“No, they don’t,” Kane agreed. “I’m not here by choice.”
“And yet, you’ll go right back to them when you find the stone.” Dad’s free hand fisted at his side as he glared at Kane. “The mages need to perish. No, I’m not letting anyone find the stone. Never!”
“You know where it is!” I gasped, eyes wide and mouth open.
Dad turned and sprinted into the tall grass once more.
I started to go after him, but Kane grabbed me, stopping me.
“No,” he whispered. “Let him go.”
“Kane, he knows where the stone is. If he is here, that means the stone is close.”
He shook his head. “Or this is just the path to it. Or, he’s gone crazy and hallucinates.”
That was a possibility. I looked after where my father had disappeared in the grass but couldn’t see any sign of him. He’d had dark circles under his eyes and though he was muscular, he’d seemed underweight.
“What are we going to do?” I asked, looking back up at Kane. “He clearly doesn’t like you. I’m worried he may try to hurt you.”
“We need to find water,” Kane said. “For now, that is our top priority. We’ll worry about the rest later.”
Chapter Twelve
We found water, filled our canteens, and drank our fill before heading back into the trees to find a place to make camp. We both preferred to camp in the trees now, after our time on the island. Funny how a few nights could change things so much. Since my leg was healed, I climbed up the tree myself this time and walked across the rope. It was much better than being thrown. Kane pouted a bit, but I just shook my head at him and laughed.
We lay together in a too quiet forest, staring at the stars we could see through the sparse canopy above us. It felt good to be in a cooler environment than the deadlands had been. I shivered, but it wasn’t entirely from the drop in temperature.
“There’s something wrong here,” I whispered and held Kane a little tighter.
Kane nodded against my head. “I know.”
“I don’t understand him. I don’t understand why he would want to keep us from the stone. Why wouldn’t he want us to heal everything? We want everyone to be safe. I want to be safe. Why doesn’t he?”
Kane rubbed my back, letting me rant.
“I don’t know,” he whispered. “We’ll get the stone, though. We will find the stone and we will heal the land and make it safe for everyone again. So, we can build our house. And so, Hiruko can live near us. We’ll do it.”
I snuggled up to him, rested my head on his chest, and whispered, “I hope so.”
After we woke, Kane put the netting away in our bag and we continued in the direction we’d already been going. Though we hadn’t yet found any clues as to where we should be going for certain, Kane’s intuition had been right so far. Also, the direction he had us go kept us near the stream once more and it felt safer being close to a source of water after suffering in the deadlands. The clouds overhead were bulbous and large. A wind picked up, blowing among the tree tops. Even the air smelled a little differently. We walked nearly the whole day like that until the clouds covered the sun completely, graying the light surrounding us, and I looked up at Kane, whose face had tightened.
He looked down at me, frowning. “I think we’ll need to find some shelter soon. It looks like rain.”
“Rain?” I asked.
He nodded. The wind continued to blow, causing a ruckus in the absence of all the usual noise in the forest. I frowned. Or did it mean a predator was nearby? Did rain have the same sort of effect on the animals? Did they quiet as they hurried toward shelter as well? A rustle in the tall grass drew our attention, and I unsheathed my knife while Kane pulled his staff from his back. Then Dad stepped from the grass into our path, a sword in his hand.
“I won’t let you go any farther,” Dad growled, and the cold rain began to fall.
I lifted my face and allowed the rain to wash over me. It felt good to be wet, I found comfort in it. Then I blinked the water from my eyes and looked at my father, the rain dripping from his beard. He stood still, the sword in between us as we faced off. Kane rested a warm hand on my back. For a long while, we all stood motionless. Neither we nor he said a word as the rain slowly lightened up to a drizzle. The clouds overhead parted, letting the sun shine through, but it was low in the western horizon now, painting the sky in oranges and pinks.
If my father wanted to stand in our way here, it meant that without a doubt, we were going the right way.
It had been a long while since any of us had moved, and rain dripped from our skin and clothing even though the drizzle itself died away as well. I concentrated on the moisture and pulled it from my clothing as well as Kane’s drying us both. Kane met eyes with me and nodded. Then, without a word, he climbed up the tree nearest him, and started making our bed for the night.
I sheathed my knife, understanding what his look had meant. “Fine. We won’t go any farther.”
My father’s brow furrowed as he frowned, the water still dripping down his face. Why hadn’t he dried himself? Had it been so long since he used his siren abilities to control the flow of currents and moisture that he couldn’t do it? I shook my head and turned to climb up after Kane. I couldn’t worry about my father right now, when he’d declared himself our enemy, even though I didn’t want him as one. The bark on the tree was wet and slick, but I still managed to find the footholds to make it to the ropes and to Kane. Once I lay down on our net, I took out food from our pack for the both of us to eat.
Kane’s eyes had a slightly bored expression to them as he continued our conversation from earlier. “The only problem with building a house in the trees is if there are earthquakes.”
I took a bite of the fruit I held in my hand. “True. If an earthquake shakes the tree, it would most likely knock our treehouse down.”
