After that, he dropped it. Though I could see the worry etched in his face. I was just glad my back was to him and he couldn’t see the worry in mine.

Damn her. How the hell was he supposed to keep her safe if she continued to walk into situations where her life was perpetually on the line? Leaving the ogres behind had been a bad idea, but if there was even a small chance that Milly had been telling the truth, then they had to act. He knew that, though it soured his gut with acid.

His training as an FBI agent kicked in, and he let that take over for now. They had to follow the lead that they’d been give, see it though. It would either vindicate Milly or be the final nail in her coffin. Not that she needed any more nails, but he could see that Rylee still wanted to believe that her ex-best friend was under duress. That it wasn’t really Milly’s fault that she’d caused so much damage.

Lounging in the back seat, the wolf in him struggled to rise to the surface, still raging with the proximity of Milly. He closed his eyes, thought about Rylee, about holding her tight, smelling the soft, unique scent that was hers alone. Wild and passionate, surprisingly vulnerable, even at times uncertain, which he was quite sure she didn’t show many people. The images and memories soothed the beast in him, eased the out-of-control fury that had been building.

This was closer to the truth of why he let Rylee win this fight so easily. If it hadn’t been for Milly, he would have pinned Rylee down, kept her there to wait for Dox and the others. But with Milly so close, he needed to be as far away as possible.

For all the wolf he had become, he knew it wasn’t time yet to finish the witch off.

There is a reason for everything, even for her.

He ground his teeth against the words his own mind gave him. Like an echo of someone else’s voice, the words sounded suspiciously like the Guardians they’d met in the past. He shivered. The last thing he needed was another part of himself to be sliced into a third portion, even though he knew it was there. Lurking. Easier to ignore that part than the wolf who paced inside him like a caged beast.

The truck rumbled along a deeply rutted back road, bouncing through mud puddles and dirtying up Dox’s ‘baby’.

Rylee’s eyes were tight around the edges and he could smell the anxiety rolling off her, the worry for the foal they sought. Fear from the encounter with Milly. Something else too, though, a hint of a new scent, one that reminded him of … damn he couldn’t pinpoint it. He wanted to soothe her, but knew from past experience that she wouldn’t appreciate it or accept it right now. Not even from him. Better to focus on the salvage.

“How close are we?”

She tipped her head to the side, a long swath of her auburn hair brushing across her shoulder. The truck slowed as the back end slid around a corner, thick with mud.

“About as close as we’re going to get with the truck.”

The trail ended against the shoreline of a lake as we rounded what turned out to be the final corner. There was a bit of an opening, suitable for turning around, but that was it.

Cranking the wheel, I turned the truck, and then backed it up so the bumper was against the tree line so that at the very least, we would have a quick getaway. Just in case.

I snorted, hell, who was I kidding? There was no doubt that a quick getaway was going to be a necessity. I opened the door and slid out, my feet landing in a big puddle I couldn’t avoid.

“Freaking awesome.” I stepped out of it and slammed the door behind me, the sound echoing around us. I could feel the heat of Liam’s glare, didn’t need to look over my shoulder to know his eyebrows would be drawn sharply over his eyes.

“You want to ring the dinner bell while you’re at it?” His voice was low, but it still carried across to me. Without turning around, I flipped him off. He was right, I was wrong; we both knew it.

Tracking Calliope, I turned my face upward, toward the mountain hovering in the distance. Terror suffused her and leaked through her threads into me. Sweat broke out along my spine, soaking through my t-shirt in a matter of seconds.

“Let’s go.”

Liam brushed past me. “I’ll lead, you navigate.”

I ran my hands over my weapons quickly, thought about going back to the truck for my crossbow. No, if we had to climb the whole mountain, I needed to pack light, and if Liam shifted he wouldn’t be any help with a stack of weapons. Sword, whip, and smaller blades were all I could carry and hopefully all I needed.

The snap of a twig brought my head around. Bushes and trees surrounded us on three sides. Ahead of me, Liam had stopped walking and was eyeing up the same bush I was, a bush that seemed to melt and move.

A grey skinned hand large enough to palm two basketballs pushed the foliage away, and through the bush stepped the biggest damn ogre I had ever seen. Twelve feet, maybe better, his face twisted in a snarl that turned his human-like features into something out of a horror movie. Covered in a light chainmail, he held a sword that had been obviously sized up for him. Fuck, the thing was at least five feet long, maybe even six. His muscles rippled like water flowing over rocks as he lifted his sword, using it to point at me.

