Rainbow Snippets: What else to do?

_{^{Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.}}

I’m sharing snippets from In Pain and Blood for a while. The prologue is part of the new additions and stars Tracker. The rewrite is a little light on the romance side and a touch darker in other parts.

This week’s snippet follows on from last week’s where Tracker buries the fallen spellster.

He should’ve been in Toptower by now. He had passed the border city in his travels almost a month ago, had spent just as long trying to reach it, the multiple diversions along the way only pulling him further from his task.
If this diversion led him to finding the trail cold once he arrived? The mistress wouldn’t be pleased. The messages to deal with such threats were rarely to any specific hound, but to the first to scour the village reports.
It had just been him and rumours always came second to an identifiable threat. What else could he have done but answer them? Allow one spellster to steal village children and treat them as though they were her personal larder? Let another wander free whilst drawing more innocent people into her web?

Tracker will be back next week with more from In Pain and Blood. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.