“You didn’t sleep much,” he said, his voice calm, and careful.
I forced a faint smile. “Neither did you.”
He shrugged. “Didn’t need to… The air was too calm anyway, feels like a storm’s brewing.”
“Is that what’s happening?” I asked, gazing up into the clouded sky. “A storm?”
His gaze flicked towards the dark horizon, where the dark mists of the Demon Lands were roiling in the distance.
“Feels like one,” he said. Then, almost as an afterthought, he continued. “Just… stay in the middle when we move out. Don’t let the demons pull you to the front again.”
That startled a breath of laughter from me. “You do remember who’s leading this group, right?”
“I do.” He smiled, a little rueful. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
I scoffed, a smile spreading on my lips as I shook my head at him.
Behind us, Ashley wrestled with her gear. “If I have to carry one more thing, I’m going to explode, and not in the fun way.”
Jaden stepped in smoothly, taking the pack from her before she could protest. “You’ll need your arms free.”
Ashley blinked. “Are you trying to be charming?”
He looked faintly amused. “Trying to be practical.”
“Hmm.” She bumped his arm. “You can be both, both is good.”
Nate’s head lifted at her tone, his eyes narrowing slightly. “We moving or flirting?”
Ashley stiffened, before straightening. “We can multitask.”
That earned a chuckle from Eve, perched nearby as she adjusted the scope on her rifle. “Oh, I like this version of you two.”
Ashley’s smirk faded instantly, the memory of old wounds flickering behind her eyes. The air thinned a little and Eve noticed, biting down on whatever joke she was about to make.
“Let’s go. The border won’t wait.” Malakai’s voice was low and even, cutting through the tension.
I glanced over at him, half-expecting to see annoyance lingering on his face, but he was blank as a paper.
Was that worse?
The forest grew darker as we moved south. The air grew thick and cold, and the earth hummed faintly beneath our boots. Jaden kept glancing down, as if he could feel the pulse of the ground beneath us.
“The soil feels different here,” he murmured. “It feels… alive.”
“Good,” Malakai said quietly behind me. “It can spread the news of the demon slayers.”
I glanced over my shoulder. His eyes met mine long enough to send a shiver down my spine, steady, unreadable, but there.
Always there.
“How do you… feel your magic?” I asked Jaden, trying to shift focus. “Or rather, how do you connect to it?”
“It’s like an extension of my body,” Jaden smiled. “Like the earth and I are one.” He stretched his hand out in a straight line, and the earth beside him rose like a small wall, following the same path that he was aiming towards. “Iimagine myself reaching for something, or attacking something and it follows.” His wall turned into spikes, before crumbling and settling once more.
“Could be problematic having so many earth-wielders in one place,” Nate snickered. “How does it feel to share dirt with everyone?”
“Really, that’s what you’re thinking of?” Eve sighed irritated.
