She snickered into Zed’s hair. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that all zana had an infallible sense of direction. She knew her exact coordinates down to the nearest tenth, even blindfolded in the dark woods. It was necessary when your kind was expected to help lost children find their way in the forest. But Bael didn’t need to know that. She’d never steal from him. And who could say no to a piggyback ride through the woods?

Zed seemed to calm down while walking through the woods, though he kept a brisk pace. Unlike the drive, he kept up a sort of stream-of-consciousness one-sided conversation talking about his lifelong friendship with Bael, what it was like to see his best friend fall in love when Bael had sworn to stay single his whole life, the hilarity of watching Jillian “hand him his own ass” on several occasions. It was nice, and Charlotte had almost fallen asleep against Zed’s back when he finally stopped.

“All right, you can take off the blindfold,” Zed said.

She loosened the bandana. They were standing outside a huge concrete structure made out to look like rocks, covered in vines and swamp plants. Several bonfires lit the enormous campsite outside the cave entrance. Bael had Jillian seated in a little camp chair while he carried boxes through a set of metal double doors set into the side of a concrete “cave.”

“Hey,” Jillian said, waving awkwardly. “Sorry about sending Zed to kidnap you.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Charlotte said, waving her off. She pulled her blood pressure cuff out of her bag and checked Jillian’s vitals. “Everything looks good. How are the contractions?”

“They’re maybe fourteen minutes apart. I told Bael we probably shouldn’t call you yet, but then I set our phones on fire and freaked him out,” Jillian said.

“It’s fine. Better too early than too late,” Charlotte assured her. She nodded to the moving boxes stacked near their chairs. “What is all this? Groceries?”

“Oh, Bael and Zed stocked the cave ‘pantry’ yesterday. This is books,” Jillian said. “If I’m going to sit on a nest for days at a time, I’m going to need entertainment.

Charlotte nodded. “Sure.”

“Is that a port-a-potty?” she asked of the green plastic structure placed fifty paces from the door.

“Yes, it is,” Zed told her. “Good luck with that.”

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Well, it’s not the roughest conditions I’ve ever worked in.”

“Do I want to ask?” Jillian snickered.

Charlotte shook her head. “No, you do not.”

Zed nodded towards an enormous plastic water tank nearby. “The good news is, with Bael around, there will always be hot water for you.”