Letting my falcon drift close to the surface, my eyesight sharpened. A dark figure moved in the brambles near the deer path ahead of me. About to step closer, something tugged at my senses.

Come to me, a voice echoed in my head. I froze.

An overwhelming urge to walk into the forest on my right consumed my body. I hadn’t felt anything like this since…

Since I was fourteen, and walked into the forest to meet three feras.

Sweat beaded on my brow and the bridge of my nose. I wiped it away, while fighting the compulsion to move.

Come to me, Carus.

Leaning forward, I tried to locate the animal. A branch snapped, and my attention darted to where the sound originated from. The forest hummed with the sound of summer insects. My heart beat loud and heavy in my chest.

Underbrush rustled. There!

A flash of orange.

Pop! A sharp sting, much like a rubber band on bare skin, radiated across my right butt cheek. I yipped and jumped three feet in the air.

Whirling around, I found Wick with an ear-to-ear grin and his paintball gun resting over one of his shoulders. If he had a leg propped up on a recently deceased moose, he’d look like a hunter from a photo.

“Tagged you,” his whiskey voice crooned.