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I can’t recall reaching for my dagger, but it was in my hand, nonetheless.
Jorik grinned at me as his Adam’s apple bobbed on a swallow and touched the end of my blade. “Good work.”
My chest heaved, and I glared down at him. “That was a test?”
Chuckling, Rix offered Jorik his hand and helped him to his feet while I slowly, keeping my eyes on both of them, stowed my dagger back on my thigh strap.
“Of course, it was,” Jorik said, flashing the twin dimples in his cheeks when he grinned. “And you passed with flying colors. You really are a triple-threat Hellcat, aren’t you?”
I glared at him, but there was no actual heat behind it. They were helping me, and it worked. I already felt stronger, mentally. I knew, though, that if we walked into another forest ambush right now, my brain wouldn’t be able to handle all the people, sounds, smells and heartbeats, but I was getting there. I wasn’t a lost cause like Zane figured I was.
Jorik rested a hand on my shoulder. “You’re quick with the daggers. I’d love to see you throw sometime.”
Rix’s arm was touching mine, and for a second an overwhelming sense of calm swept through me. Enough so that I could hear the faint whirring sound of something overhead.
Without a second thought, I elbowed them both away, grabbed my bow off my back and an arrow from my quiver and shot straight up into the forest canopy.
“What the hell?” Rix asked, giving me a curious look.
I couldn’t hear the whirring sound anymore, but as we all looked up, something came crashing through the treetops twenty feet away, landing in the ferns with a loud, metalliccrunch.
“Holy shit!” Jorik ran over to what was now smoking, its rotor blades slowing down and its lights flashing at random. It was a drone.
A government drone.
“You saw that?” Rix asked, looking at me with disbelief.
I shook my head. “I heard it.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” Jorik said. “How did you?”
I shrugged. I couldn’t explain it either. “I just did,” I whispered.
“Well, we need to destroy the GPS tracker in it,” Jorik said, pulling apart the control panel and removing the chip, having grabbed one of my daggers off my thigh strap without asking. He stomped the tracker to pieces beneath his boot, then we deactivated the camera. A video feed had probably already been sent to whoever had issued the search drone, but without the GPS tracker, they wouldn’t be able to pinpoint where we were. We also couldn’t stick around in this bay for very long though. “I’ll bring back some of the hardware and stuff to see if I can work it into the cloaking device to expand its radius. Or I might be able to use it for something else.” He shoved a bunch of pieces into one of our empty satchels.
“Jorik,” Rix murmured, shoving his hand into his floppy brown hair before dragging his palm down his face. “Should we just head back to the boat?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. We still need fresh water. We might not have time to set and wait for traps, but we need water.” I pointed to the empty canvas water pouches he had slung on the front of his chest.
He nodded, his expression grim as he tipped his brown eyes skyward. “Yeah, you’re right.”
We all stood there a moment, our gazes alternating between the sky above and the drone at our feet.
I wasn’t aware of their bare arms brushing against mine until the air around me seemed to hang still, the din of the woods faded and a slight bubbling sound rose above the rhythmic beating of Rix and Jorik’s hearts.
My skin prickled where their elbows brushed mine.
I took off at a run. “This way.”
I didn’t have to look behind me to know they were hot on my trail.
I ran for no more than five minutes, hearing the heavy beat of their feet behind me and feeling the vibration of the earth below with each of their steps. The cackle and chirp of birds and squirrels flitted around me. I could feel their eyes on me, sense their heartbeats, but it wasn’t overwhelming as it had been before.
As long as I kept running, my brain could push everything around me to the back of my mind and dull down its voice.
Ferns and low-growing shrubs snagged briefly on my pants as I blazed my own trail. But nothing kept me from moving forward. I could hear it even more now. Smell it and feel the vibrations of a waterfall.
Not even remotely out of breath, I came to the edge of a stream, smiling as I pivoted to watch the two men behind me catch up.
