Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 26 - Katarina - There's More

"What in heathens is wrong, Blight?"

"Shhh."

"What is going-"

She spins around, putting her palm against my mouth to cut me off. "Just trust me and shut up.'' Rolling my eyes, I nod, and then she's turning back around and walking through the forest.

It's nearly two bells, and everyone is outside and laying down on blankets to enjoy the warmth of the sun in winter, meanwhile, I'm being dragged to Gods know where without having a single fucking clue as to what is going on.
Siscilla said that winter will be a bitch and we should take in whatever sunlight nourishment we can. I gave her a knowing look knowing very well that it was to unsuspiciously keep an eye on Sibella and who she takes an interest in. If we figure out who she's after, we can keep them and everyone else safe.

Blight grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the brush before I could ask her why her face was drawn taut. Having listened to and watched Lance, I've picked up a few things about reading someone's body language. Hers is too hard to pin, and her face only showed a few seconds of emotion before she slipped back into her blank mask. She hasn't said more than for me to shut up, and just keeps walking through the woods toward Darius's clearing. Haven't really been able to ignore which direction the black pit of land sits ever since Roseia's tantrum.

I see the clearing coming up, but instead of continuing towards it, she turns left and keeps to the perimeter of it. I keep an eye on its center, wondering if there's some kind of trap that Sibella might've set in the middle of the night. I'd almost believe it if the bags underneath my own eyes weren't evidence of me staying up all night on the roof to keep an eye out for her going somewhere while everyone else slept.
Siscilla, Blight, and I take turns staying up, but even when it's not my turn to stay awake, I'm up still watching the lights in the sky. Sleep deprivation is getting to me, making it easier for me to sleep because my body has no energy to keep my eyelids up. Keeps me dead asleep for hours, but one night's rest isn't enough to save a month's worth of a fucked up sleeping schedule.

Blight stops in a random spot, the clearing to our right still showing no sign of a trap or someone being there. I look at her with my hands on my hips, my foot tapping, and an eyebrow raised with a tilted head. I'm not particularly a dívaish person, but fewer hours of sleep is having all kinds of personalities that are usually in my head, coming out. Saints know that the people up here are all kinds of crazy.

"You remember that day that we found you and Rosie over here," she asks in a voice quieter than a whisper. "Both of you passed out?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You weren't the only one who was thrown back from Rosie's-" her hands gesture wildly in front of her "-thing."

"What do you mean?" She looks up and I follow, not finding anything but tree branches and the thin clouds in front of the blue sky. I learned how to faintly read people, not nature. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"You don't see it?"

I give her a blank look. "I'm a trained servant, not a trained assassin who can see every little detail in a room full of pointless inanimate objects that are stacked everywhere, and on everything."

Her eyes nearly fly out of her head with how hard she rolls them. "You could've just said no, and I was talking about the broken branches, smartass."

"This forest is full of broken branches." I look back up, finding several broken branches and a few of their ends by my feet. For good measure, I tap a few with my feet. Nothing happens, but considering that superpowers exist, supposed wolves made of water exist, and a man with red eyes and shadows at his beck and call exists, I haven't really put anything past me when it comes to mysterious magic stuff.