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“Did someone say food?” Sprig chirped. “Yes, I vote yes on food! Maybe honey BBQ chicken wings? Sausage-stuffed honey buns, or fried chicken biscuits with honey drizzle?”
“How about canned beans and rice.” Croygen slid off the horse Sprig had named Caramel, leading us off the path under some trees.
“Ugggg… This is like being back in the labs!” Sprig exclaimed. “The cruelty and torture! At least there,Bhean’stits came filled with honey.”
“You are free to join your kind at any time.” Croygen motioned to the dense forest around us, the trees filled with wildlife. We had seen a few troops of gibbons, macaques, and leaf monkeys on the way.
“How. Dare. You!” Sprig stood on his hind legs on top of Tootsie’s head. “I am a sprite, not a monkey.”
“Looks like a monkey, talks like a baboon…” Croygen shrugged.
Getting off my horse, I stretched my muscles before taking the saddle off Tootsie and giving her a good rubdown. She scrubbed her head into me affectionately. I hadn’t grown up with horses, never having a reason to encounter them, but I was getting very attached to this one. We were a team. Her ears were in tune like mine, always twitching and listening, as if while I was guarding everyone else, she was looking out for me.
Churro, AB’s horse, seemed to know she was more delicate than us. He was so gentle and slow with her, trying to keep his steps as even as he could for her over rough terrain, staying steady when he sensed her drifting off, nuzzling her leg when he needed her to wake up. I had a deep respect for these majestic creatures.
And they were always the first thing we took care of when we stopped, getting them food and water before we set up camp.
The camping and food supplies we got back in Nanxun were starting to dwindle, the beans and rice becoming a staple. Croygen wanted to stay off the main paths. Too many people were out here now, and that brought more raiders to the roads, picking off what they could from travelers.
Night came fast under the thick layer of clouds and the canopy of trees, blocking out light and making us rush to set up camp. Croygen built a fire as AB cooked, while Cooper did a fast sweep of the area, making sure the only things out here with us were other animals. I had yet to see him shift, but I could feel the magic every time he did, and even though I knew him, I was still terrified of what he was.
My cat form wouldn’t even be a snack to something like him.
“I’m gonna go get some water.” I nodded toward the creek not far from us. Retrieving a bottle, I headed down to the creek, the night crackling with sounds from the campfire and the buzz of animals just waking up to hunt or heading home so they wouldn’t become the prey. Shadows circled around me, the light from our camp barely visible through the trees, making me feel completely isolated from my group.
There was something about the forests in China. I couldn’t explain it. The fog clutching the trees was like the ghosts of long ago, haunting the territory.
Or hunting.
Squatting down, I splashed water on my face, the icy chill zinging down my nerves. My skin itched with the sensation of eyes being on me. My gaze scrolled over the woods, glad I could see better than most in the dense darkness, but no figure moved, nothing to note other than small rodents scurrying around, which matched the awareness crawling over me.
My intuition was usually spot on, something I not only learned from my captain, but from living on the streets. Being a petite girl had put a target on my back, and my skills became as sharp as my claws.
Muscles along my back twitched, the need to shift scraping my skin. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw the glow of the fire and heard the distant sound of Annabeth talking, oblivious to anything else out here, feeling safe in her bubble.
Standing up, I stepped away from the creek before my body transformed, my clothes falling around me onto the rocks. Sleek and black, I blended in with the darkness like it was my own, a creature designed for the shadows, a hunter of the night.
My ears and nose twitched, taking in the abundance of smells, trying to pick a single thread out of them. Slinking through the brush, my tiny frame trotted through the forest, my nose picking up on a particular odor.
Male. Fae.
Magic had a smell, a weight that lined the nose. Some had a vanilla, sweet scent, and some had an earthy smell. It varied, but I could always tell when they were human or fae.
Men’s voices ticked at my ears before I spotted them. A mile or so back from where we stopped, three men sat around their own campfire. I could see a dozen more at a firepit not too far away, as if these men were generals and captains while the others were lowly soldiers.
“He said to keep close,” a big brute of a man with light-brown hair and a chiseled jaw spoke, his language taking me a moment to understand and translate in my head.
Hungarian.
“Follow them.”
“Why them?” another asked, his Hungarian accent even thicker. From here, he looked to have rich, dark skin and short, cropped hair. “We don’t even know why we’re here.”
“Not for you to question, Connor,” the first one spoke, sounding like he was their leader. “We follow orders.”
“Can you not be a tight-ass for a moment?” The man he called Connor scoffed. “I’m just asking.”
“That’s like asking Sloane not to breathe,” the third guy laughed. I could see he was attractive, with blond hair and high cheekbones.
