Chapter Fifty-Five: Malek Hunting

Allie’s dreams were getting worse. More common. More vivid. And after she woke, they didn’t feel like dreams. She didn’t remember them as if they were dreams. They were no more or less solid than her own memories of her childhood, and that was beginning to terrify her.

And that wasn’t even the worst of it. Just that morning, she’d nearly attacked Nora upon waking. Her dream that night had been a particularly heartrending one. She could still hear the sound of Zaren’s sobs—body wracking sobs that tore through her and left her feeling physical pain—over the twins. They’d idolized him, and they’d died at the hands of the big blond bastard that haunted so many of her nightmares. One of Karn’s ‘guests’ who was given near free reign with the experiments whenever he visited.

He was brutal and violent with whoever he chose. Zaren often goaded the man into choosing him because, of all of Karn’s victims, only Zaren and Eliya had any kind of protection. They were Karn’s most valuable experiments, and no matter how angry or physical the man got he wasn’t allowed to kill them. Whatever else he did, they could endure.

But not the twins. Whatever Karn needed from them, he had. They had no such safety net, and the blond had taken it too far with one. He’d shown up while Zaren was still unconscious and she was still recovering from the infrequent duels Karn forced them to have against one another. Zaren almost always won, but her class let her recover faster. Either way, it meant neither of them were there to protect Siri or Sora, and they’d both paid the price for it.

And when Allie had woken, Eliya had still been there. Panic and rage had seized her. Waking up in a bed with a stranger’s arms wrapped around her meant only one thing; another one of Karn’s ‘guests.’ She hadn’t recognized Nora. Nora. The woman Allie was rapidly falling further and further for. She’d tried to run from her girlfriend until Nora managed to wrap her big strong arms around Allie and whisper calm reassurances until Eliya had faded back into wherever she was when Allie was awake.

It wasn’t the first time she’d woken still thinking she was Eliya, but it was the first time it had lasted for several minutes. The first time it had taken so long for Allie to come back. It scared her far more than she could ever put into words.

“You are still thinking of this morning,” Nora said softly into her ear, “aren’t you?”

Allie looked up from her untouched lunch. “Yes,” she answered.

Nora just nodded, taking a strip of the rabbit they’d caught and holding it to Allie’s lips. “Eat. We’ll figure this out, but we cannot do so on empty stomachs.”

Her unsettled stomach begged to differ, but she parted her lips and allowed her girlfriend to push the strip of meat past them. Flavor exploded in her mouth thanks to their new companion, but her stomach was still unappreciative. She really didn’t want to throw up again, she felt bad every time she wasted some of Therese’s fantastic cooking.

That wasn’t the main reason she wanted to avoid throwing up, either. Therese’s companion, Rose, was a healer in every sense of the word. From her skills to her mentality to her uncanny ability to see when something was wrong with one of the party, the dryad would be all over her if she lost her lunch so soon after this morning. The bad rations excuse would only work so often, and Allie was confident that if Rose was more confident around her and Nora then she wouldn’t have let the issue die so quickly.

“Alright, men!” Kat barked, taking her usual sardonic pleasure from referring to their party of women as such. “Five minutes, and we’re moving out.”

Nora ran her hand down Allie’s back with a sigh, then moved to take her food so she could covertly slip it into a pouch for later. Rose had already noticed Allie’s lack of appetite. Nora, being the wonderful, sweet woman she was, covered for Allie perfectly. Her issues right now weren’t something the dryad healer could help with. As far as she could tell, she wasn’t sure there was anybody who could.

Allie stood, checking her equipment for the hundredth time today. Her sword and light leather armor. It was all in perfect condition, as always, but she needed to keep her hands moving. Rose’s vibrant green eyes had already lingered on her for a second too long for her liking. Any other day and she’d be thankful for such an attentive healer, but not today. Not when she was still reeling from this morning. Panicking from the thoughts she hadn’t had the chance to clue Nora in on.

“I’ve got a good feeling about today,” Kat said, throwing her pack over her shoulder. “We should reach the area from the report in an hour or so. Rose, you’ll search the area for anything out of the ordinary. Allie, Nora, you’re the ones who’ve seen these things before, so you’re on lookout. Nora, you watch the trees, Allie the sky. I don’t want to get jumped.”

