Return of the Hunters (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 4) by Sonya Bateman Page A

look. “We had to do something ,” she said. “All this mess we dragged you into. Usually when shit goes down, Zoba—” She broke off with a hard swallow, and her amber eyes shimmered. “Can you really save him?” she half-whispered.
    I tried for a smile. “I’m going to do everything I can,” I said.
    “Thank you.” She shuddered. “I don’t know what we’d do without him.”
    Now probably wasn’t the best time to tell them about my little magic problem. At least I already knew the DeathSpeaker stuff wasn’t tied to my spark, so I’d still be able to pull that off no matter how drained I was. If we made it that far.
    But if anything unexpected happened, we were probably fucked.
     
     

C HAPTER 12

     
    F or some reason, everyone had gravitated into our room when the train attendants brought dinner that night. Like it wasn’t cramped enough already.
    The storm had turned a two-hour layover into four hours, and we’d lost another hour when the train stopped in the middle of Nowhere, Illinois, to wait out a bad stretch of weather. By dinner time, which was also running late, Denei was practically spitting fire.
     “We ain’t got time for this! He’s gettin’ worse.” She paced the suite between Zoba’s bunk and the chair Reun had taken over, since I was at the table with Rex and Senobia. Isalie and Bastien sat on the edge of the raised platform that held the table and benches.
    Zoba was too weak to get out of bed.
    “Hold on. Tomorrow’s the second day, right?” I pushed my half-eaten plate of train-café macaroni and cheese to the side. My appetite had fled since I’d seen Orville Valentine standing five feet away from me, and knowing it wasn’t real hadn’t helped any. “We should’ve gotten there early in the morning, like five or six, and we’re only three hours behind,” I said. “It’ll still be morning. When are you supposed to meet this guy?”
    Denei shook her head. “The summons came at two yesterday afternoon, so we ain’t gonna have past two tomorrow. Maybe sooner,” she said. “He’ll tell us when, exactly. But this bullshit’s cutting it too damned close.”
    “How’s he going to tell you?”
    Across from me, Rex frowned. “You don’ wanna know,” he said—and then broke into a crooked smile, pointing his fork at my plate. “You eatin’ that?”
    “ Cochon .” Senobia rolled her eyes and nudged him with an elbow. “He eats whatever ain’t nailed down or runnin’ away,” she said to me. “Don’t feel obliged to feed the bottomless pit, cher. ”
    I smirked. “No, it’s fine,” I said. “Help yourself.”
    “Thank you.” Rex made a face at her as he pulled the plate over.
    She stuck her tongue out. “You still a pig.”
    “ Mais alohrs, cher ,” he said, grinning. “A pig with seconds.”
    Bastien tipped them a narrow look. “Both y’all couillon ,” he said. “Hush now, you. We got other problems.”
    “Hey.” Senobia folded her arms and glared. “Don’t you pull that ‘the grownups is talking’ crap with us, Bastien Duchene. You ain’t got even two years on me, and—”
    “Yeah, well I got more’n that,” Isalie said. “Bastien’s right. Y’all need to settle.”
    Zoba made a sound. It was barely audible, but it stopped the chatter instantly.
    “All right, listen up,” Denei said. “We gotta think of some other way to get there. This weather keeps up, we’ll need a new plan. We cain’t be late.”
    “Why not?” I said.
    She glared at me. “Maybe you failed to catch my meaning the first time round,” she said deliberately. “I’ll say it real slow this time. We got two days. If we ain’t there, he’ll kill us all. As in dead. Understand?”
    “Yeah, I get that. But aren’t we going there to free your family?” I slid to the end of the bench. “I mean, that’s why you brought me, right? And I don’t think there’s any way we can get there faster, unless you guys can fly or something. So if we’re not on