All I'm going to say is...
...if you guys don't work out what is going on at the end of this chapter, I will disown you all.
So yeah. No pressure.
We didn't return to Silveryn land. Isaiah had made it very clear that we should do the opposite. Instead, Ben gave directions for his own home. It was nearby, his family loved Kai and we would be safe there, deep in Davengard land.
And sure enough, we received a hero's welcome at the Lindwell household. Huge meals, warm water to wash and a bed each. Only trouble was, those beds weren't in individual rooms. I shared with Becky and Ben's younger sister. She was nice enough, but she made it clear she disliked the invasion of privacy. The boys were all crammed in together.
So it was safe to say that we spent more time in the garden than the house.
Weeks — maybe even a month — passed slowly. We were bored and restless and on edge. And nothing, not even setting up a watch and helping with the chores, could keep me from dwelling in a trance-like of contemplation. None of the thoughts which came that way were ever remotely helpful.
There was no need to be doing anything else, though. Wyatt Rochester seemed content to move slowly, perhaps so it wouldn't look so much like a power grab when he disinherited Kai and crowned himself regent. But I suspected that he had men out looking for Kai, and if they found him, I had illusions what would happen. Wyatt considered his stepson disposable at best, a target at worst.
It was just a matter of waiting for Rhodric to turn up, which was looking less and less likely by the day.
Nothing of significance happened until one long, hot summer's day when a call came in over the radio. That was hardly a rare occurrence, and we never dared replying. But this one was different. It was rejected. The operator claimed there weren't any spare patrols to deal with something as trivial as public disturbance, because everyone was out hunting for fugitives who had left an entire patrol unconscious near the coast.
I buckled my weapons harness, threw a Moon Guard jacket over my shirt and left the house without so much as a goodbye. It was safe to answer — there wouldn't be a patrol there to recognise me, and I could deal with it alone.
It wasn't far. I walked the two miles to where the incident had been reported. It was a crossroads surrounded by forest, and it was shrouded in darkness as the sun set. Of-freaking-course. The vagrants couldn't have picked a creepier location if they tried, but then again — as had just occurred to me — maybe that was the idea.
Spotting the problem was easy enough. A gang was gathered on the corner, huddled under a bus shelter and smoking something which looked suspiciously like weed. It was a stroke of luck, really, that they were still there. A half-hour response time wasn't exactly exemplary.
And there was no one — absolutely no one — else in sight. So who the hell had called in? Who could possibly have been along this deserted stretch of road, and decided that the gang of street youths were bothering them, only to vanish before they got their comeuppance? Suddenly, the call didn't feel so safe.
I wasn't sure if my mainland-heightened senses were still raw, but the back of my neck was prickling uncomfortably. As if someone was watching us. Just paranoia, I stubbornly told myself. This is what happens when you don't leave the house for weeks.
"Hey!" I shouted. They didn't seem to notice.
So I was left with the unpleasant job of physically breaking up the circle. With a great deal of shoving and shouting, I eventually managed to get their attention. Blissfully vacant eyes stared back at me. Seeing but not caring.
"Park your asses on the road," was my first order. They did as I said slowly, giggling at every step. I scanned the faces before me. Most were shaded by hoods and the ever-dimming light, but with the aid of their movements, I summarised that they were equally intoxicated. All except one male, taller and less gross than the rest, who was lounging on the road with a laziness and ease impossible for a junkie. He would be the one to talk to.
But talk to about what? Without access to Evarlin, I couldn't arrest them. And even if I could, smoking weed wasn't exactly a crime by werewolf standards. They were only hurting themselves. And besides, the guard preferred to let the trade take place over ground, within their sightlines so they could monitor it.
So. What to do?
Well, I could scare them. That might be enough. Perhaps a search. Yes — if I found anything illegal, I could impose a real punishment, independent of the drugs. So I jerked a thumb at the sober male and said, "You. Against the wall. Now."
A careless grin ghosted over his lips. So fast I almost missed it. "I'm flattered and all — don't get me wrong, but I have a mate..."
That was rewarded with absent-minded chuckling from the other boys. My cheeks began to heat up, and I hoped they couldn't see the flush in the dark. I snapped at him, "Not like that. Just do it. Your mind is filthy, you know that?"
The male shrugged. "Or yours is sparkling."
But he did stand up and do as I said, albeit slowly. And I realised exactly just how tall he was —easily bigger than Kaeden, with maybe an inch on Nate. If this guy had gone to the island's only school with me, I was sure I would remember him. That stature and what little I could see of his face were far from forgettable. He looked a few years older, true, but I should still have seen him around before.
It was strange enough to bother me.
