Page 69 of Artemis' Bow
“Are you having phantom pain from the several beatings she’s given you in the past?” Raven asks with an evil grin.
“So what if I am?” Jayden shrugs. “She’s got an arm for an old lady.”
“We don’t know for sure she will be there,” I remind them again before shutting the door behind me.
Jayden hops into the driver’s seat and rolls down the window to say goodbye to Tristan. “We’ll send word once we have the situation handled in Tuscan.”
“What about the other thing?” He raises an eyebrow.
“You’ll know when that’s handled, I guarantee it,” I say over Jayden’s shoulder. “Just keep your people safe and we’ll be in touch when we can.”
Tristan nods and backs away from the vehicle. The others all hop in the vehicle, and we finally get on the road.
“Let’s wait until we’re out of the city before we stop for gas. Maybe it won’t be as cold since it didn’t start snowing until we got into the city before,” I say.
“Yeah, it’s too cold to stand outside for any amount of time. I’m frozen solid,” Raven says with a shiver.
I’m silent for a minute as my neck prickles once again with unease. The dread returns as I glance around the empty street, but there’s no one and nothing out of place.
“What’s wrong?” Jayden squeezes my thigh.
“I got a feeling that I’m being watched.” I shudder.
Everyone turns in every direction, on high alert this time. The last time I had a gut feeling this strong, no one believed me, and I was right, so they take it more seriously now.
“I don’t see anything,” Raven says.
“That doesn’t mean there isn’t something happening, though,” Jayden says. “We just need to stay vigilant.”
“Agreed,” Greyson says, still staring out the window.
“Why does this always happen in Arizona?” Raven asks.
I lean forward to glance out the windshield at the sky above us. The demon pigeons attacked us in Arizona last time. Could that be the terrible feeling I’m having? I scan the skies, but nothing jumps out at me as dangerous at first.
The clouds are dark and ominous, but it’s the large shadow beneath them that makes me stiffen and reach for the lightning bolt charm that holds my whip. Is that a demon pigeon? My instinct is that it’s not, but I don’t know for sure.
“What is that?” I point to the clouds.
The sun breaks through the clouds enough to see it a little clearer but not much. Red and gold gleam in the morning sun like flames flickering.
“Is it an escaped parrot? It’s big enough to be a large exotic parrot,” Raven says, not taking her eyes off it.
“Is it ever just something mundane with us, though?” Greyson asks.
“At least it’s not those fucking metal birds that shit acid,” Jayden says and flinches.
“Agreed, but how do we know that it’s not something much worse?” I ask, because with us, there can always be something much worse.
“It’s not attacking us, so maybe we don’t need to worry until it decides to.” Adrian leans forward.
Thad stares out the window. “What if it’s not meant to attack us, but to follow us and report our progress? We didn’t tell anyone where we are going.”
“You think it followed us from the academy?” Raven asks.
“No, I first got this feeling when we were talking to Tristan about Tuscan. I would have felt it before then had it been following us the whole time.” I turn to look at her. “Someone wants to know where we’re going.”
“It’s in the sky. There’s not much we can do about that.” Thad sighs.
