Page 12 of Bryce

She giggled much louder than his weak joke deserved. With his thick shock of hair, eyes the color of steel and the typical muscular form which served as one trait all shifters shared, it made sense that she would flirt with him. “I’m an adventurous sort by nature, but that’s a bit much even for me.”

“Oh, yes,” Isla muttered. “Very adventurous. You even recently started drinking your coffee without creamer.”

I barely choked back a laugh, more for my own sake than for Leslie’s. If Isla knew I’d found her comment funny she might stop talking altogether.

Leslie harrumphed at this. “I’ll have you know I all but jumped at the chance to come out here. I didn’t need to. None of us were required to come along with the coven. No matter how dangerous it might have proven, I didn’t care.”

“No one would question your bravery,” I called back. “For the record, we’re hiking roughly fifty miles.”

“Fifty!” she exclaimed.

“You don’t feel you’re up to the challenge?” I teased in spite of the withering glare Isla shot at the side of my head.

“No, no. I wish somebody had told me, is all.”

“Did you think they were just beyond the cave mouth, these sorcerers?” Logan chuckled.

“It’s clear you’re all determined to gang up on me, and I’ll have no more of it.” There was a playfulness to her tone that told me she hardly meant it.

Unlike Isla, whose jaw had been set in the same hard lines since she stepped out from inside the cave.

“If it wasn’t for the rough terrain, we could have taken one of the trucks,” Gate explained. “Trust me, I would rather have gone about this in a more expeditious fashion if I had my way.”

“I doubt the Gwydions have a paved path running up to where they are,” I reasoned, navigating a slippery bit of rock as I spoke. It was moss-covered, making it difficult to get my footing, but I managed it before turning and offering a hand to one of the women.

“Thank you,” Leslie grinned as she took me up on the offer. “Chivalry is so refreshing in this day and age.”

I took the comment for what it was—old-fashioned flirtation, not to mention a method of fighting the boredom that could settle in during a long hike—before turning my attention Isla. “A hand?” I offered, reaching out to her.

She sized me up and clearly declared me unworthy. “No, thank you.”

“It’s slippery.”

“I can manage.” However, she was too busy avoiding my outstretched hand to take care with her footing. This sent her arms pinwheeling as her boot slipped on the moss.

Sending her straight into me.

I caught her around the waist and absorbed the impact easily. She hardly seemed to weigh a thing. “Easy, now,” I said as I helped her to her feet.

She pushed me away. “I don’t need your help. I don’t need anything from you.”

That, I couldn’t absorb so easily, even if I pretended to do so.

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