Page 26 of A Hunt Bound in Blood

“And I still say that interpretation ignores this reference to the collapsed church bells, which clearly points to the old Timpany Chapel over here.”

My finger and Cammon’s were divided by a good stretch of map, with no overlap in route. I silently cursed and read through the clue again. The wording was too vague to be useful. There had to be some subtext we were missing.

Across the rapid ruins lies the fourth remind

See the collapsed church bells and there the clue unwind.

Cammon was right—the forced rhymes were a hindrance. If we were dealing with earth-opening pits filled with spikes, I would have much preferred more clarity in Tersey’s words of guidance.

“‘The fourth remind,’” I quoted with bitterness. “Do you think he had to try to sound so pretentious, or did it come naturally to him?”

Cammon laughed, the sound so genuine and deep it vibrated across my skin, and my nipples hardened. Traitorous nipples.

“I thought you liked this guy,” he said.

“I respect him. I admire him. But at the moment, I wish I could throttle him. Remind is a verb not a noun. It’s like he wasn’t even—” The word trying faded on my lips as my eye fell on the notation for an old mine on the map.

I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was reading it correctly, then buried my face in my hands. “We’re doing this wrong, and he’s a bastard.”

“Explain?”

I looked up with a sigh and dropped my finger to a spot between the locations Cammon and I had flagged. “We were both right, but if we’d chosen one or the other, we would have gone well off course.”

Cammon followed my finger. “The Dryna Mine?”

“Re-mined,” I said slowly, showing him the play on words. “I never would have picked up on it if I hadn’t read his private journal. It was an abandoned mine back in his day, so I can only imagine the state of it now, but he was fascinated with it. The ore they dug out of there had magical properties, and he relied on it for his potions until the country overmined it.” I looked at Cammon and found him staring at me. “What?”

He blinked and gave his head a shake. “Nothing. You were saying? About the mine?”

He redirected his attention to the map.

Something in the way he hadn’t said what had caught his attention made my stomach flutter. I tucked some hair that had fallen free of my bun behind my ear. “Just that if we look at where the mine is on the map, it’s almost dead centre between the river and the chapel. In fact, we’ll be travelling parallel to the river until we get there. I wonder if the mention of the bells is a clue about where we should be looking around the mine. Maybe there’s a view of the chapel?” I chewed on my lip. “If I’m wrong, at least we’ll be equidistant between our other options.”

Cammon drew his finger along the route we’d have to take. “We won’t make it there today. Sometime tomorrow if we keep a good pace and get far enough tonight.”

After such quick success finding the first three signposts, the stretch was disappointing, but it also reassured me we were going in the right direction. Blue Harbour was a few weeks away. If we ran out of clues too early, we’d be lost finding the last ones. Better if they were spaced out, even if it meant we had to stare down some empty days.

“Well, then,” I said, rising to my feet and brushing off the back of my skirt. “We might as well get started.”

Cammon raised an eyebrow and pointed at the fire where our tea and food were still warming up.

I cleared my throat and dropped back down. “After breakfast.”

I’d fully intended on walking apart from Cammon as I’d done yesterday. Anything to discourage more soul baring. We were only four days into our journey. If I couldn’t last longer than that before his demonic influence pushed me to be comfortable with him, I would stand no chance for the remaining twenty-five or so.

Yet by midday, I found myself walking almost by his side, attempting to match my stride to his as motivation to keep my tired legs in motion.

“This road is better maintained than I thought it would be,” I said to myself as we rounded a corner and took in the neatly trimmed grass on either side of the road.

“Evaniel takes great care with his country,” Cammon said. “I’ll give him credit for that. It benefits him, of course. It’s not like the man is altruistic. But this is the fastest route to Blue Harbour, so it’s popular with merchants and tradesmen. Which is why I’m hoping we’ll be lucky and manage to swing another night at an inn somewhere along the way. We can restock at the same time.”

I cast him a narrowed side-eye. “Why are you so familiar with the inside workings of my country?”

Cammon laughed. That sound again, like fire wrapped in honey. It dripped through me, pooled within me, and my body longed to respond to it. I had no idea what was wrong with me. Just because he was more attractive than any man I’d met before and had the passion of an academic did not erase the fact that he was an emotion-devouring, charming, vice-ridden demon. I needed to regain control of myself.

“Don’t worry, Buttons, I’m no spy. There’s no Karhasian scout waiting for me to report back. I know because I pay attention. I take these roads for my own purposes, and I like to know who or what I might meet out here.”

I peered over the field to my right and the trees to my left. His reminder about the possible threats in these woods sent a chill through me despite the warm afternoon. “What sorts of creatures have you encountered? Anything that should keep me awake at night?” I did my best to hide my nervousness, though there was no point. The emotion eater would taste it anyway.