As The Knight Falls Series BOOK 1(COMPLETED✨)

20: Darker Than Black

Rayo scanned the area once again, her breath deep and deliberate. She got the same result as two minutes ago but still could not help but be edgy.  Forests did that to her. They made her edgy.

Night sky had cloaked the terrain about an hour ago, painting the forest in an ethereal canvas of black. Though the fire had died long back in the evening, clouds of poisonous fogs were still hovering above the canopy. And amidst this mass of chaos somewhere in the north was the only remaining mine to be collected and somewhere in the south were Liam and Claire deep inside a cave. Rayo bit her inner lip. Their heat signatures had not moved an inch since the first time she checked and that was six hours ago. There was no way they were immobile in that latitude with Liam on the team. The tightness in her chest clenched once again as she muttered to herself.

He must be hurt. Badly.

Rayo did not know what happened but she could predict just fine from the heat signature Liam was giving out. His body was emitting a voluminous amount of heat. He would have to have a lethally high fever and excruciating pain to release such a high temperature. Adding that with the fact that she heard mines blasting from somewhere there as they were eluding and Claire having absolutely normal temperature could only mean one thing - Liam used his chi to shield themselves while taking a hit from the mine. Mines and fire were not a problem for a fire wielder like Liam but water afterward was.

Liam just could not stand water after releasing his chi. It was his Achilles heel as a fire wielder.

Rayo tried calming her nerves. But her gut felt tied into a tight knot with the feeling that something would go wrong again and this time there would be no saving anyone.

The task they had ahead of them was simple really - going after the mine as the fog settled once, bringing Liam and Claire back and getting the hell out of there.

So simple yet Rayo could not stand still. She craned her neck and looked back at the rest of the team. They were asleep by the stream, recovering from the arsine that entered their system. They resembled ghostly silhouettes of carcasses left after a war. If any one of them inhaled arsine at a  lethal dose, they would have crossed the extent any medical help could offer. The knot in her gut tightened at the thought. And somehow, Rayo could not help but blame herself for what happened.

I should have known

She was a CPA(Complex Process Analysis) expert. Analyzing situations into equations and bringing the best route onward considering all the variables was her thing and she happened to be one of the bests in her field. Rayo never failed to consider all the glitches before planning out any mission and make a backup of the backup plans. A hole in her plan meant a man doomed but her slate had been clean. Always. She just could not believe she miscalculated such an important variable. That Jennifer could be so stupid.

Except for she was not.

Rayo still could not figure out why she did what she did. Her diligence had always been a constant. She knew Jennifer for as long as she knew Liam. They practically grew up together in the facility but never once Rayo witnessed her failing her task, not even a small one let alone at this epic scale. Releasing chi with this perfect blend of chaos and power could never be an accidental process. She had to have done it deliberately but Rayo could not figure out why she would make such a blunder. It was driving her crazy.

Then there's that stench

Rayo bit her inner lip again. She was taken aback by how it took the stench so long to reach her nose. They were practically in an open space. But it was not till she sprinted 100 meters that it hit her.