Kai watched as the shard of light flew through the air. It sped toward him and he watched as death looked him in the eye. It was so close, so close—
Everything stopped. The grass stopped twisting in the wind, the streams stopped flowing, the birds stopped singing. It was as if the whole world had come to a halt, unless...no, it hadn't stopped. Things were still moving, just far slower than they had been before. The knife was still moving through the air, slowly approaching Kai's heart.
But he could move, he would be safe, he would—no. Kai tried to turn his head but something kept it in place; something stuck him there, an unbreakable barrier that would not allow him to budge. He fought against the thing keeping him from moving, fought against the barrier, willing it to let him pass. It did not.
So he was here too, stuck in a world where time seemed to function differently, anticipating something that he could not stop.
It was two feet away now. The blade was fire; yellow flames enveloping a red-hot core of burning death. An inch closer now. It would reach him in seconds, and he would die. The light would burn through his heart—
Kai fell to the ground as the world around him sped up. No, he hadn't fallen. Someone had pushed him. Then he heard it. A sharp scream that pulled Kai back into reality. He turned, heaving himself to his feet. And there she was, writhing on the grass, hands clawing away dirt and weeds. Harper.
And that terrible blade of light was lodged between her neck and shoulder. The smell of burning flesh came a moment later as Kai knelt before her.
He screamed but heard nothing as everything drifted away. There was only Harper, his companion. His friend. And she was dying. The weapon of light buried deeper as tears formed rivulets down her cheeks. He had to do something.
Kai was distantly aware of shouts around him, but it did not matter. And then he felt it. That thing rising up inside of him; a serpent curling out from its lair. The blade of light burned through Harper's flesh; it seemed to sense her heart and pushed harder.
Shadow's shot from somewhere deep within Kai, groping for the terrible light that would kill Harper if he let it. The branches of darkness grabbed ahold of the light, twisting their inky black leaves of power around the blade. Perspiration slid down Harper's face, mingling with her tears.
Kai's shadows grasped the weapon, darkness weaving around the pillar of light. They seemed to clash, the light and the darkness, but only for a moment. Within seconds the shadows burned through the light, destroying whatever power the wraith had wielded. Harper's face relaxed as she slipped into unconsciousness.
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Kai stood over Harper, forcing himself to turn his gaze toward the danger standing mere feet away. Was the wraith even standing? Yes, booted feet flickered under the cloudy sky, soft blades of grass crushing beneath their weight.
Branson and Sean lay on the ground near the wraith, puddles of blood growing beside them. The rest of the soldiers stood at the ready, weapons outstretched. Theo panted, attempting to nurse a wound on his shoulder, but the rest seemed to be unscathed. Physically, at least.
The wraith bore no wounds, and now held a sword of light in its hands. And its eyes...yes, the creature was still staring at Kai.
He looked down. Surely enough, Kai's shadows still remained. They fluttered around his hands, awaiting their master's commands.
I can control them! They didn't listen to me during the siege, and they didn't feel this strong.
He had to kill the wraith, he realized. If the scene around him was any indication, he was the only one who could. The wraith knew it too—its eyes beckoned him. A challenge.
Stepping forward, Kai watched in awe as his shadows twisted and writhed, coiling into a blade of darkness. They seemed to pull him toward the wraith, urging him to fight.
And so he did. Saif had taught him, long ago, that knives were little more than an extension of the body. A common and rather simple lesson, but one that was never more true than now. With a flick of his wrist, the shadows shot toward the wraith, faster than any normal blade.
The wraith raised its blade of light to parry Kai's blow. The darkness in the creature's eyes seemed to deepen as its human-like expression contorted into one of monstrous bloodlust.
Kai's shadows hit the wraith's blade head on. He knew that he had won the moment their blade's met. Kai's shadows shot through the creature's light, shattering it like glass.
The wraith's eyes dimmed in resignation. A moment later, Kai's darkness made contact with its body, shooting through the wraith's heart.
And then the shadows returned to Kai, bursting through his body like sunlight cast upon a dying sapling. It was strange, the feeling that coursed its way through his veins. Something deep within him had been awoken. Power.
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Kai stood before the wraith, watching as its body spasmed. The creature's being flickered, and then the light and shadow was no more. In its place lay a broken corpse, clothes stained with blood and char.
