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"Quiet," J'avet snapped. "Unless you want what's tracking us to find us."
Us? No. Him? Right now, I wouldn't mind if it bit off his head and licked his bones clean.
I fell silent anyway.
If I hadn't, I might have missed the crack of a twig behind us.
I tapped J'avet on the shoulder to tell him and had the petty satisfaction of seeing him jump.
He glared at me, but I jerked a thumb behind me.
He peered toward the trees and squinted, then waved us toward a clump of bushes. "Get down," he hissed. He all but shoved us over and pushed himself down so close to me his arm was pressed against mine. I wanted to jerk away, but I stayed perfectly still, frozen except the pounding of my heart.
Another crack sounded, closer this time. Whatever it was, they were trying to be careful, trying not to to make a sound. If it wasn't for the dry twigs, I wouldn't have known anything was there at all.
I swallowed hard to push down rising panic and ducked down further.
Leaves in front of us rustled. At first I thought it might be the wind. The second time, I knew there was something there.
Beside me, Brinley trembled, and knew I did the same. Did J'avet tremble too, or did I imagine that?
The leaves rustled again, closer still and a voice swore.
"Slek?" I started to stand, but J'avet pulled me down so hard I landed on my ass. I exhaled out my nose at the pain and glared at him.
He mouthed, "Do you want to get us killed?"
I glared, but shook my head. Of course I didn't, but I could have sworn…
"Where did they go?"
That was definitely Danec's voice, whispering loudly.
J'avet blew out a breath and rose. "We're over here," he said, his voice only slightly louder than Danec's.
"Oh." Slek stepped into view now and rubbed his forehead. "There was nothing there. No sign of anything either."
"You must have been hearing things," J'avet said accusingly.
"I guess so." Slek looked around carefully. "I could have sworn…"
"You were mistaken. We've wasted enough time on this. We'll walk for two more hours, then find a place to make camp."
I shivered at the idea of spending a night here, but the look on Slek's face made my blood run cold. He frowned at the trees back the way we'd come and shook his head, obviously not convinced we weren't still being hunted.
