The dragon gave a snort of derision, but complied, twisting backward into the trees, quieter than Sofia would have expected for a creature her size.
She’d been eager for the two resistance fighters to return, but now that they might be, Sofia felt her stomach sinking. It was too soon. If they’d made it into the city to gather supplies and information, they shouldn’t be back so soon.
The forest held its breath. The birds didn’t even chirp, and the wind had settled into silence. Sofia tried not to focus on the pain in her back or the fact that she hadn’t grabbed a weapon. She had a dragon, after all. Though Chalia’s magic had yet to do more than make it rain, she was still in possession of teeth and talons.
Sofia’s muscles vibrated under her skin as she heard the soft sound of feet sinking into soil. A second later, Delio stepped through the trees, followed by Jacinta, and her shoulders relaxed with a breath.
“You’re back,” Flor said, stepping out from her hiding spot. Jacinta whirled toward her, bow and arrow pulled and aimed between one breath and the next.
“I come in peace,” Flor said, holding up her hands. “Sofia’s behind you.”
Delio looked over, and Sofia met his eyes as she stepped out from her hiding spot.
“We didn’t expect you for a few days. Does that mean you managed to…” Sofia’s words trailed off at the look on Jacinta’s face. It was tight with anxiety.
“Let’s go get Micael,” Flor said, reading the expression.
“I’m here.” His voice was rough as he came over the lip of the cenote,breathing heavily from the exertion. Despite a week of healing and rest, Micael had only seemed to grow more exhausted andoldsince they’d escaped. As if the prison had permanently drained him. “You didn’t make it into Suvi?”
“We didn’t make it anywhere near Suvi,” Delio said. His voice was rough with more than just exhaustion from the hike home.
“They’re cutting down the mangroves to extend the wall. I don’t know how, but they must have figured out how we were getting in and out. Or they guessed.”
Javi, standing just behind Micael, jolted at this. “They’re going to flood the rest of the damn slums.”
Jacinta gave a dry laugh. “I don’t think they care. They’re burning and cutting down the trees around the entire wall. You can hear the chaos before you even get close to the city. Smoke nearly blotted out the sun on the day we were there. I don’t know how we’re going to get back into the city, but it won’t be through the woods.”
“We can’t exactly sail in,” Flor said.
“I can get into the city,”Chalia said as she pushed through the trees. Most of their group seemed unbothered by the dragon standing across the way, but Sofia saw the way Delio and Jacinta stiffened, unused to her presence. They had left the day after they’d arrived. The others had had a week to get used to the dragon popping in and out of conversations. The second morning, Chalia had almost given Micael a heart attack bursting out of the lake when he’d gone to pull water for the kitchens.
“You can, but you aren’t exactly stealthy,”Sofia said.“We need to see what’s happening and get supplies. We don’t want eyes on us, not yet. It would only cause more chaos and death.”
The others had fallen silent, and Sofia realized they were all looking at her.
“She said she could fly in. I informed her she’d need to be about a hundred times smaller for that.”
Sofia’s stomach dropped as she said the words, and she looked up slowly at the clear sky above them. A few small birds flitted through the branches near the top of the forest, far from their small group.
In order to fly into the city unseen, you’d need to be the size of a bird. Or a hawk.
Fuck.
Sofia knew exactly how they could get into Suvi and connect with their allies. At least she knew how to give them a fighting chance. There was also a strong possibility that Lumi would stab her long before the hawkshifter agreed to help her.
The last time Sofia had seen the hawkshifter, they were here at the cenote with Clarita and a few others. She’d been showing them the dragon feather she’d found. They would have returned to their own cenote by now—their own cenote which the king’s men had razed to the ground. Fox and Sofia may not have been the ones to kill their people, but they held the blame for bringing the army to the tribe’s doorstep.
She couldn’t blame Clarita and the other shapeshifters for hating her. But Lumi might be their only chance.
“We need to go talk to the shapeshifter tribe. I know someone who can get into the city.”
CHAPTER THREE
FOX
Fox didn’t sleep. He snuck back into the family manor like a thief, too afraid of going back through the wall to the barracks and having anyone remember his late night return, covered in blood. But he’d also managed to avoid seeing his mother for the past four days, unable to look her in the eyes and see the grief there—grief that he’d created with his own bloodstained hands. He didn’t want to break that streak.
He’d killed his father. He’d killed her husband. There was no seeking forgiveness for that, even if she didn’t know the truth of it. He could still hear the echoes of her sobs after she’d found out he was dead.
