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She nodded and didn’t resist when he pulled her into his arms and gave her a brief hug. She stepped back so he could hug her grandmother. Taking the bag her mother held out, she stepped through the opening. Conan walked with them across the cavern to the entrance.

Jayden shielded her eyes from the wind and snow cast about by the flying machine. Her heart hammered in her chest when she saw the basket holding her grandfather being lifted into the air. A man in a bright red suit was leaning partially out of the flying machine and guiding the thin cable. Less than a minute later, the basket was being lowered again.

“We’ll send your grandmother up first and then you,” Conan said in a loud voice.

Her grandmother’s eyes were wide with a mixture of fear and awe as Conan gently led her towards the basket. In a matter of seconds, her grandmother was effortlessly suspended in the air by a slender cable. Jayden hugged her grandmother’s bag to her chest as she watched with growing anxiety.

“You’re next,” Conan shouted.

Jayden tore her gaze away from the flying machine. Her eyes locked on the two shifters standing a short distance away. Her lips parted as she struggled to pull in a breath as the intensity in their eyes washed over her. She felt like a rabbit who had just been discovered by wolves. If it wasn’t for her grandparents, she would have given up on hiding and bolted.

“You ready?” Conan asked.

She nodded and moved forward when he guided her to the basket. It wasn’t until she was lying back that she tore her eyes away from the two shifters and stared up at the twirling blades of the flying machine. She wound her fingers in the wire of the basket as it lifted off the ground.

Why do I feel that my feet will never touch the ground again? she wondered as the man in red pulled the basket into the flying machine.

Chapter 4

Jayden lifted the blanket the nurse had brought in and gently covered her grandmother. Night had fallen outside and only the dim light over her grandfather’s bed illuminated the room. She smiled down at her grandmother. A nurse had ordered a second bed be brought into the room so her grandmother could rest. The two beds were now pushed up against each other and her grandmother had fallen asleep with her hand wrapped around her grandfather’s.

She didn’t understand the equipment attached to her grandfather, only that whatever they had done over the last few days was working. Her grandfather’s coloring already looked better and he was breathing easier. She wrapped her arms around her waist and walked over to the window to stare out.

The flight here had taken her breath away, giving her the impression they were birds as they soared over the forest. What shook her and her grandmother the most hadn’t been the sensation of flying, it had been the knowledge of how closely they were surrounded by shifter settlements.

Small towns turned to cities with buildings that rose higher than the tallest trees and more massive than any forest. Tiny moving dots traveled along the long and winding roads, while ropes thicker than her arm held up magnificent bridges. Panic had set in that was hard for her to hide from her grandmother. Thankfully, her grandmother was more focused on her grandfather than the landscape sweeping below them.

She hadn’t been able to hide her fear completely, though. Conan and the shifter in the red suit kept looking at her. Conan had spoken to her in the black boxes they had placed on her head after she sat down.

“Are you alright?”

She had given Conan a silent, curt nod, realizing deep down she was screaming. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought the shifters had expanded the way they had. She always imagined them as the elders had described them from centuries before—living in small isolated villages. She now realized how naïve she was to believe that humans could ever survive, much less thrive in this world.

The sound of the door opening behind her made her turn. Doctor Ben Lyon stepped inside. His glance took in the sleeping couple, noting the tranquility of their intertwined fingers and the soft, steady rhythm of their breathing. She couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes lingered on the couple’s entwined hands, his compassionate smile reflected in his eyes before he shifted his focus to her. She bowed her head in silent greeting when he nodded and smiled.

He stepped closer to her grandfather. She watched as he scanned the monitor before gently lifting her grandfather’s wrist and pressing his fingers against it. He tucked her grandfather’s arm back under the covers before he looked up and motioned for her to follow him.

She took a step before she paused and bit her lip. Her eyes flickered from her grandparents, to him, to the door with uncertainty. She had not left this room since they had been escorted to it four days earlier.

“They will be fine. There is a guard outside the door. I can have a nurse sit with them if you’d like,” Ben murmured.

“Annie. Only Annie,” she whispered back.

Ben nodded, turned, opened the door, and spoke to the guard. A minute later, Annie stepped inside with a smile to them both. Annie’s eyes softened when she noticed the two beds pushed together.

“I’ll watch over them,” she promised.

Jayden swallowed and nodded. She walked over to the door and stepped out when Ben opened it for her. She dropped her arms to her sides, clenching her fists when she felt a sense of panic rising inside her again.

The hallway was brightly lit. Two shifters with broad shoulders and weapons stood on either side of the door. They both studied her with curious expressions but didn’t say anything.

“What do you want?” she demanded.

Ben looked down at her with a compassionate expression. “I thought you might like a break and want to grab a bite to eat.”

“No—thank you,” she replied, adding the last two words as an afterthought.

“I would also like to talk to you about your grandfather’s results. I didn’t want to disturb your grandmother. She has been through enough and needs her rest. If you’d prefer I wait?—”