the eclipse [sequel] ☾ l.s.

twelve - the plan

The entire town was different after that. A cool breeze wove its way through the crowded streets, ruffling loose hair and raising goosebumps on bare arms. It was like a dark cloud now hovered over their heads, a shadowy reminder of an evil that most wolves tried to distance themselves from. Their hatred for witches had laid dormant for so long, but it had now been revived twice: first a year before, and again today. Maybe it was that darkness that blanketed them more than any witch's curse.

"What the actual fuck?" Niall finally commented, still staring at the space where the soldiers had stood just moments before. He shook Harry's shoulder lightly. "Can you do that, too? Why didn't you tell me? We could've worked harder to expand your powers! You've been a regular fucking healer all this time, and you could've been making people disappear into a puff of smoke?"

"I didn't know," Harry said quietly. He didn't even come close to matching Niall's joking tone; he didn't even try. Everything around him felt far away. Everything around him had fallen just out of reach.

"Well, now we know. Better late than never. So I think --"

"Don't," Louis warned, his voice low and threatening. Niall shut up immediately.

Hearing his alpha speak seemed to snap Harry out of his trance, and he realized suddenly, "Your leg." He immediately busied himself with checking on Louis's injury, crouching down in front of his mate to prod at his limp leg in various places. It was a welcome distraction.

Louis winced, gritting his teeth when Harry brushed over a particularly sensitive spot. "It's fine, H. Don't worry."

With a skeptical glare up at his mate, Harry said to Liam, "Once we get him back to the house, I'll need to fix it. Can we go now?"

"You mean the house that burned down?" Zayn interjected, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Of course," Liam agreed with Harry easily, completely ignoring the beta. He hooked Louis's arm over his shoulder again, lifting the alpha's bad side so he could hobble along. "Let's go."

"Not now, Haz, you're too tired --" Louis weakly tried to protest.

Harry shot him a look that shut him up quicker than he had silenced Niall.

The short trek back to the residential part of town took three times longer than usual, an awful combination of debris and hysterical pack members and Louis's useless leg. The town was in complete disarray. It stayed eerily quiet as they approached the surprisingly-undamaged house set aside for Liam, Zayn, and Niall -- the house they weren't even planning to use during their stay, but had now become their only option.

"Better do this inside. Less people looking on," Niall finally broke the silence, easing the front door open. It swung fast, slamming back against the wall behind like the hinges were loose.

"Shit, Liam --" Louis cursed when his foot knocked into the doorframe.

"Careful," Harry scolded Liam as the two alphas struggled to get through the doorway. Louis was typically the overprotective one, but Harry's eyes glinted with an unspoken warning, as if daring Liam to do something stupid to put his mate in any more pain.

"Sorry. Almost there."

The house was nearly identical to their old house on the outside, but as Harry stepped into the entryway, he was hit by a strong wave of nostalgia for their old decorations. The walls were a plain beige, bare of any artwork. The air was stale, like no one had even touched anything in the house for months on end. Any sense of homey comfort that Harry was looking for was nowhere to be found.

"Harry," Zayn's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "Where do you want to do this?"

"Living room. Can you move the couch back to make more room?"