Iz had no intention of trying to outdo her dragon when it came to drama.
Maybe,she said,it’s just that dark forests are mysterious and creepy, and so is Randolph Sebastian.
Her dragon chose not to dignify “creepy” with a response, and Iz smiled at the slightly aggrieved silence. That was what it got for shooting her down about her well-honed marshal instincts.
She lay back against the stiff motel bed and tried to sleep. She reminded herself once again that it made no sense whatsoever to try to explore unfamiliar terrain by herself in the middle of the night.
But on the other hand, if she couldn’t sleep, it made sense to make good use of her time.
Should she call Evie and Vin? Let them know that she was going to go ahead and start checking out the latest tip?
Yes, that was exactly what they needed after spending several days on the road, following her from one dead end to another. They’d just gotten settled in for the night too, and since their brains probably weren’t fizzing like they were full of Pop Rocks, they, like normal people, hadgone to sleep. She doubted they wanted her to wake them up in the middle of the night for a hunch.
Besides, they already knew that she was planning on venturing into the woods in the morning in search of Sebastian—she wasn’t hiding anything from them, just jumping the gun a little.
But even as she got dressed, a surge of adrenaline spiking through her, Iz wondered if she was making a huge mistake.
Cooper would tell her to call for backup.
But ... Cooper wasn’t the one she would have to call and wake up. Cooper had known her for years, and he’d recruited her himself. Vin and Evie had only known her for a month and a half. Did she really want one of their earliest impressions of her to be that she was flaky and impulsive?
You’re just a silly little girl who doesn’t know what she’s doing, her father seemed to whisper inside her head.
She was already young for a marshal. She wanted her colleagues to take her seriously. She didn’t want to go running to them in the middle of the night like she’d had a bad dream.
Besides, her fledgling instincts aside, the forest would probably be just another dead end, and so far, none of these dead ends had been dangerous.
She strapped on her holster, complete with the gun that still didn’t feel natural to her. She had excellent marksmanship scores—with shifter hand-eye coordination, it would have been hard to be a bad shot—but when it came to fighting, it was still most natural for her to shift. She already knew she would have to watch out for that if she ever got involved in a firefight where humans could see her.
But with Sebastian, that wouldn’t be a problem. That was about the only thing Sebastian had going for him, as far as she was concerned.
Okay. She would check out the forest, or at least start checking it out. Come morning, her backup would already know where to look for her. All she was doing was getting a tiny bit of a head start and taking advantage of her insomnia.
It technically made sense, but she still felt like her dragon brain was overwhelming her human one. Instinct wasn’t always worth much without training and reason, too.
She compromised by sending a text to Evie and Vin:
Can’t sleep, so I’m going to check out the forest tip a little earlier than usual. I’m armed, dangerous, and a dragon, so no worries. Will report back.
There. She’d done her due diligence.
Iz headed out into the night, bound for the even deeper darkness at the heart of the forest.
Go, go, go, chanted her dragon.Find, find, find.
*
PARTS OF THE FORESTwere thick and overgrown, with trees so close together Iz could barely weave her way through them.
She didn’t think she needed to worry about Sebastian’s hideout being anywhere likethis. Pushing her way through thickets and brambles and tearing her clothes in the process was undignified forher, and she wasn’t a borderline supervillain.
If he was using these woods as his own personal hunting grounds, he might stick close to the clearings, where he would have room to take off and land. She needed to concentrate on those.
Besides, when she found a clearing, it’d be a lot easier to see the moon and the stars. There would be more light than just her wobbly flashlight beam. She had good night vision, but the close darkness of the woods was really pushing her eyes to the limit.
It was idiotic to try to do this in the dark. Why was she here? Why hadn’t she just waited until morning?
Because morning could be too late,her dragon said.