Every time people in the movies decided to take the route to avoid the creepy area, they wound up living, while those who checked it out ended up dead. I didn’t want to be the latter.
But my stupid white-girl brain screamed to go in there. Something or someone was waiting for me deep in those woods. I didn’t know if it was good or bad, but it was something that needed to cross my path.
Something rustled in the woods, raising the little hairs at the back of my neck and along my arms. A twig snapped, and I held my breath as I glanced at Rune, who rode by my side and was deep in conversation. He didn’t show any signs that he heard the sounds.
I swallowed hard and shifted my gaze back to the trees.
It had to be in my head then. Maybe after everything that happened to me and the trauma it caused, I was hearing things out of paranoia that weren’t there. That had to be the only reason.
Or maybe I had better hearing than Rune...
Why didn’t he hear my thoughts? Or feel anything through our link?
Did I close it? Or did he?
My fingers tightened on the reins as I searched for it and found it was still connected.
Weird. I would’ve thought Rune would know everything that passed through my mind. That he would hear everything I did and be alerted as I was. But he didn’t show any signs he did.
Reaching through our link, I brushed my mind against his, and he readily returned it in acknowledgement that he was aware of what I was doing. Yet somehow, he didn’t have an inkling of what I was feeling, thinking, or hearing.
I nibbled my lower lip as I stared at him. Somehow I had accessed my horse’s memory, and now I wondered if I could do the same with Rune. I pushed more into his mind, the pulse in my neck thrumming harder as I entered his memories. In them, I found that me looking at the woods didn’t exist.
What I found in his mind was that he saw me zoning out and staring down at my mare’s white, wavy mane. I watched his memory as he glanced at me often to check on me, and each time I wasn’t with the world. The lights were on, but no one was home as I stared wide-eyed at my horse.
What the hell was going on?
My eyes shifted back to the creepy woods. Fog crept out, keeping low on the ground like some movie effect that always meant something bad was about to happen. Just like the color red in M. Night Shyamalan movies was a hidden meaning, the fog was always a message. A warning of what was to come.
And me still being the dumb white girl, Istillwanted to go in there and find what was calling out for me. I got a brief thought that maybe Hegnan and Rekja were in there. But I didn’t think they’d hide out there and wait for us to find them.
“Do you think Hegnan and Rekja are still in this realm?” I found myself softly asking for anyone to answer.
Rune stopped talking in the middle of what he was saying to Hluti and looked at me with worry. I knew he caught me being off because of my voice alone. Even to me, I sounded like a robot with how my question came off monotone and nonchalant at the same time.
I didn’t feel right, so it figured my voice would reflect that.
“I don’t know, but they’ll find us,” he answered with his eyes sweeping over me, searching for an injury or a reason for my strange behavior.
Why could’t he find the reason through our link? What was blocking him from seeing how creeped out I was with the woods? Or even that I heard the sounds of twigs snapping and skittering that I swear wasn’t from an animal?
“So why are we still in this realm?” My gaze drifted past Rune to the woods as another twig snapped, the sound echoing. I shivered, goosebumps raising along my arms as the hairs at the back of neck stood. When I looked back at Rune, he showed no sign he heard it. I glanced at Hluti as he moved ahead with Harper settled in front of him like I had once been, and he didn’t show a sign he heard it either.
What the hell was happening?
“Because the last attack happened here, which means the others could still be here. And we just want to talk,” Slátra answered from my other side.
My stomach twisted, and I peered at him, finding him smirking at me. Nothing about him said he wanted totalkto them. Pent-up aggression rolled off him with a dark aura around him, giving me the chills.
Those weren’ttalkingvibes at all. Quite the opposite, actually.
A shiver ran up my spine from the mental image of all the things he’d do that didn’t involve talking. From what happened earlier, I knew what he was capable of.
“Shouldn’t we leave this realm and hide?” I asked, knowing in my gut they didn’t want to hide. Something had shifted at some point between me coming back from the dead and now. They were rushing to get somewhere or something.
Slátra frowned and shook his head. His braided blond hair swung with the motion, and he tsked, wagging his finger like a parent would.
He shot me a feral smile. “‘No lamb for the lazy wolf, and no battle’s won in bed.’Hiding is for the weak. We’ll go to them and take care of the problem.”
