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CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Ellery

“Ugh, cut it out,” Scarlet said.

Her words and playful bump against my side pulled me out of my reverie. “What?”

“You’re drooling . Stop it.”

I used the back of my hand to wipe my mouth. I was relieved that I hadn’t actually drooled, but I was probably close. “I am not.”

Scarlet laughed. “If I’d known I would be living here with you two lovey-dovey freaks, I might have stayed on that field.”

“We’re not that bad.”

“You’re gross.” The amusement in her doe-brown eyes belied her words. “You’re also kind of cute.”

I smiled before bowing my head over my sewing. A flurry of motion from my right alerted me something was coming a second before Mouse launched himself at me.

I released the shirt in time to catch the boy. I laughed as we fell back together, and his small arms cinched around my neck.

Over the past week, I’d seen a lot of him as he came to the clearing every day and spent more time at the encampment. I hoped that meant he’d stay one day, but I wasn’t sure he’d ever settle down. Mouse had a bigger free spirit than me.

He pulled away and, grinning, sat back to survey the encampment. His recent growth spurt had caused his sleeves to ride almost halfway up his arms, and his pants were on the way to becoming shorts.

His disheveled black hair desperately needed a cut as it hung in his eyes and knotted around his shoulders. Before winter set in, I’d ensure he had new, warmer clothes that fit him properly.

“Are you hungry?” I asked him.

Mouse shook his head as he watched Ryker in the tree. Ever since Ryker had found us in the tunnel beneath the trees, Mouse had started following him around.

When Ryker looked down and caught sight of Mouse, he waved. The boy beamed as he waved enthusiastically back at him.

Mouse still wouldn’t speak, but, like I hoped he’d one day stay with us, I also hoped to hear his voice again. Far too much time had passed without it.

Settling beside me, Mouse leaned against a tree as he studied the builders. I resumed trying not to stab my fingers with a needle.

Scarlet’s fingers moved nimbly through the threading of the pants she mended while, across the way, Ruby and Mr. Fletcher helped feed the horses. He’d healed well from his injuries, and they were settling into the slower rhythm of life in the forest.

From somewhere deep within the trees, something screeched. My hands stilled as the echoing cry rebounded through the woods. Beside me, Mouse stiffened as Scarlet lowered her sewing.

I placed the shirt down and rose to gather my bow and quiver from where I’d placed them beside me. The encampment had grown so large that attacks from the creatures of the Revenant Woods were rare, but that hadn’t stopped some of the monsters from trying.

Grabbing a tree limb, Ryker swung out of the tree to land beside me. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” I told him. “But it sounded big.”

The others also dropped from the tree as everyone in the encampment focused on where the screech had come from. Then it came again, echoing over the land, but this time, the scream of something dying followed it.

After a few minutes, when nothing else happened, work resumed around the encampment.

“We’ll put on extra guards,” Tucker said. “We’ll add more for tonight too.”

Ryker ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll take the first shift.”

“I’ll join him,” I offered; it was better if we were on guard duty together. At least then we could spend the rest of the night with each other.

“We should also discuss when we’re going to return to that tunnel and the gargoyles,” Tucker said.

“We should probably do it sooner rather than later. Things have been quiet with the aristocrats, but that’s only because they’re scrambling to fill the hole Ivan’s death created and establish a new rule over the land.

Once everything settles, they’ll come for us. ”

I knew he was eager to see what lay beneath the forest and the temple, but I was in no rush to have those trees drag me under the earth again. Nightmares still plagued me over the last time it happened.

I was pretty certain they wouldn’t kill us, but maybe trees that could move were fickle fuckers who sometimes liked to crush the life out of things. I shuddered at the possibility.

“It probably is time to learn where the other end of the tunnel leads,” Ryker said.

“I agree.”

I hated this intrusion of reality into my happy little bubble, but they were right. We had to know where the other end of the tunnel led, and discovering more about the gargoyles could help us. I didn’t know how it could help, but I wasn’t willing to rule anything out.

“We can go tomorrow,” I suggested. It would be better to get it over with. “The poltergeists haven’t brought news of another encampment today, so we’ll have time.”

Ryker stiffened beside me, and I knew he wanted to argue about me going with them, but his lips remained clamped together. We’d already been through this; if he was going down there again, so was I.