Chapter 32
“Never spend a night alone in the woods. No matter the District, no matter the Quadrant. No matter how safe you might feel. Too many things go hunting at night.”
Journals of Warden Michael Keane
She was collecting regrets like ticks on a dog.
Everything around them blurred together into a curtain of browns and greens in the thickening dark. Her backpack repeatedly swung into her lower back, no doubt leaving a bruise, and her thighs still ached from fleeing an evil spirit the day before.
“This region is full of ash trees, you know. White ash, to be specific.” Nic had been rambling on for the better part of an hour.
It was more painful than the chafing of her jeans, and at least those protected her from the thorns and brambles.
“They’re very common in various religions and mythologies.
Some say Yggdrasil, the sacred tree in Norse mythology, was an ash tree. ”
“Your plant knowledge truly knows no bounds.” She trudged along behind him, eyes fixed to the yellow beam of her flashlight on the ground ahead to keep from tripping again.
Nic didn’t skip a beat, undeterred by her sarcasm, “I’m curious as to its importance to the witches in this area. I should ask Opal when we return.”
“If we return,” Alexys grumbled.
“Must you always be such a grouch?”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s awfully presumptuous of you.”
Despite her near-constant protesting, it was nice to have some company. Nic’s companionship, annoying as it may be, felt like a barrier between herself and the horrors lurking in the shadows. She just wished his repository for plant knowledge would soon empty.
She was about to suggest to Nic that Entity should begin installing tracking chips in their Wardens to avoid this type of situation ever happening again when Nic threw out an arm so quickly she ran into it. Alexys opened her mouth to complain, but Nic shushed her.
“Look,” he whispered, pointing out into the dense trees with his finger rather than his flashlight.
Alexys squinted into the darkness. She scanned the trees for something that might stand out.
Then she spotted it.
Creeping through the foliage, a dark shape leaped past, its steps eerily silent on the forest floor. Alexys watched as the Black Dog lifted its head and looked right at them, luminous blue eyes pinning them in place.
Nic’s breath audibly caught beside her.
The Black Dog shook itself, the way any other dog would shake off rain, slipped seamlessly into the shadows of the trees, and vanished.
Nic let out a soft, disbelieving laugh and looked at her. His eyes were bright with excitement. “Did you see that?”
“See what?” She shoved aside his arm and shook her head. “Of course I saw it! It was staring right at us.”
“I’ve always wanted to see a Black Dog. They’re absolutely fascinating.” Nic stared off into the distance, smiling wistfully. “What a treat.”
Alexys regarded him with disbelief. Leave it to Nic to think a graveyard spirit was a treat. “Dyre, that thing could’ve killed us.”
He looked down at her, his excitement not dimming in the slightest. “But it didn’t,” he argued. Alexys rolled her eyes. “Lighten up, Keane. Not all monsters want to eat you.”
She scoffed. “Sure. Just most of them.”
They continued bickering as they walked on, debating the likelihood of an unprovoked Black Dog attack when they were interrupted by the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance.
Nic frowned up at the sky. “Well, that doesn’t sound good.”
Alexys sighed. As if things could get any worse.
“I don’t suppose you thought to bring a raincoat,” Nic said. It wasn’t a question, but more of a stated observation on her lack of forethought.
“Of course not,” she answered, tone falsely chipper. “I didn’t think to pack anything useful, remember? I didn’t think to check the weather, I suck at packing, and I’m essentially the worst traveler you’ve ever met. Did I miss anything?”
“If it makes you feel any better, I hadn’t considered checking the weather either. I wasn’t actually expecting a multi-day camping trip.”
It didn’t help.
Thunder sounded again, much closer than before, and Alexys silently cursed it.
Her shit luck had to run out at some point, right?
Wrong.
They barely made it ten feet before the rain started to fall.
At first it was a drizzle, a light smattering of rain they could ignore as they walked. But the thunder rumbled overhead, the rain grew heavier, and they were soon soaked and rushing for cover.
They tried to take shelter under the trees, but the rain was falling in sheets, easily breaking through the dense canopy. They were both drenched in a matter of moments.
