He came striding back and didn’t seem in the least bit exhausted, even though he’d been up all night. As it was, owing to Roy’s immense height and his long legs, he could cover five times the ground as the rest of us, well, with the exception of Marty, who was almost as tall. Fifi, Finn, and I had to stop way too often, but neither Roy nor Marty complained about our speed.

  The path wound uphill for miles. We passed through pine forests populated by squawking blue jays, a marmot or two, and plenty of squirrels, but no people and none of the demons belonging to Fifi’s family, thank God.

  As one hour after another dragged by, my legs turned to rubber and my lungs burned, but I didn’t complain, and just kept going. And I wasn’t alone: Finn and Fifi struggled as much as I did, but none of us dared to give up. We tackled this new challenge with determination and wouldn’t quit until we reached the sasquatch colony.

  By mid-afternoon, I almost succeeded in forgetting that anyone had ever threatened us at all. It was fairly obvious, by this point, that no one was tracking us. Only the mountain wilderness surrounded me. The sun dipped behind the trees and the shadows lengthened.

  We hadn’t seen our pursuers in many long hours so I figured we must be safe. Roy walked ahead again. We lost sight of him for a while and with him out of sight, we slowed down even more, all of us losing the energy required to keep going. I wasn’t sure I could stay upright much longer.

  Roy came striding down the path toward us, looking none the worse for wear.

  “Any sign of pursuit?” Marty asked.

  “Nothing. I hiked up to the ridge there.” Roy pointed toward a jagged cliff that must have been a thousand feet above us. “The trail behind us is all clear and the way forward is empty all the way to the colony. I think we’re…”

  Famous last words.

  A crack rang through the trees. I wouldn’t have considered it anything out of the ordinary with the birds and animals chattering all around us, but Roy jerked alert in a heartbeat. His head snapped toward the sound and his features went ice cold.

  I froze, watching him, but no one dared to ask him what the sound was. It came from the opposite direction from the ridge he’d just climbed.

  Without warning, he lunged for Fifi.

  “Move!” he hissed under his breath. “Quick!”

  Finn grabbed me and held on tight as Marty turned to face us and immediately took up the space behind us, clearly wanting to make sure we were protected from behind. I clutched at Finn, and we all hurried after Roy. Forgotten instincts told me not to make a sound as we burst into a mad sprint. If any of us felt tired or worn-down before, all our fatigue vanished in a blink. We ran for our lives, and nothing slowed us down.

  Roy barreled off the trail and headed straight into the undergrowth. His giant form pushed branches out of the way and I was careful to grab them so they wouldn’t come whipping back at us, knocking us off our feet or landing a blow right to our faces.

  Of course, I’d heard stories of mothers using superhuman strength to help their children in crises. When Finn struggled as we started up a singularly pitched incline, I physically hauled him up the mountain, fueled by pure adrenaline. Once I started to lose momentum, Marty came up behind me and pushed me forward.

  “You got this, Pops,” he whispered.

  All at once, Roy dove to one side. He crashed through a bush and held the leaves aside to reveal a hidden cleft in the rock. Waving us all inside the cleft, he then smashed the bushes back in place behind us. The space was barely big enough for Finn and me alone, much less five people and one of them a sasquatch. We held our breath as we huddled there, smashed against each other.

  “Not a sound,” Roy whispered—not that anyone was in danger of making any sound.

  We waited until the footsteps receded into the distance again. I would have stayed in that hole all night and probably for the rest of the month if it meant avoiding whoever was out there, but Roy had other ideas.

  Too soon, he pushed the branches aside and stepped out.

  “Follow me,” he breathed in a hush. “Try to keep up. The faster we move, the sooner we’ll reach the colony.”

  He started climbing again and the going was much tougher than it previously had been. My feet were aching, and I was more than sure the leather of my ballet flats had worn through. Regardless, I was too out of my mind with fear to care anymore. My body no longer registered the difficulty.

