Tempest

Chapter Five

We hadn’t seen any demons. Well, we had, but they stayed far away from us. We’d see them in trees, a hint of a claw or the shine of a tooth when the sunlight hit it, but apparently they remembered me and were obviously afraid someone was going to come to my defense again. Taz was always alert, his fingers always on his sword and slightly jumpy, which I think Kyran found amusing. Kyran was actually not his usual slightly evil self. He was distracted, absentminded, always staring at the sky and taking on the habit of walking into things like rocks and trees when he wasn’t paying attention, which drove Taz insane. It was the never ending stream of, “Kyran, hurry up,” or, “Kyran, stop tripping over every single thing in your way.” We stopped for water once, and Taz actually had the smarts to pack more food, which never occurred to me.

 I took Adriana out, which turned out to be a huge mistake, considering I had woken her up and she had started insulting everything in sight. She had taken to calling Taz ‘the rich kid’ and Kyran ‘the servant fox’. “Hey, rich kid,” she said finally after losing her voice from yelling so much.

Taz grunted in response. “Do you even have a path that we’re going in? Or are we just heading for the town and hoping we don’t get lost?” Adriana snapped, her lower lip jutting out.

I could tell that Taz really wanted to smash her onto the ground and stomp on the pieces, but he just took a deep breath. “Yes, we do have a route, and we are following it,” Taz said between gritted teeth and Adriana shrugged, as if she was just dying to find fault with someone. “There’s a small wood a little bit from here, about an hour or so. If today goes well, then we should be through there by the end of the day. I don’t want to be in there when the sun goes down,” Taz muttered, taking out the map again and twisting it in every direction.

“Why not?” I asked curiously before Adriana could interject with some comment about him being a coward.

Taz didn’t answer, but sent a sidelong glance at Kyran, who was once again staring at the sky. “Kyran…” Taz murmured and Kyran snapped his gaze to his, eyes flashing. It was the gaze that said ‘shut up or I’ll murder you’.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not stupid. Raine thinks I’m klutzy and my mom thinks I’m a daydreamer, but I’m not stupid. I knew that Kyran and Taz had some sort of secret going on that I didn’t know about. Whether it was about Kyran possibly being soulless or something else, it was not my business and I had no interest in sticking my nose into it. I just hope it wasn’t that they were serial killers or dark magic dealers or something. But suddenly a great shudder ran through Kyran and he whirled around, icy brown eyes flashing with alarm. “Kyran, what’s wrong?” Taz hissed, suddenly alert. Kyran’s response was to twist around and shove me to the ground.

“Hey!” I yelled in indignation as I landed in the grass. Then something whizzed over the air that my head had just been and landed next to me. It was an arrow. The stick was carved with ornate designs and the tip was sharp metal. That would have killed me.  

With a sinking feeling, I rose shakily to my feet, only to have Taz jerk me forward, dragging me by my wrist in zigzag pattern. “Kyran!” Taz yelled, not looking behind him, whacking the tall grass in front of him with his free hand. Then a white shape was next to him, eyes questioning. “Get him,” Taz growled, pointing behind him.

Kyran fell back as another arrow flew in front of my nose. Too close for comfort would be an understatement. “Who’s shooting?!” I shouted, looking around frantically as Adriana hollered curses from my pack.

“How should I know? But they won’t be for long!” Taz answered, almost laughing but still dragging me along through the grass. I had no idea what was so funny, I glanced back to see what he was talking about to see a golden shape streamlining through the grass. Kyran. “Don’t look,” Taz said softly, skidding to a halt. I quickly covered my eyes, letting go of Taz’s hand, but not before I saw the fox explode.