Chapter 1 #2
I sighed, the tension in my shoulders easing slightly.
“Where are we going?” I asked. “We can’t run forever, and I’d prefer to find shelter before it starts raining.”
“Raining?” Ace looked at the sky with fluffy white clouds. “It’s not going to rain for a while. We have time.”
“The weather changes quickly here, remember? Fall is upon us. The rain is going to set in soon.” I pointed at one of the clouds with a gray bottom inching closer. “See how the bottom of that one is darker? The gray?”
He nodded.
“It’s precipitating, but the rain is probably just going to spit a little.
The clouds behind that one will be even darker and bring the real rain.
We need shelter.” I didn’t really need to explain this to Ace.
He grew up in this forest, too, but it gave me a sense of control and knowledge when I felt I had none.
“I know a place.” He turned and started walking, his pace brisk, but not unmanageable.
I followed, but I wished to phaan I had another option.
I’d lost count on how many times I’d been attacked by hunters, and the attacks started around the time this guy walked back into my life. He’d suggested once the queen had sent him to Perga to protect me, but part of me still struggled to trust Ace.
I scanned the forest. I didn’t often go into this section. It was a buffer area between the forbidden forest and the hunting grounds. It also carried on farther north than the area I patrolled. Where was Ace taking us?
And why would he know this place when I didn’t?
“I think you have some explaining to do,” I called out and quickened my pace to catch up.
He glanced down at me and raised a dark eyebrow. “I don’t believe I owe you any explanations. Besides, how would I maintain my air of mystery?”
Air of mystery? I snorted. “How do you know this area?”
“Don’t you trust me?” His lips quirked up at the corners.
“Not at all and you know it. Things aren’t making sense, and I need you to make them make sense.
I’ve never seen you in this section of the forest, at least not growing up, and certainly not after you left.
If hunting night bunnies was any indication, you have a little more than the basic skills of living off the land and yet here you are, leading me into a remote, unpopulated area of the forest I know nothing about. ”
He sighed, his shoulders dropping, his grip on Nala relaxing.
“Do you need a break?” I asked, abandoning my interrogation.
He scowled before lifting his chin. “Maybe.”
I waved at a cluster of rocks and bushes lining the path up ahead. The sun was already at noon directly overhead and we hadn’t slept yet. I was exhausted. He had to be, too.
“Those rocks look like as good a place as any,” I said. “Maybe we should set up on the other side and take a nap?”
“Are you tired, Mouse?”
I’d had that short nap before we went to my brother’s place and then ultimately got attacked, but that wasn’t enough to replenish my energy.
Ace paused and looked down, his dark gaze studying my body. He cursed and walked off the path to the area behind the boulders. He gently set Nala on the mossy ground. She whimpered a little before rolling onto her side. That was actually a good sign. She hadn’t made any sounds before.
As my familiar, she should be healing as fast as me, but something happened. Ever since she was struck with a poisoned arrow, she hadn’t been the same.
Familiar-bound galeons and phaanons like myself were supposed to be unkillable, but being “unkillable” was a little misleading.
There had to be ways for galeons and phaanons to die as there was a whole war between the two groups that saw horrific fatalities.
And to prove that point, bonded galeons had been turning up dead.
When an immortal died, their familiar died with them. If Nala died, would I be facing my own mortality? Would I even want to survive?
Were phaanons affected the same way as galeons? After the galeons won the war, they erased all trace of the phaanons. History was written by the victors, after all, and any whispers about phaanons were dismissed as superstition or flat-out lies.
But these whispers endured.
Some people spoke of the phaanons as a diverse group of magical beings—not just immortals, but other kinds of supernaturals as well—ones who shifted into animals, ones who sustained their life on the energy of others, ones who harnessed the power of the moon to cast spells.
Some said not all the phaanons died in the war and escaped back to the land where it all started.
If any accurate information existed on my own kind and our familiars, I wouldn’t find it in Perga or Wast where the pureblood galeon King Oberon and Queen Titania ruled.
