We hiked east through a thin forest. Dead leaves crunched under our boots. The cold season had stripped the trees and bushes, leaving behind bare branches. The warming season had started a few days ago, and the frozen ground had turned into a muddy mess as we traveled farther south. Glancing over my shoulder, I noted the beauty of the stark and simple woods against the wide swaths of colors in the sky. The cool air smelled damp and fresh.

“Should we make camp before it gets dark?” Janco asked.

This section of Sitia seemed familiar to me, and my stomach knotted as I remembered when I’d been here before.

“Is your cabin nearby?” I asked Devlen.

“I was wondering if you recognized the area,” he said with a faint smile. “The good old days.”

I bit my lip to keep from contradicting him. When he wasn’t trying to play with my mind and emotions, he enjoyed irritating me, too. For example, he had lapsed back into the Daviian pattern of speech instead of trying to mimic Ulrick. “How close?”

Devlen scanned the woods and met my gaze. An odd sensation rippled through me. Seeing his cold calculation in Ulrick’s vibrant green eyes still unsettled me. Ulrick’s long eyelashes, black hair and sharp features all remained, but I longed for Ulrick’s tender smile.

“Quite close. Are you sure you want to go there?” Devlen asked.

I considered. “Better than spending another night in the open. Take the lead.”

He led us to a small one-story cabin as all light fled the sky. Janco lit a fire in the hearth, then unpacked our travel rations.

“It’s too dark to hunt. I’ll search for a few rabbits in the morning.” He placed a pot of water on the fire to cook his road stew.

At first, the ad hoc concoction of Janco’s had tasted wonderful, but after twenty days, I longed for my mother’s apple cobbler and bread pudding. Her roast pork alone would be worth the five-day journey to Booruby.