She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing at them. No doubt they'd take turns beating her if she did.
Curling his lip, Sasha sarcastically mocked his words in silence. "By the way, cowboy, you do know that if we were to wreck, I can teleport out of this thing. Right?"
"Is Scooby still bitching?" Jess asked Choo Co La Tah. "Remind me to check his vet record when we get back. I think he might have distemper or rabies or something."
Choo Co La Tah laughed.
Abigail shook her head at their antics. She wasn't used to people so at ease with danger. They were either the bravest creatures ever born ...
Or the most reckless.
And as they headed back out into the darkness, she felt a chill run down her arm. I'm being watched.
It's Ren. Don't worry about it.
Maybe, but it didn't feel like Ren.
It felt like evil.
* * *
Coyote felt the fire in front of him flare as he walked with his mind through the realm of shadows to spy on his enemies. Even with his eyes closed, he could see himself in the cavern. The fire licked against the logs in front of him, casting eerie shadows from the stalagmites and stalactites onto the rock walls around him.
But that wasn't what held his focus. His enemies did.
They were together, and that made him seethe so deep inside, he was sure it burned a groove into his soul. "Why won't you die," he snarled. "All of you."
How many times did he have to kill Buffalo before he stayed dead?
As for Ren ...
"What's happening?"
He opened his eyes to find Snake walking toward him from the dark opening that let out onto the hills he'd called home for centuries. "They're heading to the Valley."
Snake cursed. "We have to stop them."
Like he didn't know that? "Why are you panicking when I'm the one who has everything to lose?"
"You're not the only one, Coyote. I don't want to retire any more than you do."
But this wasn't about retirement. It was about payback. A betrayal so foul that no amount of time had lessened the burn of it.
How could I have been so stupid?
The First Guardian was still tormenting him. He could feel it. Why else would he have made the mistake he made all those years ago?
I killed the wrong one. Only the First Guardian could have pulled off that deception and protected the girl from him after he killed her mother.
And he needed that key. It was the only way to have his vengeance. The only way to survive this.
I will not fail. Not this time. He'd waited for centuries, and it was the season for his patience to be rewarded.
He rose to his feet and started for the entrance.
Snake caught him and held him by his side. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going after them."