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“I’m part vampire. Can’t believe it. Next, you’ll be telling me I’m part werewolf.” I giggled and glanced over at Madigan. She wasn’t laughing with me.

“Wow. This tri-mix ancestry is going to take some getting used to.”

Nine

The clawed hand grabbed at my ankle. I kicked out and reached for Paxton’s hand. “Help, Pax! It has me.” Yellow eyes stared up at me from the shadows. An ugly grin with a single tooth appeared. It spit a bloody chunk of flesh at me. I leapt into Paxton’s lap and held tightly onto his shirt. “It wants my bones. My treasures.” Paxton’s arms went around me for protection. The creature cackled loudly, then growled, and suddenly, it had fur and fangs. Its mouth opened wide, and I snuggled closer against Paxton. “Don’t let it get me!” I cried, and my eyes popped open. It took me a few seconds to recognize the tall trees and the fuzzy gray sky above. What I didn’t recognize was the white linen shirt grasped in my fingers or the muscular chest beneath it. I looked up. Revel stared down at me with a wry smile.

“Don’t know who Paxton is, but I already don’t like him.”

“Shit!” I jumped off his lap.

His lip curled into a cocky smile. “Must have been some dream.”

My face heated with embarrassment. I glanced around to see who else had witnessed my humiliating display. Everyone was sleeping. The evening was coming back to me. We sat around the fire for a good hour devouring the meal and flat ale. I’d never experienced ale before and it left me feeling quite merry and, apparently, more than a touch drunk. Revel filled the others in on some of the events, good and bad, that had happened in their absence. The names and places were unfamiliar, so their conversation eventually made me drowsy. I’d been sitting next to Revel. He'd insisted on it for safety reasons. Like Lyric, I’d rolled up my cloak for a pillow, curled myself into Revel’s warm scarf and fallen fast asleep.

“Have you been up all night?” I asked.

“Madigan spotted me for a few hours so I could sleep, but yes, it’s best to stay alert in the Wilds.” He unfurled his long frame to stand. We were close enough that I could see the tiny stitching marks in the thin scar that drew a line from the side of his cheek to his jaw. Intricate dragons were carved into the silver beads at the ends of his three braids.

Once again, his cocky attitude had vanished. His hazel eyes didn’t seem to want to leave my face.

“I know this is probably a ridiculous question, but is there a place I can—” I wondered if I was ever going to stop blushing in front of this man.

“I know a place.” He picked up his axe and headed toward the trees. We walked in silence for a few minutes. He hiked along confidently even though there was no real trail and the trees made it impossible to see the smoke from the campfire.

I stopped. “Fudge and Twinkies … that moss is moving.”

Revel looked back with a smile. “What did you just say?”

“Oh, fudge and Twinkies. It’s what I say when I see something five seconds in the future. I saw some moss moving, kind of like a snake. It’s a silly power I’ve⁠—”

Revel’s axe arced through the air and came down next to me. I shrieked and jumped toward the trees.

“It’s dead,” he declared.

My heart was still hammering away as I peeked out from behind the tree. A long snake-like creature with scales that resembled the moss on the trees lay in two distinct parts in the muddy soil. Each end writhed and looked very much alive.

“It can’t hurt you anymore.” Revel kept walking.

I jutted out from the trees and ran to catch up to him. “So, it’s poisonous?”

“No, moss serpents don’t have venom. They squeeze their prey to death, then swallow them whole. They thrive here in the Wilds because their scales look like the moss on the trees. Lean against the wrong tree and you could find yourself in the belly of one of those serpents.”

“There sure are some horrific ways to die out here. How much longer will we be in the Ironfall Wilds? How much farther to Norvale?”

“Not much longer. A few more hours.” He stopped and grabbed some large flat leaves off a nearby tree. “These work best.”

I stared down at them. “For what?” I asked.

A wry grin tilted his mouth as he continued.

“Oh, right.” More blush.

We walked farther, then he stopped again and pointed into a small clearing that was surrounded by a curtain of trees. “Will that do? I’ll be down there at that pond washing up. Just yell if you need help.” He winked.

“Think I can handle things myself. Thanks.” I hurried into the trees. At this point the embarrassed warmth in my face was permanent.

“Watch out for moving moss,” he called as he walked away.