by Chloe Jacobs
Turning, Greta grasped the makeshift bowl Ray thrust into her chest. It looked as if it had been made from a smooth, hollowed-out piece of thick tree bark.
“Thanks,” she said.
After sending a warning look in Ray’s direction, Wyatt continued. “Yes, it’s dangerous, but we both agreed months ago that no matter the risk, we couldn’t just leave the rest of those kids to rot under the demon’s thumb. We’ve been trying to put together a plan to free them.”
Greta’s mouth dropped open. She looked back and forth between the two boys—who had obviously lost their minds.
Ray interrupted before she could put the words together to tell them so. “No other human in Mylena has the kind of freedom you’ve enjoyed,” he snarled. “While you were out there working for the very creatures who would like to see your own kind dead or in chains—”
“That’s not true. They’re not all bad, and…” She stopped. “I didn’t know there was anyone else.”
“And that’s supposed to make it all better?”
Wyatt glared at him. “Ray, shove it.”
Greta kept her eyes on Ray. “No, he’s entitled to his anger. We’ve all done what we felt was necessary to survive.”
“That’s easy for you to say when you aren’t the one trapped in chains as a slave in the darkest, dankest dungeon in Mylena. Or forced to run for your life like an animal.”
That may have been true once, but not anymore. She was running just as fast as everyone else. She looked into the bowl of hearty-smelling stew and began eating, but she didn’t taste much. “Maybe you’re right,” she said after forcing herself to swallow. “So what would you have me do about it now?”
He hesitated, looking back at her.
“Stay with us,” Wyatt said.
“Help us free the boys from Agramon,” Ray added.
Greta couldn’t bear to see the cautious hope behind Ray’s scowl. He was serious.
He was also crazy.
Someone had to be the voice of reason.
Someone like you? What you’re planning is just as crazy, maybe more so.
At least she was planning to go after Agramon alone, not risk the lives of a bunch of little kids.
“Let’s say you even stood a chance against this particular breed of badass, even though everything I’ve heard says you wouldn’t last ten minutes. What then?” She hated playing devil’s advocate, but it was the only way Wyatt and Ray—especially Ray—were going to realize the depth of the danger they were talking about getting themselves into.
Ray got to his feet, his face twisting in anger. “I knew she wouldn’t help us.”
Greta slammed her bowl on the log beside her and rose as well. They stood nose to nose. She put her hands on her hips.
There was no point telling him that she was planning to go after Agramon herself—he would only insist on coming along—but someone had to force him to see that he would need more than just anger, determination, and balls in order to make something like this work. He needed an actual plan, something she still hadn’t figured out for herself, damn it. “What are you going to do with all those kids, even if you manage to get them free of the dungeons?”
“What do you mean?” he demanded.
“You know exactly what I mean. How many children are we talking here, besides the ones already bunked up together in these tiny little tents?” She gestured at the entire camp.
“At least twenty or thirty,” Wyatt said, still sitting on the log. “Could be more than that by now.”
“What does it matter if there are a hundred, or just one?” Ray’s voice rose with his temper as he looked between them. “It doesn’t change their suffering. It doesn’t change anything.”
“No, it doesn’t change their suffering,” she agreed. “And it doesn’t change how you feel about having to leave them there. But it changes everything else, Ray. You have to see that.”
He was looking down his nose at her now as if she’d turned into something he wouldn’t even tolerate on the bottom of his shoe. “What do I have to see?”
Wyatt stood beside her. “The same thing I’ve been trying to pound into your thick skull for months.”
He looked at Wyatt as if he’d been betrayed by his own brother.
“Even if you could free them,” she repeated patiently, trying to keep everyone on point. “The eclipse is in just a few days.”
“You mentioned that before,” Wyatt said. “I take it this is a big deal?”
“If you consider everyone in Mylena going moon phase all at once a big deal, then yeah it’s very big. Huge.”
“What do you mean?” Ray asked. “Are you talking about the Lost?”
