“Where’s what?”
“The demon.”
“Darling, there isn’t one. You’re safe. Whatever you saw was a nightmare,” Oliver said calmly, though that explained the knife.
“Is Felipe all right?” Gwen called from the back door.
“Yeah, I think so.”
Holding Felipe steady, Oliver wrapped an arm tightly around his shoulders. Fear, confusion, and something akin to shame flooded the tether as he tried to ground him and reassure him it was only a dream. After a minute of continuously sweeping the yard for danger, his eyes seemed to clear, though it did little to slow his pounding pulse. When Oliver was sure he wouldn’t fall over or go on the attack, he picked the oil lamp off the ground. In its soft glow, he could see the deep bruises forming beneath his partner’s eyes. He needed to do something about this. Two nights of broken sleep and several days of mismatched meals were taking their toll. As the fog of emotions across the tether cleared, Oliver kissed Felipe’s temple.
“Are you all right now?”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I’m fine,” Felipe replied quickly, running a tired hand over his face.
“You were sleepwalking.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
Oliver held his arms. “Yes, you were. We saw you! You had betterbe disoriented and not trying to lie to me, Felipe.”
“I—” The words died on Felipe’s lips as he looked toward Gwen and then the outhouse on the far side of the yard. When he turned back to Oliver, his features tightened, and a murky sluice of guilt wound beneath his heart.
Oh… Well, that explained some things. “Let me guess, when I found you out here last night, you were sleepwalking too, weren’t you?”
Without meeting his eyes, Felipe nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want to worry you with everything going on. It only happened once, and I didn’t think—”
Anger rose in Oliver’s breast like a dirigible at the thought of all the things that could have gone wrong. “You’re right. You didn’t think. Did you know that you grabbed a knife this time?” Oliver said, pointing to the blade still pinned beneath his foot. “You could have hurt yourself or someone else. For god sakes, you could have walked into the Dysterwood, Felipe! What then? I could have lost you.”
Oliver was furious and relieved and hurt and so many emotions at once that tears burned the backs of his eyes from the sheer weight of it all as he stared into Felipe’s features. He didn’t know if he wanted to scream or cling to Felipe and sob. It didn’t seem to matter as long as Felipe was safe and never ever did that again. The thoughts must have been obvious on Oliver’s face because the other man looked far guiltier than Oliver had ever seen him. Felipe reached out to touch Oliver but hesitated until his partner stepped closer.
Taking his hand in his, Felipe shut his eyes and sighed. “I’m sorry. I am. This has never happened before, and I didn’t mean to—”
Felipe went quiet as his brows furrowed, and for a horrifying second, Oliver feared he had slipped into a nightmare again until he put his hand up for quiet. At first, there was only oppressive silence, but then, Oliver heard it too: the crunch of grass and leaves beneath heavy footfalls. Whatever it was, was behind them near the overgrown pasture at the edge of the Dysterwood.
“A deer?” Oliver whispered.
“I don’t think so.” Felipe paused to listen again. “There’s more than one. Give me the knife and tell Gwen to go inside until I know what we’re dealing with.”
“Untilweknow.” When Felipe looked like he wanted to protest, Oliver quickly added, “After what just happened, I’m not letting you out of my sight. I’ll give you the knife, but you need to wait for me.”
“Fine, but if it is something dangerous, promise me you’ll go in.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Oliver replied as he handed Felipe the heavy, horn-hilted knife.
A stricken look passed across Felipe’s features, but it disappeared beneath the hunter’s sharp-eyed gaze as whatever was in the field walked closer. Oliver jogged back to Gwen with the oil lamp, casting glances over his shoulder to make sure Felipe was still waiting at the corner of the house. Behind her glasses, Gwen’s eyes were wide.
“Where’s Felipe?” she asked, glancing around his shoulders.
“He’s at the back of the house. Something came out of the Dysterwood and is walking through the field. We’re going to see what it is, but Felipe wants you to go in the house until we’re sure it’s safe.”
Gwen looked like she wanted to protest until her eyes narrowed in thought. “I’ll see what I can do about making your job easier. Just don’t forget you aren’t a fighter, Ol. Know when to get out before you get hurt.”
At that, she slipped back inside and shut the door behind her. As Oliver crept back to Felipe’s hiding spot at the corner of the building, the lights in the house came on one-by-one and the curtains were dragged apart to let the light spill out.Gwen.Individually, the lamps didn’t do much, but the collective glow from the house illuminated the half of the old horse pasture closest to the inn and made Felipe’s eyes flash orange. Oliver stood at his partner’s shoulder and followed his gaze to where the intruders moved just outside the halo of light. Against the trees, he could make out two shadows lumbering through the brush. The figures looked like people, but they moved wrong. Their movements were all at once too stiff and too loose as if their bodies weren’t held together correctly.
