The clearing was dead silent after the stranger disappeared, the faint rustle of wind in the leaves barely audible over the thudding of my heart. I exchanged a glance with Logan, his blade still raised, though the tension in his shoulders had yet to dissipate.
“That was unsettling,” Mal muttered, breaking the silence. Her grip on her knives remained firm, her gaze darting into the dark treeline. “I’m all for cryptic warnings and prophecies, but that was pushing it.”
“They knew my name,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. The weight of the stranger’s words still lingered, pressing down on me like a suffocating fog. “How could they know that?”
“Because whoever-or whatever-they were, they’re connected to this.” Logan gestured to the orb in my hands, its glow steady but muted. His expression was grim, his jaw tight. “The question is whether they’re working for us, against us, or playing their own game.”
“They said the void was only the beginning,” Liam said thoughtfully, his brow furrowed as he paced in small, tight circles. “That it isn’t just about this world but all of them. The orb’s power might be far more than we understand.”
Logan scoffed. “Great. Just what we needed. More interdimensional stakes.”
“I don’t think they were lying,” I said, looking down at the orb. Its surface shimmered faintly, a reflection of the uncertainty swirling in my chest. “They… they didn’t feel like an enemy.”
“Maybe,” Logan said, though the skepticism in his tone was clear. “But that doesn’t mean we can trust them.”
“No one said we were trusting them.” Mal crossed her arms, her knives finally disappearing into their sheathes. “But they weren’t wrong about one thing-the orb’s making you a target, Audrey. More than you already were.”
“Let’s not forget the part about the balance being delicate,” Liam added, his tone wary. “If this thing really ties together the light and the void, we’re playing with forces that might not care about our good intentions.”
“So what do we do?” I asked, feeling the weight of their words deepen the pit in my stomach. “Keep going, knowing this might all backfire? Knowing that every fragment we gather could be making things worse?”
Logan stepped closer to me, his golden eyes locking on mine with an intensity that made my breath catch. “We keep fighting,” he said firmly, his voice leaving no room for doubt. “No one else can do this, Audrey. The void isn’t going to stop, and if the orb’s power is the only thing keeping it at bay, then we don’t have a choice.”
“He’s right,” Liam agreed, though he still sounded uneasy. “But we need to be smarter about this. The next fragment… we can’t go in blind like we did here. We need to know what we’re dealing with.”
“Agreed.” Mal’s lips curved into a wry, humorless smile. “And let’s hope the next nightmare creature we run into doesn’t take this much effort to kill.”
A flicker of determination sparked in my chest, eclipsing some of the fear. They were right. There wasn’t a choice. I couldn’t walk away, not now, not after seeing the destruction the void could unleash. And even if the orb’s power came with risks, it was all we had.
“We’ll figure it out,” I said, the steadiness in my voice surprising even me. “But we’ll do it together.”
Logan gave a curt nod, his lips twitching as if to smile, though the seriousness of the moment weighed too heavily for it to fully form. “Damn right we will.”
Liam turned his attention to the sky, where the first stars had begun to peek through the deepening twilight. “We need to make camp,” he said. “We’re too far from town to make it back tonight, and after that fight, we’re all running on fumes.”
Mal sighed, slinging her pack off her shoulder and dropping it onto the ground. “Fine, but I call first watch. No way I’m sleeping with creepy strangers lurking around.”
“I’m good with that,” Logan said. He lowered his blade, though he didn’t fully sheath it. Instead, he rested it across his lap as he leaned back against a fallen tree trunk. “Second watch is mine. You guys look like you’ll pass out if you blink too long.”
Liam grumbled something about how a proper mage should conserve his strength and busied himself casting what appeared to be a protection rune around the clearing. The faint symbols flared to life on the forest floor, creating a perimeter of soft blue light. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.
I moved to sit near the center of the group, my back against a mossy boulder, the orb still glowing faintly in my hands. My body ached with fatigue, every muscle screaming in protest, but my mind refused to quiet down. The stranger’s words replayed in my head, the implication of their warning sinking deeper with each passing moment.
“You okay?” Logan’s voice broke through my thoughts.
I glanced up to find him watching me, his sharp gaze softer than usual, though his tension was still palpable. He had removed his jacket, leaving his dark shirt clinging to his shoulders. Even worn and dirt-streaked, Logan carried himself like he was ready to jump into action at the first sign of trouble.
“Not really,” I admitted, letting out a shaky breath. “But I don’t think I’ve been okay for a while.”
He nodded as if he understood that better than I thought. “None of us have. But that’s why we keep moving, even when it feels like we can’t.”
There was a weight to his words that made me think he wasn’t just talking about the current situation. Logan wasn’t someone who opened up easily, but when he did, his sincerity always caught me off guard.
I managed a small smile. “Thanks. I’ll try to remember that.”
“You’d better.” He smirked, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Because if you fall apart, the rest of us don’t stand a chance.”
Mal, still standing guard with her knives at the ready, scoffed. “Aw, look at you, Logan. Playing the role of inspiring alpha-in-training. So sweet, I might gag.”
“Pipe down, Mal,” Logan said without looking at her. “If you’re so bored, why don’t you actually watch the perimeter?”
“I am watching.” She twirled one of her knives idly. “I’ve got eyes everywhere, trust me.”
Liam, finally satisfied with the protective runes, plopped down onto a patch of grass and groaned. “Would you two stop bickering for ten minutes? Some of us are trying to pretend we’re not on the verge of magical burnout.”
“Good luck with that,” Mal shot back, though she kept her voice low.
I smiled faintly at their banter, the tension in my chest easing slightly. It was a small comfort in the face of everything, but it was enough to remind me that I wasn’t alone. No matter how overwhelming this journey felt, I had people willing to fight alongside me-even if they were sarcastic and borderline reckless most of the time.
As the others settled into a tense sort of quiet, I let my gaze drift back to the orb. Its glow seemed calmer now, as if it had been sated after the chaos of the battle. The warmth emanating from it was faint but soothing, and I found myself absently running my thumb along its smooth surface.
“What are you thinking?” Liam asked, his voice drawing me back to the present. He was sitting cross-legged nearby, his head tilted in curiosity.
“About what the stranger said,” I replied softly. “About the balance.”
Liam’s expression grew serious, and he nodded. “Yeah. That stuck with me too. If the orb really does connect the light and the void… well, it makes sense why the void would want to destroy it.”
“But what if we’re the ones who unbalance everything?” I asked, my voice wavering slightly. “What if gathering the fragments isn’t the right thing to do?”
“I think it’s more complicated than that,” Liam said after a moment of thought.