Page 52 of Dark Witch: Twin Destinies

When she was done, she used a wipe to clean up, pull up her pants, and zipped them up.

It was official. She hated camping and swore never to do so voluntarily again. She just wasn't the outdoorsy type.

After Negal helped her back to the camp, he set her down in front of the small tent the gods had erected for her. "Don't go to sleep yet," he said. "You need to eat first."

Jasmine was more tired than she was hungry, and she also imagined that the gods would like to talk among themselves in their language, which they didn't do when she was around, but Negal was right about food being important. If she didn't give her body what it needed to heal itself, her recovery would take longer than necessary.

Eating cold rations out of a can was just as distasteful as she'd expected, but since making a fire was not an option given the proximity to the base, there wasn't much that could be done about that. The gods didn't seem to mind, though, wolfing down the cold stew and washing it down with water from their canteens.

When they were done, Jasmine felt bad about being unable to help clean up, but the gods didn't need her to do anything. They seemed proficient in outdoor living and handled everything efficiently and gracefully.

"Thank you for taking care of me," she said when it was time to retire to her tent. "I'm sorry about being so useless."

Negal smiled. "You are not useless. You are the most important person on this mission. Without you, we wouldn't know where to look."

"He's right," Aru said. "Good night, Jasmine. After a good rest, everything will seem better tomorrow."

She hoped that didn't mean he or one of the others would bite her again. Then, on second thought, why not?

If she weren't aware of the bite, it wouldn't make her uncomfortable or feel disloyal to Edgar, and she would heal faster.

"Good night," Dagor said.

"Good night, guys." She crawled into her tent and zipped up the opening.

Jasmine was too tired to ask why they hadn't put up their tents and only erected one for her. Her limbs were heavy with exhaustion, and as she lay inside the sleeping bag, she let out a soft, contented sigh and closed her eyes.

40

EDGAR

Edgar sat at the restaurant table, his fingers drumming a restless rhythm on the scarred wood as he tried to focus on the conversations swirling around him.

He nodded, murmuring his agreement or offering a suggestion occasionally, but his mind was on Jasmine.

She was camping in the wilderness with the gods, and even though he knew that she was in good hands, he couldn't shake the feeling of unease that had settled in the pit of his stomach.

Why hadn't she called him yet?

It was dark outside, so they must have cleared the military base by now and were settling down for the night. Surely, she could have at least texted him.

Checking his phone for what felt like the hundredth time, he was disappointed to once more see a blank screen. The silence and the faint glow of the screen mocked him in the dimly lit restaurant.

Beside him, Julian leaned forward. "It doesn't make sense that no one in this town seems to know that they have a base less than fifty miles away. How do they get supplies up there?"

"Helicopters," Ella said. "Big ones, the kind that can carry tons of cargo. That's the only thing that makes sense."

That was only possible during good weather, which was often not the case in this area. Edgar doubted that the base was supplied solely from the air. Perhaps they had yak supply caravans go up there. It was a slow and primitive method but safe and predictable.

"Maybe there is a road from the other side," Margo said. "Not everything can be brought in by air. They would have needed building supplies up there, and I can't see that done with helicopters."

Gabi nodded. "I agree. Maybe they have a tunnel leading into the mountain and an elevator that takes the supplies up to the top like we have in the village."

Edgar was about to comment on that when Gabi's phone rang.

Pulling out the device, she smiled. '"It's Aru." She accepted the call. "Hello, my love. I'm in the restaurant with everyone."

The intro was no doubt to let him know that he shouldn't speak freely because everyone could hear him.

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