“I need a drink,” I sighed, “preferably of the Faerie wine variety, and … a burrito. Yep, definitely. Plus a cookie for dessert. No … two cookies.”
I continued to mutter away to myself before noticing the look Braxton was bestowing on me. I trailed off. I tended to put that same faintly amused, faintly exasperated expression on all the quads’ faces, but Braxton’s held a little more. Memories of our “tree” moment before.
With a shake of his head, he turned again and resumed our journey. I grudgingly trudged along behind him, still suffering from the rough ground, but I’d heal those little nicks quick enough.
Why the hell is this forest not getting less dense?
I was half tempted to shift back into a wolf, but I didn’t want to lose the scraps of clothes I still had. Most of my body was covered. And the way I was practically dry humping Braxton’s leg, I was way too sexually deprived to be naked right now.
Although … no. Jessa, no.
Our journey continued for hours, and even though the silence was as comfortable as always, I could tell both of us were reaching the end of our patience.
“Where the hell are we, Brax?” I tried to dial back the anger, but I was still a little snarly. “Are you just randomly walking or is there some sort of path?”
He stopped moving, the first break we’d had in ages. “I’m following a scent, something a little different from the forest we’re in. It’s the only thing standing out to use for direction.”
I hadn’t scented anything, but Braxton was pretty good with those things.
His features were hard; his jaw would probably break a brick wall if he threw it in that direction. I knew the next words out of his mouth would not be good news.
“I’m pretty sure I know where we are,” he sighed, running a hand through his black hair so it stood up a little. It kind of freaked me out to see even the slightest falter in confidence from my usually unflappable best friend. “If I’m right, we’re … in big fucking trouble. Jacob told me a little, but he only knows secondhand … and from memory transference.”
Surely Braxton was kidding me here. I looked around the unusual forest again, and then up to the green sky. Comprehension hit me like a fist to the face, and for the first time the dread was real and heavy.
“We’re in the undying lands of Faerie!”
I didn’t ask it as a question, but Braxton nodded anyway.
Awesome, we were in the lands which had something so rotten in it there had been a mass exodus of a multitude of magical races.
No worries there. We should be just fine.
Chapter 7
Braxton and I were doing our best to ignore the fact that we were probably not on Earth. The jinn hadn’t been kidding when he said I had to prove I was supposed to live. He’d dropkicked my ass right into a pretty big challenge.
The fey were secretive old bastards about their lands, so I had next to no useful information to ensure the maintenance of our health and safety here. We could only keep moving and deal with whatever came our way. So far we’d managed to stay out of harm’s way. We just had to remain alive long enough for one of the other Compasses to realize we were missing. And hope they could trace us to Faerie land.
We could be here forever.
After hiking for about fifteen hours straight, we had to stop and try to get some sleep. We ended up slumping against a rather large tree trunk, covered in a soft moss.
“I was hoping we’d find somewhere with more space,” Braxton said. I raised my eyebrows wordlessly at him and he grinned. “I’d be able to protect you better if I was in my dragon form; no one gets the drop on him.”
He looked relaxed with his massive limbs spread out in front of him, but I knew the look in his eyes; he was alert and on guard. I was equally tense. Who knew what creatures still walked this world. But … I was also pretty tired, so I decided to be alert and comfortable at the same time. I let my head drift to the side and rest against his shoulder.
Which was not exactly the comfortable surface I was looking for.
Was it too much to ask that I have at least one best friend who was less muscle and more squishy. The quads were all hard planes, which made sleeping on them difficult. My eyes traversed the length of said hard planes and muscles … actually, scratch that last thought. Squishy wasn’t going to work for me after all, I’d just take the shitty sleep.
I picked at the sticks and rocks littering the ground beside me. “Why do you think the jinn sent us here? Despite these unknown Faerie creatures around us, we haven’t been attacked.”
Braxton laughed. “You mean yet, we haven’t been attacked yet.”
My head lifted as he raised his arm and draped it over my shoulders. Now I was more comfortable, able to snuggle into his side.