“She’s smart,” Javi said, his tone brooking no argument. “She wouldn’t get caught again.”
He stood and wrapped his arms around the woman—his mother, Fox could only assume. The woman nodded, but he saw the pain across her brow and the way her breaths came in shuddered gasps—another mother broken by this war.
Fox looked away.
“There’s a lot to discuss, and we can’t do it all tonight,” Sofia said. “But we need to get to the dragons no matter what. And make sure the army doesn’t catch up to us along the way.”
“Agreed,” Micael said, turning to look at Fox. His face took on a dangerous air, the firelight deepening the shadows across his pronounced brow. “I won’t chain you up, but you’renotleaving this camp. You can’t spy for your chief commander if you never get back to your people.”
“I can watch him,” Sofia said, and Fox felt like a child being spoken about rather than to.
“I can watch myself,” he said, knowing it wouldn’t mean anything.
“Fox, shut up,” she said.
“Sofia,” Micael said, motioning for her to follow him a few yards away. They spoke in low words that Fox strained and failed to overhear. Once they were finished, Micael gave him a single look that spoke of the violence he would face if he tried to escape. Fox didn’t care. He didn’t plan on leaving.
He didn’t have anywhere to go back to. How long would it take for them to send a bird back to the chief commander telling him of his betrayal? Who would tell his mother? He pushed the thought away. Right now, it didn’t matter.
A sort of peace came over the group as Micael and Clarita returned to the fire, hunched together and speaking in hushed voices. Fox had no doubt they were talking about him.
He stayed where he was, sitting in the dirt on the edge of camp, watching as the others went back to their meals and conversations. Even Sofia was talking to Javi, not looking at him. At least he seemed to have calmed down enough that Fox wasn’t worried about being attacked again. He wrapped his arms around his own legs and let himself sink into the shadows, shivering as the wind cut through his leathers.
He woke sometime later when he felt Sofia’s presence beside him, laying out a set of furs and blankets. The darkness was colder now, the fire having burned low.
He thanked her, rolling himself into the warmth and watching as she lay down a few feet away. She faced him, but she was too deep in shadow for him to read her expression. He wanted to say something. Apologize perhaps? For which sin he didn’t know. But then his eyes grew heavy again, and he fell into a fitful sleep, the new bruises on his face throbbing with his heartbeat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
FOX
The next morning before they packed up camp, they passed around the roasted nuts and fruit they’d gathered during their hike, and Fox tried to savor the small amount of food. The rations with the army had dwindled over the previous few days as well, so his stomach was already used to the familiar pang of hunger. Fox was wrapped in the extra furs he’d been given, but even still the icy morning air sank into his bones.
The group spoke animatedly, though no one bothered to bring Fox into the conversation. He sat off to the side, watching the others in their comfortable camaraderie. Even Clarita and the shapeshifters seemed to slide into the group with ease.
After they’d eaten, they packed up quickly, everyone eager to get to the dragons now that the army was breathing down their backs.
Sofia spent the morning walking with Javi, her hands waving as she presumably caught him up on the past week, and Fox tried not to let his jealousy show. He kept his eyes on his own feet, focusing on the burning in his lungs as they moved higher and higher through the foothills. Sofia wasn’t specifically avoiding him, but they barely spoke, despite the long hours of walking. Sometimes he looked over at her and saw a distant look in her eyes and knew she was speaking with Chalia.
By the third morning, they’d left the foothills behind, officially hiking up the first pass into the mountains that would, in theory, lead them toward the dragons’ nesting grounds. The snow on the ground had thickened from a dusting to a few inches, and each morning they woke up to a fresh layer. Despite sitting as close to the fire as he dared at night, Fox couldn’t remember what it was to feel truly warm. His toes ached from the wet snow, even as the tip of his nose burned with the heat of the fire. The warm flames never managed to soothe the cold from his bones.
“Chalia says we’re still at least a week’s walk and the second pass is the hardest,” Sofia said, sitting beside him. He startled, realizing they were the first words anyone had spoken to him all day.
He looked around at the group and saw the sagging of the shoulders and the clouds of breath fogging the air, despite the large fire they’d built.
“It’s only going to get colder from here,” Fox said, watching his own breath swirl in the air.
“I’m worried about everyone,” Sofia said, voice barely a whisper. She held her face perfectly neutral, eyes scanning the others to see if they were listening.
“Have you talked to Javi or Micael?” He hadn’t meant for the words to sound bitter, but he heard the tinge of it in his voice sneak out all the same.
“No,” she said. “They’ll just shrug it off and say we have to keep going.”
“They’d have a point.”
“Chalia says once we get to the second pass, there are barely any trees. We’ll have to find caves to sleep in, and it will get harder to build fires.”
Fox felt his body shudder at the idea of being colder.