Desperate for a clue about his identity, I sniffed the air as subtly as I could. And there was nothing there. No trace of a scent. Bloody hell. A Shadowcat? Sure, his clothes smelt of smoke. But not cigarette smoke — more like campfire smoke. I couldn't have sworn there was a hint of ... marshmallows in there somewhere.
"Hands on the wall, please. Are you carrying anything which might endanger either of us when I search you?" I recited.
"Nah."
It was my least favourite part of the job: invading someone's privacy with a search. While I mentally prepared myself, he shuffled restlessly from foot to foot.
"Stand still. Don't make this any more awkward than it needs to be."
"Don't sell yourself short," he drawled, "it's plenty awkward."
I levelled him a flat stare before finally beginning. I checked the obvious places first — waistband and pockets, before moving onto anywhere a weapon could be concealed. And while I was inwardly cringing, the male didn't look the least bit uncomfortable, damn him.
As if sensing my thoughts, he turned his head to grin at me. "If you wanted to feel me up you could have just asked, you know."
"Thanks for the offer," I said dryly, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks again. "But I'll pass."
He snorted. "I wasn't offering. I would have said no. Just saying — there's no need to hide behind the law."
"Cocky bastard, aren't you?"
I was treated to another flashing grin. "Well. I try."
I needed some sort of excuse to find out what a Shadowcat was doing on the island's southern coast while Isaiah was rallying their entire species in the north. But having found nothing except a few walnut shells, I was running out of ideas. The only place left was the back pockets of his jeans. Oh, Goddess. That was so not happening.
"Turn out your pockets," I told him absent-mindedly and stepped back.
"You've got to be kidding me—" he started shortly, noticed my expression and muttered some truly unrepeatable words. "Okay. You aren't. But why're you picking on me, huh? Go annoy my friends."
I cast a sceptical over the gang on the road, most of whom were now dozing where they sat. "Your friends are too high to be doing anything illegal. You, on the other hand ... I don't know—you just look sketchy."
I let my fingers brush the handle of my blade as I said it. He certainly noticed, if the way his muscles tensed was any indication. "Last time, now. Turn out your pockets."
He did it as slowly as possible. I didn't really understand that logic — the faster it happened, the faster he would be free — but who was I to judge? Eventually, a packet of white powder was produced. I raised an eyebrow.
"Coke?"
"What were you expecting? Buttercups and rainbows?" He was grimacing in a sheepish sort of way. And yet there was something too quick, too smooth about his answer. Something which snagged my attention. I tipped open the packet and took a careful sniff.
Odd. Because I knew that scent, and it wasn't drugs. "Dude ... this is sherbet. Were you snorting sherbet?"
The male offered a shrug. "I can't afford the real stuff, but — well, what can I say? I wanted to be a part of something."
But I noticed a wariness behind it. Like a wolf which had been caught stalking a deer as he was about to finish the kill. Now, that was a disturbing thought. Was I the deer?
"No. I don't believe that. You were hanging out with junkies ... and snorting sherbet? Why?" I asked. But my brain was already starting to piece things together. A Shadowcat, far from home, maybe looking for answers. And if I was right, he was hella smart. Oh, it would be clever — talking to junkies because they wouldn't remember his questions after five minutes. An easy way to get information without attention.
He opened his mouth to answer, but I didn't hear the words. Because a tentative mind-link had been brought to my awareness, and my brain was far gone, searching for a culprit who no longer seemed to be there.
It was as if something had poked my mind. As if something had been fishing around in my skull without me even knowing, but I had only realised when they left — the absence of that presence, rather the presence itself. And there was a strange cold feeling, like icy water trickling down my back.
I tried to halt my thoughts, pretending I hadn't noticed that anything was wrong, and lie in wait. But whoever — whatever — it was seemed to only alert me once it was gone. It was like catching a tail or a shadow. No matter how still I was, every time I turned around, all I got was a fleeting glimpse. And what I did see made no sense at all. It was a jumbled mess. And if I didn't know better, I'd say there were several minds working as one to shield the true culprit.
"Do you feel that?" I demanded. Even I said it, I threw out a tendril of thought in every direction. Searching for someone nearby who could be responsible. My mind brushed the male's, and while it felt alien compared to my patrol and he had bonds I couldn't even begin to fathom, I knew it wasn't him.
"Feel what?" he asked through our touching thoughts, oh-so-innocently.
Then an invisible net caught my outreaching and slammed me back into myself with unforgiving force. I came back to awareness, reeling and confused. I tried it again. Nothing. I just ran into a solid barrier which encompassed my thoughts, containing me. I couldn't mind-link.
