I pressed my back hard against the bark of the pine tree.

There was no way the wolf standing in front of me was Jordan Greycloud. That wasn’t possible.

But I had seen him transform with my own eyes. I had watched it happen.

“This isn’t real,” I said, still unable to believe it.

The wolf stepped closer, and I forced myself to look into the animal’s eyes. That’s where I found Jordan, and I knew that the world had changed forever. The wolf had the same exact eyes.

I slid down the rough bark until my butt hit the ground. I couldn’t trust my legs anymore. I wasn’t sure I could trust my own eyes.

The wolf moved over to the pile of clothes and gathered the jeans in its mouth. He trotted away, deeper into the woods.

Moments later, Jordan reappeared, wearing only the jeans.

He came to me and sat down. “Are you okay?” he asked. “I know it’s a lot to take in the first time you see it.”

I couldn’t speak. I had no idea what to even say to him. He’d just literally changed my entire reality.

“Marayah, talk to me,” he said.

I lowered my head and covered my ears with my hands. Holy crap. I’d really just seen a human turn into a wolf. I was going to need a minute.

Jordan sat patiently while I quietly freaked out. After several minutes, he spoke again.

“Marayah, please look at me,” he said softly.

Slowly, I lifted my eyes to his. “You should have warned me,” I said.

“I know it’s hard to believe,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to show you. If I’d told you I could shapeshift, you never would have believed me. You probably never would have come out here with me in the first place.”

He was right. If he’d told me what he could do, I would have thought he was insane.

“I still don’t understand,” I said. “Are you a werewolf?”

I felt silly for even suggesting it, and Jordan laughed and shook his head.

“No. Werewolves aren’t real, as far as I know,” he said.

“Then what are you?” I asked.

“I’m a Spiritwalker,” he said.

I looked up, meeting his eyes. I’d heard that word before, from Mr. Shaw in the antique store.

“Spiritwalkers have many names in Native history and legend, and there are some secrets I can’t share with you yet,” he said. “But the power of a Spiritwalker is passed down through generations. Many in my family have had this power, which means that we can call on the guidance and energy of the spirits that surround us. Our ancestors, the power of the earth itself, even animal spirits.”

“Ethan was also a Spiritwalker?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

Jordan nodded. “Each Spiritwalker holds an affinity with a certain animal spirit that gives us strength and guidance,” he said. “For me, my animal is the grey wolf.”

“And Ethan’s was a bear,” I said, touching the medallion around my neck.

“Yes,” he said.

He leaned closer.

“There is another side to this world than what most people see with their eyes. Some of that other world is beautiful and magical, like the way I could heal your hand last night and the way my body can shift into a wolf. But other parts of the supernatural world are very dangerous.”

“Like the dark figure on the bridge?” I asked.

“Exactly,” he said. “I want to help you figure out what that thing was and why it killed your friend, but I need your help. I need to know everything you know, Marayah.”

I nodded. “Okay,” I said. “Then there’s something I need to show you, too.”

I stood, making sure my legs were sturdy enough to carry me before I started walking back to my Jeep. Jordan grabbed the rest of his clothes and followed me back to the car.

I grabbed my backpack from inside and searched for Hailey’s note.

“After the accident, I was in a coma for a few weeks,” I said. “When I woke up, I couldn’t remember anything about that night or the days leading up to it. Still, I knew something was wrong about the whole thing. They kept saying Hailey and I were both on drugs that night, which I knew was ridiculous. Neither one of us had ever done drugs, but no one would listen to me. They had the toxicology reports to prove it, so I was helpless. I had to believe that what they were saying was true, even if I couldn’t remember it.”

I turned to a specific page of doodles in my notebook and pushed it over to him across the hood of the Jeep.

“Shortly after I came home from the rehab center a couple weeks ago, though, I had a terrible nightmare,” I said. “When I woke up, I had drawn something in my sleep. A strange symbol I didn’t recognize. I burned it in my backyard, but I’ve noticed that sometimes when I zone out in class, I’ve been drawing it again. Do you recognize it?”

Jordan studied the drawing and ran a hand through his hair.

“You drew this?” he asked, looking over at me.

“Yes.”

Fear and disappointment mingled in his expression. “What else?” he asked, motioning toward the other folded piece of paper in my hand. He hadn’t answered my question, but I could see that he recognized the symbol.

“My first day back at school, I found this note in my locker,” I said. “No one bothered to clean out my stuff after the accident, so when I came back, everything was still there. I had this notebook that Hailey and I used to pass messages back and forth between classes, and when I took it out, this note fell to the floor. It’s in Hailey’s handwriting, and I think she must have written it the day before she died. And look in the corner of the page, it’s the same drawing from my notebook.

I handed it to him, and he unfolded it, his eyes widening as he read her message.

“There’s more,” I said, pulling my phone from my pocket.

I told him about my visit to see Hailey’s mom and showed him the images she’d drawn on the back wall of her closet. I could feel the tears bubbling up just beneath the surface as I told him. Even when I’d first found the drawings, I had wanted to believe that there was some logical explanation for them.

Drugs. Stress. Anything that could explain what was going on. But after remembering the dark figure last night and hearing its voice in my head, urging me to jump off that bridge, I knew there was something much more sinister at work here.

Now, seeing what Jordan could do and knowing that there were things out there that couldn’t be explained, I finally had to face my greatest fears. Something evil had killed Hailey, and it was coming for me next.

I waited as Jordan scrolled through my pictures, praying he could make sense of all of this. And that he knew how to fight back.

“What’s going on, Jordan?” I asked.

