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“Well.” Spencer grimaced, his hand falling back to his side. “Let’s just go with her.”
“You can’t.” I corrected, “I mean, not all the way. My friend—there’s dangerous people where I’m going. You can come with me part of the way, but not all the way.”
“Oh.” Both gave me alarming looks.
I didn’t want to go alone anymore, but they couldn’t go all the way with me. The Mori would kill them, if they hadn’t already killed their group. But if they went alone—I didn’t know if that was safe either. My allies and I were the only ones I knew that wouldn’t harm them. Whoever these guys were, whatever fucked-up kind of karma that put them in the middle of this war, I needed to
protect them. Or I had to try, at least.
The decision was made then.
I nodded at them. “You should come with me, at least as far as its safe. If you find your group, I’ll keep going it alone.”
Cal cocked his head to the side. “What are you doing out here?”
Saving my potential ex-best friend.
Saving the world.
Saving myself.
None of those answers sufficed. I only said, “Just looking for a friend.”
The small surprise both had when they first saw me was wearing off. I didn’t know if it was my doom and gloom attitude that I couldn’t seem to shake, or if the Mary Jane was wearing off. Either way, both seemed more wary of me than they had been in the beginning.
Or maybe they were just realizing the absolutely fucked-up situation they were in.
I was going with the latter, and with that cheerful thought, I started up the trail, and after a few moments of hesitation, they did as well.
My two new besties and I hiked most of the night. The full moon gave us enough light until we got to a large canopy of trees. No light got through so we were forced to camp out. Cal and Spencer had large hiking bags, and they came in handy. They had an extra blanket, and when they pulled out a tarp, and after securing it between two trees, I snuggled into their makeshift hammock. It was blissful.
Sleeping in the cave had been—well, I’d been out of it. I don’t know if was restful, but this was. I almost professed my love for these two lost hikers, but sleep overtook me, and it wasn’t till morning when I woke again.
Once my eyelids opened, I felt The Immortal again.
It was amazing. It was fabulous. It was about-freaking-time!
I jerked to a sitting position. The blanket fell to my lap and I could feel everything. We were half a mile away from a river. I could sense the fish in there, all the berries on the way that we could eat. Beyond the river, was Mori territory. I thought it didn’t start till after the mountain, but we were just on the precipice of it. The steep incline for the mountain started right behind the river, and as I realized that, alarm bells started ringing in my head. My brief moment of euphoria was snatched away.
I couldn’t go over that river with these guys. We must’ve gone farther than I expected last night, and we discussed our plans before sleeping last night. We were supposed to trek around the last mountain, then they were going to head north where they thought their group was, and I was going to keep going east to where the Mori were.
“Morning!” Spencer held a hand up, bent over by the fire. He was stirring a pot over it. His hair was wet and he had a changed his clothing. Seeing my lingering gaze on his hair, he grinned and pointed to the top of his head. “I took a quick dip. There’s a river half a mile thatta way.” Twisting around, he pointed in the direction I hoped he wouldn’t have. I’d been hoping he said there was a different river. I could’ve led them that way instead, but nope. He’d been closer to the Mori than I ever wanted him to be.
I took a beat and pushed the small panic aside, then I smelled coffee.
Wait—coffee? I sniffed the air, and scrambled out of the tarp. “Oh my God.” I started for him.
Spencer’s grin spread. There was an extra pan sitting at the bottom of his feet and he moved back. “Yep. Instant coffee.” He lifted a spoon of it and poured it into a thermos he’d taken out of his bag. I couldn’t even let him fill it. I grabbed it after the first scoop and guzzled it. “Oh hey.” He laughed, taken aback by my quickness. He blinked a couple times. “You must’ve been out here longer than you thought, huh?”
I closed my eyes, savoring the taste of the coffee grounds. I stuck my nose into the cup and inhaled the aroma of it. My euphoria was back, and I held the thermos back to him, a dreamy smile on my face. “I declare it here and now. I love you.”
“You love me?” he teased back, taking the cup from me.
“And I’ll worship you forever if you have more in there I can drink.”
“Ha!” He was already reaching for the pan. “I’ll take you up on that. I got my heart crushed before going on this trip. Knowing one girl worships me does wonders for my ego.” He poured three more scoops into the thermos before the spoon scraped the bottom of the pan. “Oh.” He peered inside, and grimaced. “It’s half full. Sorry about that.”
He held it out to me, and I took it, sinking down to the ground beside him. Good God. Being The Immortal should’ve allowed me to make coffee out of nothing. I needed to work on that magic. Screw protecting vampires or Kates. I needed to look out for my caffeine needs first.
