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“No. We should get back to the group and let them know what we found, then come up with a plan from there,” I instruct. Nekane’s survival class taught me something, at least. Don’t take risks.
The three of them nod and we mount our Shadows.
A dreadful sensation crawls up my spine as we turn. Amser speaks calmly inside my head, You’d better run quickly if you want to escape them.
My head jerks up and my heart beats erratically. “Shit, they know we’re here. We can’t lead them back to the group!” I hiss as our Shadows dash into the forest with wicked speed.
The cat-eyed male shouts, “What do we do?!”
My mind whirls and the only thing I can think of is to run in the opposite direction of our camp and try to get behind the pursuers. But we aren’t even granted that small chance.
A bolt of black electricity strikes the two males on the elk Shadow, hollowing out their chests in a second. Their blood hits our backs like a hot wave of sticky tar. I inhale sharply and push down the panic that’s rising inside me.
The Polaris girl behind me screams as they fall. The elk creature dances chaotically around their bodies for a moment before vanishing into dust. “Wait!” she shouts in my ear.
“They’re already dead!” I growl. We shouldn’t be out here killing each other like fucking animals. Fear is driving everyone fucking mad.
The Polaris girl trembles behind me and then a sharp pain pierces my ribs like ten daggers in my flesh. When I glance down, I see her sharp fingers, black at the edges, plunged into my torso.
Amser hisses inside my veins viciously and I feel that hatred in my soul grow.
I elbow the Polaris female in the face and Amser twists violently to throw her off. Her body hits the ground hard and she rolls like a ragdoll until her spine hits a tree. She throws her head back in an eerie scream filled with despair.
My stomach curls and I swallow the bile in my throat. Amser doesn’t give me another second to think before it takes off sprinting again. The female screams and cries until a sharp snap reverberates through the canopy. Then it’s awfully quiet besides the sound of Amser’s rushing paw steps.
Shit. “Why did she do that?” I grit my teeth and hold my sides. I’m healing, but slower than usual. She must’ve had poison in her claws.
Her Shadow longed for one of those males, Amser replies, even though I wasn’t necessarily asking it directly.
“So she tried to kill me over it?” I grip Amser’s spine harder and glance back to see if we’re still being followed. The silence suggests that I’ve lost them. “We need to get back to the group. Quickly!” I hiss under my breath.
Kai’s crown is visible from over a hundred feet away. Panic races alongside me as I dismount and push him low to the ground.
“Gods, what happened?” Kai breathes. Corvus doesn’t need an explanation. He already knows based on the fact that I’ve returned alone.
“They’re coming,” Corvus says, almost to himself. He lifts his head to speak to the others. “Get ready, they’re coming. Search for their crowned student so we can finish this!”
Kai curses and shuts his eyes, releasing his Shadow from his veins, and I feel a bit of relief as it pools around him and forms a protective cloak of sorts. “Thanks, Nekane, for your object-forming tangents,” he mutters. I’m a bit remiss that I didn’t take those tangents as seriously as Kai clearly did.
A silence falls over us as we wait, hiding beneath bushes and in the trees high above, some standing out front bravely, their Shadows apart from their bodies and giving our clearing an inky appearance. The wind dies down and sends an unsettling dread through my body.
A shard of black pierces one of the students standing before us. They fall to the ground without so much as a cry. The shard protrudes horribly from their skull.
Then utter chaos unfolds.
Thirty-some people rush from the front. Our teammates fall from the trees like hunted birds falling to their fates. Shadows of all shapes and sizes clash into one another and the scent of blood invades my senses.
“Do you see the crown?!” Corvus shouts over the screams. Growls from Shadows erupt from all around us. Dirt smears his usually impeccably clean face.
Kai blocks his eyes with his forearm as a wave of dust and blood blows across us. My lungs squeeze with the assault and I cough until the dust clears. Metallic flavors bloom across my tongue and I have no choice but to try and ignore the taste of death.
I search through squinted eyes across what now is a battlefield. Falling trees shake the ground beneath our feet, but I don’t see any crowns?—
My heart stops and I swallow hard.
A gilded crown shines through the crimson smog, and a familiar deathly flame flickers around the person walking towards us. I don’t need to wait to see his face. I know it’s Finn.
“He doesn’t know it’s our group he’s attacking!” I shout at Kai and Corvus before bolting blindly toward Finn, dodging warring creatures and humans alike along the way.
