Page 76 of Secrets and Ruin

He didn’t answer. I could tell he didn’t want to, his eyes going from human to werecat as he kept his mouth firmly closed.

“It’s not like you fell in love with a fae, is it?” I asked.

“No, definitely not that,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I sleep with people. I don’t let them get closer than my guest bedrooms.”

Wow.

“Okay, then. So why—”

“It’s not your fucking business, Jacky,” he snarled, stopping with a twist to block my way. “It wasn’t before you walked into this forest, it’s not now, and it won’t be after this is all said and done. It willneverbe your business. Stay out of it.”

I was startled for a second, then I stepped around him. Landon and Dirk had heard and stopped, looking back at us.

“Keep moving. We’re fine,” I called, ten feet back with Niko, grabbing his bag and pulling so he would keep moving.

“You sure?” Dirk asked, frowning.

“Yup!”

Niko fell back in step next to me, but now there was tension between us that I couldn’t shake.

In front of us, Dirk stopped, looking into the trees.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Landon asked. Niko and I were quickly there with them.

“I thought I heard…dogs?” Dirk said, frowning as he tilted his head to the side. “I guess none of you heard it, and it’s gone now.”

“Then we’ll keep moving,” Niko said, pushing the werewolves to walk. “Just something out there messing with you. Don’t let it.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I have a question,” Landon was a little more panicked than I would have liked.

“What?”

“Paths don’t normally disappear, do they?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at us. He moved out of the way as Niko went to see what he meant. I was right behind him, looking quickly at the rest of the path, then around us, trying to remain watchful.

“It’s notgone, but it’s been damaged,” Niko said, going down on a knee. “Damaged enough that the forest started to reclaim it as quickly as it could. I ran this trail only a couple of weeks ago…” Niko got up and waved for us to keep moving. “We can’t stop, though. I can see where the trail used to be. We’ll stay on it until we find where it picks back up again.”

“What about the other trails?” I asked, looking between him and Dirk.

“They’ll guide you, but they don’t keep you safe,” Niko answered.

“This is a trap,” Landon said, not moving as Niko took a step.

“Clearly, but we can’t stop here,” Niko growled.

“No, you don’t understand. When Dirk and I were walking, before he heard something, the path still looked normal, all the way in view. None of this was here. It was the proper dirt path.”

“Then this must be an illusion,” Niko said, nodding. “Okay. Stay within arm’s reach of each other. Don’t look into the trees.”

“We’re trying, anyway?” I didn’t like it, but I didn’t like anything about this place.

“If there’s an illusion over the path, something did it that the protections don’t work against,” Niko said softly. “Meaning, whatever did this isn’t fae because the paths are protected from the fae and their magic. They can still do things off the path that might lure someone off them, but they can’t directly spell or charm anyone on it.”

“What can override the path’s protections?” Landon asked.

“Witches,” Dirk and Niko answered at the same time.

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