“Oh, Fates. My father. Oh JP. I am so sorry.” My jaw drops at the loss for words. I curl into myself as I realize my father killed his friend, and there’s no excuse. I feel so dirty and ashamed. Can I even be around him now? Should I even be here?
I stop walking, and a wall of muscle slams into my back. Strong arms wrap around my waist and gently hold me as I look up and find green eyes giving me a bewildered look.
“What’s wrong?” Worry laces Knox’s tone, and he glares at JP. Before I can correct whatever he’s thinking, JP is rushing towards me.
“Rez, it’s not what you’re thinking,” he claims. “You have to understand,” he pleads, desperate to touch me.
“What did you do?” Knox growls, his eyes flashing crimson red.
Woah.
Reaper whines and jumps up on me, knocking me away from both of them, and I stumble against the rocks, falling back so I end up on top of one of them with my feet up in the air.
“Damnit, Reaper. Do you not know how hard it is to get up with just one arm normally?” I ask, giving him a perturbed look.
“Knox?” Moni’s scared voice pulls my attention to her instead of my current goal. Her pale white bark pops against the dark green vegetation, but it’s the others' expressions that cause me to pause.
Everyone is having an extreme case of emotions. Anger, desperation, sadness, fear, depressed, and a few I can’t tell, but it’s enough to know it’s not normal. We were just walking and all of a sudden, this.
What changed? What’s going on?
Reaper barks and acts like he’s attacking something I can’t see, so I pull myself up, and my jaw drops.
Fuck.We were too concerned about my dad and everything else to see the fog. The good news is it doesn’t seem to come to the rocky part of the ground. So, we just need to bring everyone over and travel on a rocky trail.
I glance over to Moni, hovering just out of reach above the fog, and call out.
“Moni, are you sane?” I ask, chuckling to myself. Of course she’s not sane; she wouldn’t know what that was. That was a dumb question.
“Of course I’m not Zane. I’m Moni. Are you okay, bestie? Did you go nuts like everyone else?” she replies, cocking her head at me. “And why are you stuck in rocks? Are you trying to become a rock monster? I tried that one summer. It turns out, it was just a prank. That’s not how you become tough like rocks or as big as one. You’re born that way. Or you take a potion.”
“MONI!” I yell, getting her attention.
“Huh?” She shakes her head and looks at me. “Oh. Hi, bestie!”
“It’s the fog,” I say, pointing down. “We need to get everyone out of it.”
Knox shifts into Fluffers and bares his teeth at JP in a warning, and my heart skips a beat.
“Before they kill each other,” I add.
Her eyes go wide as she nods and starts to lower herself to the ground.
“But don’t touch the fog!” I yell, warning her.
I swear it’s a real-life game of the Floor is Lava.
She squeaks but chugs her coffee and slams her cup back into her S.I.N. box before grabbing the first person next to her and begins coaxing them to the side, which happens to be Levi.
I focus on Knox since I know he’s the bigger threat.
‘Fluffers? I know you’re in there. Can you help me?’
‘Mate!’
‘Yes. Can you help me? I could really use my strong mate right now. I’m hurt and need you.’I put a whine into my plea.
‘Coming!’he says, and does an about face, tongue hanging out of his mouth and prancing his way to me. As soon as he crosses into the rocks, his tongue disappears into his closed mouth, and he sits for a moment before Knox appears.
