My heart races, wondering what additional trouble is headed our way.
"What is it?"
He takes in a long whistling breath. "I smell the one who took Silver."
My heart leaps at the news, and I scramble for the creek bank. I take in a breath to talk and think I might know what he means.
It's musky, but not in an unpleasant way.
"Really? Is it the musky smell?"
"Exactly so."
He whips his head over to me, his mane shaking from the speed. "You shouldn't be able to detect that."
I let out a groan. "My mouth has been hurting."
"At the top?"
"Yes . . ."
"We have a secondary scent organ there."
I let out a grunt. I've read about that. A vomeronasal organ.
Great.
I take in another slow breath through my mouth and then cough it out, my brain completely overwhelmed and my stomach queasy at all the new aromas.
Some of them are highly unpleasant.
"I might throw up. Some things are best left unsmelled."
Not a phrase I ever thought I would need to say. Ever.
"You have to filter out what you don't like."
"What if I don't like any of it?"
"We'll have to work on it. For now, don't breathe through your mouth. He's been here multiple times. I could follow the trail."
I push aside my impending exi-scent-ual crisis—and how much I want to giggle maniacally in the grass over bad puns instead of dealing with my freakish new life—to focus back on Silver.
My hands are shaking and not just from the cold. This is exactly what I've been hoping to hear, but I don't like the timing.
"You're injured. I think we should go back to the cave."
He looks over at me with wide eyes. "I thought you would be running through the woods already."
"I'm not saying I don't want to be doing that. Just that we shouldn't."
He's purring now and the way he looks at me says it's one of pride.
"Let's go investigate, Ree. If it seems dangerous, we'll leave."
I huff out a breath. Now he's the one trying to convince me to go do something stupid.
Figures.
