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Either Pan had a few screws loose or there was more going on here than he was telling me. I had a nagging suspicion it was somewhere in the middle.
The god-king had the odd habit of jerking his head in various directions every few minutes. His eyes moved as if following the path of something I couldn’t see. He clenched his fists when it happened again. My eyebrows furrowed.
“Hey dude, are you sure you’re good to take me to my fam—” I started, speeding up to close the gap between us.
Pan twitched, startling far too easy for a supposed god.
The tree nearest us let out a sickening crack. I spun around, trying to gauge which way it broke when the trunk snapped diagonally and fell. I froze.
I could take down a dinosaur without fear, but apparently my quick instincts didn’t extend to jumping out of the way from being crushed to death. In the split half-second between when it cracked and then fell, a strong arm grabbed my waist—forcibly moving me.
My head bounced off a hard chest, scrambling my senses. Cinnamon, cloves, and a distinctly male musk fell over me as the forest quieted once more.
Heart pounding and body slick with sweat, déjà vu hit me like a train.
I’d smelled this before. Felt these arms. Heard this heartbeat, as it pounded steady and strong in my ears—like a bass to music only I could hear.
But that wasn’t right.
It couldn’t be ...could it?
I twisted in his arms. My hands fell on his chest, fisting the lightweight fabric. I used it to hold him to me, close where I could see every facial tic and slight inhale.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I demanded.
His pupils dilated. “We need to keep moving.”
Or maybe it was like the dream, and this was some vision of the future. Although, it was hard to see that when he was such an ass.
I bit the inside of my cheek, tasting blood. “No. I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what is actually going on. You’re being weird. Twitchy. Either there’s more to the story or you’re on drugs.”
His expression didn’t change, but I only took that as greater confirmation that I was right.
“How much do you know about me?”
I frowned. “Are you really that much of a narcissist to make this about—”
He leveled me with a cold, flat look. His hands locked around my wrists, squeezing until my fingers went numb enough he could extricate himself. “You wanted to know why I’m ‘being weird.’ There’s no need to insult me.”
I pursed my lips petulantly. “Fine. You’re a god and a king, obviously. There’s no account of you ever leaving Arcadia and coming to Earth. Given that all the shifters that go through the portal have disappeared, most people assume you’re not a fan of Earth.”
“I’m not.”
I snorted. “Other than that, all I know is you’re revered astheshifter god. Whatever that actually means.”
“I’m not the only shifter god,” he interjected. “But that’s beside the point. I'm the god of Arcadia and the wild—andmadness.”
My lips parted. “Does that mean thatyou’remad? Or that you make people around you go insane?”
Something uneasy raced along my spine, and it wasn’t the sweat. I didn’t feel crazy. Then again, did anyone who was actually feel that way? How would I know?
Gods. If Danni knew I’d gone into a portal with this joker—
“Kali! Kali!”
A hail of voices called out, waving their arms in excitement. A couple hundred yards off, people began approaching us. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, beyondthatname.
“Um. Are they real?” I jutted my chin toward the group approaching from behind Pan. He turned his cheek. A muscle twitched there, and I felt it like a warm breath against my skin.
