Cameron stokes's Arc

Chapter 3 of 8

The sky grayed, and Asher woke without a sound. He shouldered his pack and started walking east. Cameron followed. The pull behind her ribs dragged her toward the distant pack, steady as ever. But her hand kept drifting to the knife at her belt. She watched Asher's back and counted the questions she could not answer. He had packed her size. He had chosen silver. By noon she had to know the truth, or she would not take one more step beside him. They crossed a ridge and dropped into pine shadow. Asher moved fast, never breaking stride, reading the ground like a map only he could see. He stopped at a stream and let her drink. "Half a day done," he said. "You held up. Most don't." "Why silver?" Cameron asked. She stayed on the far bank. "You never told me. You packed a woman's coat before you met me. You knew my feet. Now you hand me a blade that bites wolves and tell me to use it at night." Her fingers closed on the hilt. "I hired a guide. I need to know what you are." Asher went still. His green eyes held hers. For a long moment he said nothing. Then he crouched and pointed at the mud between them. A print pressed deep in the wet earth. Four toes, long claws, wider than her spread hand. "That's what we're walking toward," he said. "The eastern wilds belong to wolves. Real ones, and worse. The king's pack guards this land. They let no stranger pass unless someone they trust brings them through." He stood. "I'm that someone. I've walked this road before. I pack silver because I've buried clients who didn't carry it. I knew your size because I've led a dozen women east, and they all dressed like you." Cameron's grip loosened. "Then why hide it?" "Because fear slows people down." He met her eyes straight. "You want to reach the king. I can get you there alive. But you have to walk when I say walk and run when I say run. I can't do that if you're watching my hands instead of the trees." A branch cracked across the stream. Both of them turned. Something large moved through the pines, low and fast, there and gone. Asher did not flinch. He stepped between Cameron and the sound. "That's why," he said quietly. "Decide now. Trust me, or go home." Cameron looked at the deep print, then at the trees that hid things she could not see. She could not cross this land alone. She took her hand off the knife and let it hang at her side. "Lead," she said. "I'll run when you tell me." Asher nodded once and turned east. Cameron fell in behind him and did not look back. She had chosen to trust him. But the thing in the pines kept pace, just out of sight, and now she knew the wilds were watching them both.