Chapter 4
CHAPTER
Dawn broke pale and reluctant, light slithering through the trees. The forest smelled of mold and dew, the kind of air that felt refreshing after a cool rain.
We packed in silence. No one seemed eager to be the first to speak. The quiet was heavy, still tangled in everything that hadn’t been said around the fire.
Malakai knelt by the last ember, dousing it with careful precision despite his bound wrists. He didn’t look at me, not directly, but I could feel him, his awareness of me, constant and patient; always near enough to catch me if I fell, never close enough to make me flinch.
I brushed past him to grab my pack.
“I’ll keep my distance if that’s what you need,” he murmured, softly. “But I’m still right here, kitten. Always will be.”
I didn’t answer, couldn’t.
The words hung in the cool air between us, warm in a way I didn’t want to admit.
Lionel approached from the other side of camp, his rifle slung lazily across his back.
“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.
“I imagine 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.
“My magic might not be all special,” Jaden continued. “But it’s the one thing I don’t share.”
Nate snorted, clearly not impressed.
“I’m curious about your parents,” Jaden continued, turning his attention on me. “Did they also have fire magic like you? Or were they both ungifted?”
Lionel clenched his teeth audibly.
“I wouldn’t know,” I murmured. “I was young when they passed.”
“Oh, my bad.” Jaden’s tone shifted, leaving us in silence once more.
The forest ended abruptly, giving way to an open stretch of grey sand. Further away, a dark mist coiled like smoke.
Like a line between worlds.
“Looks friendly,” Eve said sarcastically.
“Stay sharp,” I told them, tightening the strap across my chest.
As my first step carried me over the grey dune of the Demon Lands, I felt Malakai’s presence just behind me, silent, patient, and impossibly close.
The land beyond the border didn’t breathe the same way ours did.
Grey sand stretched out in long, rippling waves, every step sinking with a soft hiss. The air hung thick, the mist coiling low around our boots. Even the wind refused to move.
No birds. No insects. Just the hollow crunch of our footsteps.
“Anyone else feel like we shouldn’t be here?” Ashley whispered.
Eve answered without lowering her rifle. “Congratulations, you have instincts.”
“Nothing’s moving. Not even the mist,” Lionel said, scanning the horizon through his scope.
“That’s the problem,” Nate murmured. “The stillness.”
I glanced back at Malakai, his head slightly bowed, eyes half-lidded like he was listening to something no one else could hear. The ropes around his wrists were still holding.
“You smell something?” I asked under my breath.
He nodded once. “They’re close.”
We pressed on, the silence thickening until even the smallest sound felt like blasphemy. My magic prickled beneath my skin, restless and hungry. I caught Lionel watching me from the corner of his eye, his knuckles white around his rifle.
Suddenly, Malakai stopped. “Something’s coming.”
The mist moved first, tightening, then splitting open in a dozen places at once.
Figures poured out of it like oil given solid form, humanoid, but wrong. Their bodies shimmered between shapes, flickering faces that mimicked ours, then twisted back into faceless shadows. After them came the elemental demons, born of earth, flame, water, and air, bound by the dark.
“Positions!” I shouted.
Eve dropped to a knee, rifle up, and Ashley began pulling pins with her teeth. Nate drew steel, positioning his back against Ashley’s as demons encircled us from behind as well. Jaden slammed his palms into the ground, sand coalescing into a wave of stone surging up to form a barricade.
Malakai stood still, as we watched the demons hesitate, their attention snapping to him like hounds catching a scent. The air filled with hostility.
“They’re focusing on me,” he said, voice low, almost calm. “They know what I am.”
“Then make them regret it!” Ashley yelled, lighting a bomb and hurling it into the mist.
It exploded in a flash of white and orange, scattering sand and bone. The demons reformed almost instantly, their shapes crackling with elemental fury, flames licking from hollow mouths, water forming into humanoid shapes, only larger.
One lunged straight for Malakai. He dodged backwards, the ropes still binding his hands.
“Break them!” I shouted hysterically.
He looked at me sharply. “You sure?”
“I said, break them!”
The rope shredded like paper and the air shifted.
Faded markings bloomed across Malakai’s arms and neck, pulsing with red light, and when he lifted his hand, the very air rippled. The nearest demon convulsed, its body caught in a web of threads as black blood burst from its chest, dissolving before it hit the ground.
Jaden flinched. “Saints…”
“Keep fighting!” Nate shouted at him.
Eve fired into the fray, bullets whistling through mist as Ashley’s bombs sent shockwaves through the sand. Lionel covered the rear, precise and cold with his sniper.
The ground’s hum beneath us increased, low and deep, and the shadows behind Malakai moved.
A massive figure rose from the earth, built from fractured rock and smoke, its veins glowing with sickly violet light.
“What is that thing!?” Lionel shouted, but none of us knew for certain, we had never seen such magic before.
“Malakai!” I screamed.
He turned, summoning another web of blood, but the creature moved faster, slamming a jagged arm towards him. I threw myself forward, fire roaring from my hands. The flames struck true, but the creature drank them, its body absorbing the heat, before it began pulsating in that violet hue.
A shock of freezing energy ripped through me as the demon’s claws slashed at my side.
The world turned white. The wound burned in a way I had never felt.
It wasn’t flames, yet it seared, taking my breath away.
It was like frostbite, and as though it was sucking all happiness out of me, leaving me cold and trembling.
