Information was power. Now I tilted my wings and moved closer.
“Yous must bes Tyrez,” I greeted.
“And yous ares Talakai. Greetings.” His luminous eye rolled downward, and then back to me. “Checking ons yours teammates?”
Shards. The last thing I needed was him thinking I spent my time spying on them. Onher. “Was stretching mys wings,” I offered evasively.
He blinked. Impossible to tell if he believed me.
“Wells,” he rumbled. “Afters lunch iss orientation. I wills see yous then.” He banked away, the sunlight shining off his blue and green scales.
I cast my eyes down to the field below—Anna and her group were climbing the back stairs. Shaking my head, I soared away.
Another hour of flying might clear my mind. But I doubted it.
The twins were an opportunity I needed to assess with care. And as for Anna—it seemed I couldn’t escape her, even when I soared.
16
Anna
The building bustled with students checking out their new digs. Trix’s tail dropped with all the shifter-energy surrounding her, and I was seized with the sudden urge to escape.
It seemed Mari shared our misgivings. “I think I’ll go sit by the lake,” she announced.
“I might go for a run,” I said. “Do you run?”
Mari snorted. “Not so much, no.”
“I’ll catch up with you for lunch—second meal,” I told her as I headed for the stairs and appropriate running attire.
Fifteen minutes later, with my assets appropriately strapped into place, I waved to her as she sat on a bench near the water. Trix and I headed along the gravel path.
The path was new, but well packed with a type of crushed stone, and perfect for running. It followed the curves of the lakeshore, with wildflowers nodding among the meadow grasses. But the forest soon closed in around us. The trees had beautiful, arching branches that formed an interlocked ceiling over the path, dappling the gravel with shade.
I fell into my natural running rhythm, my feet falling lightly on the ground. It wasn’t until Trix whined that I looked up from the path ahead of me, and realized we had company.
Birds flitted through the trees overhead, landing on branches, then taking wing as we passed. Their bright colors darted through the leaves. Then something much larger, and closer, drew my eye.
The horned creatures from earlier—likely not the same ones, I realized, but the same species—paced us through the bush. And smaller critters bounced and scuttled along as I ran.
It was all a bit unnerving, to be honest. Trix wasn’t sure about it all, either, casting nervous glances off into the forest. My human senses were so limited—what other things ran with us that Trix could smell, but I couldn’t detect?
I remembered Cara’s ability to communicate with the animals. So as I ran, I tried to tap into that extra sense that she’d spoken of.
And hit a blank wall.
I sighed. They might follow me, but it wasn’t much use if I couldn’t talk to them...
Then, out of nowhere, a pulse of pure panic swept through me, not like a wave, but more like multiple tiny lightning strikes, the combined effect so powerful it stopped me in my tracks. Trix went completely rigid, staring off to one side.
The forest exploded with sound and motion as every creature, even the birds, fled deeper into the trees. Within seconds, we were alone.
To say I was freaked out would be an understatement. My heart pounded, and I dropped to a crouch, ready to run, if I only had any idea which direction to go. The forest, which had seemed so friendly and full of cheerful life, suddenly loomed dark and sinister around us.
Trix’s hackles rose, and she growled, staring off in one direction. I trusted her instincts and backed us away.
From the trees, stepped the werewolf.