  And, luckily for Finn, Marty decided to carry him, piggy-back style. Even as it scared me to death, Roy led us straight up the side of the mountain, with Finn strapped to Marty’s back, toward the sheer ridge. I never would have believed I could climb it, but I did. Fortunately for all of us, Roy didn’t scale the cliff itself. When he got near the most vertical stretch, he slipped into a large crack that appeared inside the rock face.

  The two monoliths revealed a narrow path between them. There was no way Marty was going to fit with Finn on his back, so he let Finn get back on his feet and Finn followed him into the narrow crevice, with me just behind. We clung to the stone wall and hugged the mountain to scoot along it, moving at a snail’s pace.

  In a few minutes, it widened into a broader path, hemmed in by two smooth cliffs on either side. This narrow passage led to an even wider corridor about six feet wide. A slit of dusky sky showed above us. Other than that, we couldn’t see a thing on either side.

  Roy dropped back and whispered to Marty.

  “Take everyone down the path until you reach the river. I’m going up to take a look, but I’ll be able to see you the whole time. If anyone comes, I’ll come back to show you where to go.”

  Marty nodded, but I could see in his expression he didn’t like Roy leaving any better than the rest of us did. But, Roy made off on his own, eager to make sure we weren’t being trailed. As to how Fifi’s family could have trailed us this far was beyond me. As far as I’d understood it, we’d lost them before we’d ever set foot on the worst hike ever.

  Roy ran to the rock wall and started climbing it. I didn’t see any hand or foot-holds in the smooth surface, but he sprang up in great bounds, as if he were powered by some invisible engine. In half a second, he made it to the top and vanished.

  Finn whimpered. “Now what are we gonna do? We’re all alone.”

  I gripped his hand in a white-knuckle fist. “We’re going to keep on going like Roy said. We’re going to follow this corridor until it reaches the river. He should be back by then.” I glanced at Fifi. “Can you make it, Fifi?”

  She nodded fast, but didn’t answer. Instead, she rasped for breath and her wild eyes skimmed her surroundings, clearly searching for her would-be kidnappers. Marty gave me a relieved smile when I checked on him, and then he walked over and gave me a pat on the back.

  “Everything’s going to be okay,” he said, but I wasn’t sure he believed his own words.

  I didn’t say anything, but gave him a smile as we started forward with more courage than we felt, but without Roy’s guidance, there was nothing to do but keep going. I took heart from his promise that he had us in sight, even if we couldn’t see him.

  We followed the corridor until it widened yet again. This time, it spread out into a sandy canyon bottom dotted with boulders and a few ragged trees and shrubs, but no water. We walked another couple hundred yards before we spied the river in the distance. It cut across the canyon and bubbled over stones and rocks.

  Fifi gasped in relief at the sight of it, but at that moment, a flaming ball of smoking debris dropped out of the clear blue sky. Marty dove for me and pulled me forward, right out of the line of fire. I was already getting Finn out of the way as we turned to face Marty and he yelled, “Run!”

  We sprang for the river as a tangled knot of burning branches, smoldering leaves, and acrid smoke smashed into the sand behind us. At the same moment, Roy plummeted in front of us.

  He landed in a crouch to block Marty’s path. Springing forward, Roy grabbed Finn, throwing him over his back as he started forward. “This way! Hurry!”

  Roy towed us into another cleft as narrow as the first, but there was no time to complain. A cloud of thick smoke cut off our escape–the crack veered one way and then the other. It splintered into labyrinthian paths, each crisscrossing the other. No one could find their way through unless they knew exactly where to go.

  There was no time and no space to rearrange our party. Roy went first, then Finn, with Marty right behind. I came fourth and Fifi came last, which wasn’t the most ideal place for her. She should have been in front or the middle, but no one complained.

  We darted here and there and everywhere for what seemed like hours. With luck, the smoke covered our escape and they wouldn’t know which path we’d taken to leave them behind.

