“Care to share with the class?” Black asked.
“Well…I just hear rumors. Not that I gossip! They just forget that I’m in the room, you know? Like furniture,” Avery said.
Echo made a sad noise.
“Well, what’s the tea?” Black asked, skipping closer. “Tell me, tell me, tell me.”
Avery backed off. “Uh, well, people say that Kellan isn’t that powerful. That he only got the job for other reasons.”
“That research you were talking about earlier, perhaps?” Hart said.
Avery’s eyes widened like he hadn’t put that together. The machinations of the politics of Nexus flying right over his head.
“So he’s magically limp?” Wren said.
“Crass,” Hart said. “But it would seem that way.”
“So who put the bamboozle on us?” Ash asked. “Is Kellan working with the eye cult?”
“What is the eye cult?” Echo asked.
Black smacked Ash in the stomach. “Good one, dumbass.”
“We don’t know. They seem to be a group connected to these powerful casters and they seem to be in both cities,” Wren said.
“Does Nexus know about this?” Heir asked.
“Yes,” Wren said. “Still drinking the Nexus juice?”
Every member of the Arcstead team besides Saint frowned and exchanged glances.
“Whatever the case. We can’t sit here and belabor it. We just need to be more careful,” Trace said, pushing aside the building unease for practicality.
They dusted themselves off and looked around for the way forward again. Sable’s growl caught Wren’s attention, and he glanced over to see him crouched down low, locked on to something in the distance.
Wren crept closer, trying to see what Sable saw, freezing, his hair standing on end when another slow heartbeat reached his ears.
He didn’t know where it was coming from, but he instinctively knew it was connected to the venom still running through his system.
Something was out there. And that something was watching them.
A predator.
“Nobody make any sudden moves,” Wren said quietly.
“What?” Echo squeaked, turning himself into a statue.
Midas signed, “What’s going on?”
“Danger,” Wren signed back. “Something big. It’s stalking us right now. Hunting.”
They passed the signing around and whispered to the Arcstead team members who didn’t understand. They grew paler with fear.
“I’m going to try and draw it off,” Wren signed.
“No, you’re fucking not,” Midas immediately signed back. “It’s more than likely cursed.”
“I know. Just trust me. Keep following the trail and I’ll meet you there. Teddy needs us as soon as possible.”
