I woke up screaming. A hand was slapped over my mouth, and I lashed out. The person who held me hissed in pain but then used their free hand to stroke my hair. With a calm voice she whispered, "It's okay, Foxy. It was only a dream."

My chest hurt. With each rapid intake of breath, my ribs ached as my heart beat against my insides. I held the one who held me as the scream fell away to low moans as she continued to pet my head and shush me. When she removed her hand from my mouth, it was only to wipe away the tears before they could drip all the way down my face.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Kat whispered. Her green eye watched me carefully. A deep red scratch seemed to glare at me just a few inches below it.

"Did I do that?" I asked back.

             When I reached for the cut, she grabbed my hand and placed it on the side of her face. She captured me back in her one good eye. "I'm fine. What happened?"

I shook my head as I gently pulled my hand back. Even if I wanted to tell her, I couldn't remember. That was how dreams worked. I used to find that pretty annoying.

Kat offered me a sympathetic smile before standing up and facing the dark horse who had been silently watching our exchange. "I'm going to check around and make sure we haven't been heard. Are you okay with staying here?"

Stallion met her eye for a moment before moving his head to the side. He stamped his hoof a few times. "Course."

"Thank you." Kat turned back to me and knelt down. I found I couldn't meet her eyes when she rested her hand against the side of my face. "I'll be back soon."

I nodded, but couldn't say anything back. Not until her hand left.

"I'm sorry."

But she was gone. Vanished without a sound, like she had never been there. With a defeated sigh, I scooted back until I found the tree I had been sleeping against. I pulled my knees up to rest my pounding head.

There was a long stretch of silence. I could feel Stallion's dark eyes on me as I kept my head down. I knew there were things he wanted to ask. To tell me. But he didn't say anything, and neither did I. He used to be the easiest one to talk to out of all of them.

"Hey, man, what are you thinking?"

I flinched at his words, my thoughts immediately going to Kat, but the way he asked didn't sound like an accusation. Actually, I couldn't place what it sounded like. It was empty. Just there to fill the silence.

"Are we not running anymore?" Stallion went on. When I looked up, I could see the dark horse just a few meters away. He was almost invisible in the black night, but the glint of his eyes was unmistakable as they watched me. "We go see Fawn, she tells us where this Knower is, and then what?"

"You're asking me?" I thought back. It was safer to not speak out-loud, but I also wanted to give my throat a break. The screaming had done a number on the muscle. "Ask Mouse next time we see her. She's the one with the plans."

"No, man." The horse shook its head side to side and took a cautious step towards me. "She said it herself, she's doing all of this for you. You're the one in charge here. You decide to do something and she and Kat are with you."

"That's—" I started, but placed a hand on my throat when it tensed. "I'm not doing anything, Mary is doing what she thinks is best for us, and Kat is just looking out for me because she..."

"Loves you," Stallion finished.

"That might be going a bit far," I countered, but dropped my eyes all the same.

"She loves you, man. If anyone can tell, I can, so don't try to downplay it cause you're worried I'd freak out or something. It's a little insulting."

There was humor in his voice, but his words were still painful to hear. I had been trying to hide it, for his sake. Even when Kat didn't bother because she knew it was pointless. Even when Stallion knew I had liked her from the very beginning.

"Look, it's whatever, man, really. Whatever you're thinking, you have two people who care a whole lot about you and are waiting for you to get your head back in the game. I know you've been having it rough, but you've had some time to try and sort things out. They need to know what to do when we meet Fawn."

"You've been careful to leave yourself out of all of this." I was trying to avoid the subject, but I was also curious all the same. "You're a part of this, too. What are you thinking?"

"I'm tellin' you what I'm thinking, man," he snapped right back. "And I'm here, aren't I? If I didn't want to follow you, I could have just stayed with my Master."

I took a steadying breath. "Do you know how she—"

"No." The horse turned away from me. "Just no, man, we aren't going to talk about that. I didn't speak up to talk about me or shoot the shit with you. We're past that. You just looked like you needed some help getting your head out of your ass."

