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Lilith stopped, held her breath, then quickly gave up. “Gods, do you ever sleep?”

“About as often as you do.”

“I sleep fine,” she griped. Under normal circumstances, this was as far as the interaction would go. Right about now she would return to her bedroll, grumbling about psychological torment. “C-Can I ask you something, Draven?”

His eyes shot open, and he could only make a curious noise in the back of his throat as reply.

“You seem like you’re very… aware of your surroundings.” Her dainty steps grew closer. “You haven’t noticed anything odd, have you?”

“Odd, as in?”

“An animal.”

He sighed, disappointed. “We’re in the woods. I’ve seen plenty of animals.”

Lilith laughed once. “I think that’s what it is, but I don’t know for sure. It never gets close, but I’m positive it started following us before we crossed the border. I thought it was a wolf for a while, but it’s too large. It’s slim like a cat, but it’s not quite the same.”

Jarek drew in a long inhale near the tail end of the explanation, ready to cut her off with an agitated groan.

Until she finished with, “I thought it was you beastshifting at first.”

His breath caught, warping his irritation into a chuckle that he tried and failed to keep quiet. Out of all of the Serpent’s abilities, that was the one he was ecstatic to never attempt again. How anyone could withstand the pain of changing their body composition, let alone into another species, was beyond him.

She paused. “I take it that’s a no?"

“Absolutely.” Jarek bit his lip to hold back the rest of his laughter. “Can we continue this little game in the morning? Believe it or not, you’re extremely exhausting.”

“It’s not a—” She clamped her mouth shut, then lowered her voice. “I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t serious.”

That dampened his amusement. His face slackened as he searched the branches above for any sarcasm in her voice. Unable to find it, he sat up to see her squatting across from him, wrapped in the overly large coat he’d given her, chewing on a nail as she watched the direction they came from.

She glanced at him briefly, then looked back.

Fuck. She actually wanted something from him. But what, exactly? His opinion? Validation? Help? No, that was what he needed. He should’ve been paying attention from the start. What was she describing? A wolf-cat?

“This monster must fly too if it was able to cross the border,” Jarek pondered, flatly.

Red stirred within her aura. “I know how it sounds.”

“Er—” That didn’t sound right. Jarek clenched his teeth and gestured vaguely to Luka. “Has he seen it?”

Lilith shook her head.

That was more comforting to him than it probably was for her. If someone or something had been stalking them, the Serpent would’ve picked up on it. If it hadn’t and Jarek was the only one unaware of anything amiss, then Lilith’s touch on his arm had done more damage than he initially thought.

He had more questions and growing concerns, but that didn’t change the outcome, which was hopefully the one she was seeking.

“There’s nothing following us.”

Her aura dimmed as she stared off into the forest. “I haven’t been sleeping.”

Jarek rocked an unsteady hand over his knee. That was obviously his doing, yet he couldn’t bring himself to apologize when he wasn’t truly sorry for abducting her and threatening Luka’s life. It was all for a good cause at the end of the day, so what was he supposed to do to someone so obstructive to it? Ask?

Still, it didn’t feel good to disrupt her life and demand the death of a child—which was, admittedly, the worst part of this entire situation. When it was revealed that Brialis—a woman creeping up on her second century of life—had a son, he’d assumed him to be a grown man. Not a boy barely into his first decade. It was easier to imagine striking down someone who could fight back, or who was at least his age—

Gods below, that sounded abominable.

Alright. So he was sorry. But what kind of abductor apologized to their abductee? Certainly not in the middle of an abduction.