Page 11 of Hybrid Heroics

Stone plucked at his lower lip, watching the druid. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look unsure before.”

“We should have bumped into patrols by now,” he explained. “This isn’t right.”

“The air is suffocating and heavy, but I thought it was just the humidity,” Palmer told him.

York nodded. “The magic is being smothered.”

“Alric beat us here?” Briggs asked.

“It’s possible,” York stated, shaking his head. “But I’m not sure. It’s just wrong.”

“Let’s keep going,” I ordered, motioning everyone forward. “We need to get to—”

“No.” The druid’s disagreement was clipped, lethal as he glared at me.

I blinked in surprise, unaware of why he was suddenly agitated. “I’m sorry?”

“We move at my pace, Fae. You need to slow down and check your surroundings. This isn’t the forest from the neutral territory.”

“What does that mean?” I inquired, confused by things I obviously couldn’t see or hear.

“It means there are people out here, regardless of the fact that we can’t see them,” he informed us, nearly reading my mind. “Dryads spend their days and nights amongst the trees. They’ll kill you if you stray too far from me.”

Thatcher waved his hand around as he inquired, “Why are we here again? I mean, I know you need extra eyes to protect your mate, but I have to agree with Briggs. You should take her home. Especially if Alric is here.”

“We can’t leave here yet,” Stone repeated. “We need to do what she asked.”

“Which is what exactly?” the alicorn prompted. “Walk around the jungle?”

Palmer gave him a scathing glance. “She said to come here. She didn’t say why.”

“It took me a few days to understand too,” Murph told Thatcher. “She’s just one of those people you don’t question. It’s not like her answers make any sense when you do get them, but even so… There’s a reason she sent them here. Maybe she didn’t know either, not without being here.”

“What?” Thatcher shook his head, not quite comprehending the warlock.

“She wanted us here because something has happened or is going to happen,” Palmer clarified. “The reason doesn’t matter as much as actually following through with the task. For all we know, the only way she could wake up is by being here.”

The alicorn grinned, back to being the asshole I’d known since childhood. “So she says jump, and you all jump.”

“No. But also, yes.” Novak slapped his shoulder, a little harder than necessary. “Sometimes she says jump because something is about to take our feet out from under us. Sometimes, she just wants to see if we’ll listen to her when she’s in command. It’s a fine line to understand.”

“That’s insane,” Thatcher grumbled, shaking the vampire’s hand off his back.

“Yeah, well, she’s crazy, so…” Briggs trailed off, shrugging like he didn’t know how to finish his thought.

“We learned that when we first met her,” Stone commented. “Crazy isn’t the word I would use, but it’s close.”

York scoffed. “Sloane is a raging nutcase on a good day.”

“What happened when you met her?” Thatcher asked.

“She told us to shake hands with the hellhounds,” Palmer confessed. “And then she laughed at us.”

“You didn’t…” Murphy drawled, unable to mask the mixture of shock and humor in his tone.

“I didn’t.” The mage glanced at the hellhounds fondly. “But I like them now. This form is easier to understand than their English Mastiff disguises, though I don’t know how we’re supposed to hide them when we can’t change their forms.”

Novak raised a brow, a grin spreading over his face. “Didn’t you give her the spell to do it?”