“What's wrong?" Revik asked, his eyes dark.The scout hesitated. “We’ve got three missing. Didn’t return to their quarters last night.”Revik didn’t look up. “Who?”“Erol, Marcey, and Tam.”A silence. Then the scrape of metal stopped. Revik rose.“Where were they stationed?”“South side—near the perimeter line.”Revik’s jaw tightened, but he nodded. “They could’ve gone out early.”“Maybe,” the scout answered, though he didn’t sound convinced.Revik’s eyes turned to Luca and me. “You’re with me. South line. Let’s go.”No one said anything else.We moved fast. The woods around us blurred into flashes of green and shadow. I kept my senses stretched thin, eyes scanning for movement, scent, anything that felt off.The silence here was unnatural. The birds weren’t singing. The wind didn’t rustle the leaves the same way. Even the light seemed wrong—too bright in some patches, too dark in others.Luca was behind me, breathing heavier than usual, but he didn’t complain. Not once. Not when his
My body convulsed as I bolted upright, drenched in sweat, breath caught in my throat. The fire was out. The night was thick around me. A low wind whispered through the trees, but it sounded like laughter.My scream hadn’t been silent this time.Others were stirring. I could hear them—murmurs, curses, footsteps crunching in the dirt. Someone hissed for silence. Another grumbled something about waking the dead.I pressed both hands to my face, but the tears were still falling. My chest heaved, every breath slicing my lungs. I could still see her. I could still hear him choking.It wasn’t just a dream. It felt like a memory, worse still, a prophecy.I curled into myself, trying to disappear. But I could feel the eyes. Dozens of them. From the trees, from the tents, from the shadows.They were all watching me. I couldn't breathe, damn, I totally forgot how to.The nightmare still clung to me like oil—thick, suffocating, poisoning everything. I sat hunched beside the ashes of last night’s
Night came fast.It has been doing so a lot lately, like the sun had somewhere else more urgent to be. The last light bled slowly behind the trees, stretching the shadows long across the hollow. Fires flickered to life in small, scattered pits, they weren't large or too bright. Just enough for warmth.Luca sat across from me, sharpening one of Revik’s spare daggers with a piece of rough stone. His fingers moved in a rhythm that was more habit than need. His brows furrowed in concentration, but the tension in his shoulders gave him away.He was still in pain. Still pretending he wasn’t.“You don’t have to do that,” I said softly.“I know,” he murmured, not looking up. “Helps me think.”“What’re you thinking about?”“Nothing helpful.”The stone scraped again.I pulled my legs beneath me, hugging them close to keep the cold from creeping into my bones. A small fire danced between us, its glow painting Luca’s face in warm gold and deep shadow. For a moment, I just watched him, the hollow
MIRA'S POVThe cold bit deeper just before dawn.I tugged the thin shawl tighter around my shoulders and glanced back at the cave we’d used for the night, if it could be called a cave. It was barely more than a crack in the mountain, one that let in more wind than warmth. Damp, narrow, and echoing with the soft coughs of the injured. But it had been something. A place to breathe, if only for a night.Now, we had to move.Revik’s voice cut through the half-light. “Time to go. We don’t stay still longer than we need to.”No one argued.Even the youngest rogues—the boy with ash-blond hair and the girl who barely spoke—were already gathering what little they had. Most of us didn’t carry more than a pack. Some, like me, carried nothing at all.Luca stood near the cave mouth, hood drawn low, one hand pressed subtly to his other arm. His wound had reopened again last night. I’d seen the way he flinched when he thought no one was watching.Of course, I was watching.He caught me looking and
My voice broke. “Back there, when you fell... I couldn’t breathe, Luca. I couldn’t... I don’t know what I would’ve done.”He turned, pulling me gently closer with his uninjured arm. “You’re not going to lose me. Not now. Not ever. You and I—we’re going to make it.”“You promise?”He leaned his forehead to mine. “With everything I have.”I felt the warmth of his breath, the heat in his skin, even beneath the cold of the cave. The pain in his body didn’t matter in that moment. All that existed was us. In the silence of the cave, with the scent of moss and earth around us, we were just two people trying to survive.“I don’t want to keep running,” I murmured. “I want to stop, breathe, build something.”“We will,” he said softly. “Just not yet.”“Yeah. Not yet.”I pulled a blanket from the pack we carried and draped it around both of us, curling into his side. His arm tightened around me, and I closed my eyes to the rhythmic beat of his heart. Steady, even now.I didn’t know what tomorrow
I caught him before he fell completely. My hands found his side. Blood."No, no, no…"Revik tackled the third hunter before he could fire again, slamming his head into a rock. Everything went silent again. But I didn’t hear it. I could only feel the heat of Luca’s blood against my palm."It’s not silver," he rasped, smiling through the pain. "Lucky you. I get to suffer longer.""Shut up," I choked out, tears falling. "Don’t joke. Please."The rogues surrounded us, tense, scanning the woods."We need to move," Revik said. "Now. There could be more."They helped me lift Luca. He was barely conscious. I held him against me as we ran. The trees blurred. My chest burned.We didn’t stop until we found another small clearing by a stream, miles away.That night, I cleaned his wound. My hands shook so hard I could barely hold the cloth. The bullet had gone clean through, missing anything vital, but it hurt to see him like that."Hey," he whispered, eyes fluttering open. "You’re shaking.""Of c