Chapter 5
CHAPTER
Morning light broke through the canopy, and for some reason it felt like I had just closed my eyes and not slept at all. My body was still sore from the fight. The wound looked better—I always healed quicker when I used my flames to cauterize open wounds—although it still stung a bit when I moved.
Smoke curled from the dying embers of the fire, carrying the faint smell of ash and burnt pine.
We gathered in a rough circle, stiff and tired but upright. No one spoke of the night before; the battlefield still felt too close, shadows clinging to us even here.
Malakai broke the silence first, voice steady but firm.
“We stay here. The soldiers sent to reinforce us are already on their way. With more numbers and a larger camp, we can build proper fortifications to fall back to. If we move now—” His gaze flicked, lingering on me. “We risk more than we can afford.”
I bristled. “And if we wait, the demons gain ground, they won’t sit idle while we lick our wounds. They’ll regroup. They’ll find another way to strike. We can’t just… hide.”
The words came sharper than I meant, but the ache in my side only fueled them.
Malakai’s jaw worked, as if holding back too many responses.
“You’re not healed.” His tone softened, but it felt like walls closing in. “Not enough to face another wave like yesterday.”
“I don’t need to be whole to fight,” I shot back.
The others shifted, weighing in one by one.
Jaden rubbed the back of his neck. “She’s not wrong. They’ll come again. But Malakai has a point, running into them with nothing to fall back to is suicide.”
Ashley sighed, tossing a twig into the embers. “We need a camp. Fortify first, then strike. Reinforcements aren’t far.”
Nate nodded once. “We build, we wait and we gather strength. But we don’t sit idle more than needed. Once the base is ready, we move.”
Eve muttered, “Better to be living cowards than dead heroes.”
Their agreement pressed the air thin.
I exhaled, forcing myself to nod. “Fine. Can we at least go meet the reinforcements, and plan our next strike? I can’t just sit here and wait.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Lionel’s voice cut through the low murmur. He looked at me, steady as ever, no hesitation in his tone. “If you’re meeting them halfway, you shouldn’t go alone. I’ll watch your back.”
I caught a flicker in Malakai’s expression before he flattened it. He didn’t say a word, but his silence weighed heavy.
“Alright,” Nate said briskly, breaking the pause. “The rest of us will hold here and prepare. You two bring back the soldiers.”
The plan was set.
The forest swallowed the sound of our unit behind us.
Our boots plunged through mud and dead leaves, the kind that crumpled under each step. Lionel walked a few steps behind, careful but distant, like he wasn’t sure how close he was allowed to be anymore.
He broke the silence first. “You’re walking too fast for someone who nearly bled out last night.”
I frowned. “And you’re still too bossy for someone who doesn’t want to lead.”
That earned a quiet chuckle, and he slowly closed the distance. “Maybe. Some things don’t change.”
We fell into silence again. He’d always been comfortable with it, I never was. My thoughts scraped too loud against themselves.
“You fought well yesterday,” I managed to say.
He gave a small shrug. “Not well enough. You got hit.”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
He didn’t answer right away. His shoulders shifted, tension in every line. “Maybe not. But I’m supposed to have your back. I always did.”
There it was; the echo of before.
Before fire and fear. Before he looked at me like I was something dangerous.
“I remember,” I said softly.
He glanced over his shoulder. His gaze caught mine, steady, unreadable.
“You scared me,” he said. “When I saw you go down, I thought—” He stopped, jaw working, then looked away. “Doesn’t matter.”
I already knew how he felt. Despite everything that had happened, I would never want to watch him get hurt or die, but that felt too heavy to share aloud, so I went with something lighter. “I’m hard to kill.”
He huffed, barely smiling. “That’s what scares me.”
I missed the meaning of his words until we were several steps past it. By then, his face had already closed again, calm and composed as ever.
We reached a clearing after a while, the trip feeling longer than it had probably actually been. I sat on a half-buried stone to catch my breath. Lionel stood beside me, eyes scanning the tree line like he couldn’t stop being protective.
When he finally spoke, his tone was careful, too careful. “So your demon friend.”
I stiffened before I could help it. “My what?”
“You… trust him.”
It wasn’t a question, but it still demanded an answer.
“I do,” I said, dragging the words out. “He’s… unpredictable, but he’s hard to get rid of.” My joke fell flat.
Lionel’s jaw flexed. “He’s dangerous.”
“So am I.”
That made him look at me—like really look at me.
His eyes softened just a little. “Not like him.”
I hesitated, unsure how I was supposed to respond. “He doesn’t hide what he is, so I’ve never had to pretend with him. I know he won’t flinch when my fire comes.”
Something flickered behind his calm—pain, maybe, or something buried deep. “So that’s what it takes? Someone who doesn’t flinch?”
I frowned, feeling heat rise to my neck. “That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” he said quickly, voice low and steady. “I just… wish you didn’t have to settle for someone who only appears safe because he’s more dangerous than the rest of us.”
The words stung, not cruelly, but because they were spoken like a truth he hated.
“Lionel…”
He met my gaze then, and all that calmness broke into something raw. “You know I’ll never let him hurt you, right?”
That did it, that little slip of emotion, the old promise still living in his voice. My chest tightened.
I couldn’t find the right response, so I nodded instead.
He looked away, rubbing the back of his neck, exhaling a soft laugh that wasn’t really laughter. “I didn’t mean to sound like I’m still—”
He stopped, catching himself. “Forget it.”
