Page 75 of Exiled Heir

It was a ring.

I stood frozen, staring at it. The surface was scratched, marks from animal teeth nearly obscuring the engraving inside. I didn’t need to read the engraving to know what this was, whose it was.

Papers from the rat’s nest fell to the ground, and I bent to examine them, hoping for something more. A written note, a clue. But they were all too damaged from rain and animal defecation. They looked like newspaper, and I wondered how a newspaper had gotten all the way out here in the forest.

I searched the room again, ignoring the scent of urine and the droppings in corners. On one of the walls, I saw scratches, dug deep into the masonry.

Spreading my fingers wide, I traced the claw marks. They had trapped a werewolf here.

As I was making a second pass around the room, I heard someone coming up the path. They stopped, and I recognized Jay’s voice when he called out, “Who’s there?”

Internally, I swore, but the best way to look guilty was to hide. I shoved the ring deep into my pocket, then stepped out of the cabin.

“It’s just me,” I said. “I thought I would check it out in daylight, make sure we didn’t miss anything. What are you doing here?”

He jangled some keys in his hands. “I forgot to lock up last night. Did you find anything?”

He approached the first cabin, hesitating and glancing toward me. I waved him off. “Nothing useful. Why were these other two cabins unlocked?”

“We opened them first, but that one had rats, and this one Nia didn’t like because of the hole in the roof.” Color rose on his cheeks. “Then with everything, I forgot to lock them. Why were you looking inside?”

“I like to be thorough. They were unlocked, and I wanted to make sure that there was nothing in them that told us how Keith had died.” I shook my head. “I thought the rat’s nest might be something—there was a lot of paper in there. It looks like newspaper, though. Would anyone have left a newspaper out here?”

“Newspaper?” Jay blinked. “Newspaper ormagazines?”

“I’m not sure.” I walked back into the cabin as Jay locked the other two, returning with one of the scraps of paper.

I tried to hand it over, but Jay shook his head. “I think I know where it came from.”

As he locked the third cabin, I tried not to stare at the closed door, checking for any last clue of what had happened inside. When he was done, he pocketed the keys and gestured for me to follow him. We walked back down the main path, then, seemingly at random, he turned and began cutting through the brush. It was no obvious path, but I followed him anyway.

“The last time I followed you into the forest, I almost got my head taken off. Tell me there isn’t another power-hungry werewolf at the end of this.” My joke fell flat, and I saw Jay’s head twitch. “Jay…”

He turned. “I am really sorry about Jesaiah. I had no idea that he would try anything like that.”

“Of course. It’s not your fault.” I put all the confidence I had into the words.

He was looking down and away, focused on the bushes near my feet.

“Jay, did you actually see him attack me?” It had been niggling at me since he’d spoken up for me. Did he lie for me?

He nodded quickly, a bobblehead doll on a shaky dashboard. “Only the end of it. I’m sorry I didn’t try to stop him. I should have jumped in.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I waited for him to look at me. “I mean it.”

Nodding, Jay turned back to the path that wasn’t there. He fished around in his pocket, and I thought he was looking for the keys again, but then he pulled out a handful of pebbles. Seemingly at random, he began throwing them in the bushes. I heard them land, sizzling.

“What’s that?” I asked, gesturing to where he’d tossed one of the pebbles.

“Habit,” Jay said. “When Isaac and I were training, I was trying to learn some offensive spells, but I don’t really have the build for fighting, so we were trying some other ways. I still try to keep practicing.”

“Training?” I asked, watching another rock sail off into the brush.

“Training with magic?” Jay frowned at me before his brows cleared. “Oh, you and Cade probably haven’t gotten the chance to yet.”

“Uh, yeah,” I said, realizing that asking anything more would only reveal that Cade and I weren’t actually consorts.

For a while, we walked in silence, and then Jay said, “Most of the consorts need to get away sometimes. There’s a gym in town, but some of them come out here.”