Page 45 of Bonded Ever After

She stares at me, and her innocent expression shifts into something more intense. Something creepy. Her mouth opens, and she flashes teeth. Teeth that slowly sharpen.

I grip Callum’s shoulder, and his eyes flash open. Before our eyes, the child stretches into some long, human-like being with no legs, just a flowing gown. Her eyes are pits of black, and she opens and closes her mouth—which is filled with the sharpened teeth—like a fish in the water. It sends a chill right down my spine and leaves goosebumps raising up and down my skin.

Then, she’s gone.

“What the hell was that?” Callum asks in a hushed voice.

“I don’t know, but the flying things here are tricky. We need to never forget that.”

He nods, looking pale.

We keep going on the path. Everything around us whispers of danger, and nothing but my faith leads us into the unknown.

EIGHTEEN

Elora

We managed to stretch the food and water we carried, along with what we found along the path, for six days. Today, we have nothing left. No water. No food. And no signs of anything edible along our path. We’re moving on autopilot, just trying to put one foot in front of the other, but we’re both exhausted.

Callum doesn’t say it though. His whole body language screams that he’s exhausted and worried, unsure about how we’re going to make it through, but his words are always chipper. It’s like he thinks being positive enough will keep me going.

We come to the bottom of a hill.

Callum takes my hand. “So, when we get to the end of the Phoenix Trail, where do you want to build our home?”

I know he’s trying to distract me. Hills suck. But for his sake, I decide to go with it. “Not on a hill, that’s for sure.”

He laughs, even though it sounds a little hollow. “I want a garden. I found a few seed packs at my family cabin, so I brought those with me. We can grow carrots, tomatoes, and bell peppers. There were even two packages of melons.”

“Ooh, what a smart idea! I’d miss all of those if we didn’t have them.”

He grins. “With the tomatoes we should be able to make pizza.”

Now it’s my turn to laugh. “We just need cheese and dough.”

“Well, we’ll find something to milk for our farm. And people have been making dough for centuries, I’m sure we can figure it out.”

I smile at him. “Since when did you become so chipper?”

He returns my smile. “Since I got a future with the woman I love.” He hesitates. “It’s not that I wanted Paradise Falls to collapse into ruin and for us to be trapped in Neverwood, I’m just glad there was a scenario where you and I could be together and Ferone didn’t have to play the role of dad to my kid.”

“Because you weresoon board with that idea,” I tease.

He laughs and pulls me into his arms, and I don’t even mind that we’re both a little sweaty. His lips find mine and he kisses me until I’m out of breath. Then he pulls back, and we’re both breathing hard. It’s strange, we’re in an absolutely desperate situation, but it doesn’t even seem that bad, as long as I’m with Callum.

“We could set up camp…” he suggests softly.

“Callum!” I run my hand through his hair. “We need to find food and water before we die. You’re going to have to keep it in your pants for a little longer.”

He groans, but pulls away. “You’re right.” Then he mutters, “Although, sex is sort of necessary too.”

I grab his hand, grinning at him, while we climb to the top of the hill. As we look down, we see a large brown plant by the side of the road. We each pick up our speed and hurry toward it. Callum uses his sword to check for snakes, and then we kneel down and start breaking the branches and sucking the brown liquid out. It tastes a little like thin applesauce, but not nearly as sweet.

Glancing at Callum, I see that he’s stopped drinking. “There’s more, I tell him.”

“I’m fine,” he says. “You drink it.”

I shake my head, frowning. “Callum, you can’t do this. We both need enough to keep going.”

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