"The hell—" I started to stand up, but cut myself off with hacking coughs that forced me to throw a hand over my mouth to try and silence them. I was back with my backside on the ground, but shot the horse a fiery look. "You don't know what I've been through."

"No," the horse agreed, not breaking my glaring, "but I know what you've lost. And I know you're going to lose a hell of a lot more if you can't find the nerve to finish what you started."

What I've started.

Right, we wouldn't be here if I hadn't done what I did.

"You never asked me how Mutt died," I said, my voice raspy. My throat on fire.

Stallion watched me carefully. "You're right. Not yet."

"Do you want me to tell you now?" I asked. The corners of my lips twitched when I held out my hands for the horse to see. "That was his blood all over me. I was there for the whole thing. I can tell you the last things he did, the last thing he said."

"You tryin' to get a rise out of me, Foxy?" The black horse walked closer until he was practically towering over me. "You won't like where that leads."

"There's nothing you can do," I thought at him, giving my ragged throat a break. The smile was easier to come as I folded my hands in my lap. "Nothing that could compare to what I've been through."

"You think you're the only one who has been through shit?" Stallion was close enough to huff his hot breath directly in my face. "Me, Kat, Mouse, we've all been through it. We've been through it but here we are, trying to help your sorry ass."

"Have you had to watch your Master die multiple times?" I shot back, my smile falling away. "Has Kat ever had a psychotic witch trap and torment her in her own dream then try to stab her to death in the real world? Has Mouse ever saved someone only to have them turn around and kill one of her only friends?"

Stallion didn't say anything right away, and I wasn't about to let him kill my momentum. My throat wasn't anywhere close to being recovered, but I wanted him to hear me.

"I appreciate the help you all have been giving me, but Kat and Mouse know the score. We're here, free of witches controlling our every move, because of me. Because I risked the most and suffered the most. Yeah, Stallion, you had the choice to stay with your Master, but you only got that choice because of me. Mouse only had the opportunity to help us because of me. Kat is free from her mentally unstable and abusive Master because of me."

I stood up, and Stallion backed away from me. Our size difference was still ridiculous, and he seemed to realize that as he held his ground when I stepped up to him. But his eyes did not hold mine when I stared him down.

"And you know what? I think I'm done being the one who does everything. I got you all here, so you'll forgive me if I decide that I've done my part."

"So, what, man? You're just going to leave them waiting for you? They need you."

"I'm done, Stallion," I hissed, fighting through another coughing fit. "Mouse knows what she's doing. We follow her lead. Kat will agree with it and, if you don't like it, you can go crawling back to your Master."

Stallion and I locked glares for a few moments more. My whole body was tingly, and I couldn't seem to swallow the anger bubbling up and down my ragged throat, but I also felt light. Light as air. It felt so good to finally say it out-loud.

"If that's what you've been thinking," Stallion finally said, breaking the contact with a turn of his head, "I'm sorry I ever asked."

I actually half-expected him to leave, but he stayed where he was, and the comfortable silence once again fell around us. I didn't expect him to initiate another conversation with me anytime soon, if ever again. It was probably for the best.

Don't go asking people to take on the world when you can't bother being more than a pack mule, I thought bitterly. But that wasn't really fair, and I hoped he hadn't heard me. I knew it had taken a lot of him to suddenly abandon his Master, turn on Wildwood, and come with us. But he had yet to ask me the truth about what happened to Mutt, which was one of his conditions for coming. Was his intention just to bother me with his idealism? If that was the case, he was better off with Son.

It was a few minutes more before Kat finally came back. The silence was more apparent when she did, and she looked between me and the horse who was staring off into the tangled masses of tree branches above us.

"Everything okay?" she asked no one in particular.

"Just fine," Stallion answered before I could say anything. He kept his attention away from the both of us. "Any trouble on your end?"

