Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Every so often, I gently slid my fingers across the bark of a tree or ran my hand through ferns or bushes to help the basajaunak keep track of us. Not that I really needed to—more of us than Jasper were getting bored at this stage and slapping the leaves of ferns or hitting a branch reaching too close. Someone in the back must’ve bent a reaching branch and then let go, smacking the face behind. Their feet stomped with the small tussle that followed.
“So this is all their territory?” I asked, careful not to step on a clover patch, or Edgar would give me a stern talking-to about minimizing his chances to find that special four-leaf. I’d heard the talk three times now.
“I imagine so,” Austin replied, his tone a little gruffer than usual. While I still felt nothing but serenity, he seemed to be experiencing something entirely different. His wariness and aggression pumped through the bonds.
“In other situations, how would you know if you were on their land?” Nathanial asked.
“When you smell them, you make your way out of the area as quickly as possible,” Austin replied. “Or you stick to the towns.”
“And you must’ve smelled them as soon as you got onto the hiking trail, right?” I asked. “The basajaun used it yesterday, after all.”
“Exactly. Normally, I wouldn’t enter the trail. I wouldn’t be walking in this wood. I’d go around. The exception would be if I were trying to find them, and then I’d go in a ways before waiting for them to come to me.”
“What if it was a long wait?”
“I’d either wait or I wouldn’t. That’s how it works.”
“A lot of bloody effort,” Niamh said.
Austin didn’t respond, which was as good as an agreement.
Half an hour later, I felt it. Tingles erupted along my spine and crowded the base of my neck. An itch grated between my shoulder blades. We were being watched.
Immediately, the bonds were lit with emotional turbulence. My team sensed the presences. A moment later, I felt Broken Sue and Kace’s emotions as well, which meant only one thing.
My gargoyle was feeling the pressure and pushing to the surface.
EIGHTEEN
“Let’s all keep it cool,” I said as a pulse of magic erupted from me.
Prepare.
“Damn it, gargoyle,” I grumbled. “Keep it cool.”
Austin put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. Nathanial had already stopped ahead.
“Anyone see moving foliage?” Cyra called. “I didn’t see any.”
“None.”
“No.”
“Not here.”
“Okay, then,” she said. “We can assume it’s not a game. Let me know if I should burn it all down, Miss Jessie.”
I closed my eyes slowly. Could we not all stay chill one time? “It’s fine. Just wait,” I told her, looking forward through the trees.
The trunks of the old redwoods were mostly bare until quite a ways up, past the canopy, where they could finally grab some sun. There weren’t many other types of trees within their ranks able to survive in the muted light. Ferns and similar plants were too small and low to hide a basajaun. Either they were hidden behind trunks or they’d be out in plain view. I didn’t see any of them, not one, but I distinctly felt like I was being watched.
“Excuse me,” Sebastian said from behind me. “Excuse me. Sorry. Sorry, alpha, excuse me.” He worked to my side, his eyes downcast. “We’ve got seven, all told. I’ll show you the magic.”
His spell was simple, elegant, and incredibly effective. I felt rather than saw the various life forms spread out around us. There were other animals within the spell, but given the size differences, it was easy to tell which were the basajaunak.
We were surrounded.
“Well, that’s terrifying,” I mumbled.
“I thought so,” he replied.
“I, too, am more than a little uneasy,” Nessa called up.
I moved around Sebastian to Austin and pointed out their locations to him. The magic had allowed me to feel them, plain as day, but I still couldn’t see them with my eyes.
Austin just nodded and put his hand on my hip, pulling me in close. I could feel Kace and Broken Sue at either end of our group pushing the Ivy House crew together. The other shifters stepped out to the right or left, guarding their people as a unit, even though we didn’t need to be guarded. With the power we had amassed, it really should be the other way around, but they probably worried about our ability to keep calm.
“This is a lesson in patience, then,” Niamh grumbled. “Well, I fail. Come out, would ya? We obviously know yer there. She’s pointed out each of ye.”
Austin’s hand tightened around me, but he didn’t tell me to silence Niamh.
A moment later, a female—a basandere—stepped forward. Hidden one moment, she was clearly visible the next. Their magic was something else.
I gauged her height as about the same as our basajaun, but she lacked his girth. Hair covered her body like his, but with parts in intricate braided designs down her flank or across her stomach. She had a cloth draped around her hips and hairy bulges for breasts on her chest.