Chapter 9
We stayed at the cabins until the next morning and by the way Isla huffed and stomped about, it was more of a point of proving who was in charge. Though I didn’t hear Veyyr and his witch argue—I was more than happy to stay in my own cabin—Harrison was pale the next morning.
“Not a good sleep?” I asked as I chewed on a bit of dried fruit Lucky had given me for my pack the night before.
He glanced over his shoulder at the cabin. We were the only two up. “They argue a lot.”
That was a polite way of saying there had been another screaming match. Even with Isla shadowing their conversation, the actual reverberations of Veyyr’s voice bellowing had reached me.
“Couples do that, especially when they both think they are in charge.” I frowned wondering if it was my own marriage I’d drawn that from.
“Oh, they aren’t…she would like but…” Harrison cleared his throat. “It’s complicated? She kinda works for our mom and…”
I held up a hand. “Messy, I get it.”
Which explained why she freaked out when I showed up.
Not that I was any great beauty, from what reflections I’d seen in the water and bits of reflective glass.
The real issue was that my reflection didn’t mean anything to me.
Long straight brown hair, a muscled build without a lot of extra padding, a few scars, eyes that were an unforgettable blue.
Average, I was average, nowhere near the feminine beauty that Isla flaunted.
But it wouldn’t matter if she was insecure. “Imagine if I’d shown up in a gown like hers.”
Harrison gave a low whistle. “Oh man, that would have been hot.” His eyes widened and his cheeks went bright pink. “I mean, shit, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. My filter I think might be broken.”
Waving a hand at him, I dismissed it, though what was left of my ego crowed under his accidental confession. “Don’t stress, kid. You want to help me get breakfast?”
I bent my recurve, re-stringing it. Lucky had extra, and I hoped to snag something with substance before we left. Not even so much for the others, but for me, I was craving more than dried fruit and stale bread—even if the popcorn had been amazing.
All the bruises, even my ribs, were aching a bit more today. My belly growled as if it wanted to drive the point home. Fuel to heal. Fuel meant protein.
“Not much around here for game,” Harrison was still pink in the cheeks, but he grabbed a crossbow from the back of the truck and a handful of bolts.
Sorrow let out a low cluck, landed along the edge of the truck box and hopped a few time, talons clicking. “Breaky breaky!”
I wasn’t sure if was trying to say breakfast or break, but either way. “We’ll find something.”
Part of the reason I wanted Harrison with me was I knew that the others wouldn’t leave without him. I’d been awake for over an hour, waiting for someone else to roll out of bed and come with me.
Not that I didn’t trust Isla and Veyyr, but…I didn’t trust either of them.
We headed toward the sparse forest that Veyyr and I had our chat the day before. I chose not to think about the words he’d thrown at me. Or how I was going to get him to spill what he knew about me, or even better why was he keeping it from me? Unique skills?
Could there be a price on my head? Was he taking me along to gain a prize of some sort? I didn’t think so, because if that had been the case he’d have been willing from the beginning.
Something had shifted, specifically out here, when he’d been looking at my hand, and then during the fight.
“You close with your brother?” I asked as we worked our way deeper, past the clearing.
Harrison didn’t answer right away. “Yes and no. That might not make sense but…I know he’d protect me from anything, anything at all. I think…I think he’d die for me. But he doesn’t talk to me, doesn’t spend time with me.”
Sorrow swept through the branches above our head, a whoosh of his feathers drawing us forward.
I kept quiet, feeling that Harrison had more to say in him.
“My dad.” He flinched as if something had stabbed him in the guts.
“We were close. He’s been gone years now.
Before that, he taught me everything. How to hunt, how to read, how to read…
people. He was close with Veyyr too of course, losing him…
broke our family.” He glanced at me and I kept my face as neutral as I could.
“You thought we’d leave you behind if you went hunting for breakfast without me? ”
I nodded, impressed he’d picked up on it. “Isla would push. Your brother knows me, Harrison. And seeing as I don’t know me, it’s fairly important that I get some answers.” Movement ahead caught my eye and stilled my body.
Not a bird like the karruk, big enough to feed a small village. This bird would be maybe fifteen pounds dressed out and looked very much like a turkey as it roosted in the low branches of a tree about thirty feet from us.
Turkey. A big ass turkey, just sitting there. Waiting to be plucked.
