Wild by Alex Mallory Read Free Book Online

ground, he hung the pendant from it. Left it there, dangling, for them to find. He was all the way back to his own camp when he realized what he’d done. What he’d really done—not taught Josh a lesson, no.
    He’d told two strangers, two dangerous strangers, that he was there. He was real. Now, instead of idly stalking Dara, he felt like prey. That’s why the nightmares came. That’s why he couldn’t settle his thoughts. Usually the rain soothed him, but not this morning. This morning, he was raw and exposed. And what if he was infected?
    That thought distracted him so much that he missed the next two throws.
    Â 
    The whisper of rain on nylon woke Dara.
    A fresh, green scent filled the air, but it was cut with something bitter. The smell was familiar, but still half-asleep, Dara had a hard time placing it. The light didn’t glow through the sides of the tent this morning. Dara shifted, stroking her hand through the sleeping bags to find her sweatshirt. She pulled it over her head.
    Breath hazing in the air, she considered going back to sleep. The best pictures would come after the rain, when droplets still hung from leaves and spiderwebs; when water flowed down surprise falls. But she’d let the cold into her sleeping bag, and now she was hungry.
    â€œYou want breakfast?” she asked Josh. She prodded his shoulder, but he rolled over and burrowed deeper. “Guess not,” she mumbled as she picked up her boots and knocked them together. Nothing living in them, so she shoved them on her feet. Without bothering to tie them, she ventured outside.
    She pulled her sweatshirt’s hood over her head. The rain was more a mist, but it gathered on the leaves above, and fell in fat splashes. As soon as Dara approached the fire pit, her nostrils burned. Now that she stood over the source, she knew exactly what the smell was: wet ash.
    That was a problem. They had some dry wood in the tent, but she didn’t know if she could get a new fire going while it was still raining. In fact, she wasn’t sure she could start a fire at all. She didn’t know where the matches were, and she wasn’t sure where Josh had stashed the newspaper they used for kindling.
    Disappointed, Dara straightened up to consider her options. And when she did, she saw it: a stake in the ground, straight and deliberate. A chill streaked up her spine. She hadn’t put it there, and neither had Josh, she was sure of it.
    With deliberate steps, she approached the stake. Something dangled from it; when she crouched down, she realized it was a necklace. Gingerly touching the pendant, she shivered again. Two bees swirled around an ivy leaf on the disk. When she rubbed it, it felt warm, strangely alive. Definitely not wood or stone. She wondered if it was bone.
    Her breath slipped out of her. This was proof. She wasn’t crazy. She might have missed the shot, but she’d definitely seen someone in that tree. And that someone knew where she and Josh were camping. Suddenly burning from the inside out, she snatched the necklace from the stake. Stumbling to the tent, she nearly fell into it as she tried to unzip it.
    â€œJosh,” she said, kneeling down to shove him. “Josh, wake up. Look at this.”
    â€œWhat?”
    Thrusting the pendant at Josh, she refused to let it go. She didn’t know why, but she felt possessive about it. Like it was meant for her alone. Still, she had to let him look at it, otherwise he’d never believe her. “He was in the camp last night. He left this by the fire.”
    That woke Josh up. Without hesitation, he sat up and craned to look outside the tent. He’d gone from sleepy to bristling in an instant. “What the hell? Dara, we’re leaving. Let’s start getting this stuff together.”
    Dara surprised herself when she said, “No.”
    â€œWait, what?”
    â€œNo,” she repeated. Tugging the necklace away from him, she