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“As you said, a beast is hunting us. I want to be on my feet to run.”
“Will you run faster than me and for a longer distance with your injured arm?”
“I’ll try.”
His glare took in my legs. “You’re puny. You have no muscle mass. One swipe of the beast’s claws will send you flying into the side of a tree. You’ll be dead before you hit the ground and become the creature’s meal not long after.”
“I hope the crystal gods never send you a mate. You’re arrogant, conceited, and irritating.”
He snorted. “Fortunately, my god doesn’t listen to you.”
We’d see about that.
“Hold your arm,” he said. “Clamp your hand over the wound. Each drop of blood is a trail for the creature to follow.”
My skin quivered, and I whimpered. I’d faced a horrifying beast when I arrived, and it sounded like another was on our trail, and I was leading it right to us.
“Run faster, then,” I snapped, slapping my hand over the wound.
The world wavered. Only the stomp of his feet and the agony slamming through my arm kept me awake.
A roar rang out from our right.
“You’re taking too long. It’s getting closer!”
“It won’t catch us.”
“Climb a tree or something.”
“They climb as well.”
Well, wasn’t that nice? “Then find some bushes to hide behind.” We were out in the open, racing along a wide trail. The creature would see us from a mile away.
“How about this, puny female?” He ran faster, aiming for a huge dark purple tree with lighter lavender leaves that had to be as wide as a house.
“You’re going to smack into it. Is that how you’re going to save me?”Crystal gods, please do something about these cocky males.
Before he could impale us in the tree, the bark . . . parted. There was no other way to describe it. It split down the center, each side sweeping away like they were curtains at the start of a Broadway show.
He strode inside and the walls closed behind him, leaving me alone with him in utter darkness.
Chapter 34
Aizor
Franklin kept coming to me and whining. Assuming he was hungry, I gave him food.
I still couldn’t locate Vanessa, not in the pools, our home, or in the dining area.
Where was she?
Finally, when Franklin wouldn’t leave me alone, I stooped down and held out my fingers for him to sniff. “Do you want pats? Vanessa gives you lots of pats.”
But Franklin only darted away, rushing toward a trail weaving into the woods. He stopped and looked back at me, whining again. I don’t know why, but an uneasy feeling shot through me.
I followed Franklin. He raced ahead of me onto the trail, stopping to look back as if he hoped I’d remain with him. I spied the plate lying on the trail ahead and jogged over to it and stooped down, noting the food Vanessa often fed Franklin. After, I started examining the ground around it.
That’s when I found evidence someone had fallen over the edge of the cliff.
