She entered the trees, and the temperature dropped.Fern leaves brushed her legs, the dampness soaking into the muddy fabric.She jumped over a fallen log and almost tripped over a rock.Her heart tried to leap up her throat, but she regained her balance after windmilling her arms.
“Crap,” she muttered, slowing and testing her legs for signs of pain.A lucky escape.
Maia slowed again, deciding she could take the kids’ ribbing.She’d rather their teasing than an injury.A blur of black and white had her screeching to a halt.She jerked, wary at the silence in the trees.No birds.Strange since she’d heard muted birdsong earlier.
Maia frowned.Was someone there?
“Are you kids playing a trick on me?”Her voice emerged with a quaver, and to her dismay, not a single child answered.Had she been mistaken, and they’d surged ahead?
Maia continued along the path.Now and then, she spotted a marker Gerard had placed to guide them through the trees.She picked up speed but took extra care with her foot placement when she reached a swampy part.Footprints showed in the muddy ground.The kids’ mothers would undoubtedly curse her when washing the dirty clothes.She imagined smeared footprints in halls and entrances when the kids forgot to remove their shoes.
She’d been that child at one time.
The blow came out of nowhere.A tree branch.It clipped her arm, and pain radiated to her fingers.Then, a body blocked her way, and Maia lurched to a halt.She gaped and wondered if she was imagining things.
Chapter 31
“Amanda!Whatareyoudoing here?”
Amanda’s usually smiling face twisted into an ugly mask.Her smooth hair was a mess of frizzy curls.“You fuckin’ bitch.You’ve stolen everything from me.”
Maia blinked, shock making her thought process sluggish while she struggled to connect the dots.“You…you…”
Amanda shrieked and wielded her stick like a sword, trying to gut her.
Maia ducked behind a tree.The branch whacked against the trunk, the whistling thump making her cringe.Too close.Dull pain radiated from her arm where Amanda’s first blow had made contact.
“Amanda?”She meant business with that branch, and Maia had the kids to worry about.What if they returned looking for her?No!She’d try to de-escalate the situation and retreat.
Amanda broke into her frenzied planning.“You willnotattend the Black Fern trials.I’m next on the list and will take your place.”
“How do you know?”Cripes!This was jealousy?Amanda had natural talent—sure—but she didn’t put in the hours.She’d smugly told them she enjoyed a social life.Maia hadn’t commented then because Amanda’s training opinions hadn’t mattered to her.Maia had her plan and aimed for her end goal.
“My cousin told me I was close and just missed out.”Bitterness coated Amanda’s voice, a bubbling anger with a tinge of crazy.“This was my year.”
“You don’t train hard enough,” Maia said, immediately wanting to recall her words.
Amanda snarled and thrust the branch at Maia, pure temper behind her lunge.
Maia scrambled backward, her heart racing.The kids.Hopefully, they’d kept running and arrived at the finish line.Maia didn’t want any child injured by this unhinged woman.
She retreated, but Amanda trailed her, brown eyes full of craftiness.
Maybe Maia could get her talking.“Have you been following me?”
During the last week, her back had constantly prickled.Each time she’d turned around, she hadn’t seen anyone.Had it been Amanda?
Amanda smirked, but her eyes lost some of the crazy.
“Have you been harassing me since I arrived?Have you been calling Henry and telling him he’s a dirty old man?”Maia demanded, furious at the thought.She’d known someone was stalking her, but to have someone she knew hounding her…
A team member.
That made everything worse.
“You tortured those poor puppies.”
Amanda shrugged.“My father gave them to my sister.A present.”Her lips twisted into a sneer.“They yapped.Yap-yap-yap, throughout the night, and they kept biting me.My sister spoiled them even when they chewed on my rugby boots.Yap-yap-yap.All the time.I sleep so much better now.”
