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“Until something changes,” Onyx signs, giving me a sympathetic look, those dark eyes of his holding mine. “Something always changes.”
“But we need something good to happen,” Rayne says.
Onyx shakes his head and goes to the remains of a fire we had from a few days ago. He builds up logs, and soon as a roaring fire going. Then, he goes back to the cave wall and collapses, while we all watch the fire grow. We all know we need to gather herbs and vegetables for another soup, maybe even try to get a rabbit or two, but no one is ready to do that yet. Even if we’re all starving.
I’m pretty sure I can make it out of the cave before I have to start crawling, but I try to mentally prepare myself. I know where there are some wild onions and some carrots. We haven’t used them all, so maybe I can make it there and help get something to eat started.
In just a minute. As soon as my legs stop shaking.
Before I can take even a few breaths, someone comes stumbling in. We’re all on our feet in an instant, in defensive stances, before we can get a look at the man. It’s… the elder. Elder Auero a man we thought had died when we couldn’t find him.
He’s much thinner than before, with clothes that hang off of him in tatters. And although he’s emaciated, his face is swollen with deep purple that darkens his cheeks and jaw, under his eyes, and there’s even a bruise across his forehead. Tufts of his white hair are missing, and pale skin shines where his scalp is exposed. As he moves, he holds his ribcage, and limps. When he stumbles, Onyx is there in an instant, carrying him and laying him down on a rock inside the cave.
“Lay,” Onyx signs, as the elder struggles to sit up.
But the old man doesn’t listen, he’s desperately trying to sit up, fighting so hard against Onyx that I’m worried he’s going to hurt himself. But my gentle giant seems to realize it so, with a frown, he holds the man up just a little. His big hands almost impossibly soft on the fragile old man.
The elder winces and sucks in a short, sharp breath that he holds for a second then let’s whoosh out. For a minute, he just sits there, pale, beaten, and looking far older than he’d looked before. We all exchange glances, on the edge of collapsing from exhaustion ourselves, but knowing taking care of this man is more important than our own needs.
But it’s more than that. The guilt is as thick in the air as the smoke from the fire. We should’ve looked harder for the elder when the shadow beasts on earth turned on us. We were just so overwhelmed that we hadn’t been sure if he was among those shadow beasts until it was too late, then, we’d searched for him, not knowing if he was in their world or on ours.
But the injuries on him right now are fresh, which means he was recently attacked by our enemies. If we’d found him sooner, we could’ve saved him this pain.
The elder coughs, struggling to pull in air, and I crawl to his side, my heart aching at the sight of him.
“It’s okay,” I tell him, sitting down beside him. I used a lot of my magic battling the shadow beasts during the night, but I’ll use whatever I can to help him now. “You’re here with us now.”
The elder’s head hangs, and his breaths come in quick, raspy wheezes like he’s run miles to get here. He grabs my hand as he collapses back in Onyx’s arms, and now, he’s half on the rock and half on the ground of the cave. Only Onyx’s body keeps him from completely falling.
The elder’s thin, brittle fingers curl into my skin as he looks up at me, eyes wide. “I know what to do. I’ve figured it… out.”
But before he can speak further, his head falls to the side.
TWO
Dusk
The elder isn’t goingto live. Not without a miracle. And, luckily for us, we have Ann and her incredible powers. They’ve done amazing things for all of us in this terrible war, so healing him should be possible. Noteasyafter fighting against our enemies all night, but possible.
Luckily for Elder Auero.
Our beautiful light fae kneels down beside him, her expression worn. Those big blue eyes of hers filled with worry. She tucks a stray strand of light blonde hair behind her ear, takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes. Within second, a golden light begins to illuminate her hands, her palms, and then radiates out as she lets her hands drift just above his chest.
Rayne looks at me. “The Shadow King?”
I don’t know what to say. We haven’t seen the elder since Phantom was taken by the king. We’d assumed he’d died in the battle or gone with them. We had no way of knowing where he’d been or what he’d been through, only that someone had hurt him.
But I could assume. “Probably.” I keep my voice low, not wanting to distract Ann.
Onyx signs, “Pray the Moon Goddess is with us.”
“Amen,” I sign back.
Rayne’s forehead is wrinkled as he watches us, probably because our words aren’t signs he’s learned, but I don’t want to take this time to explain things to him. It feels like we need to stay focused. Like Ann needs our willpower right now, because after using her light to kill our enemies all night, it’s probably taking everything in her to use it right now.
But something seems wrong.
Her hands hover over a massive slash across his chest. But instead of it fading away like it’d never been there at all, it closes a bit, the bleeding slowing, but nothing else happens. Ann frowns, and sweat beads her forehead. She moves to the slashes on his stomach, and the same thing happens.
