Alphas of Black Fortune Complete Series by Scarlett Rhone

Author:Scarlett Rhone [Rhone, Scarlett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Enamored Ink
Published: 2015-07-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Kelly came awake groggily, once he understood through his mottled dreamscape that he was being shaken. He lifted his head, blinking, and waved Cort off, who backed up from him to stand beside Fat Tom, still in his bear skin, huge head lowered, beady eyes blinking worriedly.

“What is it?” Kelly demanded, sitting up, lifting his hands to rub the sleep from his eyes.

“We can’t find Cressida, Cap’n,” Cort said, frowning. “She’s gone.”

“Gone?” Kelly felt a pang of panic in his heart. He got to his feet. “Gone where? What do you mean gone? She was here with me only…only a moment ago…”

“Not anymore,” Cort said gravely. “Tom tracked her into the jungle and then lost the scent.”

“How could you lose her scent?” Kelly snapped.

The big bear whined low reply.

“He thinks it’s some sort of devilry,” Cort said. “Says the jungle led him about in circles for a while, brought him right back here. I checked too, Cap’n. No sign of her.”

Kelly turned in a circle, looking from his men to the river, to the knot of the jungle, back to his men, back to the river. He didn’t know what to do. Even if he was willing to give Cressida up and carry on the treasure hunt, he knew he couldn’t actually obtain it without a human. There had to be a human. She was as much a key to the jewel as the map had been, as Reza had been, and Kelly was lost without her. In more ways than just this.

“We have to find her,” he said, looking again at Cort and Fat Tom. “We have to backtrack, see if she’s just gotten herself lost somehow. We have to find her.”

“This place is bewitched, Cap’n,” Cort whispered miserably.

“You’re bewitched, you damned fool!” Kelly growled. “Stop acting like a whipped boy and start acting like the bear you are. We will find her or the treasure is lost to us completely! You go with Tom, go back to the Stone Leap and work your way here to the river again. I’ll go forward up the river and see if she came out somewhere else. We meet back here in two hours.”

Cort hung his head. “Aye, Cap’n.”

As the two moved despondently off, Kelly grasped his sword belt and slung it into place, marching towards the jungle and the line of wilderness that kissed the riverside. He pushed through the network of vines and fronds, shoving flowering petals out of the way, more or less plowing into the landscape.

“Cress!” he shouted, his voice echoing. “Cressida, where are you!”

He heard his own words spiral out, bouncing around and up against the canopy. No reply came, so he pushed deeper, calling out for her all the while.

“Cressida! I’m going to tar and feather you, woman!”

Nothing. Tempted though he was to shift and see if he could sniff her out, his movements would be much encumbered in his bear skin, and Fat Tom had said the jungle had consternated his nose, anyway. Not much of an advantage.

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