“We could build a house around a tree, that way it would only break if the entire tree fell.” Kane tapped his chin with a finger. He was making conversation as if my father wasn’t down below us, causing my heart to race and electricity to pulse down my spine. Dad’s presence heightened my nerves and reflexes.
But I swallowed it all down and played along. After all, the importance of shelter from weather conditions had been fully realized with the rain we’d just had. “We could do that for Hiruko. As long as the house we built on the ground was sturdy enough to withstand a wolfcupine or oiline attack, I would be happy.”
“Oh, the house on the ground that I build will be incredibly sturdy,” Kane said with a sure nod. “And that’s only if those animals still exist after the land is healed by the stone.”
“What are you two talking about?” Dad asked from below.
We both looked down through the holes in the netting. Dad stood on the ground, leaning against a tree a few feet from ours, looking up at us. His sword was sheathed, and his brow was furrowed. His hands were on his hips.
“Talking about the types of houses we want to build,” I answered.
“Houses?” he asked, blinking at us.
“We should build it not too far from the sea,” I said to Kane, laying back down and looking up at the canopy of trees overhead.
“So, you can go swimming?” Kane asked.
I shook my head. “No, so we can have a ship and go sailing.”
“Sailing? Through monster-infested waters?” Dad asked.
We ignored him.
“That trip on the pirate’s ship was sort of fun,” Kane said.
“Pirate ship?” Dad asked, his words slightly higher pitched than normal. “What pirate ship? Why in Caracas were you on a pirate ship?”
“Well, except for that part where you almost died,” I said with a smirk to Kane.
“You saved me,” he said and shrugged.
“Barely,” I mumbled.
“Let’s agree not to keep gunpowder on our ship, okay? That way it won’t blow up.” Kane pushed a piece of my hair that had fallen over my face beh
ind my ear.
I laughed and nodded. “Agreed.”
“Do you think we could have an entire grove of trees?” Kane asked as he lay back beside me. “We would never starve if we had a grove of the fruit trees.”
“You think you can grow trees? The land is dying,” Dad scoffed.
“If only there were a stone that could heal the land,” I said and sighed dramatically.
Dad grumbled something, but I couldn’t hear what it was.
Kane and I arranged ourselves comfortably, with him on his back, me on my side with my head on his chest, and his arm around me. It was our go-to sleeping position now. I glanced over Kane’s shoulder, and saw my dad sitting against the tree he had been leaning against earlier, his eyes drooping.
I relaxed again on Kane, who rubbed my back gently.
“I need a warm shower,” Kane muttered.
“What’s a shower?” I asked.
“It’s like standing in the rain we’d just had, but the water is warm, and you wash yourself under it.”
That did sound nice. “You have that in your cave?”
He nodded.
“I want one, too.”
He wiped his thumb across my lower lip. “Just wiping off your drool,” he teased.
I chuckled and kissed his thumb.
Kane’s eyes brightened, and he claimed my lips with his, kissing me deeply.
I slid my fingers into his thick hair, opened my mouth, and let his tongue slide along mine.
Kane pulled back and traced my bottom lip with his thumb again. “You’re beautiful, Ivy.”
“Thank you,” I whispered and kissed the inside of his palm.
I glanced down, saw my father asleep, and nodded at Kane. The snores were loud, deep, and even.
Kane slipped the pack over his shoulders and then made hand gestures to let me know his plan. I nodded. Then he climbed down, dropping the last few feet loudly, but my dad didn’t wake up.
I climbed down, dropped into Kane’s arms, and we snuck past Dad to continue on our journey. It sucked to leave the net behind, but we couldn’t waste any time if we wanted to get to the stone. Kane linked our fingers and guided me through the dark forest. Nothing about this area seemed spectacular or out of the ordinary, but my dad seemed adamant that the stone was nearby, and he didn’t want us to get it. We explored the area until the sun rose, and then Kane sat on the ground, leaning against a tree, and I sat between his legs to nap. I would have preferred to be up in the trees, but we wanted to catch a quick nap and keep going. Plus, we were trying to hide from my dad.
I couldn’t tell how long we napped, but I was still tired when we resumed our trek. Kane huffed when I tripped over yet another tree root and picked me up.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“It’s alright. I know you’re still not quite used to your legs yet,” he teased.
Only, I was used to them. I’d been able to use my legs much easier than I thought I would.
“I need to do more stretches,” I said around a yawn, and then leaned my head on his shoulder as he walked.
“Take a nap, Ivy. I’ll get us closer to the stone,” he whispered and kissed the top of my head.
My nap didn’t last long, unfortunately.
The ground beneath us shuddered, and Kane stumbled, almost falling with me in his arms.
“Earthquake?” I asked, climbing out of his arms so he could gain better balance.
He slipped his fingers into mine and narrowed his eyes as he looked around. “Maybe.”
We continued walking, our hands clasped together, so if something did happen, we wouldn’t be separated.
Trees to our left exploded, shards flying in every direction, as a beast rammed through them.
It had the body of a boar, the head of an owl, teeth within its beak, and tusks on the side of the head.
“An owlboar?” I asked in disbelief.
