

“You said Ewayla gave you the food?” Striker asks. “She’s one of the witches that was blending in as a fox.”

“Go around in case she runs,” I say when Thuly nudges me again when Striker calls for her.

“With me?” I ask the guys.

“Always,” Callum says with a smile and gestures to me ahead.

I walk over to where Ewayla is scurrying around cleaning while everyone else watches. “Hey,” I say with a smile.

“H-Hi,” she stammers and backs away.

“Craziest thing happened,” I say as I step toward her. “Thuly here can communicate. Did you know they could do that?”

“Uhm… No…” she swallows hard, still backing away.

“You see…” I say as I casually pick up the knife sitting on a cutting board by the fire where she has been cooking. “Thuly has been telling me something was wrong over. And over. And over,” I emphasize just how much Thuly has warned me. “Now… I thought that was strange, because it’s just the people I trust around me.Surelythey wouldn’t be the ones putting me in danger. Not after everything I’m doing to free everyone.”

Thuly stays directly beside me, and the guys are behind me. The more she backs away, the guiltier she looks. “I-I don’t know what you mean,” she stammers quietly.

“I think you do,” I say. I decide that if she’s guilty, I’m doing far more than just killing her. I stab the knife into the side of a fallen tree that we pass, watching as she flinches at the sound of impact. “The moment I went to go eat that food, the funniest thing happened. Thuly took it and told me that it was poisoned. That someone was trying to hurt me. I thought that was weird since you cooked for everyone.”

“I didn’t…”

“Stop lying. This will go much better for you if you stop lying,” I say, my tone sharp and unwavering. I can feel that my eyes have changed, so I only assume that based on the level of anger I am feeling and the terror on her face, they are bright red. “Tell me the truth.”

“You’re an abomination,” she spits out. “A demon-spawn.”

“Clever little rogue,” I smile. “You infiltrated with the other witches, thinking that if all else failed, you could take me out for Zypher.”

“You should be dead. He wants to keep you as a pet. He won’t do what needs to be done,” she spits.

“You wanna know what I think?” I ask sweetly.

“W-what?” She stammers when I step back to let Thuly get in front of me.