The walk back was quieter than it should've been.
No one joked. No one made unnecessary noise. Even Alex had shut up—though that was mostly because Jessy had threatened to weld his jaw shut if he tried another "victory dance."
The cold air outside the cavern brushed against Lia's cheeks, sharp enough to sting. She'd recovered from the immediate fatigue, the leafy disguise wrapping her again in the familiar, ridiculous cover of vines and petals.
But no amount of leafy camouflage could hide the faint hollowness in her eyes.
One-third of a lifetime was a heavy thing to carry.
Ahead, the stillness of the forest awaited them as they moved.
They were close to where they'd left Siris, Cluckles, and the very, very jumpy corrupt panther to "hold off" half a battalion.
In reality, "hold off" probably meant "scare the hell out of them while doing no actual killing."
The silence, however, wasn't because they were moving toward Siris but because they knew what time it was.