“I think this is why my brother came to Twin Rivers,” he said finally. “He must have sensed some kind of disturbance in the balance between good and evil. He never should have come alone, but he probably thought he could handle it.”

“Handle what?” I asked.

“These symbols are ancient,” he said. “I recognize them from a book my father showed me once, but the evil these symbols represent was thought to just be a myth. An old Native American legend, like a ghost story, passed down from one generation to the next.”

I shivered. “What kind of evil? Like a demon?”

“Worse,” he said. “More like a god. An ancient spirit from a forgotten realm who terrorized our people for more than a century before it was finally contained.”

“But if it’s contained, how is it doing all this?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s possible it got loose somehow. Would Hailey have had any reason to be up in the mountains alone? Exploring caves or trails? Hiking? Something like that?”

I inhaled sharply. “She was a runner,” I said. “She liked to go on extreme runs up in the mountains in the mornings. She was doing a lot of that last summer before the accident. Do you think she might have stumbled onto something?”

Then I remembered the other thing I had found in her closet, along with the drawings.

“Oh, God, Jordan, her shoes,” I said. I paced the area, running a hand through my hair.

“Her shoes?” he asked.

“When I was in her bedroom, I noticed something black on her shoes, almost like tar,” I said. I flipped to the picture I’d taken of her shoes. “I could have sworn I saw the same type of oily substance running down her face the night she died, like tears. Dr. Millner told me that was nothing more than a terrible nightmare, but what if it’s related?”

He leaned over the hood of the Jeep, deep in thought as he studied the pictures. “It’s possible,” he said. “I need to do some research. Do you think you can find out where Hailey was running last summer?”

“I can try,” I said. “I can pick up some maps of the area and ask around to see if her coach or some of her friends knew where she was going.”

“Do you mind if I keep this?” He motioned to the note still sitting on top of the car.

I didn’t want to let go of Hailey’s note. It was the only real proof I had that she’d known something bad was going to happen to her.

“Can I just send you these pictures I have on my phone?” I asked. “I don’t want to lose that note.”

“That’s fine,” he said. He gave me his email address, and I quickly sent him an entire folder of pictures that I’d taken at Hailey’s house.

“So what do we do now?” I asked.

“I’m going to take these to someone who might know more,” he said. “We can’t do anything until we know for sure exactly what we’re dealing with.”

“And what? I’m just supposed to go on with my life as if everything is fine?” I asked, pacing. “You have no idea how difficult this is for me, Jordan. My entire life is upside down right now, and after last night, I’m terrified that I’m going to be the next one to die.”

He turned toward me and reached for my hand. “I’m not going to let that happen,” he said. “My brother might have died trying to protect you. That means you’re important, Marayah. Special in some way. I am going to do everything I can to keep you safe.”

I shook my head. He couldn’t possibly be with me every second of every day. How could he keep me safe from something neither one of us fully understood?

“I was too afraid to tell you this last night, but I nearly jumped off that bridge and died because some voice in my head told me to,” I said. “There are other things, too. Shadows moving like snakes whenever I get angry. Whatever this evil is that commanded Hailey to drive off that bridge, it’s inside my head now, and it’s getting stronger. It’s telling me what to do, and for some reason, it wants me dead. How do I know it’s not going to tell me to slit my wrists in the bathroom tonight? How can you possibly think you can keep me safe?”

“Because you’ve survived this long,” he said. “Whether you realize it or not, you’ve been fighting against this evil for the past year. My brother’s medallion will help you fight against it, so any time you hear that voice, hold onto it and remember that you are the one who is in control.”

“Why did he give this to me, Jordan? I talked to a man in town, Mr. Shaw who runs the old antique store on Mason Street, and he told me he recognized this as a Spiritwalker’s totem. I didn’t understand what that meant at the time, but he said a Spiritwalker never parts with their totem,” I said. “Why do I have this if Ethan needs it?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “But if he wanted you to have it, then it must have been important to him.”

He didn’t say it, but I could see the sorrow in his eyes. Me having this medallion meant that his brother might not be alive. Had he given this to me in his final moments?

There was nothing special about me. Not enough for someone to sacrifice their life to keep me safe. I didn’t deserve this.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

Jordan leaned closer, his arm touching mine. Warmth radiated from his skin. “It wasn’t your fault,” he said. “But we’re going to figure out what happened to him. And what happened to your friend. We’re going to find whatever did this, and we’re going to kill it.”

His dark eyes pierced through me as he said it. I had never seen someone more determined or sure about anything. I had done the right thing in trusting him.

We were in this together now, bound by loss.

“I should get home,” I said. “Do you want me to drop you off at your place?”

He glanced longingly toward the forest. “I think I’m going to go for a run,” he said, the wolf there in his eyes. I could see it now, the hunger and wildness. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school?”

I nodded, but before he could turn around, I touched his bare shoulder.

He shivered and glanced at my hand. I dropped it quickly, wondering if he was feeling the same way I was. We barely knew each other, and yet I felt he was the only person in the world right now who understood me at all.

“Thank you,” I said.

“For what?”

“For showing me,” I said. “I’m sure that took a lot of courage.”

He smiled slightly. “Thank you for not freaking out and running away.”

“I might have freaked out a little bit,” I said, laughing. “But I’m glad I know.”

“Does it change me in your eyes?” he asked.

“It changes everything,” I said.

He studied my face for a moment, then reached up and ran a finger across my cheek. “You are stronger than you know, Marayah Freeman,” he said.

With that, he jogged into the woods, a flesh and blood man who had completely turned my world upside down. Moments later, I caught sight of his wolf, strong and fast, running free.