This would be faster. Mom is always complaining that Dad never stops and asks for directions. What’s the big deal?
Big deal is trouble. We protect Spring!
Okay. Fine. We’ll let them pass, then climb the stupid tree and hope we see something!
He backed away from the road and crouched, waiting for the men to pass. He followed the group with his eyes, sighing as they rumbled past, before rising to his feet. He would just double back to Spring and let her?—
Thwack.
A sharp sting bloomed in his rear flank.
“Yowch!” he yelped, spinning around. His vision blurred slightly, his legs wobbling underneath him.
He looked down.
A thin wooden dart protruded from his hindquarters.
What the?—?
Thwack.
Another dart struck just below his shoulder. He staggered. The world tilted sideways. Panic roared in his chest as his legs gave out beneath him.
No. No, no, no?—
He collapsed face-first onto the forest floor. Dirt smeared across his muzzle, but he couldn’t move. Couldn’t call out a warning. The edges of his vision frayed like paper curling over fire.
Footsteps thundered toward him.
A shadow passed overhead.
Rough hands flipped him over. His eyes tried to focus, but the world smeared around him like wet paint.
“Well, would you look at that,” a man’s voice chuckled, low and greasy. “I ain’t never seen no cat like this one. You think it might be one of Nali’s monsters?”
“Could be. Bet the Pirate King would pay a mint for him if he is,” another voice said.
“He don’t got no collar. He must be one of the Empress’s creatures. I don’t want to mess with her. I agree with Bones. We sell him to Ashure. The Empress won’t kill him.”
Roam hissed weakly, baring his fangs—but it came out more like a sigh.
Stupid, stupid, he thought bitterly. I should’ve waited longer. I should’ve let Spring shift. I should’ve stayed close. I should’ve thought…
His vision wavered, dimming until everything went black.
Spring paced at the forest’s edge, her boots digging shallow divots into the mossy ground. Back and forth. Back and forth. Her fingers twisted around each other like vines tightening around a tree trunk.
Roam should have been back by now.
She tilted her head, scanning the treetops. A fine mist drifted through the canopy, swirling like ghost-breath between the branches. The longer she stood still, the louder her heartbeat was.
He said he’d only be a few minutes.
She should never have let him go alone. What was I thinking? I let pride—or affection—blind me to the risks?
Her jaw clenched. She should have just shifted. She should have taken to the sky, circled once, spotted the castle—and been done with it.
But no. Roam had insisted on climbing, and she hadn’t wanted to bruise his pride. He was trying so hard to be protective. So hard to be something more than a boy she wrestled with in the palace gardens.
