West

I pulled myself up on the warm horse. "Just for a minute?"

Taylor glanced at me. Something passed through his gaze. He was hiding something. For all I knew, his mind was as twisted as Fighting Badger's.

"No," he replied. "We need to get you home." Wheeling his horse, he started away.

I didn't object. I had left John's house in a panic to change history and go home. There was no longer lightning to take me back to the future, and I had done nothing to alter the course of history. If anything, I learned that I just might need someone like Fighting Badger to protect me.

Unsettled, I followed Taylor obediently into the darkness and cold rain, unable to piece together exactly who was after me.