The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 14: The Journey

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Alec and I carefully made our way out of the sprawling forest, walking as quietly as possible to avoid all monsters. When we finally reached the empty street, a small green taxi cab was parked by the Fire Pit, waiting for us. The driver, a tall black man with a receding hair line saw us and stepped out of the car. With a smile, he offered to take our backpacks and put them in the trunk, but we declined. Backpacks don't take up that much space, after all. Then Alec and I buckled ourselves in, and the tiny Felix was about to start crying, when Alex shushed him and started to stroke his head and the new, long dark hairs that Felix had grown in the past month.

The cab driver looked at us in the rear-view mirror, grinning. "That's a cute little baby you got yourselves there," he remarked happily, but I turned bright red, just realizing what Alec, Felix and I might look like together, and slightly angry at what the man was implying. Even if I weren't Athena, I was way too young to have a kid! So, frowning, I simply glared out the window at the lush green meadows we were driving through.

Alec glanced at me uncomfortably before he cleared his throat and explained quickly, gesturing to the now sleeping Felix, "He's my little brother."

"Ah," the cab driver responded with a wink. "I thought you two were a slightly young to have a kid. I'm Larry, by the way." Both Alec and I flashed Larry fake smiles, then returned to staring out our windows, hoping to avoid any more awkward conversations with him.

About two hours later, we finally reached the small airport in central Washington; the Woods really was in the middle of nowhere. Larry got out of the taxi first and politely opened the car doors for us, wand then I paid him in cash, plus a fair tip.

Quickly, Alec and I walked through the shiny steel and white airport up to the check-in stand, where we received our plane tickets from a smiling lady who looked like she had gotten too much plastic surgery in her life. When we made it through security without any issues, Alec and I agreed to get some lunch at one of the tiny, colorful fast food stands.

As we stepped over to the McDonald's, I quietly chewed my lip, trying not to think about what the other people in the airport thought about Alec, Felix and I, but I was failing. To make things worse, we were about to stand in the short line for the McDonald's when Alec carefully shifted Felix into one arm and slid his other arm up protectively around my shoulders. I sighed; he was not helping our image at all. "Alec," I warned, "what are you doing?"

"Shh," he started angrily through gritted teeth. "Those guys at our three o'clock are staring at you like you're a piece of fresh kill."

I was already frowning to myself in annoyance, but as casually as possible, I glanced in the direction he was talking about. Sure enough, four guys about our age were standing by a wide column, hunger and greed gleaming in their eyes as they looked me over. I rolled my eyes and couldn't help but notice that Alec was glaring at them like he wanted to stab them or something...which he probably did.

I smirked to myself as Alec pulled me closer. "Hey, it's fine," I whispered to him, allowing myself to play along for just a minute. "Let's just buy some food now." Alec nodded reluctantly and stepped forward in line with me, his well-muscled arm still around my shoulders. 

We had ordered our food and were waiting to pick it up when I started to think that maybe I was enjoying our charade a little too much. I had just pulled away from Alec when a low voice coming from behind us said, "How are you doing, little lady?"

Slowly Alec and I turned around, knowing full well what was coming. Sure enough, we found ourselves face to face with the four guys who had been staring at me not five minutes earlier. Next to me, I felt Alec tense up as he studied the boys. The speaker, a tough blonde guy with gleaming brown eyes, grinned at me in a flirty manner before carefully reaching around me to grab the food that the McDonald's worker had just set down for Alec and I. The blonde boy was about to hand it to me, but Alec yanked the white paper bag from him first and growled, "Thanks, but I got it."