“Good. It might come in handy,” was all he said. With that, we doused our fire and bid our little cabin goodbye. Walsh handed us each rations for breakfast that were dismal compared to how hungry I was, but I didn’t want to complain, so I thanked him and ate the peanut butter crackers.
“Why don’t we just cut back through the Wild Lands?” I asked. If they’d done it before, maybe it wasn’t as dangerous as I thought.
Walsh and Sage both shared a look before he shook his head. “Let’s just say our time there was not as quiet as we hoped, and we definitely alerted them to our presence. They will have the borders locked down and heavily guarded.”
Damn.
“Can we get a car?” I hadn’t walked this much in my life. I just wanted to be back with my mom and Raven and Sawyer.
Walsh nodded. “They use cars in Light Fey City. I can boost us one when we get there.”
Boost one… AKA steal. Whatever got us home quicker, I would turn the other cheek, but that meant we had to get through Dark Fey Territory first.
“So we’ll try to get horses while here?” Sage asked him. He nodded, pulling a laminated map from inside of his deer skin cloak. When he opened it in front of us, I gasped. It was like the map Marmal had given me but… so much more detailed and modern. It looked like it had been ink jet printed and then laminated; it had little icons for major buildings. He pointed to a little barn icon inside of Dark Fey Territory. “Our insider said this area has animals for purchase. A man named Trip runs the trades.”
Trip? Sounded shady. Like a fey drug dealer or something.
Sage looked skeptical. “A dark fey is going to sell us three horses?”
Walsh placed the map back in his jacket pocket. “A man named Trip does some illegal animal trading and will do whatever we want for the right price.”
The words,illegal animal tradingmade my skin crawl. I loved animals, more than people, and if this bastard had a little pet monkey in a cage or something I was totes breaking it free.
“You think that’s where they got the bear?” Sage looked at the three long gashes on her arm, which were healing nicely, and Walsh nodded once.
My wolf was walking apace beside us, and Walsh glanced at her now. “All dark fey seem to have a familiar or animal that they magically bind themselves to in an effort to be more powerful, or on even playing ground with our kind. Like you, Demi, they walk beside their animals yet share one mind.”
Whoa. That gave me a wild idea… maybe the Paladin magic wasn’t witch in nature… maybe it was dark fey. I shivered at the thought and shoved it deep down inside of me, but said nothing.
“What insider?” I asked Walsh, “You said before an insider helped you with this map.”
Walsh sighed. “Few people pass through these lands and live to tell about it. Eugene did, early on in his years as an alpha guard. He’s been really helpful with the knowledge we will need to make it home.”
Sage stopped, a seeming light bulb moment hitting her. “Sawyer… his kidnapping… when he was young. I remember Eugene was the one that brought him back. The dark fey took him! Not the Paladin?”
Walsh looked at Sage and I, seemingly to calculate how much he should say. “It’s classified.”
Sage frowned and my heart sank. Did someone lie and tell everyone in Wolf City that the Paladins had kidnapped Sawyer when in reality it was the dark fey? That was messed up. Poor Sawyer. Being kidnapped at five years old was old enough to remember… what kind of scars did Sawyer carry from that?
“No offense, but why didn’t Eugene come with you?” I missed the big guy hulking around campus.
Walsh and Sage shared another look. “He’s currently fighting for his life in the ICU. How much has Sawyer told you about the fight that went down?”
I stumbled over my feet and nearly fell.Fighting for his life!“The fight with the vampires and Locke? Not much.”
Walsh walked a few paces before looking back at me. “When we crossed the border to look for you in Vampire City, they were ready. They had Locke there as witness that we were trespassing.”
I stepped over a fallen log and growled. “Even though I told Sawyer the vampires took me?”
Sage sighed. “How is Sawyer going to explain that you guys can talk into each other’s minds? No one believed him. Said he was trying to mess with the murder investigation and that you ran off because you were upset he picked Meredith.”
Anger surged up inside of me. “Wait, so no one believes I was kidnapped? They all think I ran away?”
Sage rubbed the back of her neck. “You packed a bag, you took your phone, people saw you running through campus crying.”
Fuck, I had no idea that Sawyer was the only one who believed me.
“Your testimony is the only thing that can prove the vampires kidnapped you,” Sage said.
