A smile slowly spread across Evin’s face. “Actually,” he said. “I think I know someone who also wants answers. Someone that could prove a big challenge for Bet.”

“Who?” Jorick asked.

Evin looked up the hill. Trees rose up its side, the bright moon peeking through their branches.

“The chimera.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Where have you two been?”

Bet was sitting next to the fire as Evin and Jorick emerged from the woods behind her. She frowned up at them. The firelight cast shadows over her sharp, lovely features.

Evin shrugged as he sat beside her. The heat from the campfire warmed his face. “I’ve been thinking,” he said. “Maybe we shouldn’t wait till morning to find the chimera. We can’t let our families and friends be kept captive by monsters any longer. They trusted me back in the slave pens, and we left them behind.”

“That didn’t answer my question,” she said.

Evin looked into her eyes. Did she know they had been spying on her?

“We were trying to see if there’s a good path up the hill,” Jorick answered as he came to sit on Bet’s other side. “One that would allow us to sneak up on the chimera without it seeing us.”

The lie sounded so smooth that if Evin didn’t know better, he’d have believed it himself. He hadn’t thought that Jorick had it in him.

Bet nodded and looked into the fire. The light reflected in her pupils. “Good idea,” she said. “But what happens if we head up there only to find that army of gnolls waiting? And it wouldn’t be safe to light our path, so what if we make noise and draw the chimera’s attention?” She shook her head. “No, I think it’d be best for us to stay here tonight.”

Evin remembered what she’d said in the woods to the unseen listener. Something about doing something with—or to—them tonight. Anger shot through him.

“No,” he said, the word coming out more stern than he’d intended.

Bet glared at him.

He swallowed. “I mean, no, I don’t think waiting is a good idea. But …” He paused, biting his lip. Then an idea came to him. “Actually, you may be right. We don’t want to go stumbling into an army of monsters and their chimera general.”

“We don’t?” Jorick asked. He looked at Evin over Bet’s shoulder, mouthing, “What are you doing?”

“Not all of us, anyway,” Evin said. Standing up, he spread his arms wide. “That’s why I’m going by myself.”

“What?” Jorick asked.