Page 25 of Lion Conquers All
“Thank you.”
“Of course,shu—Connie.” He corrected himself mid-word.
She nodded, but a worried look passed through her gaze before she re-adjusted the bag on her shoulder and turned away.
The others crossed the stream behind them. Ryder carried Ava across so she also wouldn’t be wet. She gave Ryder a kiss and then hopped from his arms to take her place at Connie’s side again.
Gaven and Ryder both stopped on either side of Aarav. The human spoke first. “Is Connie okay? That was a weird…well. It’s none of my business. Just…” Gaven let his questions trail off. He stared into the trees and then down at the paper in his hand. “The blind should be about a quarter of a mile that way through the scrub. She wrote a comment about the big tree with a broken limb.”
He pointed.
Aarav took a deep breath. “Yes. Let’s move.”
“Connie’s okay?” Gaven asked again, unable to let it go.
“She is well, just not comfortable around males.”
Gaven was silent for a moment. His shoulders sank. “That’s terrible. I can’t even imagine something happening to my daughter to make her that afraid. Makes me want to kill men who don’t respect women. They shouldn’t be allowed near them. Ever.”
Aarav and Ryder chuckled. “What is the saying here for that. Welcome to the tribe?”
Gaven laughed out loud. A deep rolling belly laugh. “No, it’s welcome to the club. Nobody calls anything a tribe, well, except maybe natives. Are you indigenous?”
Aarav let the magick in his mind dig for the meaning of the word. A second later he shook his head. “No. I’m not from around here. But it was a common word in my home.”
“Gotcha.”
Gavin called ahead to Ava and Connie. “Swing toward that big tree with the fallen limb. There should be a walking trail near it.”
The two women veered in the appropriate direction and the men followed, once again single file and silent.
Ten minutes passed and the blind came into view. Aarav and Ryder glanced at each other. Ava glanced back, meeting their gaze. The children weren’t here.
Gaven ran to the blind. “Gretchen! Sam!” He climbed the ladder and crawled into the large platform high in the trees.
“I don’t understand,” he yelled from the top. “There’s not a single trace of them. Not a backpack or a blanket. No campfire below.” He crawled out, back down the ladder. “If she’d gone somewhere else, she would’ve told me. That’s our deal.”
Aarav frowned, his stomach clenched in his gut. Now they had two missing children to find. Children that appeared to betryingto hide.
Dalmeck.
10
CONNIE
The kids weren’t here. “Why would Gretchen lie?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t forbid her from doing anything. She always checks in with me if she moves.” Gaven climbed back down from the blind. “Maybe they are on their way to a new site? Maybe she’ll call me in the morning and give me an update.”
Connie stared into the swaying pines. The wind was picking up. There was a chill in the air that hadn’t been there a few hours ago.
“Could she have started home and we missed her? Is there another trail she would’ve used?”
“No. We came the way she would’ve.” Her father ran his hands through his hair. His his face was tense with worry.
“There’s been no campfire here .” Aarav crouched next to a small circle of rocks.
Well, dammit.That wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
