The stakes are higher than ever.
It's been months since the four managed to temporarily defeat and escape Laurel, Amber, Kali and the others but the four's problems are far from over. Forced to live with their guilt and still plagued by nightmares o...
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Edana's POV:
The walk back was long. Trying to support two people when Kessal and I were about a few hours away from collapsing the same way they already had, we were unsure if we would be able to manage it. But we had to try, we had to try since we owed it to not only Kalli and Braeden but to our parents - mine and Kalli's that is - who came before us in trying to stop Amber and the others. We had to try.
"How much further?" Kessal's strained voice is the only break in the silence once we'd had to stop running since it was draining our energy too fast. "I - we - need to keep moving Dana since I'm still sure whatever was following us before is still after us even with how far we've run." He shakes me once when I'd stopped to rest against a tree but the movements were not helpful since they just made me feel like he was shaking me enough that I'd end up shattering inside. Or just falling asleep. "Dana?"
"Huh?" Twisting my head slightly I looked over to see that he appeared to be double what I was supposed to see like there were four of him instead of two. Or maybe even one. "What did you say?" I asked when I realised that part of the reason I'd had to ask is that some of his words had not registered with me. "Kess?"
He glances worriedly at me, "You ok Dana?" I try to nod but I don't think I fooled him given how Kessal shoots me yet again another worried look that doesn't seem to show that he believes me. "Dana?" Kessal tries again but I just wave him off with a blase shrug. "Don't try to play it down. Are you ok?"
"I have to be," I replied with a firm tone and kept moving, noticing how he kept looking at me with a worried and confused expression. We walk in silence for a couple of minutes before it gets to be too much and I stop, turning to face him over my shoulder. "I'm not ok, no, but if I give up - if we give up - we're letting Amber and the others win. On top of possibly losing the others. So no, I'm not ok but I don't have a choice but to carry on because I refuse to lie down and let them think they've won. I refuse to lose my mate, your mate and my cousin who is more like a sister and best friend to me than anyone else I've ever met." My eyes blur over with tears when I say that but I blink them away and turn back to face where my gut was leading me, hearing his low sigh as we keep walking.
Hours passed and slowly I began to see a more familiar landscape around me, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to faintly recognise where I was - where we were - because the two of us were rapidly running out of time, not to mention the other two who had already passed out long ago. Meaning we had to protect four instead of two, something that ordinarily wouldn't be too difficult but when supporting four? Forget it, you'd be better off trying to ask a blind demon how to spot a person. It was that impossible. And we were barely surviving as the remaining two, my eyes constantly closing the more I forced them to remain open. Something imperative if we were to manage to get back alive and save the others from slipping away entirely.
But it was difficult, I won't deny that. The changing pattern of the sun, moon and stars should have helped those of us who were still moving but thanks to the pain and lingering poisons inside us both Kessal and I were about as useful as a blind human, something that we hated to admit but also couldn't ignore since it would put us at an even greater disadvantage something that we could do without since we were stuck and had no way of currently getting home.
