It’s something I suspect I won’t enjoy.
“You need to leave,” he repeats what he said last night in the room, when I didn’t even want to pay attention to his words. Only now, he’s much more serious. “Tonight, you take the car and drive back to Seattle. We say it’s a medical emergency.”
“The hell if I’m leaving,” I spit back, rage, taking control of my senses. “We’re here for a reason.We.”
“Fucking listen to me, I think we’re in danger,” he continues, ignoring my objection. “I can handle it—whatever it is, but I need to keep you safe.”
“Keep me safe?” I repeat, like I haven’t heard things right. “After everything we’ve been through. After taking you on in Kharon, you still think I’m so fragile that I need protection?”
His jaw tightens, muscles pulsing beneath his skin. “This isn’t about your capabilities. It’s about what I’ve seen in McAllister’s eyes. The way the others watch us. I have a bad feeling about this.” He steps closer, lowering his voice, though no one could possibly hear us this deep in the forest. “They know what you mean to me.”
“And what exactly do I mean to you?” I challenge, refusing to back away. “Am I your possession? Your weakness? Your liability?”
“You’re my—” he stops, and I can see the frustration in his gaze. “You’re important. They’ll use that against me.”
“So will I,” I counter. “They underestimate me. That’s our advantage.”
“Brynn.” My name in his mouth, sounds like both plea and command. “There’s something happening here. Something we need to understand.”
“Then let’s try to get to the bottom of this together instead of shutting me out.”
His expression hardens, like it’s difficult for him to make this concession. “I won’tkill McAllister. I’ll bring him to you. You’llget your answers about Elias. But I need you away from here beforethe hunt begins.”
The mention of Elias’ name sparks the grief, the rage, and the guilt always living inside me. “I didn’t come this far to watch from the sidelines while you play hero.” I take a step backward. “I’m staying. And I’m hunting.”
“Brynn.”
I don’t answer. I’m already moving, sprinting deeper into the forest while branches create a natural labyrinth that swallows me within seconds.
twenty-seven
-Brynn-
I hear Ares curse behind me, but the sound is fading as the distance grows between us. I don’t run from fear, more to prove a point. If he wants me to leave, he’ll have to catch me first.
The pine needles don’t do a great job in silencing my footsteps as I run between trunks. The forest floor drops away beneath me as I take a steep incline, using roots and rocks to hold on.
Behind me, I don’t hear anything. Ares moves like a ghost when he hunts, but I expected that from him. Somehow I feel his focus narrowing the distance between us, no matter how fast I run.
This isn’t a real escape. It’s a challenge.
I duck under a low-hanging branch, disturbing a pile of dead leaves on purpose as I take a sharp left. I’m trying to mislead trail signs as my actual path of flight is right into a dense thicket where the underbrush will mask my tracks.
My leg still gives me trouble, but I can dismiss it at this point and try to step heel to toe so that the pressure minimizes the imprint in the damp earth. Ares taught me this himself, during one of our sparring sessions.
Now I use his lesson against him. But it doesn’t seem to be enough. I can hear him right on my tail—and I can, just because he wants me to hear him.
Doesn’t matter. He won’t win.
“The one who gets the other first wins,” I call out, my voice bouncing between trees, impossible to exactly pinpoint. He knows where I’m at anyway. My challenge sounds ridiculous as I’m running and not chasing, but I have my plan.
He doesn’t answer me. Still, I know he’s smiling. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t fight me on this, because he’s accepting my terms.
I double back, crossing my own trail at a perpendicular angle before dropping into a shallow stream bed. The cold water soaks through my boots, but the tactical advantage outweighs the discomfort.
Water leaves no scent, no footprints. I follow the stream for fifty yards before leaping onto a rock, then to another, working my way to the ground, without leaving tracks.
But then, a twig snaps. This is not a coincidence. Ares just announced his arrival.
