20
Shade led us onward, but I couldn’t help but notice his stride wasn’t as energetic as usual. I cleared my throat. “Do you want to stop off at Rodney’s house?”
“Why?” Shade asked me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe for a rest, some food, or just to take off your blood-stained clothes?”
“I’ll be fine.”
Blackbeak sniffed the air and wrinkled his beak. “But will our noses be fine?”
Shade cast him a dark look over his shoulder. “Meaning?”
“Meaning you smell like death and you look almost as bad,” Blackbeak quipped.
I lifted my nose and cringed. “You do smell pretty bad.” I lifted one of my arms and shrank back from myself. “So do I.”
“I doubt this interview will take very long, and then we can return to Rodney’s house.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”
A small
