Broken Sue and his team shifted to their animal forms and took off into the trees. Fog drifted between the large, ancient trunks, quickly enveloping them. We followed, Austin in the lead. He stepped silently and avoided any reaching branches or brushing against the leaves. I tried my best to mimic him, avoiding what he did and watching where I put my feet.
Edgar waved as he took a deer trail to the right. Nessa followed him, her knives in their sheaths but her hands ready to grab them if needed.
Sebastian pushed in closer to me, his feet shuffling along the tiny deer trail laden with leaves and twigs and patches of grass.
The scent of damp earth and pine perfumed the cool air. Wildflowers bloomed in little patches of light, often giving way to ferns and cushions of thick moss that thankfully seemed toswallow sound. Sebastian wasn’t as good as me at keeping quiet, and I was a long way from shifter material.
Onward we walked. The mist now almost seemed to cling to the trees, a curtain hiding the pooling shadows behind. Bird song echoed in the distance but fell silent as we passed through. Every way I looked, it all seemed the same, a tableau of green and brown and muted colors. I really hoped someone had brought a compass, because I’d get lost in this place almost immediately. Fred hadn’t even gotten out of the car. She’d taken one look at the trees around her and asked if she could stay put and lock the doors. She probably had the right idea.
About twenty minutes in and the first of my connections flared to life.
“Austin.” I pointed off to the right, though he hadn’t looked back at me. He’d be able to feel it himself as I fed it along.
Another connection flared, and then one more, three people in about the same vicinity. They spread out into a large arch and slowed, slinking through the trees so they wouldn’t be noticed. It occurred to me that the side they left open was likely upwind.
“Jess.” Sebastian’s tone was subdued but wary. “Are you monitoring your surroundings?”
He meant magically, something I always forgot about in these situations. I used eyes and ears like a Jane instead of magic like a female gargoyle.
I sent out the spell, felt the feedback, and grabbed the back of Austin’s shirt in alarm bordering on blind panic.
John
The usual screechof the Mountain Jay abruptly fell silent. John hesitated, looping the blue yarn and threading it through. The little crochet whale was really coming along. Very cute, this thing. The kit he’d found at the store was probably meant for kids but was a nice way to pass the time. He could send it to one of his nieces when he’d finished.
The Jay didn’t regain its voice, a sound like a frog dying in a murky pond. Or so he’d always thought. Bird chatter took on a different personality when you really listened to them all. Some were pretty and some needed a tune up. Or to move out of his neighborhood and find someone else to disturb.
He glanced up as a familiar feeling started to encroach on his awareness. He took note of his surroundings and leaned hard into his intuition. He didn’t feel any specific presences, so his watchers weren’t checking in, but something else existed in these wilds that didn’t belong. That hadn’t been here before.
A wave of goosebumps covered his skin as he delicately balled up his little whale work-in-progress. There was no point in rushing. If the presence hadn’t come crashing through the trees already, it wasn’t likely to. It was stalking him, whatever it was, like a hunter. Treating him as prey.
He wanted to laugh as a trickle of adrenaline wormed into his bloodstream. He’d been many things in his life, and continued to evolve, but no matter how relaxed he allowed himself to be these days, there was one thing he wouldneverbecome: prey. This creature—or creatures—would learn that the hard way before they met their untimely demise.
He tucked the arts-and-crafts into the little bag it came in before straightening from the worn-in seat on the naturally felled log. He stepped lightly around his camp, practiced in avoiding making noise but now being careful. The feeling sank down into his middle before solidifying in his gut.
Whatever was out there was hanging around, growing in danger. That probably meant more of them, covering more ground. Spreading out around him, probably, but not upwind. They had experience and they were likely here for a specific purpose. Him, obviously. No one else would be so stupid as to invade these woods. Not with what lurked within them. Except him, of course, but that was out of necessity. He’d had to fight for the right to be here.
The pressure around him continued to build. No sound filtered through the dense forest. He didn’t catch even a thread of a scent.
He stripped out of his clothes to make shifting easy and took a trail toward one of the presences he sensed was out there. As he moved, everything moved with him—the presence in front of him, as well as the feeling of others to the sides. They perfectly kept their distance, synchronized with each other and flitting through the trees like ghosts. Wolves, probably. They were good at this sort of thing.
These wolves, however, were expertly trained and very well led. This wasn’t a glory seeker situation. This smacked of an established alpha.
So be it. He’d taken down a great many of those.
The pressure continued to build. More must’ve joined. They’d sighted their target and were collecting their force.
And then the pressure turned into a throbbing drumbeat, a serious warning of a battle imminent. There was some serious power in these woods, he could feel it with the sixth sense that had kept him alive thus far.
He continued to move, not shifting yet. He was better at this internalized warning system in his human form. It had the most practice. He’d shift when he was ready to kill.
The drumbeat anchored in his gut, a fight or flight reflex.
He didn’t run. Hadn’t, ever. He wouldn’t start now.
Still his lurkers hid from sight. They tracked him, operating around the outskirts of an invisible bubble. They wereverywell trained and clearly experienced. Someone had called in the best to finally get rid of him.
A scent caught him. He snapped his head in that direction, fully upwind and not one of his watchers. This one was foreign to him, and he was being obvious, making his presence known. His people might sneak, but he did not plan to.
