Nothing was okay.
A drizzle greeted us as we stepped outside, cloaked in our weather gear. The damp earth smelled rich and alive, the scent of rain mixing with the musk of fallen leaves.
Rosie skipped ahead, her little boots splashing in puddles as she eagerly searched for mushrooms and tree frogs—her idea, not mine.
Emily and I lagged, our voices hushed beneath the rhythmic pattern of raindrops.
“Malik’s right, you know,” Emily said as we trekked beneath the dripping trees. “We can’t hide here forever.”
Water slid from the branches above, plopping onto our bonnets.
I sighed, stooping to pick up a sturdy branch for a walking stick. “Oh, how I wish we could.” My grip tightened around the wood. “But you’re right. Malik isn’t obligated to help us. And he is a darkness. For all I know, he could turn on us in an instant. Kill us.” I exhaled, shaking my head. “And yet… his hospitality has been more than generous.”
Emily traced her fingers over the rough bark of a tree trunk, her voice thoughtful. “So… should we go to Italy, then? Head for the 1500s?”
I swallowed hard, my mind racing.
Because whether I was ready or not…
A decision had to be made.
“To find the Sun Dagger?” I murmured, massaging the tension from my neck. My entire body felt stiff and drained. Malik scared the bejesus out of me.
“Exactly. That’s what you would’ve done before Balthazar got to you,” Emily said.
I stiffened.
I knew she was trying to be supportive, but it was the wrong thing to say.
It yanked me straight back into the abyss of terror, to the suffocating fear that had plagued me ever since Balthazar had torn my life apart. The fear that had settled in my bones the day I lost my unborn child.
I wasn’t that brave, reckless girl anymore.
I was a clucking hen in the barnyard, too afraid to spread my wings, too weak to be anything else.
“Well?” Emily looked at me, hopefully.
“I don’t know, Em.” My boots squelched against the damp forest floor. “I just… I can’t decide.”
Then, movement.
A shape blurred into view.
Before I could react, a man dropped from the trees right before us.
Emily and I screamed.
I flung my walking stick to the ground, my heart hammering in my throat.
Rosie peeked out from behind a massive oak, her hands still clutching the mushroom she’d been examining. Her wide, innocent eyes settled on us, utterly confused.
Then—
Emily let out a strangled gasp and launched herself toward him. “Marcellious!”
The man shoved her away with a snarl. “Step back, bitch.”
Emily stumbled, her face going deathly pale.
