Chapter 23
CHAPTER
The others took it better than I had expected; perhaps the fact that Mey had been revealed before me made it easier to swallow, even though this was completely different.
Mey had never lied, I had.
Malakai wandered around restlessly, while I sank to my knees in the dirt, waiting. Ashley was fascinated with my abilities, perhaps because they reminded her of explosions. Mey was curious, but a bit cautious too, while Nate did his best to remain objective about it.
My eyes had locked onto the horizon where Lionel had dashed away. The longer I waited, the more my body shrunk, realizing that perhaps he had been right. I had killed our friendship, smothered the possibility of us becoming more.
Was this how it felt, losing a part of yourself? The only comfort I found was that now that he knew, I had no more secrets, it was all in the open.
“It’s been hours,” Nate reminded us, watching the sunlight from above. “Maybe… we should move? We’re kind of limited in our supplies.”
Mey shot him a glare, and he waved his hands like a white flag.
Ashley squatted down with me, taking my hands in hers. “I know it hurts… but you can’t change who you are, even if you want to.”
I met her icy blue eyes and nodded, feeling hollow. She dragged me up on my feet, I had been sitting on them for so long that I wobbled.
I took one last glance towards the glade, but it was still empty, so we turned around and left the site behind us.
“I kind of understand him, though,” Nate murmured as we began our walk.
“Nate!” Mey hissed angrily.
“Hear me out, I’m not saying I want to quit, I only think he was surprised.” He glanced over at me. “You’ve grown up together, right?”
I nodded, since words kept falling away from me.
“I was shocked too, about you,” Nate said, pointing at Mey. “But… you’re still you. Maybe he simply needs time to see that for himself?”
My eyes were glued to the ground, another polite nod.
“Yeah, he’s a good tracker right? He’ll probably catch up soon,” Mey added, trying to cheer me up.
They were too nice, too optimistic. There was not a chance in hell that he’d forgive me. If he came back, it would be because he felt guilty about his duty, not for me.
“He’s a douche,” Ashley said, her voice clarifying her annoyance. “He should’ve listened and tried to understand instead of running away… douche.”
Her attitude made my lips curl slightly. My eyes locked on to Malakai’s back, and slowly my smile disappeared again.
‘Has he told you all this?’. Yes, Malakai was the one who changed my focus. I was still debating the probability of him being a temptation demon, but I hadn’t had a chance to test my theory.
If anything, he had helped me cover my flames from the others once we found each other again. Wouldn’t a temptation demon try to lure me into hurting them?
Or was the plan even more complex than that? What if he wanted me to embrace my powers so my friends would abandon me? That way, he’d be able to feed off of my magic without anyone knowing…
No, it seemed too far-fetched… especially since most of them seemed to accept my mage abilities.
If I was a temptation demon, what would I aim for?
He came to an abrupt stop and my eyes widened. I hadn’t said anything out loud, had I?
His head turned slightly, but his eyes weren’t on me. Then, smoothly, he side-stepped as an ice shard came flying, shattering against a nearby tree.
“Huh?” Mey sounded confused.
“Mages,” Nate whispered low as we all turned towards the direction the ice came from.
A group of three slowly stalked closer. Two men and one woman, all dressed in fancy robes. The woman and one of the men wore vivid blue colors, from top to toe. The third had a green robe with yellow markings swirling around it.
“Who are you?” the man in blue asked, perhaps he was the leader of the group. “What are you doing out here?”
“We’re runaways,” I said, their eyes turning towards me with haste. “We’ve got powers too, but we’ve been forced to suppress them until now.”
They exchanged looks with each other.
“You’re from the other side of the border?” the woman asked, looking straight at me.
“Yes…” I quickly glanced at Malakai, we hadn’t really talked about what I was supposed to tell them and not.
“Show us,” the man in green hissed.
I shrugged a bit, nerves settling in, before I stretched my hands out.
Nothing.
“Wait… I need to warm up,” I sighed.
Mey stepped forward, swirling a little water droplet in her hand. The mages caught the movement and nodded slowly, but didn’t utter a word, merely glancing back at me, waiting.
Shit.
I never knew I’d have performance anxiety for using my flames. My skin prickled, as I felt Malakai’s gaze turn to me.
“You better show them before I give you a reason to,” he threatened, a taunting smile playing at his lips.