My mouth watered and a memory slipped through the cracks of my mind, the smell of food, laughter, a touch on my arm, lips pressed against my cheek, warmth, safety, a whispered word from the woman who’d been in my head, the one who’d trained me …
congratulations…the sensations were so visceral I sucked in a gasp and gripped my hand tight enough that the ring on my left dug into me some, sending the memory dashing away. “Mal? You okay?”
I lifted the bow and shot before the turkey could fly off, while my heart pounded and my eyes tried to let the tears out. The bird went down barely a feather fluttering. “Fine. Let’s take breakfast back.”
He didn’t press me, just helped dress the bird and tucked it into a sack. Sorrow got some of the entrails which he happily gulped back, all but purring his happiness.
“Cannibal.”
“Waste not.” He croaked as he flew back toward camp.
Harrison watched him go, brown eyes missing nothing. “That’s a weird bird. Even for a sorrowbird.”
I shrugged. “Nothing I can do about it, he’s claimed me as his.” Which was the truth. Sorrow was apparently the one I couldn’t get rid of, even if I wanted to.
No, the irony was not lost on me.
On our way back, we took a different path and found a small cluster of mushrooms, and a trio of wild onions, the tops still vibrantly green for this late in the season. Good enough.
Harrison got a fire going in the one pit central to the cabins, and it took me less than half an hour to get the chunks of turkey cooking, mixed in with the onions, mushrooms, and what few spices Harrison snuck out of the packed truck.
The sizzle and snap of the meat on the pan, the tantalizing curl of fat cooking filled the air, calling to the others.
Lucky was the first one to stumble out. His nose lifted high as he took in big breaths, scenting for the food.
His shirt today was bright red, with black words.
“I don’t have a safe word.”
“What in the love of all that is still good in this world is that smell?” His eyes weren’t even open as he stumbled our way.
I sat on the back of the truck, eating my breakfast, savoring every bite, knowing that the protein was deeply needed on every level. Harrison sat beside me, doing the same. I motioned with a fork that was bent in multiple places. “In the pan.”
The breakfast did more to win me over to Dave and Egan than my fight with Veyyr. Lucky was already my bestie—go me—and Harrison was a sweet kid, not yet broken by the world.
Which left the other two.
By the time Veyyr and Isla emerged, there was enough for one of them, or both if they shared nice.
Harrison slid off the truck. “Mal and I brought in a turkey, cooked it up with onions and mushrooms, there’s still some left, Veyyr.”
Isla’s nose wrinkled. “That smells disgusting.”
Of course it did. I smiled. “Good. I wanted seconds anyway.”
“You used our supplies,” she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest which only spread the already thin material, thinner. “I expect a portion for the Veyyr.”
I scooped everything from the pan onto my plate, then took the fork and pulled a bite free from the mound, offering it to him. “Your witch wants things even Steven. Here’s your mouthful equivalent to the spices I used.”
Veyyr strode past and took Lucky’s plate without looking at me. The corner of his mouth lifted anyway, the kind of almost-smile that wasn’t meant for anyone to see. No one else laughed. I snorted, biting back the humor that no one else caught.
Lucky’s face fell. “Damn it.”
I took the bite I’d offered to Veyyr and then handed the full plate to Lucky. “We packed the rest of the turkey in that cooler you have rigged up.”
Harrison had explained that the cooler ran not on Isla’s magic, but Veyyr’s. Storm driven magic was not something that I figured was common, but man, it was useful.
Lucky choked on a bite. “Wait, there’s more turkey?”
Harrison grinned. “It was like fifteen pounds all dressed out!”
They bantered back and forth about all the things they could make with it, Lucky settling on making a turkey pie when we got some flour, though I didn’t know how that would go.
“We head for Bone Town. Pick up supplies, and then…” Veyyr didn’t look at me, but I knew that he didn’t want me to know just what they were doing. I might be one of them, but still, not really.
Twenty minutes later we were on the road. Me on the back of the bigger bike, Lucky in front of me. “You can hang on as tight as you want, maybe grip me with those thighs of yours? Bestie?”
I gripped the back seat of the bike, perched but comfortable. Sorrow had tucked himself in between me and Lucky like some kind of chaperone. “I don’t want to ruin you, Lucky.”
He threw back his head and laughed into the wind.
Me, I stared out at the landscape going by.
The world stretched out before us in a jagged wound of ruins and the past that would never be again.
Charred bones of buildings jutted from the earth like broken teeth, their once-proud forms hollowed by time, fire, and the earth reclaiming what belonged to it.