A Whole New World | Octavia Blake [1]

Chapter 6

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Liam dragged Addison as far from the river as possible, entering the woods and ducking under low hanging branches, until he stopped abruptly in his tracks.

  He pulled Addie down with him behind a fallen log that's decorated in bright green moss. With heavy breaths, the best-friend duo looked around themselves, on high alert. Addison's nearly leapt out her chest cavity every time it beat, doe eyes wide as she swallowed the dryness in her throat.

  She glanced in the direction she and Liam came from over Liam's shoulder, faintly spotting the small opening to the river they were at moments ago, celebrating Jasper's brave leap.

  She stared at the opening. "Do you think everyone is okay?"

  Liam swallowed the dryness in his throat and spared her a quick glance. He shook his head, resting an arm over the log as he scammed the woods, "I don't know."

  Addison's knees dug into the moist dirt/grass mixture,  seeping into her pants. She put a hand on the log, anxiously waiting for something to happen. She preferred to be reunited with her newfound friend and/or Jasper miraculously surviving a spear to the chest.

  Liam shoved her to the forest floor, whispering harshly, "Get down!"

  Addison squinted at him, confused and irritated by the sudden push into the ground, until she heard it: quick footsteps —several of them. She absentmindedly shot it, but was roughly yanked by her left-arm back behind the cover of the fallen moss-covered log. "Let me go, Liam. That could be the others!" she whispered, then ripped her arm free.

  "You don't know that, Addison. We're not alone out here. That could be whoever killed—"

  "He's not dead."

  "Addison—"

  "No, Liam." She averted her gaze to the soil beneath them. "I can't let myself believe he is until I know for sure." Panic sank into her bones the closer the footsteps came.

  Liam blinked a few times, contemplating numerous things as he looked in the direction the footsteps were coming from. "When I say go, run."

  Addison's hand latched onto Liam's arm, her stare stern, "Are you a bloody idiot? Liam—"

  "I mean it, Addison." His words were sharp, fear written across his face and in his dark brown eyes.

  Addison's heart sank into her stomach. She couldn't just leave him like gum on the bottom of her boot, but she had no choice. The desperation his eyes held tore Addie's heart in half. She released a small sigh and a reluctant nod, then turned her attention back to the footsteps and twigs snapping like bones.