“Cerise…” the voice whispered again. Where was it coming from? “Sunshine…can you hear me?”
Liam. It was Liam’s voice.
With great effort I forced my eyes open. My feet came into view first, ankles tied with rope. There was a dirt floor beneath me and something hard against my back.
“Cerise,” Liam said again. “Look at me. Can you lift your head?”
“Yeah.” My voice was rough, my throat dry.
I straightened, my senses finally returning, and met Liam’s worried emerald eyes.
He was tied up, sitting against a pole with his hands behind his back and ankles secured with rope like mine.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said.
I blinked rapidly, still dizzy from that punch. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure. I woke up and we were tied up in here.” His face darkened as he looked at me, eyes catching on my cheek. “Someone hit you.”
“Yes,” I whimpered, my eyes welling with tears. “How bad is it?”
“It’s not that bad. Your cheek is swollen and starting to bruise.”
“Liam…they—” I took a breath, trying to gather my words. “They knocked you out. Threatened to kill you if I didn’t cooperate.”
I started to tremble. How in the world were we going to escape? There were half a dozen of them and two of us. We didn’t know how to fight. We weren’t violent. Perhaps we could somehow get free of our restraints and run. But I didn’t know how far we’d be able to make it before they were upon us. They obviously knew this terrain well, and we didn’t.
“Take a breath, Cerise. We’re going to get out of here. Try to stay calm.”
“How? How are we going to get out?” I whispered harshly, pulling at the rope binding my wrists. “Can you use your magic to help?”
“It’s too risky. I could burn through my ropes, then yours, but they’re fast. And my magic isn’t powerful enough to take down all of them.”
“So what do we do?”
“Wait for the right opportunity. They need us for something,” Liam said.
“What makes you say that?”
“Because we’d be dead otherwise.”
I stopped struggling as I mulled over his words. “What do you think they want from us?”
“No idea. But my guess is they need help finding some animal they’re hunting.”
“Of course. To add to their horrible collection.”
I scanned the space around us. There wasn’t much in the dark tent, lit by the subtle glow of a lantern. A table sat in the corner with a few books, specimen containers, maps and papers strung about. But no tools or knives. Nothing that could serve as a weapon.
The sound of boots outside the tent drew near. The flaps opened and in stepped the blond man, crossing his arms as he looked down at us.
“The two of you better do everything I say. We only need one of you. Do you understand?”
Liam glared at him. “What do youwant with us?”
“We have a special request for an animal that’s hard to track. When I heard there were beastologists in the area, I was hoping we’d find your research camp. But color me surprised when we came upon you two in the middle of the jungle. You’re going to help us track down this animal and trap it.” His voice was low, gruff. And he sounded more intelligent than the others, which could cause us problems.
“No,” I said immediately. I would not aid in the capture of a wild animal. I refused.
