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dried my hair so
it wouldn’t freeze outside.
    The hotel was alive with people today, and I pulled
my scarf over my mouth and nose to muffle it. When we were walking
out, I noticed the décor in the hotel was distinctly green. Potted
plants were everywhere, probably to counteract the long winters and
oblique white window views. I enjoyed winter, but it would be odd
to live in a place that had snow eight months out of the year.
    It really wasn’t that cold out, only in the low
thirties, but I bundled up in a winter jacket and boots, like any
normal person would. There wasn’t that much snow yet, only enough
to crunch underneath my feet.
    “So what’s the plan?” I followed him out of the
building, and he walked towards the silver Range Rover he’d rented
yesterday.
    “We’re going for a drive,” Ezra answered vaguely, and
I wondered if he was purposely infuriating or if it was just force
of habit. He got in the driver’s side, so I hopped in.
    Without looking, he whipped the Rover into reverse
and sped out away from the hotel. Usually, he was a mild driver,
but it became apparent where Jack’s driving skills came from. As he
sped down the road, I pulled my hood up over my head and sunk lower
in my seat, hiding myself from the sun’s rays as much as I
could.
    “How is this gonna work?” I yawned when we’d been on
the road for ten minutes. Already, I felt like napping, and I knew
as the day wore on, I would only get sleepier.
    “We’ll be in tree cover most of the time.” He
motioned to the thick pine trees that filled the world around us.
“You have your hood and sunglasses, and when we get back in the
morning, we’ll both eat. We’ll be fine.”
    We traveled about a half hour or so when he turned
off the road and parked in a small clearing. I’d been dozing a bit,
but I sat up when the vehicle stopped. I leaned over to inspect the
GPS system in the dash, hoping to find a clue about where we were.
Finnish words and names looked like gibberish to me, so I didn’t
gain any insight.
    “Okay. What’s going on?” I asked, but Ezra turned off
the car and jumped out in response. “Thanks.”
    I scrambled out after him, and I slipped on an icy
patch of snow. When I tried to catch my fall by grabbing onto the
car, I only succeeded in denting the side. It was pretty awesome
having almost no control over my body. I couldn’t wait for the
grace and strength to really kick in.
    “Are you coming?” Ezra paused long enough for me to
collect myself and scurry after him.
    “Yeah. Where are we going?” I asked when I caught up
with him.
    “The woods.” We were already walking into a very
thick patch of trees, so he was doing nothing more than stating the
obvious.
    “You’re really becoming my least favorite person,” I
muttered as I nearly tripped over a fallen log.
    “I don’t know exactly where we’re going,” he
reluctantly admitted. “I just know the area we’re supposed to be
in, and this is it.”
    We were in the shadows thanks to cover of trees, so
at least that was something. Looking around, though, everything
appeared the same as everything. Evergreens blanketed the area, and
somewhere up ahead, I could hear a river flowing.
    Other than that, I had no idea how Ezra could tell
one tree from another, or how he could possibly have any clue where
we were. He was much more familiar with the area than I was, but I
couldn’t see what distinguished these trees from the rest.
    “Where are we?” I stopped walking and stared up
through the trees at the sky.
    “The lycan live around here.”
    I would’ve liked to press him further about it, but
he didn’t want to talk. Ezra didn’t even slow down for me, so I
learned my lesson about stopping for no reason. We trekked through
the trees all afternoon, and while the sun didn’t directly shine on
me, I felt a burst of energy when it finally went down.
    Once night closed in completely, Ezra started to wait
for me and insisted I stay close to him.