Hmm, must be a Paladin thing.
She handed Creek to me, and in one quick move I slung him over my chest before looping my arm through Sage’s.
“Let’s go home,” I told her.
She seemed unsure, as if she didn’t want to put hope in something that wasn’t going to pan out. But I’d never been surer of anything. I could feel them—my pack, my people, my land. The Paladins were waiting for me. Pulling her forward, I forced her to take the first few steps until finally she started to quickly walk in stride with me.
“We’re going home?” Sage seemed like she was in shock. The beating of the drums grew louder with each step away from the mountain.
I nodded. “Home to potato chips, cupcakes, and make-up!” I grinned.
A smile finally tugged at Sage’s lips. “I just can’t wait to shave my legs.”
We both burst into laughter as I led her forward. The trees had parted in such a way that a path had formed.
“Manis and pedis!” Sage screamed out in joy.
“TV and air conditioning!” I shouted.
“Pillow-top mattresses!”
“Underwear!”
“Shampoo!”
“Salt!”
“Ranch dressing!”
I burst out laughing.
“Instagram!”
“Shopping!” Sage cried out.
“Sawyer…” My voice lowered in reverence as I realized what this meant. I was finally going home to him.
Sage nodded. “Walsh too. Boys in general, really. I can’t wait to get laid.”
I threw my head back and laughed throatily. Good thing the baby was too young to know what that meant.
The trees had rearranged themselves to create a four-foot-wide trail right down the mountain, clearly a path the woods had made to lead us home, and we were going as fast as we could without tripping.
“It’s been a year,” I said, almost speaking to myself. “What if…?”
“It’ll be fine. Whatever it is, we can deal with it together.”
I could sense Astra, Willow, Rab and the others were alive, but not how they felt or where exactly they were. These conscious threads binding me to them were new to me, and I was still trying to figure them out.
When I recognized the section of the woods we’d just stepped through, I nearly burst into a sob. The trees were thinning, and the bronze plaque that warned of the danger of the Dark Woods glinted in the fading light.
“We made it!” I cried, and the drums beat louder as if whoever was pounding on them sensed my closeness.
Running full throttle now, tears streaming down both of our faces, I passed the Paladin farmlands, still black from disease—but a few new green buds had formed from the looks of them. Whatever had happened in the cave had worked! We ran harder, coming into town.
That’s when I noticed something was wrong. The buildings didn’t look right. The blackness wasn’t disease … it was … soot, like they’d been burned. Some of them were half caved in.
I skidded to a stop, just in time to see half a dozen Ithaki step out from behind a shelled-out Paladin home. They were dragging a large cage behind them with some type of animal inside. The sight of the Ithaki walking through Paladin Village made a growl rise in my throat. As they drew closer, my gaze fell ontowhatwas inside the cage and a scream ripped from my throat.
