I wanted so badly to ask him if he thought it was the wolves, knowing that getting that information wouldn’t necessarily ease my fear, but it would prepare me for what I was about to face.
Lance motioned toward the line of trees in front of us and then for me to stay as he slowly began to circle around, clearly planning to catch our predator from behind once it broke through the trees.
Another series of branches cracked, echoing through the forest around me. My stomach pitched as I spun in a slow circle, straining to see—to hear—what was coming for me. The cloak acted like a blinder, blocking my peripheral vision and making me feel all the more vulnerable even though it was meant to protect me. I wanted so badly to rip it off but knew better. I had no interest in becoming wolf meat.
Lance disappeared around a clump of trees, leaving me with my growing sense of doom. Chills of fear ran from the top of my head to my toes as I clenched my weapons tightly.
Another branch snapped and I spun, nearly screaming as I raised my sai to launch.
“What the fuck are you two doing out here?” Cal hissed as he barreled into the small clearing.
I stood frozen, my arm raised with my sai, and my stomach roiling. Oh shit.
“Busted.” Lance groaned as he moved out from the clump of trees and stood by my side.
Cal’s chest was heaving with his anger. “I asked you a question,” he hissed again as he took a step closer to me.
I jerked my eyes from him to Lance as I slowly lowered my weapons. “It was my idea.”
“I don’t care whose idea it was. I want to know why you’re here.”
Lance stepped toward him, his hand out as if to touch his arm, but one hard look from Cal had him stepping back to his place at my side. “She wanted to see the battleground and since you seemed to be too busy to do it…”
“I would have shown her,” he growled as he turned his hard look on me.
I folded my arms, staring back at him unflinchingly. “You can be mad at me if you want, Cal, but I think I have a right to see where this battle is going to happen. Considering that I’m the one who’s going to be used as bait and all, it’s only right that I at least know where it will be.”
Cal frowned as he looked over at Lance who had such a cocky smirk on his face that I was worried Cal might rev up and pound the crap out of him again.
“She has a point.”
“Don’t encourage her,” Cal growled as he turned his gaze back to me. “You’re not bait.”
I rolled my eyes and snorted. “Yeah, okay. So what do you call dragging me out to the middle of the forest and then removing my cloak to let the wolves get a whiff of me? I think that sounds like bait. Here, wolfie, wolfie, wolfie, lunch is served.”
Cal shook his head. “It’s not like that.”
I pointed a sai at him like it was an extension of my finger. “You know, Cal, I’m starting to realize that you and your Hunters are just a bunch of chauvinistic pricks who undervalue your Huntress’s role. You take us for granted, lie to us, mislead us, and then use us as bait before killing us…if it all suits your plan. And if all goes well”—I shrugged—“well, then you just fuck us to your heart’s content.”
Cal flinched at my crass words. “It’s not like that, Morgan.”
I shrugged again before turning away from him. “Whatever. So what, did you follow us out here? Are there security cameras in the trees or something?”
Cal blew out a hard breath. “No, I didn’t follow you. I was already out here.”
I turned to face him again, my eyebrows raised.
“Were you etching out here?” Lance asked as he sheathed his sword.
Cal nodded. “Just making some last marks around the battleground.”
I stepped closer to them. “What?”
Cal motioned over my shoulder. “The battleground isn’t far from here. We might as well go there since you’re out this far anyway.”
I started off in the direction he pointed, ignoring the gnawing fear of what lurked in the shadows.
“You should have brought her out here sooner,” Lance mumbled from behind me as we weaved around the trees toward the large clearing.
We broke free from the tree line, and I gasped as the magic Cal had etched washed over me. He’d laid it on thick, obviously intent on giving me as much protection as he could.
I turned toward him, my eyes wide. “What have you done here?”
Cal shrugged as he nodded toward the center of the clearing. “They’ll come and they won’t be able to leave. The battle contains them here. Including Lazarus. He won’t be able to escape—it’ll give us a better chance to stop him if…”
“If I betray the Order,” I mumbled, shifting my eyes away.
Lance stepped to Cal’s side. “Hey, I’m going to take a run around the perimeter just to make sure there isn’t a wolf lurking. Don’t want them figuring it all out before tomorrow.”
Cal nodded as he shifted his gaze to trail along the tree line. “Good idea.”