Page 43 of Bounty Hunter

“Keep going!” I shout through the wind.

She shouts something, but I hardly hear her words. I can see the way her hands are beginning to slip and tire.

“We aren’t dying in this muddy canyon today. Move!” I yell harshly.

I treat her as one of my soldiers, but it seems to work, and she begins moving once again. Evenmyarms begin to burn, so I can’t imagine how hers feel. We finally reach the edge, and I continue to coach her through the tricky process of half-climbing, half-pulling herself up onto solid ground. Once there, she falls back with gasping breaths, clutching the short grass beneath her. Rupi darts from the trees and barrels into Vera, hopping over her chest and chirping until Vera lifts a hand to calm her. I make my way up, arms on fire, and feel as if my hearing is permanently muted from the intense volume of the howling wind in my ears as I crossed. When I look back along the length of the trembling bridge, I see the guard walk through the gate and proceed to work with the wind to restore the bridge to its upright and functional position. When he finishes, he gives me a mock salute, then exits through the gate once more.

Anger has me fixing my grasp around the hilt of my sword, but I know I can’t go after him right now. I reach a hand down to Vera, unwilling to let her wallow in her panic. “Let’s go.”

I want to pick her up and grasp her tight to my chest with relief that she didn’t let go, but I don’t want her to see how shaken I am. Or how much I care when I really shouldn’t. She knows I need her alive to get my magic back, but she doesn’t know I want her alive because I care. As she looks at my hand and then back at the bridge, then back to my hand, I see the resolve steel her eyes. She’s stronger than she thinks she is, and I’ll keep showing her until she believes it. She takes my hand, and I pull her to my side.

We find ourselves facing a rustic sign attached to a thick wood post with ‘Welcome to the Shift Forest’ scrawled across its front in a thin script. It sits a bit crookedly, but oddly, it does lighten the atmosphere after that cursed death trap behind us. Istretch my neck side to side, not liking the way our trip has begun, but I know we have no other option now that we’re here. Besides, this is still the fastest route—we just have to survive it.

“What do you think this mate bond does?” Vera asks, as we begin walking, holding up her arm and tilting her wrist this way and that to inspect the glowing dot.

“All that matters is that it will protect both of us from being tricked or forced into a mate bond with a shifter as we cross the forest,” I say, though I do wonder if I should have read the label first.But that mate bond licensing office…I cringe. My throat goes tight just thinking about it again. Stuffy, pink, uncomfortable. Vera’s face when she was reading the vials and blurted outreproduction. I stopped thinking and impulsively snatched the gold one just to escape the confines and awkwardness of the overbearing place.

Vera lips curl in amusement at my expression. “Thinking of that shop again?”

I give her a flat look, and she laughs, but my mood lightens. If my discomfort can make her laugh, I’ll do it over and over again—it’s like the warm rays of sunshine after a freezing rain. She’s a confusing one. Captor of my magic, and potentially my heart, if I don’t protect it better.

Chapter 29

Vera

Istarted out through the Shift Forest jumpy and anxious. The woods here are different. All curly twisted branches, thicker than normal tree trunks, and dark, but after a day walking through, nothing has happened. Rupi has become comfortable enough to flit from tree to tree, no longer huddling beside my neck like she was after she flew across the windy crevice. Besides the bridge, the trip has been surprisingly uneventful, which is scary in itself, but it has also made it really difficult to keep my mind from revisiting that almost kiss. I’ve had strange scenarios skittering through my mind, crazy ones, like what if I reallywereto date my criminal? What if he reformed and left his criminal life? He seems normal enough. I’m confident he could be successful in a career other than violent mercenary. I mean, I’d for sure be willing to wait for him to finish his jail time. The quiet burst of laughter that escapes me at the thought catches Ikar’s attention, but I shake my head, not willing to offer an explanation.

According to the map and Ikar’s guesstimates, along with the pace we’ve kept so far, we just might arrive at thekingdom of the Fae earlier than expected. We’ve left a deeper part of the forest where the shade and shadows created by the thick canopy above forced me to use my cloak, but now the sunlight streaming in magical shafts through the trees warms my skin.

I stop and take in the mountain peaks in the distance capped with white snow, misty fog clinging around them. Then, I take a moment to absorb the magical simplicity before me. Here in this valley surrounded by gentle hills, the sun is warm and soothing. A clear, burbling stream weaves through wavy grasses and in between the trees, tiny lavender flowers spread out before us, growing as one with the grass. Their light scent calls to me, and I want to lay down, close my eyes, and revel in the perfect calmness of this little valley in our huge kingdom. Birds call happily in the trees, and I spot a rabbit dart away from us, hidden beneath the bed of purple. Ikar didn’t stop and is nearly to a stand of trees a distance away, following the curve of the stream. I am in no rush to leave this place, so I slow my pace and let the grass and flowers slip lightly beneath my fingers as I walk. When I reach the shady stand of trees that Ikar entered, I see silky white flowers, their centers lightly glowing. I want to reach down and investigate, but Ikar calls me over. He stands before a pool of water surrounded with beautiful greenery and bushes, a small waterfall gushing from above causing ripples and waves to spread outward. The tiny lights of the flowers glow around us in the shadows, creating an almost romantic atmosphere. I mean, if you’re thinking about romantic things. Which I’m not.