A strange calm settled over me. I couldn't summon my patrol for help, as had been my next thought. I was at the mercy of whoever was behind these strange attacks. They could — should, by all rights — have killed me there and then. I was a witness.
In fact, I was almost certain that they would be able to kill me with half a thought. But they left me alone.
"Are we done here?" the Shadowcat-playing-junkie asked after a time.
"Yeah," I mumbled. "Yeah, sure."
He nodded and left in the direction of the pitch-black forest, throwing worried glances back at me every so often. I was sure there was a hint of guilt in that gaze, but I didn't stop him. All I could do was very slowly ease myself into a sitting position while I tried to understand what had happened.
Something was very, very wrong.
We used the mind-link for very basic communication. If I hadn't been to the mainland the month before, I wasn't sure I would have ever realised its full potential. And yet here was someone who had mastered our mental web enough to use it for spying.
And even more disturbing — no one would rifle through my head for the fun of it. So what had they been looking for? The only thing I knew of significance was Kai's whereabouts. And there were plenty of shifters around who would kill for that information, all of whom were loyal to Wyatt Rochester.
Who had called the Moon Guard here? Why?
I didn't know any of the answers. All I knew was I needed to get out of there.
***
An hour later, and I had returned to the hideout at a meandering pace, barely able to stay upright. It had only taken a few minutes to decide that I had overreacted. So someone had been questing with the mind-link in that area. So there had a been a Shadowcat running with the wolves. It didn't necessarily mean anything. There was certainly no need to worry my patrol with crazy stories like these...right?
Ben was on watch duty and waved me past wearily. Once in the perimeter of the house, my mood sank again. Everyone was moping around, not really doing much. But there was one change — Nate's Shadowcat pals from Evarlin, Brylan and Niamh, were here. They conversed quietly in the porch, while my patrol had been exiled to the garden despite the late hour.
Becky beckoned, and she seemed the cheeriest, so I stretched out beside her.
I jerked a head at the feline shifters. "What's going on?"
"They're our guards, apparently. Isaiah says he takes our safety very seriously. But I reckon they're really here to check up on us, y'know, make sure we're doing what we're told and all that. Nathan agrees, by the sounds of it."
"You're eavesdropping?" I don't why I even bothered asking. What else was there to do here?
She smirked in reply and pressed a finger to her lips. "Let's not advertise it, huh? If I can hear them, they can hear us. So. What shall we do?"
"I might go to sleep. The time passes faster."
Becky rolled her eyes. "No, seriously. Got any games on your phone?"
It wasn't my phone really, but we hadn't had time to return it before we fled Evarlin. I reached into a pocket and fumbled around for it. Nothing. It was empty. And now that I thought about it, even my wallet was missing, money and all.
"Oh, shit," I groaned. No one had gone near me all day. I had definitely taken it to the crossroads. So that left just one possibility... "That guy nicked my phone."
"What guy?" she asked with sudden interest.
I shrugged. "Didn't know his name. A delinquent from the call I just took. It was a public disturbance up Bracken way."
"You took a call? Sav! You know we're not supposed to leave."
There wasn't really any defence against that, especially considering how badly wrong it had gone. "I know, I know. Leave the lecture to Kai and just skip to the part where you listen sympathetically."
Becky even let herself smile. "Okay, fine. What house was he?"
"Um. Scentless ... so Silveryn, I guess."
A raised eyebrow and narrowed eyes. "That doesn't make any sense — they're all up north. You should tell Kai. Nate, too. Right now."
It was disconcerting to get such a panicked reaction. Now terrified that I had screwed up irreparably by leaving the garden, I followed Becky to the porch and summoned Kai with a mental flick, noting with confusion that I could leave the confines of my mind again. The invisible barrier was gone without a trace.
The Shadowcats stopped their conversation when we got near. Nate looked impatient and pissed off (his own species just seemed to have that effect on him), but Brylan — who had clashed with me in the past — didn't bother veiling his hostility. I was met with folded arms and a deadpan glare.
"This interruption is not welcome."
"Neither are you," Becky snapped. "It's Nate we want. Scram."
Brylan's eyes flickered gold, and Nate pushed past him. "Come on, we'll talk over here. Would you both excuse me?"
"Of course," Niamh said before her companion could open his mouth.
The Shadowcat heir joined us to walk to the treeline. By that time, Kai had appeared too. The four of us formed a tight-knit huddle out of earshot of everyone else, and I found myself to be the centre of attention, much to my discomfort.
"Sav has a bedtime story for you boys," Becky announced, then clapped my shoulder and left. I shot a glare at her retreating back.