“Perfect!” Alexys cried over the sound. “Now what?” Nic scanned the trees with his flashlight, and he used it to cast light around them.
“Look, over there.” He pointed. She followed his light and his gaze. They ran between the trees and into what appeared to be a small cave carved into the side of the dark mountain.
Alexys was too grateful for the shelter to protest. She darted inside and relished being out of the rain and away from the Black Dogs lurking in the trees.
Nic held up the dripping map he’d been using when the rain started and watched a section of the soaked paper pull free and splat to the ground. “Brilliant.”
She sighed and pushed her dripping hair out of her face, trying not to snap at him for having the map out in the first place. He grumbled to himself about the map, stomping off into the cave.
Alexys ignored him, charging past and deeper into the cave.
It was cold, the kind of cold that ignores your clothing and seeps into your skin to leave goosebumps in its wake.
She walked toward the center of the cavernous space and marveled at how large it was, deceptively so with the dome-shaped ceiling and light-swallowing darkness further inside.
It smelled like damp earth and clean stone, and the shift from forest to the cave was startling.
She shivered.
“I suppose we should make a fire.” Nic rummaged around in his bag and managed to produce a lighter.
“Alright, boy scout.” Alexys returned to his side, a teasing grin on her lips. “Show me your skills.”
“Duke of Edinburgh,” Nic grumbled to himself.
She would have continued to make fun of him, but his skills were swiftly made apparent.
Nic collected dry sticks from inside the shelter and built a decent looking fire near the cave’s opening, allowing the smoke to filter out instead of choking them.
She murmured a thanks and watched him rummage for more goods in his pack.
Alexys would’ve been lying to herself if she said it was his skills that she was observing so keenly. In truth, white shirts should be illegal, especially when wet.
His t-shirt clung to his shoulders and back in a way that was outrageously enticing. When he knelt down to light the fire and the fabric pulled across his back, her mouth went dry. She panicked and turned away.
That was Nic.
She nearly palmed her forehead. Maybe all the trekking had actually reduced oxygen flowing to her brain. What else could possibly explain this strange, inexplicable … attraction.
Nope.
No way.
Not her pain in the ass coworker and unwanted travel companion. No way was she thinking about how delicious he looked in a wet t-shirt. Sure, he was objectively attractive, but she’d never thirsted after the man.
Without permission, she pivoted and her traitorous eyes drifted back over to Nic.
She was horrified to find him looking at her—looking quite pleased with himself.
He crossed his arms over his chest which did terribly wonderful things to his biceps.
Nic’s smugness did little to temper the attraction. If anything, it somehow made it worse.
Dear God, was his confidence attractive, too?
She was dying! There was something toxic in the rain, and it was killing her! She needed to get out of the woods before she did something insane like tell Nic she thought he was hot. She could have laughed, or screamed, or cried. Or all three.
She cleared her throat and skirted around Nic, too nervous to say anything to him, and crouched down beside the fire he’d built. She held her hands out as the chill she’d been battling started to recede.
“Leave it to the hermit to be a survival expert,” she teased, but she did actually want to compliment him for being useful.
Close enough.
“Uh huh, you’re just jealous I bring more to the table.” Nic’s smile didn’t waver.
“Oh, yeah,” Alexys quipped. “Put that on your dating profile: shut-in know-it-all with a caffeine addiction and survival skills.”
“I’m flattered you care so much about my dating life, Keane.”
She balked. “What? No I don’t.” She felt the warmth in her cheeks. The ultimate betrayal.
He leaned back on his hands, the light of the campfire dancing along the long lines of his body. “Sure you don’t.”
Her earlier, scandalous thoughts about his tight shirt reared their head, and her mind scrambled to think of anything else.
Literally anything.
“You’re already married to your work, Dyre. There’s no hope for you.”
“Maybe I haven’t met the right person yet.” He cocked his brow at her.
Lord.
Deciding she wasn’t going to touch that topic with a ten-foot pole, Alexys stood and busied herself with laying out her sleeping bag. She sat on top of the slick fabric, hoping the small fire would dry her clothes enough while they waited out the rain. Nic was, blessedly, silent.