Chapter 14
CHAPTER
The morning air smelled sharp with pine and stone, cool enough to carve the last of the fever from my chest. My body ached, but the fire under my skin was gone. At least I could breathe again.
“Look at that,” Malakai’s voice cut across camp as soon as I stirred. His smirk was already waiting. “Our fearless guide awakens. Think you can lead today without collapsing, kitten?”
“I’m not the guide,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes.
“You are until I say otherwise.” He leaned back against the rock wall, perfectly at ease. “I enjoy watching you stumble.”
Before I could snap back, Nate crouched down in front of me with his usual grin. “Alive and kicking. Thought we’d have to bury you last night.”
“She doesn’t need your jokes,” Mey said firmly, though her tone softened as she handed me a flask. “Drink slowly. You’ll need your strength.”
“I told you, I’m fine,” I insisted, though the cool water sliding down my throat was like heaven. How many times had I uttered those useless words now? No one listened to them anyway…
“Fine and cranky,” Ashley announced, plopping down beside me and knocking her shoulder into mine. “Good. Means you’re back.”
A laugh escaped me despite myself. Their voices, their concern, it steadied me more than I would care to admit.
By the time we set out, the forest felt almost serene. The trail slithered along the mountain’s flank, pine needles crunching under our boots, shafts of light breaking through the canopy. Moss clung to slick rocks, roots twisted across the trail, and the air was rich with resin and damp earth.
It was peaceful.
Until Malakai spoke up.
“Tell me, sniper,” he said suddenly, voice lazy but sharp. “Do you like her, or are you just trying to memorize her stride?”
My steps faltered, my eyes widened.
Lionel stiffened, jaw tight. “That’s not… sir, you’re imagining things.”
“Oh?” Malakai’s smirk carried in his tone. “What tactical advantage do you gain staring at your squadmate’s swaying hips? I’d love a demonstration.”
Blood flooded my face, I wanted to fade away, disappear.
Lionel’s mouth opened, closed, then stayed shut.
Eve’s laugh cut through the silence, brittle and sweet. “Please. There’s nothing to look at.”
“Wrong,” Nate chimed in cheerfully. “Perfect view, if you ask me.”
“Brother!” Mey snapped, her voice colder than the mountain air.
Nate raised both hands, with mock innocence. “What? I was just contributing to the discussion.”
“Well don’t!” Mey sighed heavily.
Ashley cackled, bouncing on her heels. “This is brilliant. Keep going. I want to see how red Ethalyn can get before she faints again.”
“Enough,” I muttered, but it came out weak against the noise.
Malakai’s chuckle slid low into the silence that followed. “If you’re too scared to take a step, sniper, maybe I’ll do it for you.”
The words hit like a blow. My breath caught, and Lionel’s shoulders went rigid. I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me whole.
Lionel’s answer never came, and perhaps that was for the best, considering my poor nerves were already on the verge of bursting.
It never came because Ashley, of all people, went still, her laughter cut short.
“Hold.” She crouched low, palm flat to the ground. Her grin vanished. “Not good.”
My pulse stumbled.
Malakai’s tone lost its mockery in an instant. “Report.”
“Tracks,” Ashley muttered. “Boots, heavy, too many prints to count.” Her fingers skimmed the prints, the edges warped strangely. “And they’re… frozen?”
I frowned, leaning closer. The trail of footprints didn’t sink naturally into the mud. Instead, each depression was filled with a thin crust of ice, glinting faint blue in the dim light.
A hiss of breath came from Mey. “Frozen water in the footprints. That shouldn’t happen. Not this cleanly.”
The mountain air was cold, yes, but there wasn’t any snow around this time of the year and this was precise, edges glass-slick, like someone had poured liquid and flash frozen it solid mid-step.
Eve shifted her rifle uneasily. “Mages.”
Lionel crouched, brushing the edge of a print with gloved fingers. A shard snapped off, sharp as glass. “An hour old, no more or it would’ve melted already.”
Nate’s usual humor drained away. He bent lower, squinting.
“Look at this.” Nate scraped aside some dirt to reveal vines lying on the ground as if someone had ripped them off a tree. But none of the trees around here had such vines. Where had they come from, if not an earth mage?
The air smelled faintly of minerals and wet stone, like riverbanks after a flood. Too strong, too close.
Mey coughed, twice, into her sleeve. Her voice was tight when she spoke again. “If they’re leaving signs like this, surely they want us to follow. Or at the very least, they don’t care if we do.”
Malakai straightened, scanning the ridgeline with that predatory stillness of his. For a heartbeat, no one breathed.