“Apparently,” Kane said, pulling me down behind a tree so it couldn’t see us.
“I can’t even think how to combine that. A bowl? An owar? None of those work,” I complained.
“Now is really not the time to worry about that,” Kane hissed.
The owlboar snuffled the ground, moving around pieces of the trees it had just demolished. It turned its head from side to side as its snout moved around, almost like it was searching for something.
My nose started tickling, and before I could stop, I sneezed.
Kane sighed, jerked me up after him, and started running.
The owlboar screeched behind us and gave chase, smashing its tusks against trees as it ran past, knocking most of them down.
“Sorry,” I yelled as we ran.
“Don’t apologize, Ivy. Just run!” Kane yelled back, dodging around some trees and veering to the right.
I stumbled, but Kane’s grip kept me from falling.
Someone yelled behind us, and then the owlboar screeched. I spared a glance back and found my dad sitting astride the owlboar, a spear in his hand, which he stabbed into the creature, and then jerked left. The owlboar veered in that direction and disappeared into the woods. My eyes widened as if they’d pop out of my head. I grabbed Kane’s shoulder as we ran.
“Dad’s riding the owlboar,” I gasped.
“I saw,” Kane said, but didn’t slow.
“Why aren’t we—”
“We’re running from your dad, too, remember?” he said.
Oh, right.
Thick bushes began to grow between the trees, making it almost impossible to walk through them. Thorns snagged at my skin and clothes.
Kane changed our course and headed toward a group of boulders. He helped me climb over a particularly thick group of thorn bushes and then unhooked my shirt when it got snagged. Once on the other side of the bushes, I looked back at him.
He waved his hands in a gesture. “Move over.”
I stepped to the right then watched as he backed up, got a running start, and jumped over the bush with several feet to spare.
My mouth popped open. “I didn’t know you could jump so high.”
He smirked, grabbed my hand, and jogged toward the boulders.
“I can’t even jump over a foot off the ground,” I grumbled. “You jumped like six feet.”
We walked around the boulder, crouched, and waited to see if Dad or the owlboar followed.
“It’s all about your leg muscles,” Kane whispered and patted his upper thigh.
I poked his leg, shocked at how muscular they were.
“How do I get muscles like that?” I asked in a whisper.
He chuckled softly and kissed my cheek. “Let’s worry about that later.”
I huffed softly, but now that we were sitting still, my whole body felt jittery. I leaned my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes, trying to alleviate my shaking.
“You okay?” he asked in a whisper.
“My head hurts a little,” I answered. Now that he asked, I did feel kind of weird.
He leaned his forehead against mine and when he pulled back, he was scowling. “You’ve got a fever.”
“Is that bad?” I asked.
“It can be. If your fever gets worse, it could be really bad. Are there any medicines in the kit you have?” He turned me around and started digging through the bag.
The ground trembled slightly.
“Kane,” I whispered.
“Shush,” he ordered me.
The ground trembled again, and birds flew up from the trees in front of us.
“Kane,” I hissed.
“Here it is,” he said, closed my bag, and turned me around. He looked over my head and the smile disappeared.
“I was trying to tell you,” I whispered.
I took the pills he’d grabbed and swallowed them as we ran away again.
The boulder we’d been hiding behind broke apart as the owlboar smashed into it. The thundering and ground-shaking stopped, though.
We hid behind a tree and turned to find the ow
lboar, unconscious atop the pile of rubble from the boulder.
Dad leapt from the owlboar’s back and rubbed his hands.
Kane and I hid again. I peered through the leaves that hid us and saw my Dad standing tall. His clothes were torn and stained with blood from the boar as well. He placed his hands on his hips and glared around him.
“I know you’re out there,” Dad said. “You can’t hide from me. I’ve been living in these woods for more than a decade. Come on out.”
I shot a look at Kane. Sweat beaded on my upper lip, and I felt the slightest bit woozy from all the running we’d done. Kane slowly shook his head at me.
Dad half-laughed, but the glare never left his face. “Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. I don’t want to hurt you kids, but I can’t let you get the stone.”
I opened my mouth, but Kane put his hand over it and shook his head again.
Dang it. I wanted to know why he was trying to keep us away from the stone.
“If you continue on, you’ll leave me no choice but to fight you.” Dad’s hand landed on the hilt of his sword.
Kane leaned closer and whispered in my ear, “We’re going to run, okay?”
“He’ll just follow,” I whispered back.
“That’s okay,” Kane said.
He held out his hand, and I slipped my much smaller one into his. He smiled, and then we were running.
The trees grew thicker and we entered a mountainous area, which made running much harder.
I panted heavily, my lungs on fire as they tried to get air into them.
A cold, heavy rain began to fall again, drenching us almost immediately.
Kane found an outcropping of rocks, and we took shelter beneath it, sitting as close together as we could.
“Let me see your head,” he whispered.
I turned to face him, and he leaned his head against mine. My entire body shook from being wet. I tried to direct the water away from my clothes and body, but for some reason it wasn’t working this time. My teeth chattered.
Stone Heart Page 15
