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“Find another group, eh?”
I turned to find a russet-skinned boy standing to my right. He shooed away a stocky recruit who made for my side. “Go on then. I’m on her team.”
My lips parted at the brazen display.
“I had to make sure I was in your group,” the newcomer hissed, forcing my eyes to drift to his. They were a dazzling pale blue, ringed in a deeper shade of sapphire. “You’ve been kicking my ass all week,” he added with a wink.
I arched a brow, my guard immediately up. “Does that bother you?”
He lifted both hands placatingly in the air. “It was a compliment. Though, itdoesbruise my tender ego, if only slightly. I’m Jake, if you care to know. Which you might, because I plan on making you my new best friend.”
Patrick raised his gaze at that bold claim but didn’t utter a word in reproach. My lips twitched upward. “And pray tell, Jake, why is that?”
His lean shoulders lifted carelessly, his entire persona a mix of untroubled cunning. “Because you’re a mystery and, quite frankly, intimidating. Maybe it’s the whole leather-gloved-always-scowling thing you got going on”—his eyes flickered to my hands—“but I suppose I’ve always been a sucker for a good mystery. And attracted to trouble.”
My mouth opened to scold him, to say I wasn’t some puzzle to be solved, but he cut me off.
“Plus, you look like someone with a few tricks up their sleeve and gods know, we need all the tricks to get ourselves out of the trenches.” He shuddered dramatically, the blue in his irises sparking. “So, what do you say…?”
“Kiara. Or…Ki,” I answered, shaking my head. I hated that I found this new recruit charming. “But don’t get too comfortable,” I warned. “Friendsor not, I’ll still kick your ass.”
Jake beamed, twin dimples making an appearance. “Ah, I knew I’d like you.”
“You two ready, or are you going to talk through this entire thing? Some of us would prefer not to die out there.”
I jerked at Patrick’s uncharacteristically gruff tone, his jaw set and eyes hard. He glared daggers at Jake before he seemed to regain his senses and soften his gaze.
“Oh, don’t be such a—”
“On my order!” Jude’s voice echoed like the clang of a sword against stone. It was time.
We weren’t the strongest of the bunch, but I had a suspicion that brute strength might not be the only attribute we’d need. Besides, I wasn’t about to kick anyone out now.
I attempted to inch closer to a sulking Patrick, but Jude barked his next command. A frenzy of hustling boots and frantic roars sounded through the corridor, all the doors banging at once.
I didn’t know what to expect beyond, but complete darkness was not it. Not a single sunfire or torch was lit.
Feigning bravery, I took a step into the vacuum of night, half expecting a shadow beast to jump out and devour me whole. Before I could turn around for the hallway, the doors thudded closed, a bolt sliding into place. Not a hint of light filtered beneath the thick door.
“That’s not ominous or anything.”
“Shhh, Jake,” I scolded, narrowing my eyes in the pitch black. Thankfully, he complied, his silence accompanied by Patrick’s ragged exhales a few feet away.
This was a test to see how we would react when one of our other senses was torn from us in the great blankness of the cursed lands. I forced my breathing to calm, ears straining for any sound, my tongue licking at my chapped lips.
Salt. I tasted salt. And the aroma of damp rock. But what I heard—
A coaxing hiss of water, the low murmur of a flowing stream, and the faint, grating sound of a growl.
My eyes fluttered open, my heart skipping with excitement. “There’s something in here with us.” Maybe I should have been more worried about shadow beasts than I thought.
I automatically reached for my blade, but we hadn’t been instructed to carry them today, and my hands came away empty. I cursed.
“It’s some type of cavern,” Jake remarked, still pressed against me. While I would have shoved him away, his solid frame kept me from drifting, from losing the sensation of my body rooted to the slick rock below my boots.
“We need to follow the sound of the stream. Find our way out of here.” I bit into the side of my cheek as I forced myself to take Jake’s hand firmly. He gave a surprised jolt, and I shuddered, knowing there’d be no way aroundnottouching. It took everything in me not to yank my hand away, the skin beneath the leather burning and itching.
“Everyone, form a chain and hold hands so we don’t lose one another,” I instructed, leaving no room for defiance.