Then his hand tightened on the hilt at his side. “Fun’s over,” he said. “Eyes sharp.”
But before anyone could react, before I could find my tongue, the forest split open with a hiss of power.
A gust roared down the slope, ripping branches free, stinging needles slashing at exposed skin.
“Mages!” Malakai growled, voice sharp as a gunshot. “Positions!”
I froze for a second, then training took over. I brought my rifle up, taking aim and looking for any movement ahead. Shadows glowed between trunks, a swirling green light forming around one’s arm, blue frost spiraling up another’s neck.
The first mage struck, slamming a hand to the ground, the green light spreading from his arms to the ground. Earth ripped upward in spikes, exploding soil and rock across the path.
“Down!” Lionel shoved me aside, covering me with his body as shards tore through the air.
Gunfire cracked, Ashley’s weapon singing loud and chaotic as she whooped in delight. “Eat powder, magic freaks!” Her bullets tore into the nearest figure, causing him to fall back into cover.
Eve dropped to a knee beside a boulder, sniper rifle braced. One clean shot whistled past my ear, bursting a glowing ice sigil mid-formation before it could finish. She smirked, murmuring, “You’re welcome.”
Nate flanked left, laying suppressive fire. He kept glancing over his shoulder at Mey. “Stay back, sis-”
Too late.
A wave of force slammed through the ground, buckling the earth beneath us. Nate shouted as he hit hard against the rock wall behind us, his head cracking against it. He crumpled instantly.
“Nate!” Mey’s voice broke, her scream tearing through the air. She scrambled towards him, firing blind with her sidearm.
“Cover them!” Malakai barked, his own rifle spitting fire, cold, precise, controlled. He moved like he’d done this a hundred times, never wasting a bullet.
I snapped my attention to the others covering Mey as she made her way towards Nate.
How many mages were there? Earth and ice, two different elemental forces.
Chaos surged. Spikes erupted. Ice shards shattered across trees and stone, spraying lethal hail at us.
I fired at the flurry, shattering some of the larger ones to avoid getting impaled.
I aimed at the tree line, rounds tearing bark where the mages ducked.
My pulse thundered in my ears. I’d trained for this, but training didn’t prepare you for the earth screaming beneath your feet or watching your friends in real danger.
Lionel stayed glued to my side, his fire steady. At one point he hooked a hand around my arm, yanking me down right as a wave of ice shards arched overhead.
Meanwhile, Ashley laughed like a lunatic as she lobbed grenades she’d rigged herself, blasts cracking through the trees and forcing mages out into the open. “Dance for me, cowards!”
The squad was holding, but we were scattering, as they kept throwing ice and manipulating the earth around us. Each wave of magical air pushed us farther apart, the forest swallowing us in smoke and shattered earth.
Another surge. Another crack. And suddenly, ice spread underneath my feet, covering the dirt and stone with a blank surface.
It was slippery and my balance faltered.
I was falling. I tumbled against the hardened dirt, sliding down the slope.
I heard Lionel shouting far behind me, but I couldn’t stop, my momentum forcing me further and further down the steep decline.
Once I stilled, dirt dusted the air along with the smoke from Ashley’s grenades.
How far had I fallen? I moved slowly, no bones were broken.
My boots slid across a torn patch of earth as silence settled heavy.
I treaded carefully forward, I was probably closer to the enemies than my own squad after that fall.
Breathing hard, I raised my rifle. Through the smoke between the trees, a figure emerged.
A mage.
His arm lifted, green glowing marks already crawling up his skin, preparing his earthen magic to strike me.
I steadied my aim. “Who are you?”
The mage halted briefly, the glow still pulsing along his arms, but his green eyes watched mine, carefully. My heart began slamming against my ribs.
“Why are you attacking us?”
The mage scoffed and a smile showing his teeth spread on his face. Yeah, it was a stupid question, I’ll give him that one. “I mean—”
He furrowed his brows. “Why are you not shooting?”
The words cut through and my mouth was left hanging. I had no idea, I belonged to the Ashen Corps, and it was my mission to strike against a mage at sight. Yet here I was, trying to talk to him, wanting to understand why we all simply followed orders without stopping to ask questions.
“Why aren’t you?” I stammered in response. His whole stance broke, as if I had said something hurtful, broken him.
“I…” he began, hesitant, weary. “I don’t like killing humans… If I did… What makes me different from the demons? From you?”
I lowered my gun, staring bewildered at him.
“This is my first encounter with an ungifted who hasn’t fired their weapon on sight,” he confessed, still wary but lowering his arms to his side. “It’s… refreshing.”