“Yes.”

One mystery solved. “Would it have worked?”

“I...don’t know. The captain is well connected. He has friends who are in charge of transfers, buddies working as messengers and is in tight with the Major. I doubt anyone here would have helped me.”

He’d fix that later. For now... “Tell me everything.”

Wilona glanced at the door.

“Will he be here soon?”

“He...visits at different times and not every night.”

Typical predator behavior—keeping a victim guessing and off balance, Valek thought with disgust.

With some encouragement, Wilona told Valek her horror story. How she’d caught Timmer’s eye and, at first, she enjoyed the attention until the flirting turned into threats, intimidation and forced physical contact. Valek wished Yelena was here. His heart mate had been through a similar experience and her magic could soothe Wilona’s soul. All he could offer Wilona was the assurance that she’d be safe.

“Don’t worry about Timmer anymore. The next time he comes to your room, I’ll be waiting for him, and if he survives the encounter, he’ll be rendered harmless and unable to sire children,” Valek promised.

19

JANCO

A person could only listen to the forest sounds for so long before going insane. Janco sighed. Loudly. They’d been hiking southwest through the Snake Forest for hours and Little Miss Assassin had been as quiet as the grave. Her passage through the woods made no noise. Her bare feet padded on the cold hard ground with nary a whisper. Even her short black cape didn’t dare flap.

They would stay on the Ixian side of the border until they neared the town of Lapeer, where they would cross over and investigate the suspicious factory before heading east to the Emerald Mountains.

He tried to fill the silence with comments on the case or on the scenery, but he gave up because after a while it sounded inane even to him. And he’d long since stopped asking her questions. Little Miss Assassin was a woman of few words.

This was going to be a long assignment. He sighed. Again.

“Will you stop doing that?” she asked. Annoyance colored her tone.

Janco perked up. “Doing what?”

“That huffing thing. Like you’re leaking air.”

“It’s called sighing.”

“Well, stop it.”

A very childish “make me” pressed on the edge of his lips. He wisely kept those two words from escaping. Ari would be proud. Instead, he asked, “Why?”

“I can’t hear if anyone is following us.”

“No one is following us.”

“How do you know?”

Good question. He’d known it just as he knew when to stop bugging Ari—by a feeling deep inside him. “The forest is...unperturbed.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Do you think someone is following us?”

“I haven’t heard any indicators—when I could hear.” She shot him a sour look. “We need to remain vigilant.”

“For what? It’s not like they’re planning an ambush. If someone is following us, that’s good. It means we’re on the right track. We’re making people nervous. They want to see where we’re going, what we’re doing. In fact, we should be making more noise in order to lure them into coming closer.”

Little Miss Assassin stared at him as if he had four eyes and a spike sticking out of his forehead. “How do you know they’re not planning an ambush? With all your prattle masking any signs, we’ll probably stumble right into a trap.”

Janco hadn’t realized just how much his friends trusted him until now. Ari would never question him about ambushes. Why not? It wasn’t like he had magic. Perhaps years spent in the woods had given him a...forest vibe. If he told her that, she’d really think he was out of his mind. And why did he care what Little Miss Assassin thought? He didn’t. Not at all.

“The real danger will come when we’re in Sitia,” Janco said. “Until then, it’s just me, you and the birds.”

“What about at the border? Do you expect trouble there?”

“Nope. We’re going to slip into Sitia without a fuss.”

“You mean without stopping to inform the border guards?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Sounds like a challenge.” A gleam lit her pale gray eyes.

“It’s easier than you’d think.” Or was it? He’d always walked parallel to the border until he found a spot that was empty of guards. Then he simply crossed into Sitia.

When the Commander had taken over Ixia, he had closed the border to Sitia and had his men cut down all the trees and bushes, clearing a hundred-foot-wide space between the two nations. With the gap, the river and the scattered patrols it wasn’t easy to cross the border.

“Now that I’m thinking about it,” Janco said. “The crossing can be tricky, depending on who’s on duty. I’m gonna let you take point on this one.”

“All right,” she said. “And just to let you know, I see what you’re doing.”

“Me?” He attempted to look innocent—a hard expression for him to pull off. Janco hadn’t been guiltless since he’d been a baby. Then again...his mother had claimed he’d come into the world feetfirst just to be difficult.

“Save it for someone who has poor vision.”

“Ouch.” But Janco smiled. She had joked, which meant there might be hope for her yet.