Wicked Chase

❖ Chapter Eleven

Alastair emerged from the Jeep holding onto his duffel bag in one hand and a sleeping bag in the other. When my eyes landed on the sleeping bag, my stomach stirred with anxiousness and anticipation. "How long is the walk?" I asked, my voice tight as I eyed the sleeping bag in Alastair's right hand as he slung his duffel bag over his left shoulder.

"About three to four hours," he replied, walking past me and I followed him before he came to a standstill a few seconds later and eyed the gap between the two very tall lush green trees. I noticed that he had not once locked eyes with me as he had often done before and my stomach stirred but not with anxiousness and anticipation but with an unidentifiable emotion because I knew the reason he was avoiding my gaze was because he knew that I could read his emotions through his eyes and that what had transpired between us last night, the proximity between our bodies and the open emotions about each other, was not something that should have happened because for some reason that Alastair had not yet told me about, it couldn't.

"We'll be walking for four hours now?" I asked, glancing up at the sky and back at Alastair who still wouldn't pick up his gaze to look at me.

"No, we can't walk now. On the other side, we'll enter the Forbidden Forest of Deidrif and it's safer to stay closer to the border until daylight so we are not taking the risk of walking when it's almost nightfall," Alastair replied coolly, but I could sense the slight tremor in his voice as he spoke. That wasn't all he wanted to say. I could read the silent words that Alastair had muttered; there were things - creatures, who knew what they were - in that forest and walking at night would definitely not be safe.

"Come on," Alastair said, finally lifting his grey eyes to mine, momentarily locking his silvery gaze with mine, before he jerked his head to the small space between the trees and cast his glance elsewhere. "We should settle in quickly." With that he took a few steps forward, stepping through the small opening that the two most towering trees in the forest provided before I could see him no longer, a white light appearing before he had disappeared.

Panic momentarily seized my heart, his vanishing act made my heart pulse with panic and anxiousness. Taking a deep breath, I straightened my back and walked towards the two trees before I stepped over the roots, my eyes closed and then - "oof!" My eyes shot open in an instant to see that I had collided with Alastair, my foot stepping on his foot, my weight tipped all towards him which made the pressure in my foot that was crushing Alastair's to increase.

I stepped sideways, blushing slightly at the close proximity - I could feel his warm breath tickle my ear and my exposed neck, his arm brushing mine and the warmth of his body kissing at my exposed skin - and looked at him apologetically before I said, "I'm sorry. I didn't see you there."

"That's okay. I moved out of the way but you were taking a few seconds too long to come through so I got a little wo-" He cast me a glance before he tried to cover up the fact that he was just about to tell me he was worried about me by saying, "I was about to come through to get you and see if you were alright but the moment I was going to come through, you already did so there's no need to apologize. It's okay."

He was rambling. It was the first time he rambled and I tried to press my lips together as I made an attempt to not smile but I couldn't resist. Alastair, however, wouldn't have noticed my smile because he was soon bending down and picking up a piece of wood - long and thin - before he bent down again to pick another one.

I didn't know what he was doing but I assumed he wanted to make a fire to keep warm so I helped him, taking the sleeping bag from his right hand to make it easier for him to pick up sticks and he looked sideways at me, his gaze hesitant and somewhat appreciatively warm but I pretended not to notice as I bent down and helped him pick up any pieces of wood that was within my line of sight because I knew the moment he knew that I knew I was looking at him, his expression would return back to that serious passive expression and while Alastair wasn't smiling, I actually liked the warmth of his silvery gaze on me.