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I dive into the cover of trees. The foliage immediately swallows me. I stop just inside the dark, clawing press of thick bushes and grass so wild it reaches my waist. There, I pause, listening to rustling all around me. I don’t see any of the others, and this is okay as long as they’re safe. As long as Tamra is safe. She has to be.

Just as I start to think that I’m on my own, that I’ve been left behind, I hear Cassian’s whisper.

“Jacinda—what are you doing? Let’s go!”

I spot him amid the trees, his face tight and anxious, flashing between his swarthy human skin and his charcoal black draki flesh. Behind him stands Miram, her small face an unremarkable beige smudge of fear.

I shake my head at him and look back toward the road.

I can’t move. I have to see. Have to know. No matter what he told me to do. When it comes down to it, I’m not leaving Will. I swallow against the hot thickness of my throat. Not again.

13

L
ooking around, a plan begins to form. I spot a wide, heavily leafed tree with a slanting trunk for easy climbing. Tackling it, I make my way up with little effort, my fingers digging with ease into the bark.

“Jacinda.” Cassian’s whisper is less discreet this time. He’s moved and now stands below my tree. Miram follows, scowling up at me and worrying the edge of her shirt with her hands.

Cassian stabs a finger toward the ground like I should immediately come down to that spot.

“No. I’ll be fine.” I give him a meaningful glare. “Unless you give us away.” I wave at him. “Now get out of here.”

He blows out a frustrated breath and turns back to his sister. “Go. Hide. I’ll find you.”

Terror flashes across her face. “I don’t want to go without you.”

“You’ll be okay,” he says. “Go deep in the woods and find Tamra. Just stay human.”

I snort. Last time she couldn’t manage to do that.

He ignores me and continues with his instructions. “You’re safer out there. If they stumble upon you, they won’t suspect …”

She shakes her head side to side; clearly the notion of them finding her freaks her out.

“Cassian,” I hiss down at him, “you should go with her.”

He swipes a hand through the air to silence me. Looking at his sister, he commands, “Go.”

With one last pleading look at him, she flees into the trees, her shoulders slumped like a woman headed to her execution.

He quickly climbs up a tree that practically crosses trunks with the one I’m hiding in.

“You’re being stupid,” I whisper. Sending Miram away like that makes me feel uneasy. Like he’s choosing me over his sister. I don’t want him to do that. Ever. “You should be with your sister.”

“And you’re being so smart?” he counters, his purple dark gaze clashing with my own.

And then I feel it. Again. Confusing and bewildering, his desire sweeps over me in a warm wash, the sensation drugging. I shake my head, fighting to reclaim myself. My emotions, not his. Mine are enough to deal with—I don’t need the interference of his. I arch against the invasion. Fighting it—him.

He looks at me starkly through the tangle of branches, our faces inches away even in our separate trees.

Engines growl closer, unmistakable. I peer through the branches. The ball of dust is larger; the vehicles, dark shapes at its center.

By now, Will is occupying himself by looking beneath the hood. Is that his plan? Faking engine trouble? I inhale, hoping it will work.

In the thick nimbus of dirt, I pick out two vehicles. A black truck with windows so darkly tinted it’s impossible to see inside. A van follows behind it, windows equally dark. This van is nothing like ours. Fully pimped out, it shines even submerged in the cloud of dirt.

Will peers out from beneath the hood, and I feel a stab of worry. Would the hunters hurt him? One of their own?

The vehicles stop and the engines die.

For a moment no one steps out and I wonder what they’re doing in there. Their windows remind me of cold, dark eyes, silently watching and condemning. My chest rises and falls in fast pants. Steam releases from my nostrils in twin ribbons.

Will waves one hand in warm greeting, his wariness effectively masked. I hold still, suck in a breath, and trap it inside my too-tight chest, waiting for one of his family members to emerge.

Finally, the truck doors open, followed by the van doors. Several men step out. Five all together. I scan all of them … and recognize no one.

My pulse races at my neck, jumping against my flesh. My gaze flies to Will and I see he, too, finds them unfamiliar. Until this moment, I didn’t realize how much I’d hoped they would be Will’s family.

I shake my head and swat a strand of hair from my face. But if Will doesn’t recognize them, then these hunters are not from Will’s group. They’re strangers. A stark sense of relief sweeps over me. They don’t know Will. He’ll have a better chance persuading them he’s just a stranded driver.

“Hey,” Will says, managing to look relieved and sheepish at the same time. Just a hapless teenager. “Glad you guys showed up. Having a bit of car trouble here.” He pats the van’s rusted side.

“Yeah?” One of the hunters steps to the front, his voice loud and jarring with unspoken challenge. Sunlight glints off the fine blond fuzz of his buzz cut. “That a fact?” He glances around, eyeing our surroundings. His gaze skims over the spot where Cassian and I hide. I stiffen, clinging harder to the rough, scraping bark, blinking with relief that his attention doesn’t linger in our direction.

Looking straight ahead again, he squints pale eyes at the back doors of our van as if he can somehow see within.

“Yeah.” Will gives a disarming laugh. “Guess she’s on her last breath.”

The lead hunter shares a look with his troop. A look that translates:
This guy is full of crap
. I fight to swallow against the thick surge of heat in my throat. They’re not buying his story.

“Why don’t you come clean with us, kid?” a hunter with a slicked-back ponytail and deeply pitted acne scars asks. “You’re not having car trouble.” He nods to the back of the van. “What you got in there?”

