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The fields carry on for miles in every direction. After a few minutes, a warm glow illuminates the sky from beneath a canopy of trees. Not a glow from the fireflies. No, this light is man-made.
Fire.
“There, that’s where I heard her scream.” Rowan’s throat bobs as he swallows his guilt for fleeing. Fear rises in his eyes once more and I wonder if he’ll flee again.
I place my hand on his shoulder. “Let’s get closer. We need to be quiet and stealthy. Use your Shadow if you have to, okay?” I calmly instruct him. Rowan nods and clenches his trembling hands.
Tents and fires spread throughout the valley below. My nerves are welling within me but I push them down. I can’t let myself feel anxious right now. We have to ensure Lucina’s safety and we need to keep level heads. Feelings only make us lose control—I learned that much from the blight classes. Fear, anger, hate. I cannot allow myself to feel those while fighting, or I’ll blight all my friends.
We sneak down to the camp, keeping low in the ears of barley. The bushes rustle just a few yards ahead of us. I raise my hand to signal Rowan to stop. Silently, I narrow my eyes against the dim light. I can just make out the tips of four heads. I catch the glare of a pair of glasses and the glint of blonde hair.
“Oh, thank gods.” I breathe a sigh of relief. Rowan eagerly creeps ahead. At least we’re all back together now.
As we approach, our friends hear us and turn around. Their eyes are wide with fear and readiness to fight.
I quickly whisper, “It’s us.” A few release their held breaths and they move forward to meet us. Tamaris, Alani, Vinnie, Aervin. Lucina is the only one that may have been captured. We can save her—we have to.
Aervin lets the tension in his shoulders ease. “What the hell happened?” They all stare at me expectantly as if I know the answers. I should know… I’m the one that sent them here so carelessly.
“I don’t know. I didn’t think portals could transport us to separate locations. Unless this was intentional…” I trail off. Could this have been a trap? I’m certain that this is the portal selected for the exams. So why… Shame rises up inside my chest. I should’ve listened to Kai and Finn.
“How will we return to Alkrose?” Tamaris growls. Her long black ponytail rests over her shoulder. She has a good point.
I clench my teeth together tightly. “I don’t know.”
“Excuse me—what?” Vinnie snaps. His usual collected composure has fractured.
I shake my head and desperately look to Aervin for help. He only returns my panicked gaze and lowers his head. “I don’t know either,” Aervin admits.
Alani covers her mouth as if to keep in her breakfast. Rowan shares the same horrified expression.
The pit sinks deeper inside my chest. “We’re going to be okay. After we find Lucina, we’ll locate the portal home.” I force myself to say the words with unequivocal surety.
I’m about to say more when a scream fills the air. Lucina’s scream.
Her voice is imbued with pain. The sound of it makes my blood thicken with despair.
“We need to move, now.”
We hastily make a shabby plan, one that I’m not sure will work, but we have no other choice. It’s already been far longer than I expected us to stay in Fernestia and nothing has gone as expected. Now my only goal is to save Lucina and get all of us back to the castle.
We split up.
Aervin is to retrieve Lucina and get her out. The rest of us will fight.
I have the task of taking out most of the Darkflies since my powers are the strongest. Even with the casts, the darkness I wield is powerful. The others are to serve as support and decoys.
This will work. It has to.
I rise straight up from our hiding spot in the brush. I manipulate the darkness I’ve stored and create projections of black serpents that slither through the grass stalks. I can control around ten at a time, and that will have to do. The tents in the camp are ten feet apart and figures become visible as I near them. Many soldiers, men and women, sit close to the flames and drink what must be mead. The air swarms with the bitter scent of it. I take a deep breath and shout, “Hey!”
The air stills around me and in the corners of my eyes, I see my comrades tensing in their hiding positions.
The enemy soldiers whirl and reach for their weapons in a heartbeat. Some charge straight for me with no guns or knives at all and I know instantly that they are the most lethal—the ones with powerful Shadows. The Darkflies start to raise their hands up, the grim sky booming with licks of lightning as rain starts to pelt down on us. Dark magic pulses from each of them, plumes of smoky ebony dust.
Darkness is falling—it’s descending around me like blood spreading in water, clouding around me and starving for my blood.
One of them shouts, breaking the sworn silence from both sides. “Kill them all!”
