35
It didn’t take us long to get back to camp. We made it well before dark.
The watcher wasn’t hiding up in the trees. She stood in the open, her bow drawn as we approached.
“We found the hunters,” Emmet said before she could ask. “Tell anyone else who comes in this way.”
A gasp caught in her throat, but she nodded just the same.
I wasn’t sure who she cared so much for or if she would have grieved that fiercely for anyone from the camp who was lost to the monster in the woods.
I didn’t even know who the hunters had been, and now that I’d seen their shattered bones, I didn’t want to know.
Neil was in the cook tent as we passed, laboring on his own to provide an evening meal. No one waited in line to eat.
The silence inside the camp prickled against my neck. I’d never noticed all the
