Page 49 of Scarred Resolve

“No, definitely not,” I said, feeling incompetent all of a sudden. He clearly did.

“It’s okay. It can take a really long time to really get used to the limits our bodies can go when we have the resources to make that happen. We’ll need to eat soon, though. This should be our last day eating the rations without a proper meal if we can help it.” Niko stretched his arms as Davor joined up, his update to Jabari already finished.

“You seem to be doing rather well through this. I heard in Russia you went the distance as well, but I never reviewed that route as much as I should have to get a good idea of it,” he said.

“Full run in werecat form for… five hours? Longer?” I said, not enjoying even the memory of it, and it had been years now.I couldn’t remember some of the specifics. “That made me want to die.” That piece of my memory was clear as day.

Niko started walking, passing me to continue following the trail but stopped behind me after ten or so steps.

“Your endurance is building. It will for a long time, naturally. We’re more powerful as we get older,” Davor said, nodding in appreciation. “Add to that the fights you’ve had over the years; it only makes sense that you’re doing better with this while Russia had been harder on your body.” Davor stopped talking suddenly, looking beyond me at Niko, most likely. I turned to my brother, who was quickly turning away.

“Let’s move,” Niko ordered.

We started jogging. Checking my watch, an hour passed, and something felt weird to me.

Why had Davor stopped talking all of a sudden? Did Niko stop him?

I tried not to think more about it after a second hour of letting it linger and focused on keeping the pace, my senses alert for any sign of the werecat.

It was at hour five that we had a small break.

“Finally. We’re coming up on a heavier area of scent. Lots of other predators as well,” Niko said, and three steps later, I caught the same scent. Niko slowed, with Davor and me still following his lead.

The kill was old. Very old. Based on the timeline I had put together during my last watch, it was just under three weeks old. It looked and smelled like it, too. It was almost unidentifiable, but there was also a lot of it left.

“Scavengers should have cleaned this up by now, right?” I knew a thing or two, I hoped.

“Yeah, if it was killed by a normal werecat or just any other predator,” Niko confirmed. “It didn’t guard the kill. Its natural scent, as you can tell, is different.”

“Yeah…” It didn’t smell like a normal werecat. It was the same in the basics, clearly different from a werewolf, but there was something in the scent that changed its entire makeup. I would never forget it, that was certain. I hadn’t thought enough about it, but while Davor and Niko looked at the kill, trying to learn something, I realized that something was different in the scent.

“Is magic coming off the werecat in the Last Change?” I asked suddenly.

“Yes,” Niko answered. “It’s the only time the curse we have really presents itself as something magical in the scent of magic being used actively. If that makes sense.”

It did. If the twins and Subira were right—and they probably were—magic was in everything, something I mostly ignored because we couldn’t smell it in everything. We could smell magic when it was used.

Or can we smell it when it’s out of place? Weird.

“Sorry, I didn’t think to mention that.”

“It’s fine. I like figuring stuff out on my own,” I said, shrugging.

“Two weeks, not three,” Davor finally whispered. “This kill is more recent than the deaths. All the ground we covered, and it took nearly a week to cover what we’ve covered in a couple of days, if that.”

“It was moving slow…” Niko nodded. “We have a chance to catch up, then.”

“Yes. I wouldn’t doubt if it found a place to rest after this for some time. We need to keep moving and try to find more.” Davor started off, leaving Niko and me scrambling a little to follow him.

After another hour, Davor slowed, and we slid to a stop at another homestead, a cabin and a few outbuildings, along with an apparent garden. There were no vehicles nearby, not even an ATV. It looked like there was no one around, but the werecat’sscent led up to the door. It had been out of my line of sight when we stopped, but the werecat had broken into the building and destroyed the inside.

“Avoided every home until this one, and it just ate?” I said, truly not understanding this werecat.

Davor ignored me, walking in without a word. Niko didn’t follow and grabbed my bag to stop me. He shook his head slowly when I tried to ask why, making me cut the question off before I made a sound.

“It stayed here for some time,” Davor whispered. “Days, if not a week…” Davor looked back at us. “It denned in here, but I don’t know why. Using human structures doesn’t… It’s a rogue. It has no attachment to this place or shouldn’t.”

“Davor?” Niko was cautious, which was a further reminder to keep my mouth shut.

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