Page 27 of Rebel Fae
“Okay, we’ll work on lunch. You let us know if you find anything.”
I stood up, gesturing for the others to do the same. Regina didn’t need to be told twice. She slunk around the building and into one of the uninhabited huts. Bael, too, hurried away from the group. That left Becca, Vaughn, and me to see about lunch while Ronnie hunched over, gesturing and murmuring to himself. Becca wandered over to the tree line, saying something about gathering firewood, though she did little but watch the birds.
Vaughn walked closer to me, speaking low. “Do you think it’ll work?”
“No idea,” I replied, “but it is worth pursuing.”
“I hope so. They won’t like it if we don’t find the key soon. I overheard them say if we didn’t have it by morning tomorrow there would be consequences.”
“What?!” I whirled to face him. “What kind of consequences?”
Vaughn gave me a meaningful look. “You know what kind.”
“Vaughn, no.” My blood had chilled, and my heart pounded. Would they really kill one of us if we didn’t find their ridiculous key? The answer was yes, they had and they would. They only wanted the strong to survive. That made what Ronnie was doing even more important. I hoped, for all our sakes, he could bring it to us.
“Crescent left us a bag of food down the path. I’ll go get it. You keep an eye on them.” He nodded toward the others.
While he walked away, I stayed near the fire pit, my eyes scanning around the site. When it got dark, would that beast come back? I thought it would. So, that left little time to get the key. Why,oh whywas everything running at breakneck speed?
They were testing us, that was why, seeing who would survive, and I had an awful feeling that many of us would not. At least I knew Ronnie was safe since his parents had paid to send him here. Maybe Becca, too.
Something moved behind me. I whirled, bringing my fists up, and found Bael regarding my fighting posture with interest, but no fear.
“Oh,” I said, dropping my hands. “It’s you.”
“It is me,” he replied dryly. “But you… you are the curious one.” He raised a dark eyebrow.
“Me?”
“Why are you always whispering with the werebeast? Does he mean something to you?” His pink eyes seemed to zero in and peer into me,throughme. Plus, he knew neither one of us could lie.
I gave as little information as possible instead. “We used to know each other before this.”
Bael frowned. “Where?”
“From… here,” I answered, blowing out my breath. “We were here. Before. But please don’t tell the others.”
Bael studied my face. “You have feelings for him.”
“What? I… It’s… He hurt me before. I still haven’t forgiven him.” I wrung my hands together, wanting very much to be out of this conversation, but Bael seemed determined.
“He will hurt you again,” he said assuredly. Then his tone softened. “You should stick to your kind.”
Without letting me reply, he turned and walked off into the trees.
Emotions swirled within me as I watched him go. What had his words meant? Was he…? Was he suggesting that he and I…?
“I’ve got it!” Ronnie popped up from the ground. “I’ve found the key.”
We all came running and clustered around Ronnie as he bounced up and down excitedly. Vaughn saw the commotion, ran up the path, and joined us. When the boy was sure he had our attention, he spoke in a rapid succession of words.
“I used a summoning spell first, but that was too hard. It wouldn’t come, so then I tried a locator spell, and that worked better. So I followed its signature through the jungle and into some sort of weird cavern that went deep into the ground. It’s dark, and there are spiders.” Ronnie shivered.
I grabbed his shoulder. “Where is it? How do we get to it?”
“It’s far,” he said, his excitement fading. “And there’s one little problem.”
“What?” Vaughn asked.
