Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Thankfully, the cut is small and isn’t serious.
But it is one more reason we need to get back to the cabin. We’re both injured, lost, and unarmed. Although, it just occurred to me that I might be the only one lost.
“Bane?” He doesn’t respond, but I know he’s listening. “Do you know where we are?” I let go of my now-bloodied shirt but keep my hand on his shoulder. His muscles are relaxed, telling me he’s not coiled to strike when I least expect it. I just wish I could convince my anxious mind of that.
“Safe.”
“Yes. But where is safe?”
“Cave.”
“Bane,” I force through gritted teeth.
“Mine?”
“Yes,” I say with a defeated sigh. “Yours.” At least until I figure out how to get back to Khalil and Thorin and wake Zeke up. God, Thorin… I hope he’s okay. “If we’re going to stay here,” I say to Bane, who is watching me like he knows my thoughts betray him, “we need to find food. We need to hunt.”
I glance at the mouth of the cave and see that the rain has slowed, so I kneel in front of Bane who doesn’t move and pull up his mud-stained pant leg before retrieving the hunting knife sheathed inside his boot and stand again. I’m not so good with knives yet, but I’m sure it’s on Thorin’s survival syllabus. Would he be proud of me now? It’s been a day since the river and I’m still alive, though much of that is thanks to Bane. Knife in hand, I ignore the pain from the bottoms of my bare feet as I walk over the damp rock and soil toward the cave entrance.
I don’t hear Bane follow, but I know he does.
What he doesn’t do is stop me when I step outside and into the rain. He just follows silently like a protective shadow while I make my way down the path. I don’t look back because I’m a coward.
The air outside is damp, unlike the cave, but not as much as it would have been if we were on the windward side of Maia. Just like before, I find the gap in the mountain face and squeeze through it until I’m standing inside the dense forest, being soaked. I stop to wait for Bane who has a harder time than I do since he’s larger and his shoulders are broader. His bare chest and back are wedged between the walls as he scoots sideways. When he’s finally free, the skin on his chest is scraped, the olive tones blooming red but Bane doesn’t seem to notice or give me the chance to fuss over him as he walks past me, taking the lead.
“If we’re safe here, why hasn’t Zeke woken up yet?” I ask Bane just because his silence makes me nervous. It’s impossible to tell what he’s thinking, and I want to know more than I want my next breath.
“I sleep, Mine leave.”
Fuck. So much for staying calm and waiting him out. Bane already knows that once he goes, I’ll take Zeke and head straight back to the cabin.
He’s cunning. I hadn’t expected that. Mostly because the others only ever warned me about how dangerous he is. They’ve never seen this side of him, but all it makes me wonder is, why me? What makes me different? Why doesn’t he want to kill me?
“Do you still want to hurt Khalil and Thorin?”
“Yes.”
Thorin once told me that Seth and Bane are how Zeke sorts and deals with his emotions. What if… My stomach sinks and I run forward to cut off Bane, grabbing his arms like a bitch with a death wish. “Does Zeke want to hurt Khalil and Thor?”
Bane’s eyes remain woefully blank, but he gives his emotions away in the flexing of his arm muscles trapped beneath my palm and the slight growl in his voice when he answers, “Everyone.”
Zeke wants to hurt everyone.
“Then why haven’t you killed me yet?” I challenge.
Bane’s expression darkens before he moves me out of the way and keeps going. I don’t follow, and he doesn’t look back. The rain has slowed to a drizzle, but I hardly notice it as I watch the drops fall into a puddle near my feet. I can see my reflection inside and I don’t realize I’m falling to my knees to get a closer look until I feel the cold mud sinking between my fingers. The first thing I notice isn’t the sticks and leaves stuck in my hair or the scrapes and bruises.
It’s the absence of fear in my eyes.
Of course, the image isn’t a perfect reflection, so it might just be all in my head, but I still remember vividly what it felt like after the plane crash when I was lost out here the first time. I could barely eat whatever Tyler managed to find, could barely sleep, and feared death every second that Tyler pushed us to survive.