Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Lexi looked out to the side, her body tense, but didn’t say anything. She was monitoring souls. She’d felt creatures along their way, lurking. Watching. None of them had made a move. Once, she’d felt a soul in a tree. Or…the tree had come alive. It was still too early to tell. Kieran did not look forward to when the path started to close down around them and the wylds crawled in closer.
“Oh shit…” Jack stopped at the edge of a circular grouping of dwellings with one larger structure farther removed. “What happened here?”
The crew hastened toward a building in the middle that looked to have been crushed.
“Aren’t those the tracks that we saw by that stream?” Boman pointed at the huge prints next to the destroyed area.
“Lexi, check for signs of life,” Kieran barked.
She jogged toward the other dwellings.
“I smell her,” Mordecai said from the edge of the destruction. He looked off at Lexi with a question in his expression.
“Her spirit is not here,” Lexi called, trying the door to a dwelling. “As of last night, her spirit wasn’t in their version of an afterlife, so we have to assume she didn’t die in that…situation.”
They had to hope, at any rate.
“These are clear,” Lexi said, pushing into one. “Only a few are open, though.”
“This one won’t budge!” Jack called, ramming the door of a dwelling.
“Probably a ward,” Zorn murmured.
“She was in here,” Mordecai called from the dwelling at the far end, covering ground quickly. He was an incredibly efficient shifter. He had the best scent of any of them.
The door and some of the structure had been damaged. Except for the destruction of the one in the middle, the other dwellings appeared untouched.
“That’s…strange,” Lexi said, looking around. “Maybe it was going after the fae? Maybe he…tried to…catch its attention to distract it from his people? Or fae, whatever—you know what I mean.”
“This place housed…animals of some kind,” Thane called from the more removed structure. “No blood. No signs of struggle. Seems recent.”
Kieran turned to look at Zorn, whose face let through the confusion they were all feeling. What sort of creature would destroy a structure, go after a couple of people, and leave livestock unmolested?
“Same tracks as by that creek,” Zorn confirmed. “Maybe this creature holds a grudge.”
Kieran did not want to think about this place propagating creatures smart enough to hold grudges.
Mordecai traced the room and ended up at the bed, the only one in this dwelling. It was still mussed and had obviously been shared.
Mordecai’s eyes were uncomfortable and wary. “Heightened bodily scents,” he said in a growl.
“What does that mean?” Lexi asked as Mordecai bent and looked under the bed.
“She spent time hiding under there.” He straightened and gave Lexi a long look, then looked at Kieran. The kid would rather not say.
“Forced or consensual?” Kieran asked, his stomach tightening. “Can you tell?”
“Consensual,” Mordecai replied. “She got where she was going. I don’t scent the same for him.”
The breath left Lexi in a gush. “Oh.”
“Stockholm syndrome?” Kieran asked.
“In only a couple days?” Lexi replied.
“No.” Zorn stood in the doorway, looking over the room. “She’s resistant to Stockholm syndrome. It would take a lot longer for her to break, and in that time, there would be a lot of bloodshed.”
“How do you know?” Lexi asked.
He looked her dead on as he said, “I’ve never taken her on a cruise. I used that excuse for training you wouldn’t be fond of.”
Her fingers tightened into fists, and Kieran lifted his eyebrows. He hadn’t known. Zorn had kept it to himself so Kieran wouldn’t be in an awkward position between him and Lexi, for which Kieran was thankful.
“You…did…what?” Lexi dragged out.
“I challenged her,” Zorn said, “and I should’ve stepped in more quickly, because she ended up slitting her abductor’s throat. An abductor I had hired and paid and should’ve looked out for better. It took me a second to find and recover her.” He motioned at the cramped space. “If she chose this path with the fae, there is a reason. A seduction or a closeness we don’t have all the facts to understand. The main thing is that she is alive—or was when she was here—and her captor seems to be fond of her. If that’s the case, he won’t want to kill her. Let’s take that as the gift it is.”
Zorn had a point.
“She won’t break,” Mordecai said, heading for the door. “My sister will not break. She’ll hang on long enough for us to get to her. I know she will.”
Kieran could hear the desperation in his voice. The desperation they all felt.
Hang in there, Daisy, he thought, heading out to continue scouting with the others. Hang in there.
20
Daisy
That is a very handsome jacket you have there, Lennox, she thought with a smile. (For someone with no taste.)