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“What was that?” I gasp.
“The scream? I don’t know. It could just be students dicking about.”
He doesn’t sound convinced, and I know in my heart he’s wrong.
“Someone’s hurt.”
“I’m more concerned about you!”
“I’m fine.” As soon as I say it, I am. The pain recedes and the voices fade, but the sense of urgency remains. Ihaveto help, do something.
“We should go check on them.”
“I don’t know,” Bhodi hesitates.Why would he be reluctant to help someone in need? Especially when he’s so protective of me.
“We have to.” I push him away and scramble to pull on my clothes. Bhodi does the same. I’m still a little damp, and my hair is soaking, but I don’t want to waste time drying off properly. I slip my feet into my shoes and shoulder my bag. “Come on. I think it came from this direction.”
Bhodi snatches me by the wrist.
“It didn’t. It was this way.”
He tugs me in the opposite direction to where I was going to head, and I go with him without complaint. He’s probably got a better sense of direction than me. I’m hopeless at the best of times, let alone when I’m distracted doing…stuffwith a boy. I can’t help but wonder how far we might have gone back there at the lakeside if we weren’t interrupted. And then I feel like shit for thinking of my libido when someone was screaming for help. Possibly for their life.
We travel swiftly through the woods, in the direction that Bhodi believes the sound came from. I can’t help but feel like we’re running in circles until another scream startles me. It’s much closer this time, and Bhodi drops my hand and takes off in a sprint. I closely follow behind him, my heart thundering as I struggle to keep up with his long legs. I want to reach whoever’s screaming. I desperately want to help them. But I also don’t want to lose sight of Bhodi and end up lost out here.
Bhodi skids into a small clearing and stops and I barely manage to avoid crashing into the back of him. I can sense his tension in the set of his shoulders and trepidation fills me, sour and heavy in my stomach. I creep forward and place my palm on the small of his back, drawing on the warmth seeping through his shirt for strength and comfort. Holding my breath, I peer round his broad body, anxious of what might greet me.
Malia releases her breath in a surprised sigh from somewhere close behind me, her hand burning through my shirt to scorch the skin of my back. I have to ignore what her touch does to me.
My eyes do a quick scan of the clearing, but I can’t find anything untoward or out of place. This is definitely where the screams were coming from though, I’m sure of it.
All around us, the forest is silent.
“Is this the place?” Malia whispers.
“I think so.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“Me either.”
“But…they can’t have just vanished into thin air.”
“I know. Wait here.”
“I think we should stick together.”
She’s right of course. Especially with everything that’s been going on on campus, but as much as it pains me to leave her side, if someone was attacked and dragged into the woods I don’t want Malia following me and potentially seeing something distressing. Orunexplainable. She’s been through enough.
“I’m not going far. I just want to check through there. You wait here. Don’t move. I’ll be right back,” I insist, grabbing her warm hand and squeezing it reassuringly.
“Okay,” she whispers.
I turn to look at her, and her doe-eyed gaze meets mine, all wide, worried eyes. She’s not scared though, she’s concernedfor me. A warmth spreads through me at the idea of someone other than my brothers caring about me. I’ve never had that.I like it.It makes me want to sweep her into my arms again and continue what we started back by the lake, but I don’t. I can’t. Those screams could have come from a victim of the Shikari, and although I think that’s unlikely, I refuse to rule it out.
Reluctantly, I let go of Malia’s hand and walk away from her. I can’t look back, I need to focus on the other side of the clearing where the foliage is denser and the forest is darker. It would be the perfect place for an ambush.
On high alert, I push through the bushes and squint into the low light. My senses are on working overtime but I’m not hearing or seeing anyone. I move about forty yards away from the clearing and stop, taking everything in. None of the undergrowth seems disturbed. There’s no broken branches or footprints in the mud. The whole place is eerie and quiet. Almost too quiet. There’s no wildlife around, and that’s never a good sign. I inhale deeply but there’s no scent of blood in the air, only blinding fear.