"It really is human." Theo stood beside him, eyes wide as he studied what had been a wraith mere moments ago. He was right. The body before them was hardly recognizable, peppered with scars and scabs, but there was no doubt that this creature was human—a man.
Patches of black hair sprouted from a face that could not have been any older than 25. And the clothing that the man wore...a white tunic draped over gray pants.
Cory knelt beside the corpse, lifting the tunic to reveal a leather belt, fastened with a silver clasp. A carving was scratched onto the belt—a fish leaping from the water.
Theo cursed when he saw it. "My brother wears a clasp just like it. This man comes from Sleetshire's city watch."
"How..." Cory muttered to himself, face paling. A soldier vomited to Kai's side at the sight of the wraith—or rather, the man who had once fought for Sleetshire. Before....before it had been destroyed.
Kai turned from the corpse, rushing back to Harper's side. Jean, Caleb, Gorm and Luke were already attending to her wound. Branson and Sean did not stir, white eyes staring toward nothing.
Patches of dark red soaked through the bandages that Caleb had placed over Harper's wound like spilled ink on parchment. Kai found her wrist, willing his fingers to steady themselves as he checked for a pulse. With a sigh of relief he lay her hand down on the grass. She was alive.
"We did all that we could. Now we can only wait." Luke grimaced.
"Will she make it?" Kai hated the words. Hated considering the idea of life without his friend.
"I don't know," Caleb said. "Only time will tell."
Kai nodded, pulling his gaze away from Harper. Grieving the possibility of her death would not help her now. He turned his attention toward the rest of his companions. Theo and Lewis dug graves for the fallen, whilst the rest of the soldiers set up the supplies that they had taken down mere minutes ago. Moving anytime soon would be impossible until Harper was healed. She would be okay, Kai told himself. Because if she wasn't...No. He couldn't consider that possibility. Not when she was all that he had.
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The three men were buried by midday.
Harper lay unconscious near the shade of the treeline. Kai studied the planes of her face, the color of her skin. So much paler than it had been just hours before. Caleb had replaced her bandages twice so far, giving Kai a glimpse at the terrible wound that they hid. Burnt skin and exposed flesh mingled together, mere inches away from her heart.
The rest of his companions sat on rocks or logs near him, talking quietly. Theo turned to Kai.
"You did something out there," he said. "You used magic." It was a statement rather than a question. Kai had noticed his companions glances toward him; some wary, others filled with awe.
He nodded, voice hardly raised past a whisper. "I don't know where it came from, or even how to use it, but yes. Magic." He had not thought of it that way before, and the word felt strange on his tongue. Kai had heard men whispering of sorcerers and witches in the Den and—with the exception of Saif—had never believed the tales to be true. Besides, Saif was not a human like Kai. Humans were meant to be, well, normal, unlike other creatures. But magic existed—he could no longer deny it. First the wraiths, then The Deceiver and finally his own shadows...Oh, it existed.
"We couldn't have killed that thing without your magic," Eusien said. "Sean and Branson stood no chance, but you..."
Kai shrugged. "I didn't kill it fast enough. If I'd acted quicker they might still be alive and Harper might not be dying." He cursed himself, as he had been since their confrontation with the wraith. Why hadn't his shadows appeared sooner? Why hadn't he done something? Magic or not, Kai had trained to kill for the greater part of his life. How could he have let those men die? How had he let the wraith's blade reach his friend?
"It wasn't your fault," Gorm whispered, eyes fixed on the ground. "None of us knew how to react to that monster. You did only what was expected."
Perhaps he was right, Kai thought. But that did not change the fact that Harper lay dying before him.
"Thinkin back won't do us any good now," Jean said. "We still have a job to do, and we're gonna to do it."
Menelaus' face paled. "You still want to go on, after that?" He gestured toward the loose soil a few feet away, and the men that lay beneath it.
Timothy nodded, rubbing tears from his eyes. "We may be strong and smart and fast when pit against men, but we are nothing next to monsters. What if there are more creatures like the one that killed Bran and Sean? We barely handled one, and we're two down."
"We 'ave a sorcerer now," Cory reminded the men. "He could've killed that monster with a hand behind his back. What's a few more going to change?"
Leandro scoffed. "Don't be stupid. Even he knows nothing about his magic—he saved us this time, but we can't count on it happening again."
Kai raised his head at that, reaching for the power that writhed within him. It was awake now, like it had never been before. He could feel it, a strangely comforting presence that stemmed from his core. He tugged at that presence, urging it to reveal itself. It did.
