Fall into Fire (Shamans of the Divide, Book 2)

Chapter Seventeen

After Coyote's run in with Red-Woman, the days passed quietly. And slowly.

Nobody brought it up again, but now that I knew just how much anger and jealousy he was lugging around inside him, I looked at Coyote a little differently.

He was messed up, that's for sure. I'm just not sure I wouldn't be pretty messed up too in that circumstance.

But I still didn't like him and I was pretty sure he still didn't like me.

There was no sign of anything remotely supernatural, well, aside from Ernie, so I wandered out to one of the horse pastures on the property.

The Whalens had quite a collection of rare horses they raised, but for the life of me, I wouldn't be able to remember their name even if I wanted to. The animals were in a fenced off pasture to the east of the main house so I followed the wooden slats for a while and found a place to sit.

It was nearing sunset, but there was still plenty of daylight left. I'd been careful the past few days not to spend too much time alone, especially at night. But I was getting a little sick of Skye's fart jokes and Asha's dirty looks.

For the first time in a few days I felt...nothing. Nothing in a good way. I didn't feel the anxiety coming off the elders. I didn't feel the confusion and angst coming off Asha. Didn't feel the anger resonating off Renn or the energy I had a hard time describing that came from Skye.

He was still inappropriate and unabashed, but there was something else to the way he tried so hard to play the role of clown. If I didn't know better, Skye was covering up something he was feeling with his jokes. I thought about Skye for a moment, but figured I'd have plenty of time to think about things. For once, being out in the gentle evening sun, shaded by a couple of pine trees with my back to a whole bunch of really expensive, really noisy horses, I'd just sit and not think.

So I sat.

But the thing about not thinking is that the more you try to do it, the more things to think about you realize you have.

I blew out a long breath and put my head down on my arms, which were folded across my knees.

Without meaning to, I thought about Nana. I'd talked to her earlier that morning and couldn't shake how tired she sounded. She tried to play it off like she was getting over a cold, but I wasn't so sure. She was probably working herself to death so Lem and Lou could take a day off once in a while or so Virginia could visit with her grandkids more. I wondered if Nana ever thought about selling the truck stop and the diner. I'm sure Night Shift brought in a nice chunk of money each month, but with Pop's pension and the social security she'd probably get to claim, I'm sure she could live just fine in that old clapboard house with Muffin.

But that wouldn't happen. The truck stop and the diner were what was left of Nana and Pop's life together—what they'd built together as kids just starting out all those years ago. I'm sure she'd let the place work her into a grave if she had the choice.

"Are you okay?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard Renn's voice directly beside me.

I did jump, actually.

"Holy crap," I muttered, squinting up at him. "I think you just aged me a few hundred years."

From what I could tell, which wasn't much the way he was positioned right in front of the bright sunset, he might have smiled. Either way, Renn lowered himself down next to me and turned his gaze out toward the setting sun, too.