Chapter 26: | The Black-Pelted Wolf

Ava and Jack were dragged helplessly out of the house and into the field outside. The long wet grass soaked their legs.

Like oversized candles, the flaming torches planted outside glowed, beckoning to their tired minds. Their flickering light revealed a dark pile of sharp shadows that reached up higher than a man. Jack smelt the fierce tang of gasoline as he and Ava were shoved closer.

It was a pyre, piled high with sticks and tinder.

They were going to burn them.

'No!' Ava wailed, struggling harder. The men twisted her slender arms behind her back and she moaned in pain.

'Leave her alone!' Jack shouted and was whacked in the face by one of his captors. His lip stung and leaked blood. The taste made his guts tingle and churn.

'We're not going to hurt her though, right?' Jedi was asking. 'We're just gonna scare the truth out of her, let the cops should have—'