Until then, though, she would revel in these new feelings. In his body. In his kiss. Until then, she’d try to forget she was a dead human walking.
19
Kieran
The sun was startingto sink low on the horizon, casting long shadows across the dusty path. A circle of dwellings lay up ahead, a larger spread than the first structure Daisy had spent the night in.
No one could figure out what was going on with her situation. Zorn had picked up her tracks outside of the Faegate and followed her throughout her journey. She’d helped that fae. There was no denying it. Possibly risked her life for him, given the tracks they’d found by a stream. There had been one skirmish when others had joined her and that fae, but otherwise, she’d seemed placid. Maybe helpful.
When the fuck was Daisy ever placid or helpful to a captor?
Zorn was at a complete loss. None of this made sense. Daisy was hard. Harder than any of them, save for himself. She didn’t bend unless she had an ulterior motive, and she didn’t break. Something else had to be going on. This had to be her plan, somehow.
Lexi looked out to the side, her body tense, but didn’t say anything. She was monitoring souls. She’d felt creatures along their way, lurking. Watching. None of them had made a move. Once, she’d felt a soul in a tree. Or…the tree had come alive. It was still too early to tell. Kieran did not look forward to when the path started to close down around them and the wylds crawled in closer.
“Oh shit…” Jack stopped at the edge of a circular grouping of dwellings with one larger structure farther removed. “What happened here?”
The crew hastened toward a building in the middle that looked to have been crushed.
“Aren’t those the tracks that we saw by that stream?” Boman pointed at the huge prints next to the destroyed area.
“Lexi, check for signs of life,” Kieran barked.
She jogged toward the other dwellings.
“I smell her,” Mordecai said from the edge of the destruction. He looked off at Lexi with a question in his expression.
“Her spirit is not here,” Lexi called, trying the door to a dwelling. “As of last night, her spirit wasn’t in their version of an afterlife, so we have to assume she didn’t die in that…situation.”
They had to hope, at any rate.
“These are clear,” Lexi said, pushing into one. “Only a few are open, though.”
“This one won’t budge!” Jack called, ramming the door of a dwelling.
“Probably a ward,” Zorn murmured.
“She was in here,” Mordecai called from the dwelling at the far end, covering ground quickly. He was an incredibly efficient shifter. He had the best scent of any of them.
The door and some of the structure had been damaged. Except for the destruction of the one in the middle, the other dwellings appeared untouched.
“That’s…strange,” Lexi said, looking around. “Maybe it was going after the fae? Maybe he…tried to…catch its attention to distract it from his people? Or fae, whatever—you know what I mean.”
“This place housed…animals of some kind,” Thane called from the more removed structure. “No blood. No signs of struggle. Seems recent.”
Kieran turned to look at Zorn, whose face let through the confusion they were all feeling. What sort of creature would destroy a structure, go after a couple of people, and leave livestock unmolested?
“Same tracks as by that creek,” Zorn confirmed. “Maybe this creature holds a grudge.”
Kieran did not want to think about this place propagating creatures smart enough to hold grudges.
Mordecai traced the room and ended up at the bed, the only one in this dwelling. It was still mussed and had obviously been shared.
Mordecai’s eyes were uncomfortable and wary. “Heightened bodily scents,” he said in a growl.
“What does that mean?” Lexi asked as Mordecai bent and looked under the bed.
“She spent time hiding under there.” He straightened and gave Lexi a long look, then looked at Kieran. The kid would rather not say.
