Chapter 27

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

CALLISTO

"We're getting close! Right over here!" Madden says as he takes off at a run. I haven't known him overly long, but I'm surprised by how willing he is to do this. He strikes me as someone who prefers to sit back and watch others do the work for him.

Nella, the dog, races through the trees, zeroing in on wherever the other dog is located within the dense wooded area. I'm just really hoping we find him alive. He's such a sweet thing, and I would feel awful having to deliver the bad news.

"Do you think he's caught in a trap or something?" Silas asks.

"He could be. They don't like trappers in these parts, but that doesn't mean people don't do it," I say. "Madden, I'm really impressed. I mean…" I trail off, not wanting to be unnecessarily rude, but the few times I've seen him speak to animals, it hasn't seemed to go well, so I kind of expected this to go the same way.

"You mean what ?" he asks, thin eyebrow rising as he scrutinizes me.

Clearly, I'm off to a bad start with Madden again . "I mean… you're so quick and amazing?"

That makes Silas laugh, which wasn't my intention at all. "I love the added touch of a question on the end of that," he tosses out.

I give him a look of "What the hell, I'm trying to get on Madden's good side," while Silas gives me a look of "He doesn't have a good side," and Madden gives me a "You're a little shit" look. We're all so busy staring at each other that none of us notice when Nella whips fast and hard to the right. Since Madden's staring at me, he doesn't expect the dog to immediately run in front of him and he goes flying headfirst over the dog in a—dare I say impressive?—front flip onto his face.

"HA!" Dandelion barks out as he points with a loaf of bread that I guess he's still carrying. "Human! That was hilarious. I wish I could see it again."

"Fucking hell," Madden grumbles as he stands up and looks over at us while I try to pretend that I don't see the dirt in his teeth.

"She must just be really happy to see her buddy," I say, hoping to make the situation better. "I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it. They're just super close."

"Yeah…" he growls as Silas stifles a laugh even if Dandelion sure doesn't.

"Your teeth ! Ha!" he says.

Madden angrily wipes at his teeth.

"Looks like the dog found what it was looking for," Silas says as he points.

All of us look over as the dog pummels an innocent rodent to the ground and murders it right then and there.

Pleased with her murder, Nella trots back over and sits down next to Madden, tail wagging as fast as it can go, like she's expecting a pet and praise for her hard work.

All of us are startled into silence.

"Have I just run… for miles … over some kind of… tiny animal slaughter?" Silas asks as Madden takes to scooting a stick around with his shoe, like he's embarrassed.

Then Madden waves his arms a bunch… which doesn't seem to solve a whole lot. "No. Ha. As if I would misunderstand her that much. Ha. You think I'm that foolish? Ha. I'm not."

"Is anyone else going to eat that?" Dandelion asks as he points to where the rodent's body was left.

"You are not eating that!" I hiss.

Dandelion looks minorly disappointed.

Madden kneels before the dog and holds her head between his hands. "Where is Mutt?"

She tilts her head back to look at me while her tongue lolls out of her mouth. She honestly just looks like she's in heaven going for a run and ditching her ten puppies.

Madden sighs. "I'll see if I can find him a different way, dammit. I will find this dog and… prove to you that I am amazing. All of you!"

It sounds like a threat.

"How did he go from hating me to wanting my approval?" I mutter to Silas.

"Because he has this weird personality type where he's all like ‘No, I hate everyone but secretly I want everyone to love me.' It's very confusing."

"I can hear you," Madden growls.

We find a spot in the shade and wait for about ten minutes before Madden suddenly perks up.

"I think I found him. Follow me!"

"For real this time?" Silas asks.

"Yes!"

"I can carry you two and drag him," Dandelion declares as he nods at Madden, who doesn't look all that offended about being dragged.

"If you do, my pants might slide off," Madden says with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Dandelion seems unsure of what to do with this knowledge, so he decides that we can all just walk.

Madden hurries along, looking quite eager, likely to prove to us that he's not fucking this all up. "Don't worry, it's not much farther."

"The last thing you trusted ran us all around the woods after a rodent," Silas reminds him.

