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“She was in pain,” I whispered. “Who was she?”
“You saw someone?” Brigid asked.
“It could be another monster, reaching out,” Muir said.
“Open your eyes, Jas,” Brigid said. “It’ll keep you here.”
I hadn’t noticed that my eyes were closed still. The leaves and the light came at once as I did what Brigid said.
But she was right. Seeing my surroundings and their faces helped. The urge to go back to the dungeon dwindled.
“The dungeon,” I whispered. “It’s not here.”
“No, it’s not,” Muir said.
I reached to grab his hand to support myself as I straightened on where I sat. There were no others around us, but they hadn’t bothered with setting up tents. We were sitting on grass, underneath the shade of a grand oak tree. As I sat, I was able to lean against its wide trunk.
Some of the monster folk sat in circles, staring at us and watching intently. I heard someone sigh with relief as I straightened. As I opened myself, I realized it was Collin. He was feeling cold and hungry, but he was glad that I was fine.
“What did you see?” Brigid asked, drawing my attention back to the conversation at hand.
“I don’t know,” I replied, attempting to catch her gaze despite the cloth hiding her eyes. “It was painful. I felt like I was breaking.”
“Close yourself off if you can,” Brigid said.
“I don’t know how,” I replied.
Muir’s leg was twitching. Had he been hurt in the battle? The blonde girl with the green eyes was grieving for Leof and as I went to her, I shared her pain. The bearded man, Killian, had a broken arm and his beard was itching. Nora was nauseous because of the baby in her belly. Alys was shaking her leg to get rid of the numbing. Many were feeling hungry. Some thirsty...
Their thoughts and feelings were with me. Before, I was a witness to them, but ever since the battle at the prison, it felt as though the monster folk were a part of me. Could I simply push that away and be rid of it?
“We should spend the night here,” Muir said.
“We started traveling just a few hours ago,” I objected. “We can’t stop now.”
“You are in no shape to travel,” Brigid agreed with Muir.
“I can do it,” I whispered, grabbing Brigid’s hand and using her to get up. She helped, even though she did not look happy about it. “We will keep going.”
To my surprise, Muir didn’t insist. He gestured at the others to start preparing and they did, quickly and without objection as though this was an army and I was an unreasonable general.
“We won’t be traveling for long, anyway,” Brigid said.
I followed her hidden gaze and saw that the sun was almost down.
“You can lead us in the dark,” I said.
“What’s the hurry?” Brigid asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
It sounded more cryptic than I had intended, but neither of them questioned it. Brigid nodded and Muir gestured at the others to move quickly.
We were back on the road within an hour.
I was glad that the two of them let me be alone even as they walked right by me to make sure I would not fall and hit my head if something happened again.
Neither of them asked me any more questions about the dungeon or what made me pass out, but that didn’t stop those same questions from echoing in me as we followed the paths set out by the scouts and Casja.
