I shouldn’t. What if he’d killed my sister?
But my heart and my mind couldn’t come to an agreement.
“Let’s see what we’ve got for food,” Lexie said.
Kerralyn opened her pack, and we all held our breath while she tugged things out, carefully laying them on the branch in front of her. Preserved fruit discs, oiled packs full of strips of dried meat, nuts and seeds mixed with nuggets that had a nice, spicy kick, and water globes you could bite a small hole in and suck down the contents.
Not enough water, but enough food to keep six adults alive for a few days if we were careful.
“That’s amazing, Kerralyn,” I said. “Smart thinking on your part.”
She beamed. “I tried to take things that wouldn’t spoil. Food’s no good if it goes bad.” She handed out small portions, stuffing the rest back inside her bag and hanging it on a narrow, outstretched broken limb nearby for safekeeping.
We ate, and our meals were gone too fast. I wasn’t the only one eyeing her bag with a growling belly.
Jaxon offered some of his food to Kerralyn. “I’ve had enough. You take the rest.”
She flushed, shaking her head. “You need it more than I do. You’re bigger.”
Jaxon flexed his arm, making her giggle. “I’ll protect you from the scary plants. I’ve seen worse.”
“Those plants aren’t anything to joke about. They killed a bunch of people,” Derren said.
“I know.” Jaxon’s humor faded fast. “Just trying to make everyone smile. If I could hunt, I’d track down a beast and bring back the meat. If I knew plants, I’d gather them to feed us all.”
His heart was three times bigger than Maddox’s—and Maddox knew it. He may have started out protecting his little brother because he was worried the baby would die, but I suspected his early, protective feelings had changed when he started to see how sweet a person his brother was.
Who couldn’t love Jaxon?
Maddox rolled his eyes. “Try to be humble instead.” Always the parting shot. But affection softened his voice when he looked at his brother, the kind of exasperated love that came from years of watching someone you cared about flounder around, learning how to survive.
Jaxon’s gaze scanned the group, and he paused, frowning, as if trying to form his words before speaking. “Don’t mind my brother. He’s grumpy, yeah. Growly too. But… My parents—ourparents—treated us like we didn’t exist. I would’ve died if Maddox hadn’t watched out for me.” The look he shot his older brother contained so much love it made my heart ache.
And it made me think a little better of Maddox.
As we talked about which branches might work for sleeping and chose ones we felt fit best, the jungle came alive with hooting calls from unseen creatures, the rustle of something large moving through the undergrowth below, and the endless splatter of rain. At least the phosphorescent moss allowed us to see where we were placing our feet, even if it made us all look ghostly.
“It’s like being in a fairy tale,” Kerralyn said, still scribbling in her journal.
“Fairy tales often end with people dying,” Maddox said.
Jaxon rolled his eyes. “Not all of them.”
“Most of the good ones do.”
Bryson spun his makeshift weapon in his hands, testing its weight. “I’ll take the first watch.”
“I’ll go second.” I looked around at the others, trying to pretend we hadn’t done this last night and that one of us… I wasn’t going to think about Fara until this was over, and I could truly mourn her. “Let’s do a full rotation.”
I set the order with Derren following me, ending with Lexie, then Maddox and Kerralyn. Jaxon last. That should cover most of the night. “Don’t leave and don’t fall asleep. Watch as long as you can.”
“Wake Bryson if it’s still dark,” I told Jaxon. “And Bryson, I’ll go after you again if needed.”
“No one wanders off,” Maddox growled. “Who knows what could’ve happened to us while she was strolling through the jungle.”
It was all I could do not to smack him. “She was looking for herbs for me.”
“Bad judgment on her part.”