They all nodded in response. Allie had been pleasantly surprised at the change in Kat upon leaving the city behind. The paladin was a whole new woman when in charge of a task she actually felt competent doing, and she’d already shown signs that there was a good leader hiding under her crass and boisterous personality.

But the thought of running across another Malek did nothing to settle her painfully raw nerves. The brief brush of Nora’s lips to her temple helped settle her stomach slightly, but Allie was still afraid. Afraid of the Maleks. Afraid of her memories. Afraid of herself.

Afraid of Eliya.

She pushed the thought out of her situation out of her mind. Being distracted could get them all killed, so she’d worry about her rapidly deteriorating mental state when there was less chance of mortal peril. This part of the world was ravines, craggy cliffs, and complex cave systems. There wasn’t much foliage bigger than the scraggly bushes that dotted the area, but the rocks, crevices, and caves provided plenty of places for a Malek to ambush unsuspecting prey from.

According to Kat, this area had been devastated by the skills of incredibly powerful fighters centuries ago, leaving the earth itself jagged and cracked. Maps of the area were hard to make because of the winding nature of the Craglands, which made it a perfect place to hide. Thanks to Rose’s Dryad based nature class, though, they had an edge when it came to navigating the wilds.

But scanning while they walked could only occupy her thoughts for so long. They kept pulling back to Eliya no matter how hard Allie tried to keep those memories from her mind. She’d seen a number of Karn’s experiments die horribly. She’d been forced to kill one or two during duels by the awful collar that took away her will. Those haunted her worse than any of the glorified torture sessions that had apparently earned Eliya her class.

“Is your head alright?” A soft voice asked from her side, startling her out of her reverie.

Adrenaline surged through Allie as she looked down at the small Dryad at her side. Shorter than Allie’s tall stature but much curvier with soft green skin and brown and gray hair that reminded Allie of tree bark, Rose should have been as unintimidating as they came. Her question, though, scared the shit out of Allie. Did Rose have some kind of mind reading ability? Did she know that Allie was barely holding on to sanity? Did she think that Allie was already insane?

“W-what?” Allie finally managed to get out.

“You keep touching that spot on your head,” Rose said, touching her own dainty finger to a spot just above her ear, “like it’s bothering you. I wanted to make sure you didn’t hit it or something.”

Nora’s head whipped around to look at them both at the same time Allie’s stomach twisted painfully. “Oh, it’s nothing. Just a nervous tick is all. Thank you for checking, though. I appreciate it.”

Rose nodded, apparently satisfied, but Allie’s lungs felt like they struggled to take in air. She flashed a smile and her best “we’ll talk about this later” look at Nora, who returned to watching the area around them with a worried expression.

Allie didn’t have to look far to find a reason, though. The spot Rose had touched was the very spot where Eliya carried a scar bad enough to keep the hair on the side of her head from growing. It was something she was constantly self-conscious about. She always tried to angle it away from Zaren when they were together, despite his reassurances that it didn’t bother him. It bothered Eliya horribly. An ugly, physical reminder of what Karn had done to her. Eliya had never considered herself that attractive, but with a scar like that? Zaren would never want her the way she wanted him. Why would he?

Allie had to shake herself out of the very Eliya-like train of thought and focus on the real issue here. Eliya had a habit of touching her fingers to that very scar when she was nervous or upset. Allie clenched her hand around her sword to keep from doing the same thing, but it was too late. She couldn’t unlearn the knowledge Rose had just inadvertently given her. She was starting to pick up Eliya’s ticks.

Rose watched her for a bit longer before moving up to walk with Therese for a bit. They talked in tones quiet enough that Allie couldn’t hear them until Therese suddenly dropped back to walk next to Allie.

“It’s alright to be nervous,” Therese said suddenly. “I can’t tell you how many times I was frightened to the point of nausea before a job. Willfully throwing yourself into danger goes against all the instincts that are there to keep us alive, after all.”

Allie seized on that convenient excuse gratefully. “I know. I just…”

Therese nodded. “I understand. You’ve fought one of these before. Nearly died to it, according to yours and Nora’s accounts. Your party now is much stronger than your last one, though.” Therese slipped one of her hands into Allie’s. “As long as we take care of one another, we’ll be alright.”

