Packbound by Aimee Easterling

Author:Aimee Easterling [Aimee Easterling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wetknee Books
Published: 2024-10-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

“Maya’s at the outpack boundary,” Orion said, his words coming out a little too fast, “But she can’t see us.”

Because we weren’t quite in the real world here. Not until the dual hunt ended.

Or at least that was my guess. I could only hope I was right about both that and how to break through the veil.

“Luna! Bring me a granola bar!” I called even as I stumbled toward Finnegan, who sat cross-legged on the ground with Billy cradled in his lap. The boy’s body looked as disjointed as the wiseling’s and the scent emanating off Finnegan was pure grief and loss.

No. Billy couldn’t be dead. Not the little boy who’d started trusting us enough to indulge in tiny bouts of mischief over the last few days. Not the little boy who clung so hard to Orion whether awake or asleep.

He wasn’t dead. I could feel his breath on my skin as I held my palm up to his nostrils, but the flow was too shallow. “Help me,” I demanded of the moonring while grabbing both the boy’s chin and his trailing hand. It had helped Sue. Surely it could help Billy…

Nothing happened. Well, nothing other than Luna shuffling her feet as she came up to stand above us. “There was just one left and I already ate some,” she mumbled, looking down at her shoes. But she held out the rest willingly. It was my fingers that hesitated to grab onto the offered food.

Because if I ate the granola bar, it should flush the rest of the blood draft out of my system. Any chance of catching the wiseling and claiming Umpa as my sponsor would evaporate.

On the other hand, eating should let Maya drive to where we were located. She could keep Billy alive by hooking him up to an IV and a heart monitor. She could steady him while we continued to chase down a fix for whatever was breaking members of Orion’s pack.

Weighing the temporary survival of one little boy against the possible repercussions for many gave me a headache. I only realized I was broadcasting when my mate’s voice rumbled inside my mind.

“Whatever decision you make will be the right one. Trust yourself.”

His words helped me realize I’d already made my choice. I’d made it when I let the wiseling slip through my fingers.

So I bit down on the granola bar, sweetness and salt hitting my tongue in an explosion of flavors. A hand—Orion’s hand—offered a juice box to go along with the snack. The liquid was warm from sitting out in the desert, but I didn’t care. I swallowed and swallowed and swallowed, not stopping until the straw was slurping air.

As the food hit my system, a change rippled through me. The blood draft’s influence faded, taking with it the otherworldly sensations I’d grown accustomed to. The stars shrank back to pinpricks. The night around me snapped into sharper focus.

And as my body recalibrated, headlights popped into existence in the near distance. We were back in the same world Maya inhabited.

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