Kai's companions cursed, jumping to their feet as his darkness emerged from its lair.
"I won't let it happen again," he said. "Not without a fight."
He refused to watch any more good men die at the hands of monsters. He had barely known Branson and Sean, but they had not deserved to die, and their sacrifices would not be in vain.
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Kai stayed by Harper's side through the night. She woke from time to time, gasping as her pain returned. Within moments she would be unconscious yet again, put asleep by her agony. The edges of her wound had already started to scab, and Caleb cleaned the wound periodically to prevent any infections from growing.
She was beautiful, Kai thought, despite the dirt and blood that had found its way along her face and through her hair.
He missed her hazel eyes, as bright as the sunrise. He missed her soft smile that was so small and yet as radiant as the stars in the sky. It was strange, caring for someone. He had never felt this way before—not truly. But Kai did care for her, and cursed himself for letting her come on this quest in the first place. Of course, he couldn't have kept her in Aria if he'd tried, and it wouldn't have been fair to her if he had. She deserved redemption as much as him. Deserved release from the chains that she carried. Kai didn't know where those chains had come from, didn't know who had shackled her, or if she had shackled herself as he had. Either way, he could not take this from her.
Kai turned from Harper, looking toward the beams of light that pierced through the tent's thin fabric. It was morning, then. And still she had not woken.
Within moments grunts sounded from the campsite as Kai's companions woke from what little sleep had not been chased away by thoughts of the wraith.
Everyone was shaken from the day before, and for good reason. Kai had heard quiet sobs the night before, coming from Caleb's tent. The older man tried to hide his pain, but Sean had obviously been his friend. Nothing cut as deep as losing a loved one.
Whatever happiness Kai had found these months in Ath seemed to slip away; washed over by crushing memories and regret. He had caused that pain to so many—had killed their loved ones, leaving them only pain and sorrow. How many wives and children still grieved a death that Kai had inflicted? He had tried to push away the question over the years, seeking refuge in ignorant justifications. But how could he hide from it now, in the face of a pain worse than he had ever known?
"Kai." A muffled voice spoke outside the tent. Caleb.
"Yes?" He called back.
The tent's fabric shifted as the soldier pulled himself into the small area. "Didn't want to catch you asleep," he said as a way of greeting, shifting his attention toward his patient. During their long hours watching Harper together, Kai had learned a bit more of the man. He had studied herbs and healing for years before joining Aria's city watch, where he had continued honing his skills as an army surgeon.
He studied Harper, gently working to remove the bandages from her shoulder. Kai had helped him however he could—picking herbs, fetching water. But it was cold, and many of the plants that Caleb required were not in season or could not be found so far to the north. The healer had made do with what he had, and Kai could only hope that it was enough.
The older man lifted the bandages from Harper's shoulder, revealing her wound. It had swollen in size, but remained uninfected. Caleb had told Kai that he had seen infection kill men before, when left untreated. This was a relief, then. The cut was still large, but more scabs had begun to form.
Caleb turned to Kai. "Hard to say what will happen now. She made it through the first night, but...don't get your hopes up yet, boy, and don't stop praying."
Kai nodded, releasing a breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding. It was terrible, the waiting. Her life was no longer in his hands. All he could do was watch and believe that the gods—if they existed—were merciful.
He stood with a sigh, leaving the tent. They were in enemy territory, he reminded himself. It was hard, leaving her, but Kai could not stand still for so long—not when danger could be lurking anywhere. The clearing where they had made camp was large, bordered by towering evergreens and smaller, leafless oak and beech trees. Dark green grass crunched beneath his feet. It was beautiful even now, in the freezing north.
The rest of the men were huddled in the center of the site, around a fire.
Kai joined them, warming his hands over the growing flames.
"I'm going North," he said quietly. "We're camped in a dangerous place—some scouting would do us good."
Cory nodded, standing. "I'll join you."
Theo and Lewis stood beside him, but Kai shook his head. "It isn't safe—not when there could be more wraiths."
Lewis let out a low growl. "You shouldn't go out there alone, magic or not."
Kai shook his head again. "I need to do something. Anything. Watching Harper won't help her. Besides, we need to keep track of the enemy." He sighed at the soldiers' disapproval. "You can't stop me from going, I just thought I'd tell you before I left."
With that, Kai strode toward Lunar, leaving his companions behind.