“Are we going to stop here for the night?” I ask hopefully. I’m loving the ambience. I want to build a cottage and live the rest of my life here. I already decided. I scoop Rupi from my shoulder, and a few flaps later, she’s hopping around in the flowers, searching out bugs and spidersto eat.

“We still have half a day’s light, but I thought we could wash here. Looks like as safe a place as any.” He turns and glances around, confirming his observation.

I head straight for the pool of water, Ikar following in my wake. He pauses before he touches the water, and his head angles in thought, as if he’s thinking it over. I almost laugh, wondering at his hesitation. It seems like he waits for something to rise from its surface, but I’m so filthy that I’d bathe with a blackipor if I had to. I imagine the creature rising from the depths of this small pool and grin. It just doesn’t fit in this lovely place. The black reptilian skin over the huge body of a water-dwelling mammal with black tusks and a gaping, strong jaw. I know they dwell in the Lucent River, but here? No way. I crouch down and swirl my hand in the water, creating a tiny whirlpool to entertain myself while Ikar sits on his haunches and studies the pool. I’ve found he is one of those hyperalert and ready-for-anything types, and I can appreciate that, so I wait.

“Are we good?” I ask, beginning to be concerned with his hesitation but getting impatient. I glance around, wondering what exactly it is that has triggered his hesitation. Does he sense something I can’t? I’m probably too distracted by the fifteen layers of sweat and dirt in every crevice of my body to really be aware at this point.

“I don’t know.” He frowns and slips his hand beneath the surface, testing. “Something feels off. I think we’ll try another spot.” He begins to pull his hand from the water, but I feel the sharp tug the same time he does. In the next half second, I see a chilling face just beneath the water. Before I can even scream, we are pulled in by our fingertips. The depths of the pool are freezing cold and pitch black, a direct contrast to the beautiful, warm image presented at its surface. But whatever the creepycreature is, it continues dragging us down. Further and further into black, cold water. My oxygen is nearly gone, and I feel like I’m about to pass out. Just as lights begin to herald in the darkness that comes with lack of needed breath, we fall in a heap on a soft, almost cushy surface.

“Vera?” Ikar asks from somewhere near me, he’s breathing in great gulps of air, same as I.

“I’m okay.” I press against the softness and find it’s very moist moss. Probably grows like a wildfire in the warm, humid environment we’ve been dragged into. I blink to clear my stinging vision, then I realize then that there should be a large puddle of water around me, my clothes should be sopping wet, my hair drenched. But there’s no water, and I’mclean. I don’t know if we’re about to die or not, but the fact that I’m clean lifts my spirits, and I laugh out loud, which draws a concerned look from Ikar. I don’t blame him. I figure whatever dragged us down here didn’t do it to offer us a cup of tea and send us on our way, though we appear to have been dropped in a garden fit for the fanciest of parties. An odd, filtered, watery-like light bounces off the garden scene we’ve been dropped in and draws my eyes upward. The pool is a sphere of water above us. Cover for a well-disguised trap. Clever.

That knowledge leaves me with a cave-like feeling about the place, but there is no evidence of it beside the lack of direct sunlight. I realize that aside from the dim light that barely reaches through the pool, the only other light comes from the same variety of white flowers with glowing centers that we saw above. The entire place is almost fae-like in its extravagance, only missing the jewel-toned flowers. Vines dripin large, tangled clusters from somewhere I can’t see, tiny white buds of growing flowers along their length. There isn’t a space that’s not covered in the soft, fuzzy moss. I’m not sure how a place beneath a freezing pool of water can be sogreen. Or hot. It won’t be long before I’m drenched in sweat in this garden sauna.

“Where the blazes are we?” I whisper beneath my breath.

I glance at Ikar, who is focused on something ahead as he moves into a defensive crouch. My gaze follows his as tinkling laughs raise the hair on my arms. Four bobbing lights, similar in color to the glowing centers of the flowers in the shady wood and those in this cave garden, lengthen and transform into four beautiful women before us. Everwisps. Silk dresses that match the velvety white of the petals I’d admired less than an hour ago flow over their feminine curves artfully, accentuating all their best parts. A dip in fabric here, a slit to reveal a shapely upper thigh there. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen women as beautiful as these. I’m currently feeling as pretty as the blackipor I was willing to swim with earlier, but my comparison switches to a strange sort of jealous possessiveness when their eyes literally glow with delight as they move their gazes slowly over Ikar, drinking him in like they’re desperate for water on a sweltering day. I am completely ignored by the shifters. Apparently, I do not merit even a glance of their golden eyes. I want to be offended, but I stay quiet, observing. Best to keep thenot dangerouslabel I’ve been afforded, so I stand but don’t pull a weapon.

Their hair is entwined with the white flowers. Two have silky-looking brown hair, one has shiny black hair straighter than I’ve ever seen, and the last has hair the color of red and gold autumn leaves that falls down her back in tumbling curls. I grudgingly admit that each of them appears to be a work of art.One of the brown-haired women walks with a sultry air toward Ikar. I notice his grip on the sword handle tightens.

“Stop,” he commands.

She continues toward him, hips swaying. “If you comply, your lady friend will be safe.” She speaks smoothly, never taking her eyes from his form.

Still, I’m not enough of a threat to warrant a look.

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