Well, I guessed Minerva and her minions had decided to use magic.
On me.
Shit.
I pushed up to my knees and brushed the snow off my thin gloves. Gloves meant to be worn to a ball. My cloak meant to be worn in a sleigh with a fur over me, curled into the side of a hot guy.
I was not prepared to be in the cold in the middle of nowhere.
This was not good.
And it got worse when I caught movement through the moonlit forest.
I shot to my feet, my eyes glued to where I caught the movement.
Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye, moving in another direction.
I turned to that and started backing up.
Another movement from yet another direction.
I put one hand behind me in order not to slam into a tree and kept backing up.
One of the things moving stepped out from behind the shadow of the trees.
And at the impossibleness of what I saw, I went completely still.
It was a man, a sword at a slant on his back.
But his head was the head of a bird with a sharp, pointed terrifying beak and creepy beady eyes.
“What the hell?” I breathed.
He lifted his hand and went for his sword.
I saw another movement as another one stepped out of the shadows.
He was going for his sword too as I heard the hiss of steel when the other one drew his from his scabbard.
Another one appeared in the moonlight, his sword already unsheathed.
Okay.
Well.
I was so totally right.
This was not good.
And in my fabulous gown in the middle of a forest, not knowing where the heck I was, I had one option open to me.
Run like hell.
I took that option, turned, grabbed my skirts, yanked them up and did that like the devil himself was on my heels.
And, seriously, he was.
All four of him.