At least now she wouldn’t be doing it alone. The master had given the mission a go-ahead even though he didn’t seem to have much more hope than before.
“Where is he?” I whispered to Leala, who was hidden behind the next tree. She had on all black, down to her boots, and her blond hair was covered in mud. I had no fucking idea why the mud was necessary, but I was in a maid outfit. I couldn’t really throw stones.
She gave her head a tiny shake as something roared off to the side. Shortly thereafter, we heard, hunka, hunka, hunka.
“Fuck,” I whispered, clutching my knapsack tightly.
“I thought you said the master usually clears this part of the wood out by now?” Leala asked quietly.
“Usually he does, but it’s been a bad week for Finley, and he’s been burning the candle at both ends. Besides, he couldn’t exactly roll out a red carpet for us, could he? The last thing we want is to draw attention to what we’re doing…” I froze up with the creature’s next roar, ending again in the strange hunka, hunka, hunka. “It’s moving away from us. The master will get it. Or someone from the villages. They’re super zealous lately about helping protect the woods, since they can shift—”
“I know, I know, shh.”
I clamped my teeth together as Leala peered around the tree. I followed suit, needing to know if danger was coming so I could run like hell. It was dark, but moonlight filtered through the dead and twisted tree canopy above us. They were everywhere, those twisted, ruined trees, blocking what I desperately hoped was a portal to the demon kingdom. I’d never been this deep into the wood, so the exact whereabouts of things was a little hazy to me.
“There he is!” Leala ran out from behind the tree, stooped over like we were under attack by an army of archers.
No dummy, I leaned to the other side of the tree and peered the way she’d been looking. Sure enough, Hannon’s large frame moved within the patches of moonlight, a T-shirt stretched across his shoulders. He wore plain, worn-in baggy pants and boots, probably full of holes. He was scruffy and unassuming and super nice and still amazingly, incredibly hot. Hopefully also incredibly courageous, because Leala and I definitely needed a little help on that front.
I pushed out from behind the tree, trying not to be self-conscious about my choice of attire. Hannon noticed me immediately and had the decency not to look me up and down. He’d known what I was planning on wearing but had never seen it. The visual was the arresting bit. Hopefully the demons on the other side would think so, too.
He nodded at me in greeting as I approached. The demon creature roared again, still moving away. Hannon barely glanced in that direction, not worried about it.
Courageous, definitely. Good.
“Are we sure we can cross?” he asked me, his red hair swirling around his head like fire. “In the wood to the other side of our village—the regular wood not haunted by the demons—there’s a barrier that kills anyone who tries to cross.”
“Yes…we can cross.”
“He’s not positive about that,” Leala said. “The master couldn’t, but the master is specifically governed by the curse. We’re just caught in the crossfire.”
“Thank you for ratting me out, my love. Much appreciated.” I grimaced at Hannon. “Okay, technically no, I do not know if we can cross. But Finley and…that other guy from your village got through. If there was magic preventing us from crossing, they would’ve had a hard time of it.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Hannon said, adjusting the belt around his hips. I belatedly noticed two sheaths hanging from it—one looked to hold an axe, of all things, and the other…
“Is that a kitchen knife?” I pointed.
He didn’t bother to look where I was pointing. “Yes. I can’t shift yet. I need weapons.”
I was going to press, but…well, it was still a knife, so whatever. It was more than Leala and I had. Neither of us knew how to use weapons, and we didn’t want to accidentally kill ourselves. Or get them taken and then used against us by people who were more knowledgeable. Our only useful weapons were our animals.
“Right, okay, are we doing this?” I got my bearings and started walking before my sense of survival could talk me out of it.
The others followed, thankfully, as I walked between two large trees and scanned the leaf-strewn ground. Brambles curled across it, many of them broken owing to several game trails.
No, not game trails. Creature trails.