Chapter 39 #3
“You’re doin’ great, Emmy,” Sable murmured at one point.
I glanced at my brother to see something soft and pained on his face as he studied Sable, but then he swallowed hard and looked back at me.
By the time Sable finished, I was exhausted.
Roe hovered beside me as the others packed their little camp with the stolen horses and mules.
There were enough horses for all seven of us to have our own, but Wolf took one look at my drooping eyelids and told me I was riding with him.
I didn’t argue. I did not want to go tumbling off the horse again.
“How far away are we?” I asked as Wolf settled in the saddle behind me.
“Probably about three days ride,” he answered, clucking at our horse to start moving.
Wolf and I took the front, then Lee, Roe, Sable, Kai, the string of mules and the extra horse, and finally, Tuck.
I wanted to ask him some more questions, but I fell asleep almost immediately and didn’t wake up until we stopped at midday.
After a brief rest and some food, we saddled back up.
Roe was with Lee now since he’d been close to drifting off earlier, and when I glanced back about ten minutes later, he was already asleep.
Lee gave me a soft smile, and I returned it, feeling lighter than I had in a long time.
“So Mac can read minds, huh?” Wolf suddenly asked.
I froze, unsure of how to answer him, and he huffed a laugh.
“He told us, Em. It’s okay. He had to explain how the hell he knew where you were.”
“How did you find me?” I asked the question that had been plaguing me.
He was quiet for a few breaths. “What does it feel like when you use your powers?” he asked in a low voice instead of answering.
I frowned in confusion. “Um, warm. It feels like this warm, golden light goes from my chest, down my arms, and out my hands. Why?”
“I’ve always been good at tracking, but this felt… different.” He paused. “We got through that wall in the tower and found you gone. Nemo told us there was a vast network of caverns and tunnels under the watchtower. He advised Mac not to follow that way because he’d get lost, but I…”
I glanced up at him to see him frowning.
“I could see this faint golden glimmer disappearing into the darkness. No one else could see it, but it looked like a thin, shimmery golden thread. I said I was going through the tunnels. Nemo didn’t like it, but he didn’t try to stop us.
Mac said he’d take the rovers and go above ground, and me and the Fangs took the tunnels. I swear?—”
“The Fangs?” I interrupted.
“That’s the name of my crew,” he explained.
My heart started beating faster, and a faint memory came back to me. “The Fangs…are you the ones who took down Mad Dog?”
He hesitated a moment. “Yes.”
I stared at the passing trees without seeing them.
I remembered now. I remembered Juck talking about the Fangs, one of the most sought-after groups of bounty hunters, talented trackers who never failed, and lethal killers who were capable of taking down an entire garrison by themselves.
Rumors of who paid the Fangs to take out Mad Dog had been flying, and the delicate balance of alliances had become even shakier for a while.
Juck had bitched about it—how so many jobs were put on hold because no one was sure if the warlords were going to turn on each other.
“Was it a job?” I whispered.
“No,” Wolf sounded darkly pleased. “That was revenge.”
I sat quietly, absorbing that. It was jarring to think of my straight-laced older brother executing someone out of revenge, but I had to admit I was still holding onto assumptions about him.
We’d both changed so much in the past twelve years, and I couldn’t blame him.
Not after what Sable had gone through—Sable and his sister.
“Sable and I…we bonded over the fact that we’d both lost our sisters,” Wolf finally added in a low voice. “He didn’t ask us to help him take Mad Dog down. We volunteered.”
“Did you free the slaves?”
“Yes.”
I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat.
“The first time Juck took a load of slaves to him, I’d only been with him for about a month.
I tried to sneak out at night and open the trailer, but I got caught.
In front of all the Reapers, he stripped me naked and beat me with his belt until I passed out. ” I pressed my trembling lips together.
His arms tightened around me, and I could hear his teeth grinding. We rode in silence for almost a full minute before I spoke again.
“Do you ever feel guilty about killin’ people? Even bad people?” I whispered.
He was quiet for a few seconds, then answered, “Yes.”
“I do, too,” I confessed.
“About Madame?”
“And Juck.”
“You killed Juck?” he asked.
I couldn’t tell from his voice what he was thinking, but I wondered if he was remembering how they found Juck’s dead body. “Yeah.”
“Good,” he said in a low, vicious voice.
It felt like a weight fell from my shoulders, and I took a deep, shaky breath. Trey and my crew had all said similar things when they found out I killed Juck, but for some reason, Wolf’s reaction was the one I’d needed.
“Wait, go back to the tunnels,” I said, realizing I’d derailed what he’d been trying to tell me. “You saw a golden light?”
“Oh, right. So I saw the thread and somehow knew it was you. So I followed it. The tunnels, more like caverns, had so many branching paths, but that golden thread led us straight through the maze. When we got aboveground, I thought for sure it’d fade in the daylight, but it didn’t.
It led us to you. In a few places, it got snarled, and once it disappeared, but I found it again.
It stopped at the Voiceless camp, though.
I don’t know why it didn’t show me where you were in the woods. ”
“Do you think it’s a power?” I asked, my mind spinning.
“It felt… otherworldly, but…” he made a frustrated noise. “I don’t know how to describe it, but it felt so familiar at the same time.”
“I understand that,” I murmured, thinking of Mac.
“So it’s me, Zana, Mac, Clarity, Hawk, and Sky who got powers?”
I remembered Hawk’s screams, and my stomach turned. “As far as I know.”
“We should probably have a serious talk with Nemo when we get back.”
I made a noise of agreement, but my mind drifted back to Menace. I wished I would have asked him his name. I desperately wanted to ask Wolf about him. If he’d been friends with Dune, Wolf would have known him. But before I said anything about Menace to my brother, I needed to talk to Mac.
Mac.
I could still hear the fear and desperation in his voice as he called to me when Sax was taking me away. He was probably beside himself, and I wanted to let him know I was okay.
I’m comin’, sweetheart. Hold on.
The eleven stones still hidden inside my pocket seemed to hum and pulse, almost like a heartbeat.
I pressed my palm against them, willing it to stop, and after a moment, the sensation faded away.
I struggled to swallow, my mouth suddenly dry.
What the fuck were they? I hadn’t said a word about them to anyone, and I didn’t really know why.
It was almost like… like the stones themselves didn’t want me to reveal their presence.
I shivered.
“You ok?” Wolf asked.
“I’m fine.”