There, another. The arrow flew from her bow and the boar collapsed. But how the hell was she supposed to see them all in such thick cover?
“There!” Cam roared and pointed ahead of the boat.
Another arrow, another downed boar. But the huge storm could carry dozens. How would she see them all and kill them before they returned to Otherworld on another storm with word of their location?
Unless…
She slung the bow over her back and searched for a vine. A perfect one was nearing the bow of the boat as they motored along the shore.
She sucked in a bracing breath, waited for the ideal moment, then took off running across the roof. The vine was thick in her hands, and she prayed that it would take her to shore. Air whistled by her as she sailed through the sky. When it swung her over the shore, she let go and landed in sticky mud.
“Ana!” Cam roared, his rage and worry carrying easily on the wind. “Get back on the damned boat! It’s too dangerous!”
She ignored him. The boars would scent her on shore and come to get a closer look. They wouldn’t be able to help themselves.
She yanked up her bow and nocked an arrow just before the first boar lumbered toward her. The arrow thudded between its eyes. The mud sucked her feet deep into the bank as she searched the jungle. Three more charged and she shot them in succession. Satisfaction coursed through her when they fell.
“Get back on the damn boat, Ana!” There was real fear in his voice now. Fear for her.
She ignored it and raced along the shore beside the boat, shooting boars as they charged out of the jungle. She counted fifteen before they stopped appearing.
Her arrows had felled them all, but like the demons from the other day, she hadn’t killed them. She’d just delayed their return to Otherworld. They would regenerate there, but it would take them longer than if they’d reported back as they were supposed to. At best, she’d bought them some time. How much, she couldn’t be sure. Hopefully she and Cam would be long gone from here by the time they regenerated and Cernowain could read their minds.
“Get your ass on the fucking boat!” Cam roared.
She glanced over her shoulder. He’d steered close to shore and looked like he was about to jump off and swing her back to safety. Worry twisted his face, evident even through the rain. Whitecaps still crashed into the boat, and vines dragged at the pilothouse.
There was no time to retrieve her arrows, which were scattered behind her. Mud sucked at her feet as she ran and leapt onto the deck, scrambling to pull herself on board.
She clambered up the ladder to the roof to resume her vigil. But the storm had veered toward normalcy. Pounding rain, but no roiling black clouds.
“They’re gone!” she screamed.
She thought Cam growled, and she watched anxiously as he turned the boat into another tributary like the one they’d visited the day before.
He pulled along shore, leapt down from the pilothouse, and tied the boat off to posts stuck into the bank presumably for that purpose.
She climbed down after him, raking the wet hair off her forehead as she hurried toward the bunkhouse to stand beneath its shelter. Rain still pounded down, a cacophony against the tin roof. The din of animals screeching and howling returned, signaling that the threat from Otherworld was gone. She rubbed her arms, wishing that cold and nerves didn’t still skitter across her skin.
The gods had already figured out she was gone. It’d only been two days. She’d been sure she’d have at least a few days more, long enough to make it out of the Amazon.
She huddled against the exterior wall of the bunkhouse and waited for Cam to finish securing the boat. He was quick and capable. Rainwater gleamed on his flexing biceps as he yanked on the final line. Satisfied, he dropped it.
Ana started when Cam whirled and stalked to her. He loomed over her and growled, “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I can protect myself!”
“I know that, damn it! But it doesn’t mean I want you to have to. If any of the gods had been with the boars, they could have snatched you and aetherwalked back to Otherworld.” He shook her, his rough hands tight on her arms.
Normally cool gray eyes burned down at her, on fire with worry and anger. His lips were tight with rage, his hair plastered against his head, and he looked like he wanted to keep shaking her but n
ever let her go. He was so handsome and so harsh that the sight of him stole her breath, a vise squeezing her lungs.
He’d been afraid for her.
“Damn you, Ana.” He crushed his mouth to hers, hot and hard, crowding her against the wall of the bunkhouse.
The heat and hardness of his body, such a contrast to the storm-cold air, forced a small noise through her lips. He thrust his tongue inside, releasing a groan that spoke of pleasure and pain.