She looked up through the screen of leaves. “Are they close?” she whispered.
“Getting there,” I replied. “We need to move.”
It hurt much more than usual to shift form, and it instilled the point that I be in no physical shape to face my brethren.
I felt them now, drawing closer, closing in on me. They knew I be here.
I kneeled for her to mount, reveling in the feel of her warm legs around me. I began to jog along the riverbank. Any faster, and it might trigger them to pounce. I wanted them to think I be unaware of them as their net drew ever closer. They be still on the other side of the river. If I could keep them there...
My legs trembled as I moved, and even Anna’s slight weight caused more difficulty than it should. I continued to pull from the surrounding life essences because I would need every bit of it for what be to come.
My hunters closed in faster than I expected. And then I sensed something more—and it be between us and the road.
An energy that used to make my heart race for other reasons. But now, it set my teeth on edge.
And it be not alone. My nemesis had indeed pulled out all the stops to get me.
I halted, tossing my head.
“What’s wrong?” Anna asked.
“I need you to go on alone,” I said. “I sense something that I need to explore before we withdraw. It will feed into our next plan.”
“I’ll go with you,” she offered.
“No!” I spoke sharper than I intended, and it took effort to soften my response. “I can do this faster and more discreetly without you. Please, Anna. I need you to listen to me.”
She sat very still on my back.
“The road is not far—do you see the way the moss is only growing on one side of the trees?”
She obediently peered at them. “Yes.”
“Walk so that it is always on the left side of the trunks, and you will reach the road. I will meet you at the bridge.” I did my best not to wince. I’d never before made a promise I had no intention of keeping.
Anna sensed something of it, too. “I don’t like this, Sebastian. Is there something you aren’t telling me?”
Anna. I need to do this. Please, just meet me at the bridge.
She stiffened on my back, as surprised by the sudden clarity of the connection as I. But then I infused my mental message with every emotion that she’d unleashed in me while I’d been gasping and thrusting within that cave, deliberately flooding her so she also didn’t detect my desperation.
She absorbed it, and then slid off me, before wrapping her arms around my neck and opening the floodgates to her heart. Awestruck at the depth and honesty of it, I basked in it, soaking it in as I curled my neck around her in an equine hug.
She clung to me. “I still don’t like this.”
Close, they be too close, now. I clamped down on my fear. It would not service either of us. “I will see you at the bridge.”
Her arms slid free as I turned and left her there. Trusting that she would do as she’d said.
Once out of sight, I let my fear give wings to my feet. Because I needed to lead them away from her. To clear the route between her and the road, and also to draw away those near the river.
And once they be with me, and she be safe, I would face them.
Alone.
41
Anna
