Page 41 of Oracle of Ruin

I force a weak smile to my lips. “Not a terrifying thought at all.”

“No more terrifying than Emi, and yet you took her on earlier.”

“And won,” Mavis notes in response to her general.

Emi rolls her eyes and snaps one of the twigs, much to Neris’s joking ire.

“Ah yes, I beat the teenager. How mighty I feel.”

Neris shoves me into the snow. “What are you saying about those of us who lost, you royal brat?”

I respond both by flipping her a vulgar gesture and jutting my tongue out like a petulant child.

This earns me both gestures in return.

I try not to settle into this sense of familiar comfort too deeply. It’s difficult at times when it seems like they’re opening their arms to their tight-knit group. Then I remember my own family waiting for me and that warmth freezes as a pit in my stomach.

They’ve yet to explain who they’ve brought me along to kill, nor have they admitted to their criminal intentions, but at this point, it is quite obvious. The only thing I have yet to figure out is why they needmeto do it.

Since a cursed cannot kill a blessed without dark magic, it’s obvious why they’d require me, if not for the fact that any one of them could easily do it. I’m not sure which god they each hail from, but I have to assume they have at least one person who is blessed among their ranks, so I cannot imagine they needmeto kill a blessed. Not that consorting with dark magic is off the table for Mavis.

The woman occasionally tosses scraps of her sacrifices into the fire, her eyes lighting with primal delight as the flesh catches flame. Emi hardly looks bothered, not with her eyes closed and lower lip jutting out in sleep.

Neris swears and picks the teenager up, laying her on her own sleeping cot before moving to make a new one for herself across the fire. Emi’s fiery hair pools beneath her, flicking like a living flame, no less real than the one before us.

Mavis snaps her fingers, and a sacrifice later, her bed is made.

“Show off,” Neris whispers under her breath.

Mavis only smiles, the light catching on her canines.

I turn my back on them both as I sprawl across my own makeshift cot. We’ve agreed that Mavis will take first watch, her offer surprising no one. I wouldn’t be shocked if it were revealed that she is some form of supernatural being, given her attributes—affinity for dark magic, perfect face of ethereal beauty, skills with all forms of weaponry. Not to mention her apparent lack of a need for any human necessities such as sleep.

The mercenary rises, her crimson cape swirling around her ankles in a dramatic flourish. All of us wear cloaks of neutral tones, meant to blend into the snowy landscape surrounding us. But not Mavis. No, she challenges the dangers of the world to face her. She dares them to try.

No Kijova have found us. Perhaps they realize there are greater monsters in our ranks. One that wears painted lips and has dual-toned eyes.

The crunch of the snow draws closer to my head and I pinch my eyes closed, my breath quickening. My newfound bravery from earlier in the day has completely vanished now that the dark has settled upon us. It blankets the forest, coating the trees and all but the stars in eternal night. Part of me— a younger part that has not aged in ten years—believes that if I were to place my hand amongst those tree trunks, it too would disappear. Lost forever to the void of night.

A heavy weight settles over my body, like a thick blanket or another’s warmth.

“Sleep, Verosa,” Mavis hums, her voice a steady thrum in my bones. “Sleep.”

* * *

By the time I awake,my peaceful sleep shattered by urgent, shaking hands, the others are alert and crouched by my resting form. A single look from Mavis is all it takes for every nerve in my body to alight. The hairs on the back of my neck raise as I hear the howling, a low and guttural sound unlike the one that haunts my nightmares.

Neris presses a sword into my hands, not a dagger—meaning I won’t want to be in close range whenever that thing attacks.

“What is it?” My voice is barely audible over the steady hum of negative energy pulsing through the air. A deep sense of foreboding smothers my senses and I stagger. Dark magic. Its presence does not bother me as much while I am the one wielding the power, nor does Mavis’s, for some unknown reason. But this… My senses are flooded with its heavy presence just as they were in the past, both in Irene’s study and the tower when Lucius and Ophelus betrayed me. Raw and undiluted power.

Mavis drags her teeth across her lips. She looks paler in the dark, but by no means frailer. She is starlight, cloaked in silver light. She moves swiftly, the rest of us having no choice but to follow and abandon our camp. She raises three fingers and throws an unfamiliar gesture towards Neris. I drag two fingers over my heart. The general nods and grabs me and Emi by our elbows, hauling us after her. We leave Mavis within a circle of trees until distance and the dark swallows her.

Emi’s face screws tight, her eyes prickling with unshed tears. She wants to protest, I can see it, but between Neris’s firm grip and the howling that grows louder still…

I try my best to look confident. To look like I’m not about to fall over from fear myself. She’s just a child who never should have been exposed to a world like this. No one should be, but a generation will grow up in this world. A broken world, riddled with monsters just waiting for the chance to tear them to ribbons. My heart gives a sudden twist. Emi should be playing under a bright sun with kids her age and studying for exams, not running for her life with a blessed mage and mercenary duo.

“Down,” Neris grounds out, shoving both Emi and I down into a dying mound of foliage.

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