Hunted by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #3)(27)

“I guess now would be a good time to track down that Resistance camp the shaman was telling us about?” I asked as I fastened Iannis’s chain around my neck. I’d considered stowing it in my pack, but wearing both charms together felt right. It helped settle the unease in my chest, and as the charm came to rest against my skin next to the other, a comforting feeling washed over me.

“That does seem to be our only option, yes.” Fenris pulled out a compass from his pack and consulted it. “We’ll likely be walking through this forest for a while yet. Perhaps you and I should change so we can make better use of our senses.”

“How about one of you stays human for once?” Annia complained. “That way at least one of you can communicate with me if something goes wrong.”

“Very well,” Fenris conceded reluctantly. “I will remain in human form while Sunaya changes.”

After I’d quickly shifted into panther form, we moved forward, using Fenris’s compass as a guide to navigate the forest in the proper direction. I trotted through the forest silently on four legs, and though there was the occasional crunch of a twig or leaf beneath Annia’s or Fenris’s boots, for the most part we traveled soundlessly. There was evidence that humans had passed through this area, from footprints on the ground to the occasional bead or button from a piece of clothing. We even passed by the remains of a campfire in a clearing that was a few days old. I spent several minutes sniffing around the blackened wood and stones, hoping to catch a whiff of Iannis’s scent, but his familiar mix of musk, sandalwood, and magic was nowhere to be found.

We made it several miles into the forest before I caught the fresh scent of humans, and I stopped dead. Fenris and Annia went still behind me as I lifted my head, trying to discern where the scent was coming from and any other information I could glean.

“There’s a group of humans up ahead,” I told Fenris. “At least three of them, all men.”

“It might be a scouting party,” Fenris warned. “We must proceed with caution.” He relayed the message to Annia.

“You two wait here,” I said. “I’ll go ahead and check it out.”

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Fenris protested.

“I’ll be fine on my own against a couple of humans, and I want you here with Annia so I can report back to both of you on what I find. Besides, I doubt these humans will think I’m anything other than wild animal.”

“They may try to kill you,” Fenris warned. “Most humans see wildcats as a threat.”

I gave him a slow wink. “Then I’ll just have to make sure they don’t see me.”

I slunk through the trees, silent as a wraith as I followed my nose toward the strangers. The sound of their voices grew louder as I approached, and a tingle went down my spine as I realized they were speaking Northian, not Coazi. Were these men from the camp the shaman had told us about? Or could they be some of the missing delegates?

I crouched behind a tree, peering through the leaves into a clearing. Three men dressed in dirty khakis sat with their backs up against the trees, legs extended as they munched on what looked to be an early lunch. They boasted red armbands tied around their upper right arms – the classic mark of Resistance members. My heart sank: so it really was the Resistance behind Iannis’s disappearance.

“Say, d’you think we can finally get back to camp now?” the fellow closest to me asked around a mouthful of food. He had curly blond hair and a scruffy, tobacco-stained beard. “I figure we’ve combed these woods long enough. There’s no one out here but us.”

I held back a snort at that, glad that this particular scouting party didn’t seem to have any shifters in it. If it had, they would have scented us already and we’d have been forced to fight.

“We gotta wait until Daresh’s done sniffing around,” another of the men said. “You know how fussy he is about this crap. Wants to make sure no stone is left unturned.”

The blond rolled his eyes. “Can’t we just leave his tiger-striped ass here? Surely he can catch up with us on those four legs of his.”

I froze. So there was a shifter in their party after all. My senses went on high alert, trying to determine if there was a tiger shifter in the area, but I didn’t scent or hear anyone other than the three humans before me.

“Fenris,” I called as I began to creep away from the clearing. “We need to get out of here. There’s a tiger shifter on the prowl, and if he finds us –”

The wind shifted, and I stiffened as I caught the scent of a tiger male. The rustle of a bush was the only warning I got before he sprang out of the undergrowth, claws extended and mouth open in a ferocious snarl. I leapt to the side, and he sailed past me, landing a good ten feet away. Heart pounding, I took off running at full speed before he had a chance to turn around, making sure to head away from Annia and Fenris. There was no way I was going to stand and fight a shifter who was three times my weight, when I was three times faster at top speed.

Unfortunately, the forest terrain meant I couldn’t run at top speed, so I could hear Daresh crashing through the underbrush behind me. Sailing over a fallen tree log, I gave one last burst of speed, then took a flying leap into a tree. I scrambled up until I was out of the tiger’s reach, digging my claws into the bark for purchase, then clung to a thick branch and changed back into human form.