He grimaces but keeps walking with a purpose. "I'm like… pretty sure we're going in the right direction. It's not my fault she led us astray. It's a little harder having a conversation with something that's… how can I say it… um… easily distractible? Yes. That seems nice."

"Madden… nice?" Silas scoffs.

"I'm nice to animals! I would be nicer to you if you weren't so sassy. And you, Callisto…" He narrows his eyes at me.

"What the hell have I done?" I ask in disbelief.

"You're cute and that annoys me. Oh, and I forgot to tell you. That ball of fluff on your shoulder said, ‘Fuck you.'"

"Oh my god, Titus, no," I cry as I grab the happy ball of fluff. "He did not."

Madden looks smug. "He sure did."

I scrutinize the ball before deciding I don't believe Madden. "He did not."

"He told me about the weird vine ball thing that made Silas scream this morning," Madden says, and my eyes snap to Silas's because how else could Madden have known about my horrible power of seduction?

Silas shrugs, which plummets all of my hopes and dreams. "I didn't tell him."

"NO! You're my sweet baby," I whisper as I hold Titus, who just flutters around looking all cute and innocent. "You're so cute."

"He just said, ‘I'm not cute, I'm a badass.'"

"I'm choosing to ignore Madden," I decide. "You'd never say bad words, would you, Titus?"

Titus bounces around some more, his cute black eyes settled in the white ball of fluff watching me. There's no way this cute little thing has evil thoughts. It isn't possible.

"Evil Madden is telling lies about you," I say as I pet him, and his eyes squint in pleasure.

The grin blooming on Madden's face tells me I don't want to hear what he's going to say next. "He said, ‘Scratch me harder, you little bitch.'"

"Silas, beat him up," I whisper.

"Who? Madden or the shit ball cussing at you?" Silas says as he eyes Titus suspiciously.

"You believe Madden?" I ask in disbelief.

Silas shrugs, which makes me worry that maybe Madden isn't lying.

"Silas, no. Titus is the definition of innocence. He's sweet and loves me. Please… don't do this to me."

"I can eat that lint ball for you," Dandelion unhelpfully supplies.

"NO! Madden, just… tell me you're lying."

He scoffs at the very idea.

"Please, Madden. He's so innocent and cute."

"If you consider that innocent, I'd hate to see what you think raunchy looks like."

"Now he's being raunchy?" I cry a moment before I hear a bark.

Nella perks up and takes off running, so we quickly follow. We come upon what looks like an old, dilapidated building, walls still standing but nothing else. Nella heads around it where I realize that it's not just Mutt, the missing dog, but a horse. And on the ground at the horse's feet lies a man with a bloody shirt. His foot is stuck in the stirrup, but at some point, he'd become unseated and ended up under the horse, leg dangling.

It takes me a moment to recognize the man as the leathermaker's son. He's a lieutenant in the military, which is apparent by the horse and the outfit on him… but what the hell is he doing out here?

"Ned!" I yell as I rush over while Mutt hurries over to me uncertainly. It appears like he'd stayed with his owner's son, likely anxiously watching him.

The horse looks to be in rough shape. She has scratches on her sides and dried sweat coating her body. "It's okay. You're being very good," I assure her. Even though she's a military horse, she seems a bit worked up, so I calmly walk up to her and give her neck a rub. I go to reach for her reins in case she tries to bolt while we're trying to figure out what's happened, but I see her reins are stuck in the V of a tree, keeping her positioned here. I kneel down and press my fingers against Ned's neck.

Thankfully, there's a pulse. Silas easily works Ned's foot out of the stirrup before pulling him away from the horse's hooves, even though it seems like she'd been careful not to step on him. Once Ned's safely away, Silas yanks open the man's shirt to check the wound.

"It doesn't seem too deep, but that doesn't mean that's all that's wrong with him," he says as he quickly turns the shirt into a makeshift bandage. "Dandelion, can you take him back? If you run him and Callisto back, I can lead the horse."

"Fine, fine," Dandelion says as he takes his clothes off and tosses them onto Madden's head before shifting. Silas and I get Ned onto Dandelion's back before I climb up behind him to keep him from falling or slipping.

"Be careful. We don't know how far away this happened," I tell them.

"You too," Silas says before Dandelion takes off at a run, carrying me away from them and back into the city.