Page 90 of A Hunt Bound in Blood

Glory

XL

Hidden under my makeshift tent, nothing more than an extra blanket strung over two branches, I watched Cammon where he sat against a tree, a knife in his hands as he cleaned the dirt out from under his fingernails.

He looked so… alone. Comfortable in his aloneness, but after all the time we’d spent together, it didn’t seem right that he should be by himself.

I debated going out there, sitting beside him and reading through today’s clue together, but I was held back by the memory of his reactions throughout the day. He’d been pushing me away, creating distance. His absence was a cold void, but I understood what he was doing. We’d just passed another landmark. We only had a few days until we found the amulet, and then we’d be on our way home. Back to the real world. Maybe he was realizing it would be better to start the mental shift now.

Maybe he was right.

I leaned against my own tree and played with the slip of parchment I’d pulled from the pedestal. It was clear Tersey hadn’t intended anyone to reach it from above. The clue to opening the hidden compartment had been written at an awkward angle, and if we’d been standing next to it, it would have looked like gibberish. We would have been stuck there long after the drakes had woken up and attempted to make us dinner. Tonight, Cammon and I had proved that, working together yet again, we could get past the most creative of Tersey’s cruel little traps, and considering Cammon’s choice to begin pulling away, it was almost ironic that I’d never felt more optimistic about our success than I did right now.

I unfurled the parchment and squinted in the darkness at the four lines scribbled across the surface.

Deep in the shadows, deep in the woods, the penultimate clue lurks beneath the hood. Beware the oak, beware the pine, beware the monsters within the shrine.

I read it twice, my attention landing again and again on the single word in the middle of the horrible excuse for a rhyme. Penultimate.

We had two more stops to make, and when we solved the second, we would find the amulet waiting for us. All these days, all this stress and strain and bloodshed, and we were finally here.

So why didn’t I feel more excited about it?

I tucked the clue into my pack to discuss it with Cammon and reference the map in the morning, then lay down and pulled the blanket over my shoulder. I may have lost most of my comforts, but at least my enchanted strip of wool had survived. If I couldn’t cuddle an overheated demon prince, I’d have to settle for the scratchy fabric, just as I would for the rest of my long, safe, quiet life.

I closed my eyes and thought of home. Soon I’d be back to the old haunts, the old routines, the old invisibility. Soon I’d be in my library. Everything was working out as I’d hoped it would.

Everything was awful.

I woke up to stiff, sand-filled joints and a raw, scratchy throat. When I’d woken last night feeling better, I’d been hopeful that my body had realized the bloodlust was imaginary. Now I knew it had to have been the excitement of the hunt that had pushed my symptoms away. With another day of only walking ahead, I had nothing to distract me from my thirst.

I emptied a flask of water, which went some way towards helping, and devoted my attention to creating a large breakfast with the scraps we had left over from the fury.

Cammon puttered around the camp. I sensed his gaze on me, and although I knew he was curious, he didn’t ask questions. Thank Olodin. The last thing I needed was him worrying about me. I would find a solution. I’d go hunting if I had to. Find some animal in the woods and drain it dry.

My mouth watered at the thought. This close to the drakes, we hadn’t seen any sign of rabbits or deer, but once we moved farther into the forest, maybe I’d get lucky.

“The map is in your pack—would you mind getting it?” I asked Cammon as I put the finishing spices on the potatoes. Dried meat sat beside it, along with slices of tomato, hardboiled eggs, and green onion sprinkled on top. It was far from a fancy meal, but I was proud of what I’d accomplished on my own and it would fill our stomachs for the day. We’d have to hope we were able to hunt tonight for something to take us the rest of the way. And to keep me on my feet.

Cammon settled by my side and unrolled the map across the ground in front of us. I pulled out Tersey’s clue and pinned it down with two rocks on either side.

Cammon scanned it, and his nose wrinkled. “Ah. He’s back to his poetry, is he?”

I smirked. “Seems so. He must have had a bit more time on his hands for these last ones.”

“Time he did not devote to improving his skills.”

“Why would he have needed to? Anyone who dared to criticize him would wind up dead.”

He nudged my shoulder. “We’re still breathing.”

“True. He obviously never predicted us.” I smiled up at him, and my heart swam at the warmth I found staring back at me. Then Cammon’s expression shuttered, and he dropped his gaze to the clue. I ignored the chill that swept through me and followed his lead.

“From what I can tell, the first line tells us it’s going to be somewhere shaded—‘deep in the shadows’—and the second gives us the general location—‘in the depths of the woods.’ If we keep along this road, that suggests the next clue is located somewhere in here.” I circled my finger around the middle of the large forests that separated the peaks from the harbour.

“Hardly narrows it down, does it?”

“That’s where the next line comes in. ‘Beneath the hood.’”