The gawky shadowkind woman stares at me, maybe taken aback by my vehemence. I guess I’m not usually quite that forceful.
“I—I’m not totally sure,” she admits. “One of the hunters asked her name, and that’s what I thought I heard, but I wasn’t all that close. I don’t like hanging around their camp. Too much silver and iron.” She shivers.
Rollick speaks up before I need to, in a more measured voice than I managed. “That’s completely understandable. Did you get a sense of what the hunters want with her?”
The woman nods. “They seemed upset that she already knows at least one of the shadowkind here. They were saying she’s a traitor to other humans, that she must be part of a conspiracy or something.”
I let out a huff. “Where do they come up with these silly stories?”
I spin toward Rollick, my gaze sliding over my men as I move. “We have to help her. She’s David Blaver’s daughter—the one who saved me from his sorcery. She must have come here hoping she could help with this problem too.”
The demon frowns. “Does she have powers you haven’t mentioned? I can’t see how one human would make much difference in the current catastrophe.”
I fold my arms over my chest, daring to glower right back at him, though my pulse stutters while I do. “She might have some sorcerer ability that she inherited from her dad, but I don’t know about that. What does it matter? She came because of us, so we should get her away from the hunters before they do anything even more awful.”
Jonah weighs in with his even, teacherly tone. “We can’t abandon a friend. And having more humans on our side is only going to be a good thing, right?”
The second part is clearly meant to appeal to Rollick’s sense of practicality. Jonah does know his former boss well.
The demon sighs and waves his hand in a vague gesture. “Fine. And I can’t say I’d be sad to see the hunters lose out onwhatever prize they think they’ve caught. But don’t spend too much time on it, and don’t make a bigger PR crisis than we’ve already got on our hands.”
I nod with all the determination I can summon. “Right. We’ll be ever so stealthy and whisk her away. Let’s go!”
I dart out of the trailer through the shadows with my mates following behind me. Although Jonah has to use the door anyway, so I guess we could just as easily have walked.
As we gather in a cluster next to the room on wheels, a few other beings join us: Fen and Brine, the sparky shadowkind and the imp Jonah brought to our first TV appearance, and the centaur shifter who used to be Gloss’s friend and seems to want to go wherever Hail does.
She isn’t batting her eyelashes at my mate now but watching me with avid attention that she tries to hide behind a bored expression when I look at her. She twists a strand of her coppery hair around her finger and takes on a bland tone that doesn’t fit the lemon-drop eagerness of her curiosity. “Are we really going to pull one over on the hunters?”
I beam at her. “I bet we can. They shouldn’t think they can go bossing everyone around, right?”
A gleam lights in her eyes. She tosses back her hair. “Definitely not.”
Who would have thought I’d end up bonding with anyone from Gloss’s crew over sticking it to hunters?
Jonah rubs his hand over his mouth. “Should I stay back here? I can’t sneak quite the way the rest of you can.”
I shake my head. “No, we might need you to distract them. That’s how heists work, right? Confusion and misdirection.”
Mirage springs onto his hands and whirls around. “Enough tricks to make them sick!”
“Except your illusions don’t affect them when they’re wearing their badges.” I worry at my lower lip, wondering whatwe can do about that. The hunters will definitely notice if we start popping their badges off like Hail managed before.
The winter fae tilts his head toward the edge of camp where the hunters have set up their own exclusive mini-camp. “Why don’t we get over there and see exactly what we’re dealing with, and then we’ll make plans? Our mortal dude can hang back until we’re sure how we’re using him.” He aims a thin but not unfriendly smile at Jonah.
I clap my hands together. “Yes! Right. Stick to total stealth-mode. Let’s go!”
Even if I didn’t already know what spot the hunters had staked out, I’d be able to sense it from a distance. As we creep through the shadows toward it, the aura of noxious metals wriggles through my senses.
Their tents are strung with silver and iron beads. They have a caravan that I suspect is stuffed full of nets and other anti-shadowkind weapons, considering that just looking at it makes my skin crawl so badly I want to teleport myself to the other side of the world. And of course they’re wearing their badges.
But despite all their precautions, they’re no match for our shadowkind sneakiness. They show no sign that they realize we’re lurking around the perimeter of their camp.
From the shade of a nearby sapling, we peer between the tents and trucks they’ve gathered. At least twice as many humans are roaming around the hunters’ camp now than there were when they first barged in. More of them must be traveling out this way hoping to show off their shadowkind-wrangling skills.
They’re not so great at wrangling anything else, as far as I can tell. The creature roasting on a spit over their large campfire looks like… a squirrel? Is that what they’re having for dinner?
I don’t even want to ask what’s in the pot bubbling on a kerosene stove nearby. It smells like mildew and bad dreams.
