I winced, feeling Sage’s discomfort through our bond. It was bad for me too, but not as much as her.
“Sorry. Let’s do this quickly then.” I called her over to the edge of the river. We walked around the shimmering transparent bubble that was Pearl’s cloak and I knelt down at the edge of the water. Reaching into the thick wet mud, I picked up two handfuls and moved to rub them in Sage’s hair.
She stepped away from me. “What the heck?”
I rolled my eyes. “You have to look insane. Right now you look like a sexy, redheadedLara Croft Tomb Raider.”
Sage frowned. “Who?”
I shook my head. “We are overdue for a movie night, my friend.”
She closed her eyes, relenting, and stepped closer to me as I rubbed the mud onto her face, then in her hair and on her clothes.
“I actually hate you right now, and Sawyer owes me so big. I want a red Range Rover with white leather seats when I get home,” Sage growled.
I grinned as I started to tease her hair into knots and clumps, making it look wild. “You got it, babe. And a house with a view. Whatever you want.”
We both knew we were half kidding. Who knew when that type of life would come back into normalcy. But if it didn’t, I’d get her a white horse and cottage on Paladin land, whatever she wanted that I was capable of giving.
“Alright, let’s do a practice. You have to seem mentally unstable and non-threatening.”
She popped her eyes open, widening them, then peeled her lips back to bare her teeth at me. “I heard you drink wolf blood here.” She hissed in my face. “I need a unicorn horn to produce miracles.”
I bit down on my lips to keep from bursting into laughter. “That’s perfect. Go cause a scene but be harmless, you don’t want them to magically cuff you before my wolf can get out.”
She nodded, looking at the water. Across the river, about a hundred-foot swim away, was the giant prison, all glass but tinted so dark I couldn’t see anything. A huge thirty-foot fence dotted the perimeter with glowing blue barbwire. It was definitely magic.
I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.
“Be safe, okay? I want Sawyer back, but not at the expense of losing you. If shit goes sideways, get out,” I told her.
She nodded, but we both knew that was easier said than done.
She moved to jump into the water and I rushed forward, pulling her into a hug. “I love you, Sage Hudson. Like big huge love. You’re my sister no matter that our DNA says different.” My voice cracked and I wanted to kick myself for getting all emotional, but if anything happened to this woman, I needed her to know how much she meant to me.
Pulling back, she wiped her teary eyes, smearing mud deeper into her cheeks. “I love you too. That’s why I’ll go to the grave with the knowledge that when you delivered Creek, you pooped all over my hand.” She grinned.
My mouth popped open at that declaration. “Shut the fuck up. That’s not true.”
She just raised one eyebrow and then waltzed into the water.
What the hell?
“Sage!” I whisper-screamed. “Is that true?” Because that was mortifying.
My bestie just chuckled before dropping into the water, taking a big breath and kicking off the rocks.
There wasno wayI pooped on her hand. Totally no way … right?
Pushing that revelation from my mind, I slunk into the bushes and watched as Sage waded across the river, her muddy red hair flowing around her like a messy mermaid. Anxiety ramped up inside of me as she inched her way across, going farther and farther away from me. As she neared the shore on the other side, she stood up out of the water and … started to walk like a chicken.
What the…? Okay, the acting had begun.
She tucked her arms into her chest and flapped her elbows, cranking her neck back and forth.
I shifted my perspective to my wolf and immediately wanted to recoil. It was … a tight fit being inside of Sage. Her wolf kept pushing against mine and it made it feel claustrophobic in a way that was hard to describe. Sage reached the sandbank and started to scratch at her arms.
“Baby killers!” she shouted up at a guard tower that sat high above the giant fence. “Marshmallow for breakfast is what you think!” she screamed nonsensically.
