Page 66 of Wilds of Wonder
El had stayed silent the entire time as we trekked from the stone ruins and onto a black-dusted path that led through sweeping hills. Driscoll had wandered too close to one of the hillsides, and Aron had grabbed him and told him in a very matter-of-fact voice that the hills tended to eat anyone who stepped foot on them.
After that, we kept to the middle of the path.
Now we stood in a forest that looked more like what I was used to: brown trunks, green leaves, branches that didn’t have claws or talons. They’d led us to a spot that was flat, protected by the trees and the towering canopies and had enough space for all of us to pick a spot to sleep. It was the best we could hope for right now. Better than any other areas we’d come across so far.
Aron took Driscoll hunting for some dinner while El got to work making a fire. She collected branches, leaves, and twigs, then sat down, the skirts of her simple red dress floating around her. She concentrated on creating a spark with two rocks she gripped in her hands, while her long black hair curtained her face, falling in thick waves around her golden skin.
“I can help.” I gestured to the sticks, then flipped my palm over and summoned my magic. Flames appeared, dancing over my palm. The woman just glared and continued using the rocks to catch a spark.
So much for helping.
Emory stood at the edge of the clearing, arms folded over her chest, back to me. I should’ve been peppering El with questions, figuring more out about this land, about how to find my sister. But when it came to Emory, “should’ve” had never mattered much. I threw “should’ve” out the window the first time I’d seen her. And I’d never looked back.
She held something in her hand that she was studying.
“What is that?”
I reached her side, and she shot me a sideways glance. “I’m really not in the mood for arguing. Aron will be back soon with Driscoll, and I am thinking through all the questions I have for him and El.”
“That didn’t answer my question.” I nodded at the watch in her hand, glass broken, silver chipped and scratched. It was attached to a long silver chain that she’d looped around her neck. “Do you typically use broken clocks?” I lifted the pocket watch from her palm, studying the little hands, all ticking backward. But the tick was slow. Much slower than normal. It wasn’t counting seconds anymore.
“I found it when we first got here. I think it’s counting down to something,” she said. “Let’s just hope it’s not as ominous as everything else here.”
Emory let go of the pocket watch, and it thumped against her chest.
She turned, gaze shifting to El and back to me. “Maybe we can ask El and Aron about this. See if they know anything. You heard Aron, right?” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “He said he was cursed. What in the bloody frost does that mean?”
Spirits if I knew. Fuck, it was hard to concentrate with her standing so close to me, that freshly fallen snow scent clinging to her, making me want to lean in just a little farther...
“Who would have cursed this place?” Emory asked. “And how?”
I ran a hand over my hair. Right. She was thinking about the logical things, not about us. Not about the revelations we’d made to each other. Not about the fact that our lips had been closer than they ever had in the seven years we’d known each other. My gaze trailed down to those lips, and I wondered exactly what it might be like to feel them on mine.
I needed to get a fucking grip on myself. Annalee needed me to.
“I don’t know,” I finally said. “I can’t imagine how this worldcame to be. I’ve never read nor heard of anything like these Wilds or Aron or the cat woman I saw in the eyeball forest earlier.”
“Now that’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear. Cat woman?” She raised an eyebrow. “Do I even want to know?”
I leaned against a tree, crossing my arms. “Oh, it was just a woman that looked like a cat and talked and also purred. And she had a tail. You know, normal stuff compared to men who shift into wolves.”
That got a smile out of her. The first smile I’d ever seen from Emory. It lit up this entire damn forest. It lit me up. Forget the fire. Forget food. I just needed her to keep smiling like that, and it would be enough to sustain me for all my days.
“Hello?” Emory snapped her fingers, and I jolted.
Right. I was falling apart ever since her identity had been revealed. Maybe it was this world, or maybe it was the fact that my sister was missing. Everything was upside down right now, including my brain. Once I found Annalee and got the spirits out of here, all would be right again. Everything could go back to the way it was.
Except this. Except the one thing I didn’t want to go back to normal. Her. Me. Us. “Sorry.” I rubbed my stubbled jaw. “Still processing all of this.”
“Do you think we can trust them?” Emory whispered, chewing at her bottom lip.
A breeze brushed through the forest, leaves and branches rustling. El almost had the fire going as she struck the two sharp rocks together, sparks flying.
“No,” I said, then hesitated. “And I’d appreciate if you could keep what I told you about my sister being here between us. I don’t want to put her in any more danger than she’s already in. Until I can trust them, I don’t want them knowing anything.”
Emory leaned closer, her fresh snowfall scent wafting toward me. “You don’t think they could help?”
“Maybe.” I thought of the cat woman who’d purposely misled me. “But I don’t want to take that chance. I’d rather get information from them without revealing my sister’s whereabouts.”
