Page 44 of The Flame and the Forsaken

“Such as?”

“Well, I don’t know, but don’t you want to find out?” Mariel countered, exasperated with how absurdly thickheaded he was acting.

He reached into the makeshift satchel he’d fashioned from some sack cloth they’d found behind the shed, and he handed her one of the skins. “Let’s get these filled, find some food, and head back. We can do more tomorrow.”

Mariel snatched the skin from him and stepped in beside him. “Why are you dismissing what I’m saying?”

Erran rolled his lips in with a quick raise of his eyes. “Suppositions are interesting thought experiments, but in anactualsurvival situation, you need sureties. You’re playing a game of odds against a foe you cannot beat but might learn to cohabitate with, if you’re smart. Even if you’re right, we’d spend more energy chasing your ghosts than we can afford, when all we’ve collected is...” He cast a melodramatic and unnecessary glance into his bag. They both knew what was in there. “A bit of fennel. Oh, and look.Morefennel.”

“And what do you know about survival situations, Errandil, except what Daddy taught you in your Everything Gets Handed to Me Because I Was Born First and Have a Cock training?”

His eyes rolled all the way toward the sky. “The mouth on you is something else. Anyone ever tell you that?”

“I thought foul women were to your taste?”

Erran tilted his head. “As much as lies and deception are to yours, I ken.”

Mariel closed her eyes to cool her blood. They had no choice but to coexist, and it would be smoother if they could do so peacefully. “Ihavebeen in survival situations. I don’t refute your point about conserving energy, but hear me out. If men took the time to build a sturdy water source, instead of just filling skins in a river like we planned to, therewillbe more conveniences. Maybe even a food supply. Someone either lived here or came here frequently. There’ll be signs of it, if we keep going.”

He threaded an exhausted breath through his nose. “I want to be back before the sun reads three in the afternoon. There’s another storm brewing, and I don’t want to be stranded in this forest when it hits.”

Mariel brightened. “Aye, we’ll just go a bit farther and then we’ll turn back.”

“I mean it. I feel like... like we’re being watched, and not by people.” A clench on the end of his words revealed his error. He undoubtedly thought she’d ascribe weakness to them, and after his little animated speech about survival training, it was clear he wanted her to revel in his masculinity. “Never mind. Forget I said that.”

“Nay, I feel it too. Whatever they are, they’re dangerous,” she said. It had started the moment they’d pushed beyond the boundaries of their known world, the sensation of hidden eyes stalking their movements. Beasts sizing them up for later. She remembered the crazed squeal she’d heard from the beach, and she knew she never, ever wanted to come face-to-face with whatever foul creature had made it.

They filled their skins in silence and continued on in the same fashion. She picked scattered handfuls of dandelions, adding them to Erran’s bag, and also chicory root. None of it was what they really needed, but it would help make the dried meat stretch until they had a fresh source.

She wondered what everyone back in Whitecliffe was thinking about their disappearance. Both Erran and Mariel would have been declared missing already, but unless Banner or his men had identified her personally, it was unlikely anyone would tie her to the chase. Erran was easier to recognize, but he must have done a fair job hiding because she’d never sensed, even once, that she and the Perevil siblings had been followed. Unless the guards had gotten a solid look at him before he’d leaped into the sea after her, it was unlikely anyone had tied him to the scene either.

Remy and Augustinemightguess she’d gone for theMistwitch, but who would they tell? Whocouldthey tell without revealing more than they should?

That was if they’d even made it to safety. She prayed with all her heart that they had.

And Destin... What would become of him, if she never made it home? Jails were incongruously lawless places. They could hold a man as long as they wanted, unless strong evidence compelled them to release him or a powerful man came to speak for him. There was no one or way to produce this evidence, now that she’d botched the auction heist. And there was certainly no one to speak for him. Steward Rutland had made his position on the matter quite clear.

She had no choice but to accept she was powerless about any of it.

“Mariel.”

She shifted from her haze and followed where Erran was pointing. A fig tree, just off the path.

Mariel broke into a giddy smile and bounded toward it. Erran was slower, still aching from his injuries, but together they filled his makeshift bag with as many figs as it could hold.

“You were right to push us farther,” he said when the sack was nearly overflowing. He adjusted it higher on his shoulder. “Can we turn back now?”

She knew in her heart there was more to be discovered, but they had all the time in the world to explore. Nodding, she leaned against the tree, stretching her back, when a sharp glint caught her notice. “What’s... What isthat?”

He turned toward where she was looking. His eyes narrowed. “I... Stay here.”

“Don’t ken I will,” she muttered and followed him through the brush toward where she could haveswornshe’d seen a window.

Erran thrashed at the stalks and stems to forge a path. Some smacked her in the face on the recoil, but she stayed close at his back until the dense flora made way for an open area. At the center stood a cabin, larger and more impressive than the shed near the shore. A large fire pit, surrounded by logs for seating, had been dug into the ground about twenty paces from the door. There was no sign of recent use, and even the ash was mostly blown away, but it was well-built.

She hadn’t imagined the windows. On the front alone there were three, one on the left side of the door and two to the right of it. Vines grew up and around them, and even through a small hole in the pane of one.

It had the same air of abandonment as their first shelter, but that didn’t mean it was.

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