Robin felt a new body slam into them. Even in the darkness, she could tell from the way the person moved that it was Nele. “Go, go, go,” Nele cried. She pushed Ian toward Robin, away from the fight.
Finally swayed, Ian turned back to Robin.
She grabbed his hand, pulling him once again through the forest. After a few more steps weaving through the ferns, the unnatural darkness lifted.
The dim light from the moon was more than enough for her now-accustomed eyes, and she could easily see the shapes of trees ahead.
Nele stepped around them and split off to the right, running into the forest.
“Where is she going?” Ian asked, his deep voice a low and breathless rumble behind Robin.
“She is creating a distraction to make us harder to track,” Robin explained.
Ian did not respond.
Robin dropped his hand, needing both of her own to plow through the thick bushes and stay balanced at the fastest speed they could manage.
She instantly felt his absence, however, as the cold night air wrapped around her fingers where the warmth and pressure of his grasp had just recently been. She closed her fist, rubbing her fingers against her own palm to create her own warmth. The movement also dulled the sensation his touch had elicited.
Taking a moment to orient herself to the road they had left behind and plot a path forward, Robin adjusted their course and then took off into the forest again. She moved quickly, but at a more manageable pace.
Ian fell into step behind her. He moved quietly enough, but she was still very aware of the sound of his footfalls. The heaviness of his breath.
She reminded herself that she was listening to those subtle sounds to ensure he had not fallen behind. The racing of her heart was a natural reaction to the lengthened exertion she was putting her body through.
She had seen Ian, of course, several times over the years. He often spent time in the streets of Iseldis, or even in Chendas. But her glimpses had always been from a place of hiding, catching sight of his passing face on a crowded street as she ducked her head to avoid recognition.
Her chest burned. She was barely moving faster than a walk, yet her lungs were struggling for air.
She had not truly seen him. Had not met his eye until that moment in the torchlight on the road. She had not been fully prepared to take in the hard set of his jaw, or the heavy weight of his creased brow. The breadth of his shoulders supporting the fabric of his dark cloak.
That man—this man, the one running behind her—was not the same boy she had known.
She lifted her hand over her heart, willing it to calm.
This man was someone she did not know.
She did not know what he believed.
She knew that some members of the royal family had learned the Majis were not a true threat, but that did not mean they all believed it. She trusted Erich now, after their adventure together in Chendas. And Meena, who was currently carrying out a very dangerous mission to destroy Gareth’s stored chaos magic. Aden, too, had learned more about harmony magic when it was used to break the chaos magic that had transformed him into a beast.
But she did not know what Ian knew or what he believed. And she realized, with the next burning inhale, that she desperately wanted to know.
After several more minutes, Robin saw the muted glow of a covered lantern up ahead. Lifting the back of her tongue up into her throat, she tilted her head back and made the deep hoot of an owl, adding her own special undertone of trill beneath it.
The sound was immediately repeated from up ahead, though the tone was higher and the trill less pronounced. Jette.
“How did you do that?” Ian asked, his voice still a whisper though there had been no sound of pursuit.
Robin pushed forward toward the light. “I’ve been mimicking bird sounds since I was a child,” she said. “I never thought the skill would prove to be quite as useful as it has.”
“No, not that,” Ian replied, still following her quite closely, as though afraid of losing her should they get too far apart. Robin noticed that she did not mind this. “I meant,” Ian continued, “how did you lead us here in the darkness? I lost all sense of direction after we left the road.”
“Oh,” Robin replied. “This forest is my home.” She could see the cloaked figure of Jette holding a lantern in the small clearing up ahead.
“But we are so far from Lockwood Manor,” Ian countered.
Robin shrugged. She had always felt most at home among the trees. “Lockwood is my home, but I travel more often than not.”
