“It’s just... gone,” I said again.
The air had changed. No more prickling cold crawling down my spine, no more rot on my tongue. Only the fresh aroma of pine.
“There’s no heat besides ours and the core.” My hand shot toward the trail we’d come from. “We should leave. Vengeance be damned, I’m not sticking around to see what that was.”
The forest exhaled with us as I forced my eyes back to their natural sight.
As we moved a white owl cut across the canopy, hooting once before perching on a crooked branch above, the moon catching its steeled eyes as it watched us.
It hit me then and I paused. “Hold up.” The others stilled as I nearly scolded us all for forgetting. “The weapons.”
Callum’s brow furrowed as I yanked the packs from their shoulders one by one. Leather buckles snapped open beneath my fingers.
Empty. I dug deeper. All empty. Except—
My glare slid to Ford as a collection of highly questionable items clattered around the bottom of his.
“We leftthe weapons we collected from the Brights back with the bodies.” I cinched each pack tight again, shoving them back into waiting hands.
Ford’s especially, I guided it into his palm with only two fingers, as if it might stain me.
His lips curved with the beginnings of a laugh he didn’t dare loose.
“I’ll run back and meet you guys at the cabin.”
My feet angled toward the heart of the forest. Toward the place we’d abandoned steel and sanity both.
But Callum’s hand lashed out, halting me mid-step as he said, “No. I’ll go.”
Tearing free with a smile that was more blade than balm, I tossed him a half-hearted thumbs up as if the gesture could soften the defiance.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t go completely overbearing brother on me now.”
The curse purred low in my blood as I stepped past where my friends’ warmth ended and the forests cold began.
And as the air shifted and Callum fell quiet, I let the dark swallow my silhouette.
CHAPTER TWO
Verena
MURMURS STIRRED IN THE TREES AS TWIGS SNAPPED behind me.
I quickened my pace, trying to ignore them.
Still, they followed, trailing every step.
“You’d make a poor assassin,” I muttered.
Fiery waves burst from the path, forcing my legs to halt. The corner of Callum’s mouth twitched into the beginning of a smirk.
“Lucky for you,” he said, gaze never leaving mine, “I’m not trying to kill you.” His steps carried him backward, deeper into the trees. “Besides, did the direwolves in the Firen Forest complain? They never even saw me.”
The grin faded the moment he felt the subtle scrape of scales glide across his neck. His attempt to rip my snake off his shoulder was amusing.
The sound that escaped him was even more delightful.
I slipped past, calling the creature with me. It slithered quickly, winding up my leg, brushing heat over skin, before coiling in a slow caress around my throat.
