THE WALK BACK to the car felt longer than Mailah remembered. Maybe it was the weight of Lucson's words still pressing on her chest, or maybe the forest just looked different in daylight—less menacing, more indifferent. Trees stood silent and bare, their branches reaching toward a sky that couldn't decide between gray and white.
Lucson moved ahead of her with that same effortless grace, not bothering to check if she was keeping up. His posture remained alert but relaxed, like someone accustomed to danger but not currently expecting it.
Which somehow made Mailah more nervous.
"You're quiet," she said, breaking the silence that had stretched between them since leaving the lodge.
"I'm thinking."
"About?"
"About the fact that we weren't attacked, trapped, or otherwise impeded during the night." Lucson pushed aside a low-hanging branch. "It's suspicious."
"Maybe whoever left that lodge there actually just wanted to help?"
