Chapter 67 #3
“I know. I’m watching through the drone above you. Zafira and I are positioned to the west. Kaori sent two squads to your location. As soon as the barrier drops, run and don’t stop until I say so.”
“Why is the aikan? glowing?” Aish asked, pointing at Adele, who wasn’t even looking around—just running, all her attention focused on keeping her feet moving.
“Long story!” I pulled on the bond again.
“Zion, tell your men to aim for their eyes. It won't kill them, but it'll hold them off until you can contain them,” I warned, scanning our surroundings once more for any monsters following us. The power in my chest remained still—there weren't any.
“I'm passing along the information.” Zion sounded focused on something at his end.
The uneven terrain forced me to break away from the group, zigzagging between rocks and toxic water.
Thick fog blanketed this stretch of the region.
“Be careful in this area—there's a trap near the lake. Veer west, then get back on the path.”
I shouted the directions, calling out coordinates for my friends to head west, though I couldn't actually see them through the fog.
“How are the other students?”
We passed alongside a deep, toxic lake, the mists swirling in spirals, disturbed by our movements. I watched them in terror, afraid something would burst out at us.
“Safe. They're running toward the barrier and have already reached quadrant 10. They're warning everyone else along the way. The drones have also rallied the smartest ones.”
“I'm relieved,” I admitted, dodging trees and leaping over a rock-strewn stream. We'd left the swamp behind, along with the fog; here the ground was dry, hard, and rocky.
“Just three more hours of running,” he warned, still issuing orders at his end.
Three hours! I thought I could handle the run, but I wondered if Adele and Breno could keep up.
I glanced around to check their pace, focusing on Breno—our key to getting out of there—and felt relieved to see him holding steady at the front of our group.
But when I shifted my gaze, the obvious hit me.
Where was Adele? I stopped, skidding across dirt, rocks, and snow.
“Adele!” I shouted desperately. My friends stopped too, looking around in confusion.
“ADELE!”
She wasn't with us.
“Did you see her?” I asked in shock. The drone guiding us flew back toward the path we'd come from.
“She was beside me until five minutes ago. I think she got separated when we passed through the fog,” Breno said breathlessly, creating a fixed protective barrier around us.
“ADELE!” I shouted again, staring into the dark, empty forest. My voice drifted through the snow floating around us, but found no answer.
“She fell into the trap. She went east instead of west,” Zion said with regret.
Despair struck my heart as I remembered that Adele didn't understand cardinal directions at all. When I said west, she must have gotten lost.
“She fell into a trap,” I relayed to my friends, then ran back along the path we'd come from. “Keep going without me. I'll catch up with you.”
“No way!” I heard four voices shout around me, including Zion's.
“Go on! I can handle this—they're not nearby. We're wasting time standing here.”
“I'm going with you,” Hiro said, stepping forward, and Aish grabbed his arm tightly.
“If you go, I'm going too.”
“Me too,” Breno said.
“No! You need to protect Breno and get to the barrier as fast as possible. He's our only chance of survival,” I exclaimed. “I'm going—I don't sense the carniceals nearby. Just slow your pace and I'll catch up soon.”
The three looked at me, undecided. Each second lost was life slipping through our fingers. Finally, Hiro threw me his last two arrows, and I caught them midair.
“Take this too, zoozi,” Aish said, handing me her holster containing two daggers and a flare. I took the strap and buckled it around my waist and thigh.
“Be quick. We'll slow down until you get back,” Breno promised, already pushing his friends along.
I waved to him. I trusted his power, but I was still worried something might happen to them.
With no time to lose, I turned and raced back along the path while Zion shouted and pounded on the bond desperately.
I blocked him out—I couldn't afford distractions.
I leaped over the stream again, zigzagged between the trees, and in the middle of the fog, I spotted Adele's pale glow at the bottom of a hole in the ground.
The trap had been set near the deep lake I'd seen earlier, and thin sheets of ice were already forming on its surface.
It reeked of iron, the smell worse than any other lake.
“Adele?” I whispered, leaning my head over the hole.
She was crying, huddled against the dirt wall. When she heard me, her gaze drifted through the fog, searching for me, then her eyes widened in astonishment.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, jumping to her feet and wiping the tears from her face.
“Isn't it obvious?”
I reached down from the edge of the depression, but my hand didn't reach her.
I looked around and spotted an old tree stump.
I rolled it to the edge and dropped it down to her.
She climbed onto the stump, and when her hand touched mine, the crushing sensation of carniceals nearby hit me full force in the chest. I grabbed her hand and pulled with all my strength, hauling her out of that hole while her feet slipped and scrambled against the muddy dirt wall.
“Idiot! You shouldn’t have come, I...”
“Save the thanks for later. Did you forget you’re my partner?” I finished pulling her out and we both collapsed at the edge, gasping and frantic.