Page 31 of Stars in Mist

Unwilling to indulge this particular well of sorrow, he cast his wild thoughts aside and kept moving.

At one point, Élisa slowed their progress with a command sent to the pallet. She strode to Riv and thrust a pack of dried protein jerky into his hands.

He ate, starving after days of a low appetite. The walk had invigorated his voracity. He drank from the bulb of water, knowing it’d keep his strength, mind, and emotions in check better than anything else.

Moments later, she waved a hand, indicating they should resume their blistering hike.

He demurred. ‘Can’t we halt for a bit to enjoy the view? It’s more suitable for our digestion.’

‘Nada.’

‘When will we stop?’ He was pushing his luck.

‘When I say so.’

He shrugged, unmoved by her iciness.

Deeper still, they walked through the chasms, moving with agile ease from one track to another.

It was a confusing labyrinth as Élisa covered their tracks. This set off a niggling worry in him about who the freak was out there.

At one point, he sensed a steady gaze on them and swiveled his eyes, looking for the first sign of an ambush.

Whatever or whoever it was in the bushes retreated, and their presence vanished. Still, Riv did not relax.

The shadows grew longer as they pressed on through overgrown shoulder-height fern fronds.

Élisa didn’t have much say. His ears caught the sound of her breath, which didn’t change cadence much, a testament to her extreme fitness.

As the long hours dragged on, Riv divorced his mind from physical discomfort. He let his noids take the brunt of the relentless pace, concentrating on putting one boot in front of the other.

‘Hey, stranger.’

He glanced back at Élisa’s soft command. She’d slowed down beside an enormous, hollowed-out swamp tree, its rough-hewn opening tall enough to walk into.

Élisa strode before him and came alongside her now-slowing air-pallet, leading it into the hollow.

Keeping her eyes and laser on him, she used her chin to point. ‘Get in, find a corner and stay still.’

He paused midstep, looking around him at the leafy outlook and hanging vines that shrouded the entrance to the dark space. ‘Are these our lodgings for the night?’

‘Naam.’

‘I like what you’ve done with the place.’

Her mouth twitched, and the cold, flat frostiness in her eye subsided for a moment. ‘Smart ass.’

Stalking past her into the tree’s centre, she gave him a fierce warning glare. He shied away with a playful grin and preened as her lips turned up.

She pressed them tight in a weak attempt to suppress her humor.

So she wasn’t always dour.

Yet he’d be shaking in his mag boots if he weren’t a Rider.

She’d morphed over the years into a woman with an energy tinged with hawkish wildness. While he still caught flashes of his angel’s sweet nature, he also glimpsed a ferocity in her lilac gaze, in the same way an untamed bird of prey was dangerous.

Despite the play, he sensed she had the power to lash out and kill with as much savagery as a feral predator.

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