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

Chapter Twenty-five

The water bottle dropped from Skye's hand.

Skye shot a nervous glance into the wrong direction. I'd come from the south.

"She's gone," I said. "I think, anyway."

Skye recapped what was left of his water and passed it to Renn, who set it on the back of the ATV that was parked nearby.

"Seems like a really long way for her to pay a visit," Coyote said from the far side of the fire. I hadn't seen him there. I didn't exactly look for him, either, but he did surprise me with his comment.

I shrugged.

"More riddles," I said, turning my attention and my conversation to Skye and Renn. "She mentioned the elusive him again. Saying that he won't let them leave Shades and that they're all trapped there until I can come back and let them leave."

"Who is she talking about?" Renn asked. "Who can't leave?"

Glancing into the dark around us, I shook my head slowly.

"She didn't say exactly—she didn't stick around long enough," I said. "But if I had to take a guess—I think she's talking about the dead. The same ones we saw when we left Coyote's last month. The ones who disappeared after the dzoavits were bound to the Dull Knife?"

Coyote had a long switchblade out and was whittling away at a piece of wood. From what I could tell it was a bear. Or a beaver. A fox? Fine, I couldn't tell what he was carving into the wood.

"Once we get Asha back," he began. "We need to solve the riddle of who this is. He seems to be everywhere and everyone."

We pulled out a pile of pre-packaged meals Leonard had with his camping supplies. We all argued over the spaghetti and meatballs, but Coyote won the rock-paper-scissors tournament. I got a half-decent chicken with creamy noodles, Renn pulled a beef stew that looked like peanut butter and poor Skye was left with a foul-smelling tuna noodle surprise that he ate surprisingly quickly. I shuddered.

The night grew darker and stretched out and there was still no sign of Cody. Eventually, I got worried enough to bring it up. Coyote had already hunkered down in his tent, leaving Skye and Renn and me to poke sticks at the small pile of burning embers.

"Do you think Cody's okay?" I asked no one in particular, but I was looking at Skye. I didn't want to see whatever disgusted face Renn would make. "He's been gone the entire time."

Skye just shrugged and jammed at a particularly large burning log.

"Seems like he knows his way around the place," he said, finally looking up. He looked from me to Renn and then back down.

"You worried about him?" Renn asked beside me. I didn't look up.

"I'm worried about all of us," I said after a slight hesitation.

Skye changed the subject for us.

"Any guesses on who our mystery man is going to end up being?"

I shook my head.

"No clue," I said, finally dropping my stick into the center of the fire and leaning back against a log. "Funny thing is, the way these spirits keep talking about him, I half expect to know him when we finally do figure out who he is."

Renn moved off the top of the log to sit in the dirt next to me. I felt the warmth of his body against mine and I momentarily thought about leaning against him and letting out an annoying, contented sigh.

Stupid girl.

I glanced over at him as he narrowed his eyes at the fire, deep in thought. He exhaled and cast a sideways glance at me that I couldn't read.