She shook her head. “The Lost are creatures that succumb to the normal pull of the moons because of weakness in spirit or body, and aren’t strong enough to come back from it. But an eclipse is different. The eclipse forces the moon phase on every creature in Mylena. At the same time.”
Ray gasped. “Everyone?”
She raised her hand. “Well, most. All the ones who’ve reached physical maturity.”
“So you’re saying we’re going to be overrun by an army of rabid nutcases once this thing starts?”
“Something like that. Animals, ghouls, ogres, sprites, gnomes, faeries…goblins. They’re all going to turn. It’s going to be a free-for-all across every inch of this place.”
Greta focused on Ray. “If you thought bounty hunters were bad, what are you going to do when this whole county is hunting us?”
“They don’t know we’re here.”
“They’ll smell you out, don’t doubt it. This little oasis won’t protect you. It won’t be big enough, or safe enough, or hidden enough.”
Wyatt raked his hands through his hair. “Jesus, Ray. No matter how much we want to help the others, this is beyond what we can handle.”
“Be smart, Ray. Use your head.” Greta locked gazes with the passionate teen. She felt as if she had just channeled a little piece of Luke, who’d drilled her constantly to leave her emotions out of any battle she actually wanted to win. It was ironic, considering she was after revenge—a course driven largely by emotion—on the person responsible for his death.
Ray seethed for a long moment. She could practically see the steam coming out his ears and sighed, knowing they hadn’t gotten through to him. But finally, he gave them a sharp nod.
“All right. Smart I can agree with. I know we’ll need a plan—not only for rescuing the others, but for getting all of us out of Mylena afterward—hopefully before the eclipse turns this place into a war zone. But we already know generally where the other Lamia are. It can’t be that hard to find them. And once we’re in the mountains, there are plenty of caves to wait out the eclipse in.”
Hell, he hadn’t understood a word she said. “That’s not a plan, Ray. For something like this, you’d need a miracle. What you’re proposing is impossible, especially given the timeframe.”
“Not impossible,” he said defensively. “Difficult, yes. But I think we can do it. Wyatt and I aren’t experts, but we’ve become comfortable enough with our weapons, and a few of the boys are old enough now…”
“Damn it. No. That I won’t allow,” Wyatt said in a clipped voice.
Ray frowned. The suggestion that they put weapons in the hands of those children left a bad taste in all of their mouths—as it should. And yet after a moment he squared his jaw and continued. “Wyatt, whether we go after the others or wait out the eclipse, they’ll need to learn. Some of them are ready,” he insisted. “This could be our only chance. I know my way around Agramon’s fortress like nobody else. If I can get us inside, we’ll be able to get those kids out, I’m certain of it.”
“How many?” Wyatt stood to face Ray with his hands fisted at his sides. “How many will die in the process? How many will have to be left behind again?”
“I won’t let—”
“You won’t let what? You won’t let yourself be killed? You barely made it out
of there the last time.”
“I can do it, Wyatt. You know I can,” he said.
“What about the rest?” Greta hated ganging up on Ray, but he had to see how doomed this was. “The mountains are treacherous, and we don’t know what kinds of things lurk in those caves you talk about hiding in. And do you honestly think I’d still be here if the Lamia was so easy to find, if portals to earth just popped open whenever you needed one? Like I said, it’s going to take a miracle to accomplish—”
His eyes glowed with the light of the fire. “Well then, isn’t it lucky for us that we found our very own bounty hunter out in the woods today to even out the odds?”
Wyatt stepped between them, eyeing them both warily. “Come on, Ray. Not now.”
“Why not now?” His voice broke on a high note, betraying the depth of his emotion.
Wyatt sighed. “It’s getting late.”
“Listen,” Greta said. “Why don’t I try to give the older boys some weapons training tomorrow? I can’t promise anything, but it might give you guys a better chance when the eclipse comes.”