“You think to trespass on these lands?”

Calliope’s fear spiked again, which made me reckless. At least, that’s what I’m going to blame for what I said next.

“I don’t see any signs, nothing that says ‘Stay the f**k away.’ You should put some up if you don’t want anyone here but your big grey ass.” I lifted an eyebrow at him, cocked my hip and put a hand on it. Really, there was nothing else to do. He wasn’t going to let us pass without a fight, so no need to be submissive to him. Liam let out a soft groan as three more grey-skinned ogres slipped in around us. Well, this was not good. Maybe I should have been polite. Too late now.

A light rain began to fall and the air went still. The ogre didn’t say anything, just cocked his head to one side, before whipping his sword into the air and letting out a roar that I felt as the reverberations hit my chest. Not that I let it last long. There were times to fight and there were times to run.

This was a time for the latter.

Spinning on my heel, I ran for Liam, who waited the split second it took me to reach him, and then we were sprinting full tilt along a narrow trail that wound along the base of the mountain.

Liam stayed behind me and I didn’t dare look behind. I knew we couldn’t keep this up, knew that they would run us, or at least me, into the ground.

“Tell me you have an idea.” Liam leapt up beside me as something hammered into the ground behind us.

“Working on it.”

“Work faster.”

My brain felt scrambled with the adrenaline and I fought to remember all I knew. From what Dox had said there were components of all the ogre tribes around here. From what I knew—and was obvious with the violet and black skinned species—very few of them got along. I let Calliope’s threads go and Tracked ogres as a species, pushing the ones behind us away to focus on what was in front of us.

Shit, right in front of us! But there was nothing there that I could see … I grabbed Liam and ducked sideways as a red-skinned ogre literally appeared out of nowhere. He swung a mace over our heads, connecting with the grey-skinned ogre that had been closest on our heels.

The mace buried into the grey’s chest, but I didn’t pause long enough to see what happened next. We were on a side trail and I spread out my Tracking, taking into account all the ogres around us.

“Ah, f**k,” I whispered, knowing Liam would hear me.

We were completely surrounded.

Chapter 11

THE THING WAS, I was pretty sure I could lead us around them; the trick would be to stay downwind so they couldn’t smell us. I put a finger to my lips and Liam nodded. Behind us the fight raged, drawing the ogres around us closer, tightening the noose around us. For the moment, they’d forgotten about the intruders, too intent on fighting one another. Score for us.

I dropped to the ground and shimmied forward, the muddy ground cold and slimy. The muck slipped through my jacket zipper, like a pervy old man’s wandering hands. Damn it all, this was disgusting. The bush covered us, hiding us from above, and the mud should have helped with our scent. Then again—

A foot the size of my upper body landed in the muck beside me, squishing up and through the bare, jet-black toes. I dared to look up.

Thank the gods the ogre didn’t look down, just took another step toward the fighting, leaving us behind. Liam squeezed my leg and I continued forward, Tracking ogres, dodging them all.

From behind us, the sounds of the fight escalated as more ogres were drawn to the blood. Like sharks, but instead of a feeding frenzy, they were in a fighting frenzy. When they were a half-mile behind us, and there were no more ahead of us, I stood, mud sliding down the front of my body.

Liam wasn’t faring any better, his clothes stained a dark brown slop.

No words, I just reached for Calliope’s threads. Fear, brilliant and untamable, sung through her and into me. I didn’t let go of the ogre’s threads. As soon as they quit fighting, they’d remember us.

I worked my way back to the trail, checked my weapons, and then set out at a jog. Liam tucked in close beside me, our strides eating up the ground.

Around us, the forest dimmed. Too early for the sun to be setting … I looked up and stopped running.

The Roc skimmed silently above us, his shadow the cause of the loss of light. Grey-green mottled leathery skin, claws on the tips of his wings, big nasty claws on his back feet. His head was long and narrow, teeth jutting out of the partially opened jaws.

“Good gods, he’s as big as Blaz,” I whispered. Liam didn’t answer except to push me forward. He was right, this was not the time to be pointing and staring when there was little doubt we’d be dealing with the big f**ker soon enough.

From behind us, the ogres’ fighting went silent as the Roc passed over them. Settling back into a jog, we continued to put distance between us and the ogres. Ahead of us, I could sense nothing but the unicorn foal, and thank the gods not a single damn ogre. About damn time we had a bone thrown our way. Lady luck might be fickle for the rest of the world, but I was pretty sure she had it out for me and my friends.