Page 37 of Gone Hunting

Her voice is barely a breath of sound. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, either.”

“That’s my job,” I mumble.

“What?”

“Me protecting you,” I explain. “That’s my job, because you’re a girl and . . . stuff.”

My idiotic response goes over as well as you think.

Her hand falls away. “Are you calling me weak?”

“No, not weak,” I quickly say. “Just, you know, delicate.”

“Aric, call me delicate one more time and I’ll leave you buried in this stupid hole.”

She’s pissed, insulted, and everything she deserves to be. And here I am, smirking and barely able to hold back a laugh. “Is now a good time to tell you I’m not good with girls?”

“You don’t have to.” She pats my arm. “It shows, big guy.”

Celia shifts her weight, sliding off me and allowing me to ease into a crouch. We poke our heads out, scanning the area for any signs of mystical energy. There are none. This spell—trap—whatever it was, seems to have a one-time activation switch. Not that it needed more than that.

Koda rises from the demolished shed he crashed into, cursing when he glances at his shoulder. He removes a sharp piece of wood imbedded in his muscle, and a nail that pierced straight through his palm.

Gemini staggers from the direction of the forest, having been thrown further back than the rest of us. Pine needles and dirt coat his hair and body. He appears slightly disoriented, but he is otherwise unharmed.

We discreetly slip out, moving soundlessly toward Koda just as Gemini reaches him.

Celia stops dead. I whip around to see what’s keeping her, worried another booby trap is set to go off.

She doesn’t move. She doesn’t even breathe, her attention fixed to our far left, where a sneaker lies discarded, the laces smoking.

“Aric?” she says. “Is that Liam’s shoe?”

Five sets of curses fly out of Koda’s mouth as he shoots forward. Gemini tears after him. It takes me a second to realize they’re racing toward the opposite end of the demolished garden where Liam’sfeetare sticking up from the ground, flailing.

I make it to Liam with Celia close at my heels. Koda snags one leg and Gemini the other, pulling hard.

Liam pops out, like lettuce being torn from the ground. He’s breathing, but that’s about it. His clothes are in tatters and his chest is covered with dirt, bright red blood, and what smells like soot. Koda and Gemini try to steady him, but it takes some doing, given that Liam’s head is twisted at an odd angle and his face is resting between his shoulder blades.

It’s safe to say Celia doesn’t like what she sees.

She covers her mouth with one hand and slaps my arm blindly with the other. “Oh, my God,” she says. “Oh, my God. Oh,myGod.”

I place my hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. These things happen.”

Celia veers toward me. “These things happen? No—no. You can use that line when people trip over a cracked sidewalk or misplace a few dollars. You can’t say something like that when they have their heads twisted like corkscrews and eyes dangling down their backs. I mean,come on, Aric. Liam didn’t even touch her tomatoes!”

Liam continues to flail. For someone like Celia who’s not used to beings like us, I suppose this looks bad. “He’ll be all right,” I assure her. “See? That eye that launched out of his socket is already making its way back into his skull.” I realize I’m not making her feel better when her skin whitens to ash. “He’s awere.He’ll be as good as new in no time.”

“My ass!” Liam screams. “Why am I looking at my ass?”

“Your psycho aunt’s magic snapped your neck around,” Koda says. “Keep still so Gemini can crack it back into place before the bone heals.”

Celia’s jaw falls open with an audible pop. “The bone can heal that way?” she asks. “Permanently?”

“Sure. Our inner beasts repair our bodies when broken,” I explain. “But they don’t always know to align them or to return them to a specific direction. Gemini will have to break his neck first and—”

“Oh,God,” Celia says.

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