My brain is stuck.

I don't seem to be able to say or do much but stand there and blink at my teammates.

And they seem to be having the same problem as they stare at me.

We're each turning red-faced at a similar rate as the realization of what's happening dawns on us.

Jace is the first to react, spinning around and yelling very loudly, "I didn't see anything!"

The other two women are still shell-shocked but that's not the worst part.

The worst part is that we hear the footsteps and light conversation of another group of people approaching from the opposite direction.

God.

I want the ground to open and swallow me where I lie.

My first instinct is to bounce to my feet and run for cover in the greenery surrounding us, but the second my body jerks, Wolf grabs me and turns me around to press my front against his chest. He holds me in place, as his large arm covers my backside.

When I glance at his face, I notice he’s not looking at me. His golden eyes are trained on the Prince’s troupe made up of Brute, Page, Cat, and two other boys I don't recognize – who wearere all staring at us in open-mouthed fascination. The Prince himself seems particularly pale as well.

“Turn around.” Wolf’s voice holds so much unmistakable command that I nearly obey even though I know the order is not directed at me. It’s directed at the prince.

Prince Caster doesn’t move but his hand does twitch, and his expression darkens considerably.

Brute and the rest of the troupe ogle me and then Wolf barks loud enough to shake the trees. "Turn around!"

They jump and turn to do his bidding.

Oh God.

An earthquake would be spectacular right about now. Or even just a monster attack. Yes, that’s what we need. A nice big monster to distract from my absolute humiliation.

But nothing happens. The forest is annoyingly still.

I’m grateful that Wolf has me pressed against his side, so all people can see is my back.

Still, this is mortifying.

When I dare to look over my shoulder again, I find the Prince still standing, and now he’s glaring at Wolf, his lips pressed together.

They have a stare-off for a few seconds, and then finally, he turns around.

Now, Wolf moves. He gently guides my body to the ground and then stands to his full height, uncaring of his own nudity. Despite my humiliation, I'm distracted by the sight of his body in the light, eyeing his strapping muscles, down to his...

I tear my eyes away, my heart beating fast. How on earth did all that fit inside me?

Wolf walks over to the side of a tree where the Prince came from.

The prince’s face gets even more redder as Wolf appears in his vision and I see for a second his eyes flicker down to Wolf’s manhood. His jaw drops, and a part of me is amused by his shock, however childish it might be.

Wolf bends and shifts a rock retrieving a sack from it. When he straightens, he turns and stares at the Prince stepping so close they could be sharing breaths.

Wolf doesn’t avert his eyes or even flinch. His tone retains that deadly register when he says, "Stay. Don't look at her."

I can see the side of his face, and watch as rage twists the Prince's expression into something savage. Several thoughts pass over his face and he looks like he readily wants to resort to violence.

And I have to give the Prince some credit. Despite Wolf's size and reputation, he doesn't look intimidated.

His eyes flicker to me again, and I wonder for a horrible moment if he’s going to dare Wolf to follow on his threat.

But then Wolf walks away from him and the Prince does nothing.

When Wolf returns to my side, he holds the sack out to me. I take it from him and open it, sighting clothes folded in there. I pull them out and note that they're fresh clothes, not the ones I was wearing when I first came in.

He keeps a change of clothes in the forest?

I stare back at Wolf and his eyes are fathomless, but then I suddenly recall what he said about spending a lot of time here. I assumed he meant the forest but what if he meant the oasis. How many times has he been wounded and needed the healing waters? Apparently, he spends enough time here to justify keeping a change of clothes just in case.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Interesting.

I rise and quickly don a tunic and breeches, while Wolf goes behind a bush to retrieve presumably another set of clothes. Although he didn't seem too concerned with others seeing his nudity, I'm happy he's going to be clothed again. We can't exactly continue our journey with him naked, can we?

Might make this miserable adventure more fun.

Shut up, voice.

When I'm done wearing my clothes, I wait for Wolf to pull on his tunic.

And then he finally says, "Turn around.”

To which everyone turns back around.

I scan their expressions. Jace and Tia look relieved that we’re wearing clothes again, but Savannah still has that thoughtful expression on her face. For some reason, it scares me even more than the look of rage on the Prince’s face.

Did I read wrong? Did she have feelings for Wolf after all?

“So,” I cough to cover the awkward atmosphere. “I’m glad we’ve all reconvened.”

“We found the Gem," the Prince’s say coldly, “No thanks to you.”

“You did?” Surprise colors my voice.

“Yes. While the two of you were here doing...whatever, you were doing, we were actually working.”

“Hey we were working too.” Jace jumps to my defense. “And as I recall, it was your idea to go off on your own. We wanted to stick together.”

“I thought we had better chances with multiple teams working toward the same goal. I didn’t know that you would be off fucking while I was gone.”

The 'f' word is said with enough vitriol to get my back up. I glare at him.

“To think you were just betrothed to her a month ago," Brute mutters. "Told you she was a whore."

