Page 74 of Finding Her (Lore of the Fields #1)

Eventually, the trees gave way to a towering concrete wall, the branches above our heads creating the impression that its height stretched infinitely.

Mykie looked left and right, selecting a direction to follow.

She opted for right, retreating into the tree line just enough that the wall was visible to us, but our silhouettes would be concealed amongst the densely packed trunks.

I wasn’t surprised by the lack of entrances, but was frustrated regardless as we turned the corner. The building could only be so big, right? We’d already walked far longer than the length of Faeryn’s field. How big was the operation here that it needed to be the size of a town ?

My frustrations were cut off when Mykie’s hand shoved against my chest in a clear command to halt.

I followed her eyeline, but saw nothing.

She pointed the tip of her knife up into the branches, drawing my attention to the slightest shine of light in the darkness.

We were getting near somewhere worth illuminating, which meant we needed to proceed very carefully.

Mykie spun her finger for us to keep moving, each foot placement slow and intentional.

The faint outline of her head whipped around, her arm dramatically pressing her hand to her neck repeatedly.

It took me a moment to recognize she was telling me my emblem was glowing—I would make an awful hitman.

I wrapped my hand over the faint light, cringing internally when there was more immediate darkness.

I hadn’t realized it was shining so brightly. My neck should have a ribbon around it.

Two Quadmos guarded the first sign of an entrance.

Eight arms were certainly better security than four.

They held long, black weapons in their hands.

Weapons capable of killing from a great distance with the twitch of a finger.

Guns. I’d only heard about them in passing from patrons at work.

Mykie once dismissed them as noisy, messy, and cowardly. Right now, they seemed quite useful.

Mykie held up her hands in a “ stay put ” signal, pointing to a direction off into the woods and then repeating her over-exaggerated neck covering movement.

I pointed to the hand smothering my emblem.

She nodded. Got it. She’s going that way, I need to uncover my neck.

It sounded like I was about to be used as bait and get shot, but she was the boss right now.

I waited for a few seconds until she was far enough away, and peeled my hand away from the sweat of my skin in the humid air.

It wasn’t long before one of the guards elbowed their partner and pointed in my direction.

They wouldn’t be able to tell that I was a person in the black abyss of the woods.

I was just a suspicious glowing light. Nothing worth shooting at.

One guard remained at their post, the other stepped in my direction. My gut told me to retreat, but I held still. I needed to stay a benign glow. His body silhouetted against the background, reminding me just how dark it was between the trees. His partner probably couldn’t see him anymore.

Mykie must have drawn the same conclusion. Her small, deadly frame overlapped his. The only sound was a strangled breath before he slumped down, his body shoved against a tree to make the fall more controlled. Near silent. Mykie was in her element.

The second guard began to shuffle uncomfortably, craning his neck to find his friend in the black woods. I stood at my post, ready to snare another victim in our trap.

“Oberon?” he called out in a hushed whisper. “Oberon, you alright?”

Mykie had disappeared again, Oberon’s corpse out of sight on the forest floor.

“Oberon,” The guard began to step in my direction, raising his weapon to point at the mystery light—my throat.

I tried to remain calm, not wanting my glow to increase enough to raise alarm. Maintaining a steady emotional state wasn’t easy when I considered the power of a gun. If I were killed here, would Mykie be able to save Faeryn on her own? I hoped so.

The guard’s steps were loud as they crunched closer, branches snapping repeatedly. He would have been doomed if our situations were reversed, unable to be stealthy with those wide, heavy Quadmos feet.

There was a rustle of leaves as he tripped over something, looked down and stumbled back in terror. Oberon’s legs.

Before he could scream, run, or summon help, Mykie was upon him.

He was ruthlessly dropped to the ground with a loud “ thud ”.

We were the only ones alive out here now, there was no need to be quiet.

The dark outline of Mykie’s shoulders rose and sank with heavy breaths, her head snapping up to look at me before she turned towards where the guards had come from.

I followed, less concerned about my noisy footsteps.

The entrance was straight ahead and the path was clear.

The door was surprisingly narrow, more like an emergency exit than a heavily foot-trafficked gate.

A glowing glass sensor, presumably a requirement for entrance, hung on the hefty metal.

Mykie shrugged her bag to the ground and pulled out a small machine I didn’t recognize.

She held it to the red glass, and the light immediately died out, followed by the satisfying click of a door unlocking.

This facility must not have considered that anybody would be desperate enough to traverse the forest to enter here, or they would have invested in better security.

That carelessness would work in our favor.