Hazel and green eyes watched me expectantly. It was weird, talking to both of them like this. Weird enough that I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. But I was almost seventeen, and that would be immature. So I tried to ignore their attention as I launched into the story from beginning to end, leaving out as little as I could.
It got difficult, though, when Kai asked what he had looked like. I didn't know. It had been too dark at the crossroads, even under the moonlight. And what I could recall about the mental attack made no sense at all.
"You touched minds?" Nate asked immediately. "That's how you knew it wasn't him?"
I didn't understand the significance. "Yeah... What does it matter?"
His eyes were wide and wary. Kai's too. Both of them seemed worried by something I hadn't attached any importance to. "Sav. Shadowcats can't mind-link. You know that."
A cold pit settled in my stomach. What? He had even talked to me through the link. It had definitely been possible. Yet when I reached out to Nate to check, I felt nothing. Emptiness.
"He didn't have a scent," I rambled. "He must have been—"
"Do you know why Brylan and Niamh are here?" Nate asked. I shook my head mutely. "To tell us that every Shadowcat is accounted for. That the army is ready to move. Whoever this guy was, he cannot be one of us."
Kai nodded. For once, they agreed on something. "It doesn't make any sense. The trap was laid for the Moon Guard. You just stumbled into it when you took the call. But intentional or not, we can't take the risk of anyone knowing where we are, so we need to leave. Now."
We took that in silence. It had felt safe here, in this little house beside the sea. Boring but safe. I didn't want to go on the run again.
Then Nate drew in a sharp breath and swore. He told Kai steadily, "They let her go."
The King of the Free Isle repeated the curse with interest. "Get everyone moving. We'll build a camp somewhere isolated."
He left in the direction of the porch, probably to grab some equipment and weapons. I lingered where I was and grabbed Nate's arm when he made a move towards Becky and Alex.
"I don't understand. What's so urgent?"
He shook me off restlessly. "They let you go. Either because they realized they had the wrong person, or because they wanted to follow you back here."
For the first time, I understood the gravity of the situation. I could have been followed from the crossroads. I wouldn't have had a clue. And I had been so damnably, unforgivably stupid by taking the call in the first place.
We readied to leave in relative silence. Alex and Ben didn't even have the vaguest idea of what was happening, but they packed anyway. When we had gathered everything from tents to matches, the patrol assembled in the back garden.
Ben's parents stood watching from the doorway after a hurried explanation and farewell. His sister was failing to hide a smirk, no doubt glad to have her room to herself again. I tried not to be too offended.
"Should we shift?" Alex asked once we were ready.
"No," Kai decided. "Not yet."
I assumed it was an attempt to keep everyone calm. We only ever shifted to fight or run long distances, and if things went well, we wouldn't have to do either. The patrol moved out a hurried march, with the three Shadowcats not far behind.
I walked through brambles and branches with a heedless abandon of the consequences. All that matter was getting far, far away before the wrong people found us. And as I walked, my mind drifted further and further from what I was doing, until some raised voices caught my attention.
"We should be fighting, not running," Brylan was complaining.
Nate laughed at him, low and dark. "Alright. You just volunteered for rear guard. If you find the bastards who are following us — if they exist — you can spill all the blood you want."
"It would be my honour."
The next time I looked back, Nate walked alone. And Niamh had vanished too, although whether to join him or scout ahead, I wasn't sure. And I didn't really care. She could do what she liked as long as she minded her own business.
At one point, I was sure a golden pair of eyes peered at me from the shadows. One offered me a lazy wink, before the spots of colour vanished altogether. It didn't take long to convince myself I had imagined the whole thing.
It was closer to dawn than midnight when we first stopped. And it wasn't to rest. A snarl had sounded behind us, too loud to be just a warning. Everyone halted where they were, ears straining for further clues.
"That was Brylan," Nate said quietly.
"Should we help him?" That was one of the others — Alex, probably.
The Shadowcat heir shook his head with an indifference which chilled me. "No."
That first snarl was soon echoed by many others, the noises interspersed with tortured yips. Someone was dying in the darkness. All we did was listen to their final moments and tried to excuse our fear as practicality.
And finally, a triumphant howl which sounded far too feline for my comfort. Too low and guttural to belong to Brylan. Too strange to belong to a wolf.
Maybe that guy from the crossroads had been a Shadowcat after all. Maybe he was hunting us now.
I tried not to think about it.
After a while, we started walking again. Faster and with more urgency, even though everyone was already exhausted beyond breaking point. I stumbled across the ground without any care for where I placed my feet. Several times I slipped and fell. Once, I considered not getting up, but Brylan's yowls were still fresh in my ears. I was too scared to give in my body's demands for rest.
