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He didn’t look back. His eyes kept searching the tree line. “It’s the tripwire spell. Something crossed into camp.”

“Did you have to make it so loud?”

He scowled. “It’s useless if it doesn’t wake us up.”

Ren was standing now too. Her eyes found movement. A branch trembled slightly. In its shadow she saw a dark-furred hare. The light of their fire reflected in the creature’s glassy eye.

“Did you set a size threshold on the tripwire spell?”

Theo shook his head. “No. I didn’t—I assumed some of the predators out here might be smaller.”

Ren was too tired to laugh. At least he could pull an explanation out of thin air. “Well, there’s your dangerous predator,” she said, pointing. “A blackthatch rabbit. Make sure it doesn’t bite you. I hear they’re rather poisonous. Adjust the spell. I’m going back to—”

Her sentence was cut off by a slash of movement. The rabbit planted its back legs to leap before a second shadow pinned it to the earth. Momentum brought the hunter sliding briefly free of tree cover. All of them saw the slouched shoulders. Eyes like the speckled streaks of a red sky. The great cat was about Ren’s size, all bone and thin-layered muscle. The creature shook its prey in a clamped jaw until the rabbit went limp. Only then did it look up at them. A lip curled instinctively. Ren heard a noise of warning rattle out of the creature’s throat.

Theo unleashed a bolt of magic that briefly illuminated the night, blinding the rest of them. She was blinking away the afterimage as Theo took a few bold steps forward in his search.

“Gone,” he announced. “Scared it off.”

“I hate it here,” Timmons whispered. “I hate it all.”

“It was just a slink cat,” Avy said. “Wicked quick, but too small to go after us. It’s honestly a good sign. They’re pretty common on our side of the mountain too. Might mean we didn’t go too far into the Dires after all.”

“Yes,” Timmons replied dryly. “Those claws were reassuringly small. Not sharp at all.”

Avy was already repositioning his satchel for sleep, though, as if he hadn’t just watched one creature kill another creature less than ten paces from where they’d set up camp. A glance showed that Cora hadn’t even woken up. Ren tried to nestle back in next to Timmons, who she could tell was crying again. Theo circled their camp and refreshed the wards.

Sleep never came. Timmons eventually drifted off, but about an hour later another sound shivered through the air. Distant, but too clear. A low moan. Theo had finished altering the spell, and now he stood a few paces away from Ren, eyes tracing the cloud-thick dark around their camp. He glanced back and their eyes met. The moan sounded again. No closer, but that was hardly a comfort. Ren slid free of Timmons. She pushed up to her feet to stand beside Theo.

“What do you think that is?” he asked.

It sounded a third time.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to know.”

They stood for a time, listening. The low moans continued. Ren thought the source of the noise was moving south, away from them. It was hard to tell.

“Surprised there’s anything you don’t know,” he remarked.

Ren could tell from his tone exactly what he was doing. Trying to charm his way back into her good graces. Trying to find some comfort in this group of strangers. It was another good sign that he recognized her abilities. She could work with that foundation. Continue to impress. Survive this place. She’d never considered how her true goals could be accomplished from within House Brood. It would be strange to wear their emblem on her chest, but as Ren thought through the details, she saw how it might work. What other option did she have? Clyde was dead. She looked back at Theo.

“Animal noises are not the focus of my studies.”

“It might be whatever took Clyde.”

She shook her head. “It might be a loud frog. Or the slink cat we saw earlier, worried that we’re in its territory. There’s nothing we can do until it tries to cross the barrier. Go get some sleep. I’ll stay up a little longer. We’re going to have to do shifts like this eventually.”

He nodded. There was a brief pause where he looked like he might say something else, but then he settled back into his spot by the fire. Ren rolled over the thickest log she could find and took a seat. She’d much rather be sleeping, but the silence gave her time to think. And that was nearly as valuable as rest. She traced through spells, thought through possible scenarios they might face, and by the time light crept through the valley, she felt prepared for whatever might come.

* * *

Morning offered light but not warmth.

Avy was turning the remains of the fire with a boot, making sure the embers were properly buried. Theo caught Ren’s eye and raised an eyebrow. It was a silent question. She shook her head to say that no, the noise had never manifested into more. She hoped whatever had taken Clyde’s body wasn’t tracking them. She didn’t have any spells to hide their scent, not from real predators.

“I’m hungry,” Avy announced. “Anyone else have food?”

Ren unbuckled her satchel. “Let’s dump out everything. Sort through what we should bring and what we should leave. It’ll give us a baseline for resources.”