  Toward dusk, Roy exited the maze of steep canyons, cracks, and crevices. He emerged on a wooded slope, growing thick with trees. “It’s all downhill from here.”

  “I don’t understand how in the world they’re following us,” I breathed, when it was just Roy and me, the others a few paces behind. “I thought we lost them in the truck.”

  “This isn’t Fifi’s family,” Roy responded.

  I looked up at him, a question in my eyes. “Then who—”

  “Rival sasquatch gangs,” he answered. “This isn’t home to just my kin. It’s home to others, as well.”

  “Can’t you tell them we don’t mean them any harm?”

  He shook his head. “We’re on their territory. It doesn’t matter what I tell them—they won’t react kindly to strangers on their land.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that, or why we’d taken this circuitous and dangerous route when… it appeared we hadn’t even needed to. As far as I could tell, my Banishing Oil had done its job and kept Angelo and Fifi’s family away and yet, Roy had still made the decision to cut through a rival gang’s territory which was putting us right back into danger. I didn’t have the stamina to argue with him about it and it was a moot point by now, but I burned with anger, just the same because he’d put Finn in danger and hadn’t even needed to.

  He walked up ahead of me, leading the way down into a shadowy gulley. At the bottom, he halted next to a stream. Finn, Fifi, Marty, and I collapsed right there, doing our best to catch our breath, while Roy shimmied up the tallest tree and swayed in the uppermost branches, like gravity didn’t apply to him.

  “There’s no sign of them,” he told us when he came down. Then he walked over to us, his gaze on Fifi. When he reached her, he frowned and leaned forward. His nostrils flared. “The scent masker is wearing off.”

  “Can you smell her?” Marty asked.

  Roy rounded on him. “You can’t? That smell is starting to get to me.”

  Marty shook his head. “I don’t smell anything.”

  “I can smell her too,” Finn said, nodding as he looked at Roy.

  Roy turned away with a shake of his head. “It’s got to be a hundred times stronger than it was before. That potion enhanced her natural pheromones so now they’re all out of proportion.”

  A stab of misgiving pierced my heart. If Roy was affected by the potion, he must have been feeling attracted to Fifi now.

  “The question is why it isn’t affecting you more than it is,” Marty answered with a shrug.

  “Why doesn’t it affect you?” Finn asked Marty, who shrugged.

  “I guess I’m equipped with an internal anti-magic ability. At least, that’s how Poppy described it to me.”

  “That’s basically it,” I answered. “Marty is what’s called a ‘null’.”

  Marty faced Roy again. “But, that’s me. You should be a raving lunatic like those guys in town.”

  “Yeah, I don’t get it, either.” Roy studied Fifi and I instantly saw the light come on in his face. He was attracted to her—highly attracted to her, if I had to guess. Had he felt this way all along—during all the months they’d been working together at the bar?

  But, the way she looked at him—it wasn’t the same expression in her eyes as his. Instead, she glanced over at Marty and that was when I saw the blush take hold of her cheeks and her gaze lingered on him a little too long.

  But it was the question as to why Roy wasn’t affected by her pheromones that still perplexed me. What protected him from the full power of the Love’s Goddess potion?

  “Let’s keep moving,” Roy said, as he turned to face me. “Can we talk?”

  I was surprised, but nodded and asked Marty to keep Finn company for a few minutes as I strolled up to walk beside Roy.

  “What’s going on between us?”

  “Is now a good time to talk about this?”

  He nodded. “I’m keeping vigilant to everything around us. And, before you meet my family… well, it just… doesn’t seem right to take you home and introduce you as my girlfriend when we aren’t getting along.”

  Right.

  I’d been putting this conversation off longer than I should have. But, now that the moment was here to discuss it, it felt too soon. He turned to look at me and gave me an encouraging smile.

  “Poppy?”

  I couldn’t look at him. “I know you’re frustrated with me and I’m really sorry for giving away Fifi’s location. I messed up and I feel terrible about it. I put the whole town in danger and… I just… I don’t know how I can ever live that down.”