“What do you think is wrong with Nala?” I asked. “She was doing better before the fire.”
“It must be smoke inhalation. I don’t know of anything we can do for her other than what we’re currently doing. Fresh air should help clear her lungs.”
I nodded. “I’m so confused right now. I feel like we’re missing something.”
“In addition to your brother and the healer?”
I really couldn’t think about my brother right now.
It made my stomach twist and my heart hurt.
“Of course, I’m worried about Paul and Rye,” I said.
“We still don’t know where Paul is, and Rye chose to run toward danger because he thinks his balm is going to save me.
I said I’m fine. I am fine, and now he’s not only placing himself in more danger, but us as well.
He might lead the hunters straight to us. ”
“No one will find us.” Ace sounded so strong and sure. Not exhausted and weary like me. I wanted to believe him. I really did.
But did he not see the mess we made or the trail behind us? “We literally left a dust cloud in our wake.”
“After our break, we’ll cover our tracks.”
I sat down on the ground beside Nala and rested my head on the boulder. “That means Rye won’t be able to find us either. He should’ve stayed with us.”
“I’m not worried about him.” Ace studied me for a long moment before he bent and sat down a few feet away. He stretched his arms across his body, one at a time. “I already knew Onion was an idiot, but what I don’t understand is why you don’t need the healing balm.”
Ace didn’t like or trust Orion, but the healer hadn’t given him any reason to feel that way, nor had he done anything to deserve such a ridiculous nickname.
“Mouse?” Ace narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t you need the healing balm?”
I shrugged and shut my eyes. I hadn’t told anyone about my epiphany. “The arrow wasn’t laced.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You are. Every time you lie your voice changes.”
I popped open my eyes to glare at him.
He raised his hands in mock surrender before dropping them to his sides. He rested his head back on the boulder.
“I don’t know why.” I admitted. “But I sensed right away this arrow wasn’t going to hurt me like the last one.”
“You have to have some sort of idea,” Ace said.
“Rye said the magic involved has to be from a pureblood galeon or phaanon. I think I share the same bloodline as the person who created the poison.” I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“What does that mean?”
“Somehow my family is involved. Maybe my parents aren’t dead.
” And maybe they were using my brother’s blood, or theirs or mine.
My kind were systematically destroyed on sight for generations.
The purge was so prolific and thorough, the means of how galeons killed immortal phaanons had been lost. How my brother and I existed was still a mystery I had yet to solve.
Ace nodded, seemingly taking in the information.
“You still didn’t explain how you have a place,” I said, breaking the silence.
He sighed and closed his eyes. “I used to hunt outlaws for the king. That brought me into town quite often, but because I often hunted rogue, unbonded mortals who were closely connected with the community, I had to keep to the shadows. My anonymity contributed to my success as an assassin. As for how I know of a place… Well, it is one of the places I lived. You always patrolled the forbidden forest. Human hunters and immortals alike spend time in the hunting grounds. This section of forest lies beyond your scouting range and is often overlooked and unpopulated by hunters due to its distance from Perga, Wast and Vitor.”
My mouth felt open. Had I been remiss in my coverage, too narrowminded that an assassin had slipped past me on a regular basis? Too focused to notice Ace lurking in the shadows?
Ace shrugged and kicked a rock. It bounced along the moss a few times before settling.
“Don’t feel too bad, Mouse,” he said. “I have no doubt you could’ve and would’ve tenaciously hunted me down if I had come anywhere close to the familiars.”
“I thought you said you didn’t believe any of the stories about me.”
“I lied.” His lips turning up at the corners. “But unlike you, I do it well.”
I pressed my lips together. “I noticed.”
He turned his head to study me. His hair had fallen in front of his face, but it couldn’t hide the glint in his mahogany gaze. “What are you going to do about it?”
My heart fluttered and I hated that it wasn’t out of anger. Ignoring the tightness circling my chest, I said, “Right now? I plan to close my eyes and take a nap.”
He chuckled, but if he said anything else I missed it because sleep had already taken over.