I stumbled, gasping, my vision blurring.
“Ethalyn!” Malakai’s voice broke through the roar.
He was on his knees beside me, blood magic flaring out in a shield. His crimson glow cut through the shadows, forcing the creatures back. His hands pushed against my side, covered in blood, trembling, as his power pulsed in the air.
“They’re not after you,” Nate shouted, slashing another demon aside. “They’re after her!”
“Well they’ll still have to go through me,” Malakai snarled, eyes burning brighter. His power surged outwards, red against the grey, holding the line.
I tried to speak, tried to tell him to retreat with everyone, but the world tilted. The wound spread ice through my veins like ink in water.
The last thing I saw was Malakai. Eyes scarlet red as his power erupted, shaking the ground and painting the mist in crimson light.
When I woke again, the world smelled of pine and damp earth.
The sand, blood and smoke were gone, replaced by the hush of the forest night. Firelight flickered against bark, casting long shadows that swayed like ghosts. My body ached, but it was a dull throb now, wrapped in blankets and bandages. How long had I been out? It was already dark again.
I shifted slightly, and someone moved beside me.
Malakai.
He sat close, his arm brushed against mine, posture rigid, eyes lowered. The crimson glow that had burned through him on the battlefield was gone, but it lingered in the memory of his gaze, too bright and too heavy to forget.
“Gods, you’re awake.” I heard Lionel’s voice, rougher than ever. “You scared the hells out of us.”
He crouched down in front of me, his whole face shifting, and relief shining through his usual calm, like light through glass.
I managed a weak smile. “You know I wouldn’t leave you guys behind.”
His hand brushed mine, hesitant, lingering only a second before he pulled back fast, like the touch burned. He rose abruptly, scanning the trees to hide the rawness on his face. “I’m glad you’re okay… I’ll… I’ll fetch more wood.” And then he disappeared into the dark.
“Lionel?” I asked weakly, but he either didn’t hear me, or chose to ignore me as he continued walking away.
The others busied themselves nearby; Eve muttering as she cleaned her sniper, Ashley snapping branches underfoot for the fire, Nate sharpening his blades. Their presence hummed around the camp, but no one pressed close. No one but Malakai, whose eyes burned at my side still.
He hadn’t moved since I stirred. Still and silent, as if waiting for me to speak first. I shifted underneath the blanket.
“You shouldn’t sit up,” he said finally, voice low, controlled. “Rest…” His jaw tightened. “You’ll need it after what happened.”
I pushed up anyway, grimacing. He reached out instantly, steadying me, and his hand at my shoulder, hot through the layers of cloth. Neither of us moved. Neither of us breathed.
“You nearly died,” he murmured, almost to himself. “Because of me.”
I turned my head towards him. The light from the fire caught in his eyes which were beginning to glow dimly again, like embers that refused to die.
“I’m still here,” I said, as firmly as I could.
His fingers flexed against me, tightening and then loosening, until they stilled. It was as if he needed to confirm my statement for himself. Slowly he leaned closer, until his breath fanned warm against my cheek.
The world narrowed to that single point. His hand on me, his gaze pulling me in, the magnetism that had been building since we met again after the battle at Rimefield.
He was too close, and yet, it was impossible to move away.
“Have you… fed… regularly?” I stuttered, my voice barely holding on.
“Why?” he hummed. “Are you offering?”
“No,” I answered way too quickly, making him chuckle.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe. You’ve lost enough blood already.”
My heart tripped against my ribs as his eyes dropped to my lips, then rose again to meet mine, raw and burning. His lips parted, hesitation breaking. I felt his breath, the heat radiating from him.
I should’ve pulled away. It was the most sensible thing to do, yet I let it happen, the faintest touch, the barest brush of his lips against mine and I began melting.
A slip.
A surrender.
“Ethalyn!”
Ashley’s voice shattered the moment. She stood beside the campfire, arms full of branches. “You awake enough to eat for yourself? Or do I have to chew it for you?”
I jerked away, though the air between Malakai and I still burned. His hand fell from my side, but his touch lingered like an imprint carved into me.
My chest heaved, my lips still tingling with the ghost of his.
When I dared look at him, his gaze was already waiting, heavy and unyielding, cutting straight through me. The light caught on the faint red still burning in his eyes, but his voice was low, meant only for me.
“You risked yourself for me in Runora,” he murmured, a quiet edge threading his words. “And even now, after everything, you do it again.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but his lips curved. Not a smile, but something fiercer. “You can be furious with me all you want, kitten. But from now on I’ll be glued to your side, to make sure you don’t try to sacrifice yourself again.”
The heat of his certainty stole my breath. His tone wasn’t angry, it was a truth he carried like a weapon, like a vow.
Ashley dropped the wood onto the fire, squinting between us. “What’s with the looks? You’re both acting like you’ve been caught stealing.”
“Just tired,” I said trying to clear my throat, voice thin.
Ashley shrugged, muttering under her breath as she tended to the flames.
“Why do you even recognize such faces?” I muttered.
“Oh, I’ve stolen plenty,” Ashley chuckled.
Malakai leaned back against the trunk, creating more distance between us. But his eyes never left me, piercing, like I had just told him my darkest secret and left him to deal with it by himself.
Each glance between us was its own kind of torture.
And though neither of us had uttered the word, I felt it there, unspoken, burning through every breath.
The desire for trust.