Shadow Thief

38 - Selfish Me

The next day and the day after went by smoothly. The supplies were safely delivered as well as a small brigade of horses, leaving us with enough for everyone to have their own.

I personally split the soldiers into separate groups, making sure they all had two days worth or food and water and their choice of weapons. I also took the time to explain the full plan an extra few time to the groups themselves, answering any questions that needed to be asked.

Finally, I went to split up Squadron Five and the three extras.

"Levi and Mila, take Evergreen. Bryce, you and Rosy'll be in Maple. Theo and Mercy, I'm trusting you to protect Clover in Rosemary. Make sure she stays safe." I raised my finger to stop a complaint coming from Theo. "No. You do what I say without questions. Chris and I'll take the smallest group through Orchid. Everyone understand?"

They all nodded in agreement. Theo didn't fight me, seeing how serious I was.

"Good. Go find your groups and mount up your horses. We leave on my command. Chris, come with me."

We split and went our separate ways. Chris and I found the small group of soldiers who were anxiously waiting for us. I got on the piebald mare that I'd ridden in. Chris had his own brown stallion that he'd hand picked. I unconsciously kept my attention on the sword that was tied to his waist.

"Ready?" I asked, looking at him.

"Not really. But we can't wait, can we?"

I nodded and we were off. I decided to lead my group out first. The rest followed closely behind us. Through the opened gates we went, abandoning the castle to the desert. Maybe another group of bandits would take it over in the future. Who knows. Maybe they'd be rebels, like us. Maybe the new government would screw up and they'd be going against us. Maybe I should've blown it up. Rosy had to have had some explosive in there, right?

To my left, Levi and Mila were splitting off with their group. With a final glance, we nodded each other the best of luck and hope. Next went us. Waving goodbye, I blew a kiss off to Theo and he smiled back.

The journey through the desert was long and harsh without the usual bickering I was used to. No one to argue with. No sister to complain with. No flirt to joke with. No sweetheart to talk with. And no Theo, to stand with me. That one had to hurt the most. Even though it hurt, I knew we'd meet up in Pacific Rose, where we'd be back in the fiery puts of hell to fight the devil himself.

Now that I thought of it, I don't think I've really been away from them all in the past few months. We'd been together through everything. I was caught by one of them, escorted by another, slept in the same room as two of them, sparred with all of them. Hell, I was even in a tournament with them. Not to mention fighting smugglers and human traffickers with them, even if we always seemed to get hurt. Were we really unlucky to always get hurt or really lucky to still be alive?

"Lena!" Chris yelled, snapping me out of my trance. I turned to face him. "I've been yelling your name for the past ten minutes. I think we should stop for the night."

Looking around, I noticed it was dark out now. At some point the moon had gone up and the stars decided to shine. My thoughts really got me far, huh?

"Yeah," I finally replied, slowing my horse, "you're right. Let's stop for the night and get some rest."

The others behind me slowed to a stop as well. We all dismounted. I instructed three people to start fires and they did so happily. We didn't set up tents, they were to heavy to pack. We did, however, have thin blankets that we wrapped around ourselves to protect us form the sand. Not that we needed them. The desert outside Maple was warm during both the day and night. And for those who got cold more often, they had the fire to sleep around.