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“Okay.” I blow out a breath. “I can do this, right?”
“I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t think you could. You just need to stop focusing on all the things you can’t do and focus on all the things you can.”
I nod. “Alright then. Wish me luck.”
Instead of saying anything, he picks me up until my face is level with his and slides his lips over mine. The kiss is soft and warm and takes me completely by surprise. Before I can even respond, he pulls back and whispers with a grin, “Good luck.”
He places me back on my feet, then he turns and walks a few feet away. I stare at him in a daze, my eyes dropping to his ass. The man must be the king of squats. Tight and seriously biteable—
“I can feel you staring,” he says without looking back, but I can hear the grin in his voice.
“There was a bug, but it’s ahh…gone now.” I spin and walk to the tree with the nest, biting my lip. “Stupid ninja with eyes in the back of his head.”
“I have excellent hearing as well,” he calls out, making my mouth drop open in shock.
With a sigh, I look up at the sky, or what I can see of it through the canopy, and imagine my mom laughing down at me. She’d find the whole thing hilarious. She’d like both Oz and Zig, which is saying something because my mom was protective of her little girl all the way to the end.
Deciding it’s safer to keep my mouth closed, I reach for the first branch and test its strength. When I’m happy that it will take my weight, I climb up and reach for the next, testing that this one will hold me too. I repeat the process over and over. It’s slow-going, but it gets me to the top without cracking my head open.
When I reach the nest, I look inside and find four blue eggs. Ignoring the pang of guilt I feel about taking them, I ease open the flap on the pouch and slip them inside. I just about manage to close the flap and hook the button into place when a squawk almost makes me lose my grip. I squeeze my eyes closed and hold the tree hard, giving myself a second to calm my racing heart before I climb back down.
When no angry mama bird attacks me, I release my death grip on the tree and ease myself down onto the branch below me. Okay, it has to be said—going up was much easier than coming down. I occupy my thoughts with visions of fried eggs, which keeps my mind off my imagined impending death.
I’m almost at the bottom before I sense movement to my left. I stop where I am and look up, spotting a monkey hanging one-handed from the tree opposite me. I blink and watch as he stares me in the eye while munching on some kind of berry.
“Uh, hi?”
He tilts his head but doesn’t reply.
“Of course he didn’t reply, Salem. He’s a freaking monkey. I’m losing my mind,” I mutter to myself as I climb the rest of the way down.
Once I’m back on solid ground, I look back up and see the monkey swinging side to side, staring at me like I’m something interesting. News flash, little guy. I’m not. I’m just your run-of-the-mill hot mess. Leaving him behind, I turn and make my way over to Zig, who is a little farther away than he was before. He’s bent over his pack, so I creep up on him, preparing to make him jump. Just as I’m about to grab him, he spins with blood on his hands and face.
A gasp escapes my lips as I reach for him. “Talk to me, Goose.” Holding him, I can’t feel anything wrong, so I move my eyes over him before they drop to his bag, which now contains two dead birds.
“It’s not my blood.”
I poke his chest with my finger before groaning. Well, that hurt me more than him. “What the hell are you made of, carbon fiber?”
He grins, but with the blood smear on his face, he looks more demonic than angelic right now.
“Stop scaring me like that.”
He holds his hands up in surrender. “I’ll be good.”
“Right.” I look around and see that the light has changed, and the sun has started to set. “Should we head back now?”
“Yeah. We have enough for today and probably tomorrow, too, if needed.”
I let him lead the way once more, but this time, I hook my finger through the belt loop of his pants, not wanting to hold one of his bloody hands.
When we make it back to camp, Oz is already there. He stands when he sees us, his eyes going to Zig first, his whole body tensing before they fly to mine.
“We’re fine. We went hunting.”
“I thought we were going to make sure Salem stayed with the plane, where it’s safe.”
“Salem is standing right here and can talk for herself. I was going stir-crazy, and we needed food. I’m sorry we scared you. I would have left a note, but I lost my pen right around the time we lost civilization and, apparently, your sense of humor.”