Before I could ask what he meant, a shout cut through the woods, sharp, distant and familiar.
“Flame-wielder!” Our reinforcements emerged from the trees, armor stained with dried black ichor. “We finally caught up to you, then. Earth mages really are the best trackers… Where do you wish us to go?”
Lionel straightened instantly, the soldier mask sliding back into place. I took a sharp breath.
Lionel turned to me, his calm restored but his eyes still soft. “We’ll talk more later.”
“Yeah,” I said, trying to sound steady.
As the soldiers gathered around us, I glanced at him one more time.
The sunlight caught the faint scar on his left hand, the one he’d gotten the day he first saved me.
He gave me a small nod, one soldier to another.
But under it, I saw it; the unspoken promise that he was still there, still the Lionel I knew.
And for the first time in a long while, I didn’t know if that comforted me… or terrified me. Instead, I turned towards the soldiers and instructed them to follow us back.
Upon our return, camp became livelier.
The new soldiers began raising more tents, some began cooking food in pots over campfires, and the low hum of units trying to keep their spirits high filled the air.
It was buzzing everywhere… how many soldiers had arrived?
Hundreds? Were even more coming? The problem with not being a part of either Aetherions or Ashen Corps fully anymore, was that their leaders didn’t trust us enough to give details.
Malakai stood near the fire, sleeves rolled up.
His posture was easy, hands tucked away into the pockets of his pants, like he was waiting.
There was something in his stillness that drew eyes without demanding them, the quiet command of someone who used to lead and hadn’t quite forgotten how to.
Or maybe it was simply his aura, the way he watched silently like a hawk, ready to strike at any moment.
When his gaze found me, a faint smile touched his lips. Not the sharp one he used when he taunted me. This one was quieter, warmer.
“You’re back,” he said simply.
“You didn’t think I would be?” I arched a brow.
“I’ve learned not to assume,” he replied, voice flat, but the words sharp. His eyes flicked briefly to Lionel beside me. “Good to see you in one piece too, sniper.”
Lionel nodded once. “It’s Lionel.”
“Old habits,” Malakai said, tone light, almost apologetic.
I caught the flicker of surprise in Lionel’s expression; Malakai had offered no bite, no challenge, just calm acknowledgment. Maybe that unsettled him more.
I tried to step past them, but Lionel spoke again.
“You could’ve joined us, you know. Some soldiers still listen to you. Besides, if you’re all about being the good demon, then there’s no reason for you to stay behind and hide in the shadows.”
Malakai met his gaze evenly. “I trust her to speak for all of us.”
The words were simple, but they landed like a soft touch at the back of my neck, protective without being possessive.
Lionel’s shoulders tightened a fraction. “You trust easily for someone who doesn’t follow orders.”
“Not easily,” Malakai said, voice low. “Just… her.”
Something in his tone made Lionel look away first.
I busied myself with the nearest crate that the soldiers had brought, pretending to check the maps spread across it. The air wasn’t angry, just full of things unsaid. And if I had to pick my own weakness, it had to be sorting things out. Evidentially, I only made things worse by opening my mouth.
Ashley’s voice broke the silence, bright and sharp as flint. “Okay, what’s with the tension-party over here? Do I need to light something up to make it less awkward?”
“Please don’t,” I said, too quickly.
Malakai chuckled under his breath. “Tempting offer.”
Ashley gave him a long, unimpressed look. “You’d enjoy it too much.”
He smiled, real, unguarded. “Probably.”
“That reminds me, how did you hide your fangs all those years in the Ashen Corps?” Ashley asked curiously.
Malakai chuckled. “When someone is good at their work, people rarely question the methods.”
“It’s like he had a free buffet every time they hunted mages,” Nate gasped mockingly and I glared at him.
“Huh,” Ashley huffed disappointed. “And here I thought you killed everyone who found out just to stay safe, or bribed the top dog or something.”
“Who says I didn’t?” he smirked and Ashley’s eyes immediately began sparking with interest once more.
Lionel rubbed the back of his neck and exhaled. “We should eat, then move.”
“Agreed,” I said, shaking my head at Ashley.
As I turned to leave, Malakai’s voice followed me, softer than before. “You did well today.”
I hesitated. “You weren’t there to see it.”
“I didn’t have to be,” he said. “I know how you move when you’ve made up your mind.”
The words lingered, low and certain. They weren’t claiming to know me as much as telling me he had faith in me.
When I met his gaze, he nodded once, and that was enough.
Lionel rushed past me, intentional but careful not to touch. “He shouldn’t talk to you like that.”
I frowned. “Like what?”
“Like he knows you.”
“But he does,” I said quietly. “We’ve been through the same fires.”
Lionel’s jaw tightened, but his voice stayed calm. “Then I guess I’m still catching up.”
I opened my mouth, but Ashley looped her arm through mine, steering me away with a grin too wide to be innocent.
“Okay, fearless leader, before you start burning the air between those two, again, come help me set up the ration line.”
“I’m not—”
“But they are. Big men, big feelings, so shut up and let me save you,” she snapped at me and I chuckled surprised.
I let her drag me off. Behind us, the sound of Malakai′s low laugh carried just far enough to reach me. It wasn’t mocking, it was knowing.
And when I risked a glance back, he wasn’t watching Lionel for a fight at all.
He was watching me.