"No, but we should keep moving." Kat moved over to the pile of clothes laying beside another tree. "We're close, and Mouse wanted us to get there before the people here started waking up."

Stallion nodded once. I opened my mouth before I knew, exactly, what it was I wanted to say, but was interrupted by Kat throwing me a ball of packed articles of clothing.

"Mouse said to keep the hood of the jacket up," Kat said to me as we both got dressed. When I looked over to her, she was wrapping a black scarf around her mouth."In her words, your hair and my face are dead giveaways."

"That and not the big, black horse we got following us around?" I asked, ignoring Stallion's huff of indignation that followed.

"We're out in the country now. A lot of the know-nothing's use horses to move around these narrow dirt roads." Kat smiled gently in Stallion's direction. "Again, Mouse's words."

"Lucky us."

Kat lost her smile and I dropped my eyes when I saw her's flash back to me. I didn't mean to sound so bitter. But what I was feeling was Stallion's fault. Why couldn't he be satisfied with how things were now? He didn't have the right to ask more from me.

"Is everything okay, Foxy?"

I could feel her gaze still fixated on me. I did my best to avoid it as I looked back up and into the dark void of Stallion's massive eyes.

"Just fine," I growled.

Kat looked between us again, but didn't push it further. Stallion did not look away from me, but didn't speak up, either. She knew the score and, now, so did he. Whether he liked it or not was his own problem.

...

The jacket was horribly itchy. The jeans felt like an uncomfortable weight that kept my legs from moving as I wanted them to. It was lucky that Kat and Mary were unable to salvage any shoes. The soft, cool dirt that met the bottom of my foot at each step was the only solace I could find from our new arrangement.

Kat had fallen back asleep while riding on Stallion's back. I'd never in a thousand years say it out-loud, but I preferred her with no clothes. Not for the obvious reasons—well, not completely. The Kat packed away inside jeans, sweaters, and scarves was like hiding away everything that made her who she was. And Kat wasn't someone who hid from anything.

Not that I could talk. Despite my complaints, here I was hiding myself away too. It was a horrible, sickening reminder of my time in school when I was so ashamed of my appearance that I hid away inside bulky clothes. But I did it because Mary said to. Because she was the one with the plans. Because hiding from witches was better than trying to fight them.

Stallion and I walked along one of those previously mentioned dirt roads. Thick woods blocked most of what I could see to our left, while a wide river flowed to our right. Across that river, every now and then, a house would appear. Always dark and sleeping. Most were small, no bigger than a cottage, and appeared a little less than well cared for. But definitely not abandoned. All of them had cars, boats, children's toys laying around the yard, or rocking chairs just waiting to be used once the sun came back out. Something about seeing them made my skin tingle worse than the fabric of my sweater could.

Know-nothings. Strangers. People lived in those houses. People who weren't witches, or familiars, or otherwise tied up with all that crazy nonsense. I couldn't remember the last time I talked to someone who wasn't a part of all of this. What were know-nothings even like? Could I pass for one of them, or would I just stand out as a freak?

My eyes trailed from the houses and back to Kat. Almost everything was hidden away, but one of her eyes—the unscarred one—peaked out from between the scarf and the hood. Closed, calm, and resting peacefully.

Somewhere down the line, if we could ever put the crazy nonsense behind us, maybe it would be better to not spend the rest of our lives out in the untamed, unforgiving wilderness. That would just be admitting the witches won, in the end. That they changed us beyond repair. I was a familiar, but I also used to be human. Maybe, once Mary felt we were safe enough, we could try being normal again.

Stallion suddenly stopped moving. I reluctantly looked away from Kat to see that he was staring out across the river, like I had been. His inky eyes reflected the solitary orange light glowing from behind a window in one of the houses.

There, a woman was slowly rocking in a chair on the porch, her features hidden in the dark shadows. As we watched, she slowly raised a hand and waved.

"Looks like this is the place," Stallion thought to no one in particular.

I still nodded.

But, before all of that, there were still a few loose ends to tie up.