Escape from Endeavor by Daniel A. Jones

  ***

  If he had, he might have seen Mystique come running up to the edge of the clearing before dropping behind a tree to hide.

  He set a fast pace through the woods, but it wasn’t nearly as fast as the one he’d been running before he stopped to gather his packs. He was traveling in another straight line, so Mystique didn’t have much trouble following him. She was surprised by the fact that he never looked back. She tried to stay about thirty yards behind him but she had to vary that depending on the terrain. Mystique finally lost him after about thirty minutes of running. She tripped and fell and was too exhausted to get back up. She needed to catch her breath so she just lay there and cursed herself for being a fool. No wonder he never looked back; no one could keep up with him. All he needed to do was keep running and his pursuers would collapse sooner or later.

  On the up side, she’d been right: Thomas had no chance of catching up with him now. The girls must have kept going while Daemon delayed them at the gorge. Once she took the time to think about it, Mystique decided Daemon was very smart to just wound people instead of killing them. The wounds would have to be treated and then the wounded would slow down the group. She couldn’t blame him for not knowing how much of a fanatic Thomas had turned into about killing him and his sister. Thinking about Thomas made her admit she was going to share Daemon’s fate if Thomas ever caught up to her. The fire in her legs and lungs had subsided so she got to her feet and followed Daemon, with any luck he would continue in the same direction he had been.