I wasn’t sure how long we climbed up through the trees and across rock that had likely been untouched for years. The forest was growing dark. We couldn’t see the sunset, but the shadows were growing deeper and the temperature was beginning to drop. We topped a narrow ridge and paused to catch our breath.
“We should rest here for the night,” Kael said. “If we try to continue, one of us is going to break something.”
For once, I agreed with the shifter. My muscles ached after the long ride and the tough climb. Beside me, Kael’s nostrils flared as he pulled in the surrounding scents.
I cleared away branches and debris to make space for our fire. “What are you sniffing for?”
“Danger.”
“I’m fairly certain the only animals around are squirrels.” I’d seen them skittering across branches all day.
“Not that kind of danger.” Kael’s voice was quiet, and I found myself peering into the trees.
“Do you really think someone would follow us up here?”
Kael shrugged and dropped his pack to the ground, then rolled his shoulders. “We really can’t be too cautious with a dark mage involved.”
I made a point to have Chaucer at the ready as I pulled in nearby rocks to make a ring for the fire.
My partner on this endeavor set up the single tent Aileen’s sisters had provided us. “We can take turns,” Kael said. “One of us can keep watch for a few hours while the other sleeps.”
He kneeled next to me beside the fire and pulled out a small pot. He unfolded a tripod and set it over the flames, then hung the pot from a small hook. He emptied in two pouches of camping-style food that turned out to be pasta and meatballs.
As he stirred the food, the light from the fire highlighted the lines of his face and warmed his tan skin. There were probably worse people I could be stuck with in the Scottish wilderness.
We ate in silence. I was too exhausted and too caught up in my own thoughts to keep up a conversation. A breeze blew with enough of an icy bite to make me shiver. A coat would be too cumbersome if I had to move quickly, but I wished I’d had a thicker jacket.
I set down my empty plate and scooted closer to the fire in an attempt to soak the warmth into my skin. I pulled my shoulders in and held my hands as near the flames as I dared.
A heavy weight fell over my back and shoulders, and I blinked in surprise to find Kael’s jacket covering me.
“You looked cold,” he said.
Kael was only wearing a long-sleeved shirt that stretched across his wide chest and clung to his muscles.
“Won’t you get cold?”
The shifter grinned. “I never get cold.”
I didn’t want to keep the jacket—it wasn’t as if I were some delicate, swooning woman—but it was warm.
When Kael started scooping out a second helping of food, I pulled the jacket in tighter, inhaling his earthy, rainy scent, which clung to the wool-lined leather.
Kael volunteered to take the first shift, though he looked as bone-weary as I felt.
I shrugged out of his jacket and held it out to him. “Here.”
He waved me off. “You’ll need it during your watch in a few hours.”
I paused to see if he was sure. When he didn’t reach for the jacket, I slipped it back on.
“Thanks,” I said quietly before heading to the tent.
The canvas tent shifted slightly in the wind as I climbed into the sleeping bag and set my knife beside the small pillow. I shivered, pulling the sleeping bag tighter around me. This was why the majority of my digs took place in jungles and rainforests. I hated the cold.
I had so much on my mind, I figured it would be impossible to get any rest, but exhaustion and the steady crackling of the fire made my eyelids droop.
The crackling started to grow louder, hissing and popping. Did Kael put more wood on the fire? I rolled to my back and my eyes widened. The canvas of the tent was glowing a pale yellow.
I shimmied the sleeping bag down. My clothes clung to me with sweat. The snapping of burning wood was growing louder.
I grabbed my knife and opened the flap of the tent.
The forest was on fire, and Kael was nowhere in sight.
Chapter 18
“Kael!” My shout was burned away by the writhing flames and sizzling air. Heat clutched at my breath as I straightened outside the tent.
I snatched up my bag leaning against the side of the tent and threw it over my shoulder. I called for Kael again, hoping he would hear me before the smoke started to choke my lungs.
Where had he gone?
A loud snap drew my attention behind my shoulder. Furious flames licked their way up a nearby tree, the bottom already marred in crumbling, black bark. The tree creaked and groaned, then began to tip.
I rushed out of the way as it fell with a crash. The top of it smashed into the tent, flattening it under its weight.
If I hadn’t hurried out when I did I’d be dead.
The smoke burned my eyes as I called for Kael again. I couldn’t stay in this place much longer.
A rumbling snarl reached me, and a shape broke free of the gray smoke. It was a large jaguar, his padded feet silent as he ran straight toward me. I panicked for a second as the massive cat quickly closed the distance between us before remembering it was just Kael .
He shifted back as he reached me. The fact that he was naked from head to toe couldn’t even elicit a reaction from me in the current situation. He snatched up his clothes from near the fire ring and began shoving his legs into his jeans.
“What happened?” Kael asked. He pushed his feet into his boots.
I didn’t like the suspicious scowl on his face. “I didn’t do it. Where were you ?”
“Checking the perimeter when I smelled the smoke and saw the fire.”
Checking the perimeter , I thought, rolling my eyes. You could take the shifter away from PITO, but you couldn’t take the PITO out of the shifter, apparently.
“Where did it come from?” he asked. “It wouldn’t have spread that far and quickly from the ring.”
That was true. I blinked my burning eyes and studied the fire ring. There was no charred trail leading to the forest. “It had to have been set by someone.”
The fire glowed closer. Flames dripped from the blackened branches to crawl across the ground at an alarming speed as embers swirled through the air like stars of hell.
“Grab what you can,” Kael said. “We have to get out of here.”
I hardly paid any mind to what I was grabbing. I just snatched what I could before Kael began to tug me up the mountain. We hadn’t gone several feet before the fire closed into an unforgiving wall of flames ahead of us. I pivoted to find the way down was the only clear way out.
Something was trying to force us to abandon our mission.
Kael pulled the bag he’d managed to snatch up farther onto his broad shoulders. “We have to go back down. Maybe we can find another way around.”
Aileen’s words found me then, like a breath on a crisp breeze in hell. She’d said to head straight north east and that the journey was part of the test. I vaguely heard Kael holler my name, but I didn’t budge. Something was strange about the fire. Why would it come out of nowhere? Kael tugged on my shoulder, but I shook him off as I stared at the blaze before me.