It was the wrong thing to say. The renewed spark in Ray’s eyes caused the ball of dread in the pit of her stomach to get bigger. She snapped her mouth shut as soon as the words came out, but it was too late.
“Don’t you get your hopes up, Ray. I still haven’t agreed to your plan.” Wyatt turned to her. “But if you’re willing to give them some pointers, I’ll start packing up camp tomorrow so we can leave the glade and find somewhere safer to hunker down. Go on,” Wyatt said to Ray. “Why don’t you get a few hours of sleep and you can take the second watch later on.”
Ray finally nodded. Smart move. The guy had pushed enough buttons for one night.
After he left, Wyatt groaned and rubbed both hands over his face before looking at her. “Do you want to go for a walk? I need to check some things out.”
“Okay, sure.” She shoved her hands in her pockets and shrugged. It was dark, but the sky was clear and the moons were bright. They fell into step beside each other. When they passed by her tent, she stopped. “Do you mind if I grab a few things? I might be able to set some snares. If we’re lucky we’d get a nice surprise for breakfast.”
“Sure, that sounds good.”
She ducked back into the tent without waking Jacob and carefully grabbed her pack and her sword.
“Ready?”
She nodded.
They walked together in silence, stopping every once in a while to set a snare, which wasn’t easy in the dark. Greta started to feel self-conscious when he hadn’t said anything in a long time, so she asked, “Does Jacob play musical sleeping bags with everyone?”
Wyatt chuckled. “He does have a habit of crawling into bed with whoever he’s spent the majority of the day with. Most of the time, that’s Sloane. Don’t worry, I’ll grab him when we go back. He’ll have a hissy fit when he sees boring old Sloane sleeping beside him in the morning.”
Just thinking about it made her smile. He was too cute, that kid.
“You’re real pretty when you smile, you know that?”
She stopped in her tracks and glanced away, uncertain how to respond. Maybe he would think she was scoping out the forest floor for a good place to plant the last snare.
“But I guess ‘pretty’ doesn’t matter much to a bounty hunter, does it?”
Wyatt was blushing when she looked back up. She noticed the flecks of gold in his warm brown eyes—so different from Isaac’s bolder, violet stare. She couldn’t help comparing the two of them. Both of them were strong. Both of them seemed chained to their obligations. But where one was darkly intense and went out of his way to push every button she had, the other was easygoing and so sweet it made her chest ache.
“Um, no. I’m not pretty.” Her voice was barely audible. Embarrassed, she thought about the dozens of scars that proved it and started walking again, a little faster. In a louder, breezy voice, she said, “And you’re right, it doesn’t really matter.”
He took a few long steps to catch up with her, hands stuffed in his pockets as he looked down at the ground in front of them.
She took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t be allowed back inside your camp, Wyatt. There are so many things after me right now, I’m only putting you and everyone else in danger.”
“I think we both know there’s a more pressing danger on the horizon, and you’re our best hope of staying clear of it.”
She stopped and faced him, shaking her head. “You don’t even know me. Just because I’m human doesn’t make me a good person, doesn’t mean you should trust me.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t. You can’t,” she said. “I heard stories about other humans in Mylena, but I never looked very hard for them. You want to know why?”
“You don’t have to explain.”
“Because it was easier. Even if I suspected the truth, I was more worried about myself than any of you.”
“That’s nothing to be ashamed of. You didn’t know anything for sure. Your first priority was to survive.”
“You don’t get it. Nothing’s changed. I can’t stay. I have to—”
He grabbed her shoulders and squeezed. “Hey. We did okay on our own. And although I’m glad you’re here now, I promise not to ask for more than you can give. Whenever you need to go, just…go.”
She didn’t know what to say. He was the embodiment of patience and honor. Greta didn’t want to be there when she failed him and that patience turned to hate and disgust. She blew out a breath and pretended to pick at a smudge of dirt on her coat.
Wyatt took pity on her and stepped away. “You haven’t said how you got stuck here. How did you become a bounty hunter?”
