Rowan mutters a second spell under his breath, shielding the compass's pull just enough that it won't detect Auro's magic anymore. He tunes it finer—subtle, he thinks—so it'll track only the traces of witchcraft lingering in the deeper parts of the forest.
When he finishes, he tucks the compass into his jacket and stands.
"Ready?" he asks.
Auro stretches her arms overhead, mist swirling with her movement. Her glassy skin catches the low light, a sheen of silver and gold slipping across her like water. "Ready!" she chirps.
She floats beside him as they move north, deeper into the Everglades. The trees grow taller, older, and the light turns green with their thick canopies. Roots twist like veins underfoot. The deeper they go, the more nervous he got.
Rowan focuses on the path, on the compass, on anything except the way Auro's presence brushes against his senses. Cool mist tickles his arm whenever she drifts too close. The scent of crushed greenery clings to her. Every now and then, her bare foot bumps his shoulder as she lazily spins in the air.
He realizes just them that she didn't have those odd boots on anymore. The boots itself wasn't odd. It was the fact that it was the only thing on her that wasn't surrounded by mist. It was out of place. And he hadn't seen it on her since there first encounter.
After a while, she lets out a soft whine.
"I'm bored," she says dramatically, arms thrown wide as she floats backward ahead of him. "You walk so slow. I wonder if it's because your human."
He scowls. "Maybe if you actually used your legs once in a while, you'd get it."
"But floating's more fun," she pouts, gliding backward until she's eye-level with him again. Her mist curls around his shoulders like a cool breath. "You could float too, you know. Maybe? I'm not sure, but we could try."
" I can't float." He says practically.
She props her head up with her fist. " I wonder if you'll slowly become like me?"
Rowan stumbles over a root and mutters something foul under his breath. He looks up at her with furrowed brows. " What did you say?"
" I was just thinking. If you and I are linked and share pain. What else do we share? You and I don't share thoughts or anything —"
Rowan chokes a little on his saliva.
"What's wrong?" Auro asks innocently, tilting her head. The angle makes the mist slide down her neck, revealing the delicate shifting patterns on her collarbone—like light caught in cracked glass.
Don't look, Rowan tells himself grimly. Don't even think about it.
But it's already too late. Every tiny detail has burned itself into his mind—the soft glow of her skin, the way her mist smells faintly sweet, the quiet sounds she makes when she's amused or restless.
He yanks his gaze back to the compass with a growl. " You need to stop doing that."
She giggles, spinning in a lazy circle above him. " Doing what? Is what I'm doing the reason you're turning red?"
"I'm not."
"You are!"
Rowan tightens his jaw and keeps walking, refusing to dignify her teasing with a response. The compass swings steadily ahead, and he grips it like a lifeline, using the task—find the witch—to anchor himself.
" Can we just focus on trying to get to where we're going?"
" Well, where are we going exactly? Because we've been walking for hours." She continues her whining.
" I've been walking for hours. And we would get there faster if we just focus solely on getting there instead of talking."
She chuckles. " That is not true. Talking doesn't affect your legs. Unless you're one of those people that can't do two things at the same time." She tilts her head. " I can't fathom how talking can bother you so much."
Rowan raises a brow. " You talk all the time."
" Because I'm booored..."
Uggghhh.
Rowas was going to just ignore her for now. Indulging her was only going to raise his blood pressure.
The sun was setting. He wasn't sure if it was okay for him to walk in the dark. Auro was with him. It wasn't like she wasn't still the forest menace that could hurt people. But he needed rest.
Auro was rambling was starting to disrupt his train of thought. He sighs in annoyance.
He already couldn't wait for this trip to be over.