Noah had been trekking through the dense, unforgiving forest for over two hours now, and the physical toll was becoming nearly impossible to ignore.
Apart from the agonizing, rhythmic thumping of the headache that pulsed behind his eyes, he felt a localized, sharp pain from the exact spot where Kai had slammed his head against the dashboard the night before.
However, a new sensation was beginning to rival the head injury in terms of pure misery: a deep, hollow tiredness that seemed to settle into his very bones.
He hadn't eaten a single bite of food since the previous afternoon at the university, and his blood sugar was clearly beginning to plummet.
As he pushed through thickets of overgrown ferns, Noah couldn't help but question the wisdom of his earlier decision.
He wondered if he had made a catastrophic mistake by refusing to touch the lavish breakfast Kai had laid out on the dining table.
