It watched us for longer than a look should have lasted.
I kept my eyes on that fold in the crack until the road bent hard around the shoulder of the hill and the castle dropped out of sight behind us entirely, and even then I felt it, the way you feel a hand still resting on your shoulder half a breath after the person's actually let go. Rena's fingers tightened around mine on the reins we weren't sharing. Krix didn't finish whatever sound had caught in his throat; he simply closed his mouth around it and rode on, jaw set, the cord at his wrist wound tight enough around two fingers that I could see the color drain out of them from three feet away.