He accompanies with that same smug, leering expression but it instantly disappears when Wolf takes a single step to him and lays his hand in his face.

Well, laying isn't the word for it.

It's more like he slams his entire palm into Brute's face.

Brute’s head snaps back with the force of a tree during a windstorm, the crack resounding so hard that even I wince. His body hits the ground with a thud.

“What the hell?” One of the boys jumps out of the way, staring at Wolf with fear in his eyes.

“You animal,” Prince Caster draws his sword. “How dare you attack one of mine?”

“Next time, tell him to learn to hold his tongue.” Wolf looks wholly unconcerned with the sword pointed at his throat. The entire group seems frozen in fear, prepared for what is come next.

Then Savannah walks forward with her hands out.

“Alright, this has gone too far. Wolf calm down, and Prince Caster, please sheathe your sword.”

Once again, the Prince hesitates, until Savannah walks in between them and sends Wolf a look. He raises an eyebrow at her but then she bites something out of the corner of her lip, something in another language. Then he finally backs up.

The prince lowers his sword.

“You found the Gem?” Savannah asks, taking a much-needed lead with a cool head.

The prince nods quietly.

"It was in one of the creature's eyes," he says.

A creatures...oh.

That that makes sense. Of course. I was foolish looking for gems on the forest floors. They were in the monster's eyes.

So does that mean...the obsidian Jace and I found in the forest? That was a monster's eye? When Jace touched it, did he awaken the monster?

Is the True Heart Gem in the eyes of another monster?

“Good,” Savannah says. “Now the next thing is to find our way out of here.”

“We marked the trees up to a point,” Tia said. “So I propose we go back to the start of the markings. From there, we should split up into three teams and go in different directions to find our way out. If we find ourselves at a dead end, we return back to the original mark and make another one, indicating that we failed to find our way out. That way another team doesn't attempt to go that way. Whichever group doesn’t return to make their mark, we assume they found a way out, and we go in that direction.”

"That’s a good idea,” I say and then glance at Brute who is still laid out on the floor a red, palm-shaped mark forming in the middle of his face.

“What do we do about him?” Jace voices the question.

Savannah shoots Wolf a sore look. “Knowing my big friend here, that one is not coming to for a while.”

"We can put him in the la…” I trail off as Wolf suddenly shoots me a sharp look and shakes his head. I instantly understand his meaning.

For some reason, he doesn’t want anyone to know about the healing waters.

I thought as much when he ignored my question about bottling it up. I think about what else he said, about the forest having lost many things. This must be his way of protecting her.

It’s a shame because both Jace and Tia look like they have bruises that would be well served by the water, but this is not my secret to tell. I nod instead.

Wolf bends and one-handedly lifts Brute onto his shoulders, like the large man is nothing but a sack of apples.

Then he says to the rest of us, “He’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

As we head out, Savannah asks the Prince about how he secured the Gem. He explains that they tracked the monster, and lured it closer to them. It seems like the Prince knew some of the monster's attributes, like where its nest would be and they formulated a plan to lure it out. And then he slayed it.

He seemed excessively proud of himself and I can’t begrudge that it is an impressive feat. Even Jace says, “Wow. That's amazing."

The Prince smiles magnanimously at Jace until his eyes meet mine. The smile drops off his face and he looks away.

Suddenly I’m irritated. How dare he act like I’m the one who affronted him? He's betrothed to another woman. We've both moved on. I owe him nothing.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Prince Caster says turning to Tia and Jace. “How come you folks seem to see just fine in the forest?”

Tia and Savannah share looks, both reluctant to offer the information.

“Because of Adria,” Jace volunteers happily, earning a look of disgust from Tia. Jace doesn't see it though. He's walking beside the Prince now and looking up at him in admiration. “Adria has some special magical gift that enables her to see in the forest and she used it on us too."

The Prince looks at me sharply. “Is that true?”

I shrug. “I suppose.” I don't offer any further explanation, and Caster's frown depends.

As we make it to the end of the marked path, Brute begins to come to, and Wolf rests him against a tree.

Then we begin to pick teams.

“Adria,” the prince suddenly announces, “You're on my team.”

“No.” Wolf’s voice is absolute.

"I'm the one with the gem," he says. "It would make sense for her to be on my team."

"But the both of you can see," Jace points out. "You don't need Adria on your team. Adria is part of our team. We should be trying to find the others so that we can help them see too."

"Yes but what if she has a vision that would give us a way out? Adria's magic is important and it might be the key out of here." The Prince's words are ironic because they remind me of the words he told me a lifetime ago when I asked him why he had to marry Genya.

"Because Genya's magic is important," he said.

"Is it the magic," Tia asks wryly. "Or is it because you caught her having sex with Wolf?"

The Prince sputters and I could kiss Tia for the way Caster's face flushes.

Before he can respond, the ground shakes again.

There's a roar and everyone is instantly on alert. The sound is followed by another roar, accompanied by another and then another.

We don't even have time to think, plot or run.

In what feels like an instant, three monsters surround us.