"Here," Kai murmured after what seemed like days. "We'll stop here."
There was nothing particularly special about that patch of ground — no defensive formations or even flat ground. I realised he had lost hope of finding somewhere safer. So we all sank to the ground and lay where we had stood, helpless and vulnerable to the hunters who stalked us.
I must have gone to sleep, although I have no memory of it happening, because I woke to birdsong. The sun was creeping over the horizon, casting a golden glow onto the forest around us. With summer flowers blooming around me and the vibrant green of the leaves dancing with spots of light, I had rarely felt so at peace.
Until I remembered what had happened.
Suddenly, sleep lost all appeal. I pushed myself onto my feet, ignoring their shaking, and let them lead me where they wished, which seemed to be towards where Nate sat with his back to a tree. He was awake, and so was Kai, who lay beside him. Both of them looked paler than ghosts, yet they were having a whispered conservation which stopped as soon as I got near.
Nate moved up to make room for me. I settled on a dry patch of earth, half leaning against him and with my legs brushing Kai's. Better. Now, between them, I felt safe.
"Have you been up all night?" I asked them through a yawn.
"Yes," Nate said in a bored sort of way. "Niamh stopped by an hour ago. She said there's no sign of anyone following. No sign that anyone ever was ... so perhaps we overreacted and the trap at the crossroads wasn't for us."
My mouth twisted into a frown. "That doesn't explain what happened to Brylan."
"No, it doesn't," he agreed. We exchanged a long look which conveyed wariness and weariness in equal measures. "But I prefer not to consider the alternative."
"Which is?"
The tiniest hint of fear in his voice as he said, "They could be trained hunters — able to move without leaving a trace. But as Niamh comes from a family of trackers. .. let's just say we would be outmatched."
Kai nodded, lifting his head from a jacket-pillow to do so. "But on the bright side, I don't think there's anyone on the island with that level of talent. So chances are, we're absolutely fine."
Reassured, I sat back. And coughed. I leant forwards. Coughed again. By then, the cause was obvious.
"Does anyone else smell smoke?"
***
We were scouting. It was a bad idea, to be totally honest. Hunting our stalkers couldn't possibly end happily. But neither Nate or Kai were willing to ignore the smoke and I wasn't willing to stay alone at camp with the sleeping patrol. Hence the scouting.
Nate formed the rearguard of our tiny band, skulking in the shadows and scentless. Kai led the way by following the smell. And I dragged my feet as much as I could and grumbled through the mind-link about everything which annoyed me, from our current suicide mission to the food shortage in camp. I hadn't been able to find breakfast before we left because the supplies had been forgotten somewhere in the chaos. And now my stomach was snarling at me.
"I thought you said they would be experts at this kind of thing," I hissed.
Nate rolled his eyes in reply. "I did."
"So why the hell did they light a fire while we were downwind? That's a rookie mistake, isn't it?" A worse thought occurred to me. "Or maybe it isn't a mistake at all. Oh, Goddess. This is going to be the crossroads all over again. Can we please leave?"
Kai stopped so abruptly that my chest hit his back. I didn't have the sense to curse at him, any more than he had the inclination to listen. We stayed unusually still for a moment until, annoyed, I peered around him to look ahead.
Even though the day was beginning, it was still dark enough that the glow of a distant fire was obvious. My breath caught in my throat. Shit, shit, shit — I hadn't quite believed it until then. But here was evidence, and plenty of it.
A finger went to Kai's lips, although I no longer needed any incentive to be quiet. Nate, somewhere behind, stood stiller than a statue. Then the three of us began to creep towards the light. Towards the stalkers.
We got as close as we dared. A holly bush at the outskirts of their camp proved good cover. And it only took a second for Nate and Kai to tense, and a single glance told me that their eyes had flitted to gold and dark respectively.
Four shadowy figures sat around a campfire, roasting something in the flames. A fifth walked in tiny circles, weaving back and forth around trees. His footsteps crunched in the fallen leaves and he seemed to be muttering under his breath, and those were the only sounds to be heard, save for my own too-fast heartbeat.
We thought that we were being so sneaky, that they couldn't possibly know they were being watched. But before I could even think of creeping away, one of the figures rose to their feet and stared directly at our hiding place. Genuine, paralysing fear rushed through my veins, mixed with the adrenaline which made my muscles shake.
My heart stopped beating too fast. I was sure it had stopped beating altogether.
"Hiya," a girl's voice chirped. She waved a stick towards where we crouched. It was unremarkable, save for a small white blob on one end. "Marshmallow?"