He deserved to hear her story after he had told her his own. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
“Never mind,” he said, letting her off the hook. “It’s okay, I understand.”
That only made her feel worse. “No,” she rushed to say, grabbing his sleeve. “It’s just…I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone the whole story before. I mean…Luke, but—”
“Luke?”
“He found me.” It was as good a place as any to start. “I fell through the portal when I tried to save my little brother from the witch—and in that at least, I succeeded. I remember pushing him out of the way just in time, although I don’t remember much else. I think I blacked out.”
“That would make sense.”
“When I came to, it was dark and cold. I was alone. I didn’t notice the snow at first, just stumbled out of a cave. It wasn’t until I looked up at the sky and saw the two moons that I started to get confused.” She stopped and looked up. “But I thought I was just imagining things, or it was some trick of the light, like Aurora Borealis. Until morning came and there were also two suns. Even then, I kept expecting to take one more step and look around to find myself on my grandfather’s doorstep.”
“You weren’t greeted by Agramon’s welcome wagon and taken to his fortress?”
Greta felt guilty now for having been spared that particular horror when he and all of the rest had suffered under Agramon’s thumb for so long—were still suffering.
“I didn’t even know there was a fortress until you guys mentioned it. I wandered around in the woods for days—I’m not even sure how many. I got so weak and disoriented I could barely walk.” She shot him a wry grin. “Sneakers, blue jeans, and a cotton t-shirt had not prepared me for Mylean weather.”
“Tell me about it.” He chuckled in response. “Luckily, I was wearing hiking boots and some rugged backpacking gear when I came through, but I didn’t get to keep them once Agramon’s gnomes scoped them out.”
She glanced down at Wyatt’s all-purpose leather boots. They were the same boots every sensible Mylean wore, although his were practically threadbare, the soles held on with twine wrapped around his feet. “Yeah, there are definitely some things I would have packed along if I’d known where I was going to end up th
at afternoon.”
“So what happened?”
She grimaced. “A wraith happened. I was nearly delirious with hunger and sick with a fever when my wandering took me somewhere I shouldn’t have gone. Luke is the reason I survived—and not just because he happened to be on that wraith’s trail and was able to get to it before it got to me.” She paused, waited for the wave of grief that bubbled to the surface to subside back to a manageable ache. “Afterward, he took me home with him. Got me better…and then he taught me how to survive.”
“It sounds like you cared about him.”
“Yeah, but…it wasn’t easy. He was hard to like. Always pushing. Always telling me how I could do better. How I could be harder. That my human weaknesses would end up being the death of me.”
“Harsh. You were just a kid.”
“That’s what I said. There were days when I screamed at him to leave me alone. But that only made him more obnoxious. Especially when he laughed in my face and taunted me with what would happen if he left me on my own.”
“What kinds of things did he teach you?”
“Swords and other weapons. To be stealthy, smart, and strong. And never let emotion be my master.” And she was a real pro at that one, wasn’t she?
“He’s gone now, isn’t he? He died?”
She crouched in the snow and fiddled with the last snare, glad he couldn’t see her face. When she stood up, it took a few seconds to swallow her frustration.
“It’s okay to be angry with him,” he said. “He was your family, and then he left you here by yourself.”
Family. What a strange word. “It wasn’t as if he had a choice.” Inside, she seethed. How could he do that to her? How could he just give up and let go?
“I don’t think it matters what we know. What we feel often has no rationality.”
She sighed. “How did you get to be so intuitive stuck out here with a bunch of roughneck, hormonal teenage boys?”
He chuckled. “Oh don’t worry, I can belch and swear with the best of them, too, although Sloane currently holds the title in foul language. He’s been here since he was only eleven, and without any….uh…softening influences. Now he’s decided becoming a man means using the most vulgar words as often as possible. Fortunately, while his vocabulary is vast, he doesn’t understand what half of it means.”