  I knew that wasn’t what this was about, but for some reason, I started there anyway. Maybe because I was worried he blamed me for everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours.

  “Poppy, none of that was your fault. Angelo has powers of persuasion and he simply used them on you. You couldn’t have fought it, so stop blaming yourself.”

  “Okay,” I said and tried to say something else, but the words wouldn’t come.

  “We’ve been fighting for weeks and I can’t even remember why,” he continued, his voice soft. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t just let me take Fifi to my family’s stronghold in the first place. We could have avoided this whole mess if you just…”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” I almost snapped, but then caught myself. This wasn’t the time for anger. It was the time for honesty. I looked down at my shoes and noticed they were ripped, scuffed and covered in dirt. It was amazing they were even still on. “I feel terrible for that, too. I let my fears about you… interfere with my best judgment. I let my insecurities make my decisions for me and I made the wrong decisions.” I paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “You don’t have to tell me you were right. I already know.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “If you have fears and insecurities about me or us, this is the first I’ve ever heard of them.”

  I cringed. “Yeah. I was… afraid to tell you.”

  He looked down at me and nodded. “Alright. I’m listening.”

  I hesitated, but the time to keep this to myself was beyond over. “It’s just that… well, you’re a sasquatch and I’m human. I mean, I’m a gypsy with certain… abilities and I get that. But, at my base, I’m human.”

  He chuckled. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  I swallowed hard, but the lump in my throat wouldn’t ease. “It’s just that… you want to have a big family and I don’t want… more kids. I don’t think I could have more even if I wanted to… but the point is, I don’t want to. I’m happy with Finn and the idea of more children never even crossed my mind, because it’s not a thought I would ever seriously entertain.”

  “Okay, that’s it?”

  “No,” I shook my head.

  “Okay.”

  “You’re going to live maybe a hundred years longer than I will. And we’ll both age differently which means… in a few years, it’s going to look like you’re driving Miss Daisy and… I’m Miss Daisy.”

  He chuckled at that. “How do you come up with this stuff?”

  But, I wasn’t in the mood to laugh. I was in the mood to make him understand why I was struggling with our relationship and had been. “The point is that I’m going to look my age and you won’t. When I’m sixty, you’ll still look like you’re in your forties and when I’m dead, you’ll still be alive, with another good span of time left.”

  “So what?”

  “So you should be with someone who will live as long as you will and who will age at the same rate. You should be with someone who can give you the children you still want.”

  “That’s it?”

  I breathed in deeply. “I think… that’s… I guess that’s about all of it.”

  He blinked three or four times. “What makes you think I want to have a big family?”

  “You… didn’t you…?”

  No, Poppy, he never actually said he wanted a big family, I told myself.

  He’d said sasquatches usually had big families. He’d said it was traditional for them to have a bunch of kids and to have very stable, long-lasting domestic relationships, but he never out-and-out said that was what he wanted.

  “Didn’t I what?” he prompted.

  “I thought… I thought you said you wanted lots of children.”

  “Well, I don’t… necessarily,” he answered. Then he shook his head and appeared a bit confused. “I mean, I never really thought about it, I guess.”

  “You guess?”

  He nodded. “I’ve always been an odd duck in the sasquatch community and just because my siblings and all my cousins and relations have big families, doesn’t mean I want the same for myself. Regardless, I’m not dating you because I want a ton of kids, Poppy. What made you think I was?”

  “Well, I…”

  “We aren’t anywhere close to forming a mating bond, and if I did take you as my mate, I would consider Finn my own kid,” he continued. “My family would treat him that way, too. They wouldn’t see any difference between him and my natural child. Family is family.”

  I couldn’t answer. The swelling in my throat threatened to overflow, and my eyes brimmed with unshed tears. I had to bite them back as I fought to keep control over myself. Sometimes he said just the right things, even if those right things were just the icing on a cake that was rotten on the inside.