*Kyra*

I catch myself constantly stealing glimpses of Hayes' injury. The way the scars seem to crawl up his neck and into his cheek like a thorny rose vine creeping up a trellis. It twists and dips, spots shiny while others are dull and deep. My fingers itch to touch it, to trace the

tendrils that caused him so much pain as they dance up the side of his head, burning off half his eyebrow.

It's mesmerizing, almost beautiful. A map of his sufferings. He finds it appalling, convinced I could only feel the same way. But I don't avoid his touch because of his injuries. I run from the sparks he seems immune to.

The explosion that rips through my body and tries to urge me to follow what the moon goddess has given me. It's not about moving on from what I lost, but accepting what I am being offered. But I'm not sure I can or that I want to.

"Ask me," Hayes sighs heavily, the annoyance clear in his exhale as he remains looking forward. My brows pull together, the left corner of my lip pulling down in a confused frown.

"What exactly am I asking you?"

"Did it hurt? Does it still hurt? How did it happen?" Hayes says, his voice flat and unaffected.

"Is that normally what people ask?" I watch him closely as he clears his throat and looks in the opposite direction. "Because I got the feeling people avoid you."

"Because of my burns?" He scoffs, and I snort.

"No, because you're an asshole now."

Dean and Marcos chuckle ahead of us, both of them shaking their heads.

"Yeah, well, if I look like an asshole people don't ask me annoying questions," He grumbles.

I arch a brow and smirk up at him, regardless of how much he tries to look away.

assumed I wanted to know." I remind

at me," He says.

"Every warrior knows what creates those burns, and I know the pain they bring the bearer of them." Then I spin on my toes and walk toward the front of the group. I catch up to Nisha, sliding up on her

me and looks down on me for some reason. But if we are going to be stuck together for a while, then I may as well familiarize myself with her snide

lost, Tracker?" She muses, her deep brown eyes blinking

tell her. "Just coming up for

mutter the sentence, not even realizing how much I mean them until I hear them in my own ears. Being around Hayes is entirely suffocating and when he isn't around, usually there is Marcos drowning me with his closeness and

up ahead, where Koda saunters,

She offers and I admit her immediate desire to send me off ruffles my

you?" I ask, tired of the

She arches a

purely a personal choice." I scoff and

exhales and groans. Her hand reaches out, clutching my elbow, tugging me back next to

They are my family, a weird, fucked up and very anger filled family. But that's all I have, so yes, I am hesitant to welcome someone else

senses as I slow down. The trees are still, not a breeze breaking through the dense foliage of the forest, yet my nose draws

I narrow my eyes, tilting my chin up and taking a

charcoal in the faintest way pulling me off the path the

fall silent. In the darkness I see a dull light, like a thread leading me as it pulses away, calling

after me, but I am too far

a tree, I notice

the under skin looking green and still moist. It's more like a dent, as if a rock were hammered into it. My

through my body when I bring my hand to my nose and look closely. There is a slight shimmer, an oily hue, on my fingertips. As if it matches the

spit

push forward. My nose may have picked up the scent, but my other skills have verified it. Ezrah and the egg are close. Now it is a matter of how

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