17
Trent
Watching that new guy,Ryder, bound away with her on his shoulder made my blood boil. She was mine, not his, and I wanted to punish him for touching her when she was only mine to touch. But I would have to deal with him later. I had other things I needed to do first.
I let Miller lead the way through the woods, his list in hand as he babbled on about the items we needed to find and where we might get them. But I was only partially listening to him. I kept an eye out for the others. Ryder had carried Mysti off in the opposite direction, while Luna and Fallon had still been bickering by the fire when we left.
It was Carson and Mae I needed to worry about. Through the trees, I could see Mae’s bright orange and yellow shirt, even if Carson was nowhere to be seen.
“There’s a great vista over here,” Miller said, his back to me. “It’s one of my favorite things about this campsite.”
A chuckle tumbled through the air. “Does it have any of the things we need?”
I lifted a hand to my hair, wiping away a spider and its web I’d torn from a tree as I walked by. The spider crawled up my arm, sending shivers down my spine, then warmth through my entire body as my finger pressed the life out of it, squishing it against my skin.
Miller bent, his fingers prying at something in the ground. As he lifted an acorn up to show me, flecks of dirt rained down upon his clothes. My skin itched, and the longer he didn’t brush it away, the more that itch turned into a burn.
“Here’s an oak leaf. That’s two items off the list.”
“Only a dozen more to go.” Miller stood, his attention directed toward the clearing up ahead as he wiped a hand across his dirty clothes. “I think there’s some wildflowers up here. I’m going to see if any of them match the list.”
“Found a spiderweb. Do you think we’ll get docked points if I take it out of my hair?”
“Eww!” Miller looked over his shoulder, a grimace cutting across his face as he wiped at his blond hair as if the web had covered him. “Glad it’s you and not me, man. I’m terrified of them. We’d lose for sure if it was up to me to bring one back.”
“I think I’ll just wind it around this stick. That’s a two-for-one deal, right? A fallen branch and a spiderweb?”
“Works for me; just keep it the hell away from me.” Miller tromped off toward the clearing and the vista beyond. The trees opened up at the edge of a cliff, and I made my way over the soft pine needles as I skirted around the clearing.
Mae’s bright shirt was no longer visible, and though I caught a glimpse of the back of Carson’s blond head in the distance, he quickly disappeared.
It was time.
With no one around to see, I ducked beneath some underbrush, closing in on the man who’d tried to take Mysti from me. She was mine. My goddess, my love. No one else could have her, and he would pay for all he’d done.
Off in the distance, one of the girls squealed out a celebration over finding something on that stupid list. Miller began to turn, but he wasn’t quick enough. Because I’d put my foot in front of his. A quick shove of his shoulder was all it took.
Gravity handled the rest.