I glared at him, imagining how it felt when I threw a fireball at him. My fingers began burning slightly.
Relief struck me, as I glanced over at the mages again, but their stares were locked on my hands, eyes widen.
Malakai acknowledged it, as he stalked closer to me. Slowly, he leaned closer to me, his breath stroked my earlobe. “Good girl.”
I staggered backwards, but my hands flashed, as flames erupted around them. The mages gasped in response, snapping me out of my embarrassment.
“She’s—” the woman stammered, looking over at her fellow mages.
The man in the middle stepped forward, his grey eyes lingered on my hands, before they slid up to meet with my gaze. His black tousled hair poked out of his blue hood.
“Fire mage,” he said calmly, once he stood in front of me. “What is your name?”
“Ethalyn,” I answered, straightening myself. “You?”
“I am Nicron,” he bowed his head slightly. “If you want, I’d like to invite you to our camp, Runora.”
I glanced over at Malakai, who was as blank as a piece of paper.
“Really?” I asked, looking back.
Nicron was watching like a hawk, and slowly he looked over at Malakai, realizing my hesitation, before looking back to me again. “Yes, we haven’t had a fire mage in ages, we’d be honored to introduce you.”
My heart bolted at the knowledge he gave me. Fire wasn’t a common magic amongst them? Why?
They hadn’t seen one in ages… was I the only fire mage alive or the only one they had met?
“Sorry… introduce us to whom?” I asked, trying to keep my voice polite to not offend them with my eager questions.
A smirk spread on Nicron’s lips, it felt like I had committed a fault and he noticed. “Our leader at the encampment, of course.”
“Of course,” Ashley muttered behind me, not able to resist the urge to open her mouth anymore.
I nodded slightly, as Nicron turned and walked back to his fellow comrades, before turning to wave for us to follow.
I swallowed hard. This was it, our way in, our opportunity to talk to them and their leader.
This was an accomplishment, a step into the right direction.
Even if we had barely told them anything about us, we could now test the waters, so to speak and get a view of their thoughts on the war, on life itself.
I think we were all on edge as we walked, bitter silence swallowing us all. Nicron and his people never spoke a word amongst themselves, perhaps because they knew we would have been able to overhear.
Ashley played with a bomb in her hand, earning a few confused glares at times.
“Behave,” Nate snapped at her, and she sighed.
“Stop,” Nicron said suddenly, and we all followed suit.
His head snapped towards the right and all I heard was the wind howling between the trees before a small branch snapped, and Nicron instantly produced shards of ice in his hand.
“Wait,” I raised my voice, holding my hand out as my eyes darted to the side.
No way.
I saw Lionel and Eve walking with their hands in the air, surrendering. His eyes were locked on mine, but Eve kept hers on our new acquaintances.
“Who are you!?” Nicron shouted aggressively, as his ice shards danced around in his palm.
“They’re with us,” I snapped quickly. “We got separated.”
Lionel pressed his lips together into a thin line, as if holding something in.
But he came back.
I was ready to laugh, to cry—I never thought I’d see him again.
Nicron glanced back at me, his jaw tensing before he looked over to his female comrade, who shrugged in response. “The more the merrier?”
“Are you the only fire mage amongst you?” Nicron asked, looking back.
“Yes,” I answered quickly, maybe too quickly.
He nodded slowly. “If you try anything funny, we’ll kill you on the spot, understood?”
“Yes.” I understood his sudden concern; we were suddenly two more, and we already outnumbered them before this addition.
But since they never asked the others to show their powers, I gathered they were too invested in mine to even care if they brought ungifted along or not.
“Lionel,” I whispered as they got closer. “You’re back.”
He nodded slowly. “I… I just need time to process.”
“Told you,” Nate murmured behind us.
“I didn’t think you’d come back,” I said, not able to hold back a faint smile.
“Me neither,” he said, his voice still stern. “I’m still mad you lied.”
I bit back my smile and averted my eyes. Of course, I knew that, it would’ve been weird otherwise.
“Nicron here is taking us to their base, since we’re runaways,” I said, sneaking in the information to them, so they knew what we had told the mages.
Eve glared at them, not able to hide her disgust for them in the slightest. Lionel was blank, as he simply nodded again, falling in line with the rest of us.
“No more surprise guests, then?” Nicron teased, his eyes sharp, making it seem like a potential threat.
“No,” I said firmly. “This is all of us.”