And then I notice another hunter holding a strange device. Like a metal box except it’s got some kind of antennae. From my vantage I can see a row of red blinking lights on the face of it. He turns with the box, rotating in a circle. Sometimes the red lights fade, depending on the way he faces—other times they begin flashing in earnest. My gut twists sickly, and I know that box means trouble for us. I catch Cassian’s gaze and see that he’s noted it, too. His face is grim, features pulled tight.

I look back to Will, avoiding glancing at the box again. The sight of it panics me, and I need to stay calm. Calm. Cool. Draki buried.

I have to hand it to Will. He does a good job faking his bewilderment.

“What are you talking about?” He motions to the doors. “I don’t have anything back there. At the moment, it’s empty. Usually it’s full of equipment for my dad’s landscaping business.” Now he looks embarrassed. “But I, ah, had other plans for it this weekend so I emptied it.”

And then I know what I have to do. I start scrambling down from the tree.

Cassian whispers my name, his eyes wide as I drop down onto the soft ground. His anger reaches me. It’s coupled with fear. The bitter taste of both coats my mouth, mingling with the rising ash and char inside me.

I look up at Cassian—my bonded mate whether I like it or not. His nose flattens out, ridges popping up along the bridge. Any second now he’s going to be lost to his draki.

I shake my head at him and shoot him a look begging him to trust me. I
will
fix this. I put everything I feel into this plea, all my determination, all my confidence. Our eyes lock in silent communication.
I know what I’m doing
.

His shoulders sag and I know he’s relented—hopefully he won’t come charging after me. Glancing around, I see some squat, barely budded yellow wildflowers. They need a few more weeks to reach their full potential, but they’ll have to do. I yank them free of the soil’s grip and grab some weeds, hastily arranging them together in a semblance of a bouquet.

With one final glance at Cassian, I move toward the road, feeling the heat of his gaze as it burns into my back. Hopefully, he’ll just sit tight and watch as I try to save us all.

14

T
hey don’t know you. They don’t know you
.

This is the mantra that runs over and over in my mind as I step out onto the road. Into the light and into the hunters’ range of vision.

Will looks up first, proving that despite how blasé he comes across, he’s very alert to the situation and our surroundings. Panic flashes across his eyes when he sees me, just for a second before vanishing.

“Hey,” one of the hunters exclaims when he spots me.

“Oh, good,” I say. “You got help. I was worried we’d have to call my mom and that would have been so
not
cool.”

All the others turn to stare at me. Their shocked expressions are almost laughable. Females have no place in the world of hunters. In their eyes, by their rules, I shouldn’t be here. My presence throws them off, which is precisely what I wanted.

“It’s a girl,” one calls out.

“Uh, yeah,” I reply, the tone of my voice seeming to say
duh
. “What were you expecting? A raccoon?” I giggle at my joke and stroll over to Will. “Look at the flowers I found, baby.” I brandish my sloppy little bundle of wildflowers in the air like they’re some sort of prize. They’re really rather pathetic, already beginning to wilt, but I try to pretend the drooping stems are something more. Something worth oohing over.

Will slides a hand to the small of my back. “Nice, babe.” He leans down and kisses me, long and deep. I feel the hunters’ gazes on me and try not to let it creep me out. Our performance right now is important. It’s everything.

“What are you doing here?” the leader asks, still looking confused.

“We were just out for a drive.” I frown and look at Will. “Shouldn’t you all be working on the van or something?”

Will looks back at the hunters. “Any of you mind taking a look under the hood with me?”

“Forget that,” the ponytailed hunter snaps. “We don’t have time.” He turns to his leader. “C’mon, let’s go. We must have lost them—”

“No,” the guy holding the metal box protests. “We’re close.” He holds up the box to reveal the monitor with its flashing red lights. “We’ve got at least one of them in close range!”

I stand on my tiptoes and peer at the box, trying not to look too interested.

“What you got there? Is that one of those treasure finders? You guys hunting down coins or something?” Will asks, managing to come off as no more than a nosy kid.

Buzz Cut shoots him a disgusted look and shakes his head. Otherwise, they ignore Will.

“Look, it’s strong this way.” The guy holding the box moves to the edge of the road, in the direction we took into the woods. My hand tightens around Will’s. He squeezes back. I can’t help it. My gaze drifts upward, toward where I know Cassian hides, watching us.

The crowd of hunters huddle close and speak to one another in voices that can’t be heard.

“What’s going on?” Will calls out.

Buzz Cut looks back, his expression more annoyed than ever. “You and your girlfriend need to move along.”

“Uh, hello? Car trouble,” I remind in an exasperated voice.

Buzz Cut mutters something unintelligible. Hunting draki in front of witnesses isn’t their MO, but then that’s our plan. To make their job difficult, and give the others time to get away. Except Cassian. He’s not going anywhere, apparently.

“We need to move,” the guy holding the box says. “Before it gets out of range.”

It
.

I bristle, fully aware that they’re talking about draki. And now I’m certain that little black device spells serious trouble—as if I had any doubts before. Somehow it’s a draki tracker. But it’s not in high alert around me. Maybe I have to be fully manifested? If that’s the case, then the device can only be giving off signals because of Deghan. I almost smirk to think of this small group coming upon Deghan. Yeah. Good luck taking him down.