These last few days they’d been traveling, Allie had started to wonder if Therese had been sent by the gods themselves. Her calm, collected presence set her at ease in a similar fashion to Nora’s quiet strength, and over the course of the trip they’d become friends. Therese was always happy to answer questions about Zaren, and she seemed to enjoy talking to Allie a lot. She was even good with Nora, which practically made Allie’s heart sing. She had infinite patience, and was never bothered by Nora’s lack of experience with people.

But right now, her growing closeness with Therese only made Allie feel guilty. How would Therese react if she knew Allie was losing her mind? She needed to change the topic before she lost it. “You’re B rank, right? How does that happen?”

Therese shot her a small smile that said the shift in conversation wasn’t going unnoticed, but she answered anyways. “I’ve known Rose since we were girls. She’s one of my oldest friends, but the class she took ended up being stronger than she anticipated. The wrong person saw her using the wrong skill and suddenly she was collared, but my family isn’t wealthy enough to own property or servants.”

She shrugged. “Becoming an adventurer was the only way I could protect my friend, so I dedicated myself to it. It was hell at times, especially thanks to the kind of adventurers I had to put up with to make it this far, but it was nothing compared to what my friend endured under her first Patron. It took me a few years, but I did it, and now we’re together again and nobody can take her from me.”

That explanation did little to settle the contents of Allie’s stomach. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry for what Rose endured,” Therese admitted, “but not for what I went through. It made me stronger. What about you?”

Allie looked away. Her story seemed rather lame in comparison. “Parents died to illness and didn’t have much to pass on, and my class isn’t good for much else. Plus…”

“You always dreamed of being an adventurer?” Therese guessed with a teasing smile.

Allie felt heat rising to her cheeks. “I may have always had a very…romanticized opinion on adventurers,” she admitted, suddenly very aware of Therese’s hand still in hers, “but that got knocked out of me pretty quickly.”Therese nodded. “I understand that better than most,” she admitted. “Rising through the ranks pretty much ruined men for me.”

Okay, now Allies cheeks were on fire. She gently removed her hand from Therese’s to adjust her armor. “It led me to Nora, though, and she makes me happier than I’ve been in a long time.”

Therese’s smile widened. “You two are adorable together, that’s for sure.” She laughed softly. “I wish I’d met you two a long time ago.”

Me too, Allie thought sadly. But she shoved her rising melancholy down. She needed to focus on the situation at hand right now. She went back to scanning the featureless cliffsides and clear skies. “Thank you for caring, though.”

“Of course,” Theresa said, frowning in confusion. “We’re friends, aren’t we? Rose can tell you’re stressed about something, and I want to help you however I can.”

Allie nodded. “All the same, thank you. I haven’t had many people who can say the same.” Really just the one since her parents had died, and her reliance on Nora was making her feel guiltier by the day. It can’t be easy on the warrior woman to have to spend so much time caring for a lost, lonely girl deteriorating worse each day.

But either her words or her tone brought a distressed frown to Therese’s face. She reached out, touching her fingertips to Allie’s arm, and opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted.

“I found something!” Rose called.

They all ran to the Dryad, though Allie and Nora both made sure to watch their surroundings. Six long, gray spikes jutted out from a wall, two of them trailing a large amount of blood. There were tufts of fur sticking from two of them where they’d impaled something low to the ground. Probably a mountain goat of some kind if Allie had to guess.

Kat yanked one out with some difficulty and held it out to Allie and Nora. “This one of the spikes it was throwing?”

Allie rolled it across her palm. “Hard to say for sure, since they were flying at me in the dark, but I think so. It’s the same color as the rest of the thing, at least.”

“Rose?” Kat asked.

“Blood trail leads that way,” she said, pointing, “and it’s fresh.”

“Good shit,” Kat said with a grin. “Alright, men, weapons out, heads on a swivel. Let’s go fuck up a Malek.”

Allie wished she had a slice of Kat’s confidence, but she drew her sword as if she did anyways. As much as the thought of fighting another of those monsters scared her, at least it was a tangible threat she could swing a sword at. It was something she could fight, unlike the constant barrage of traumatic memories from the life of a girl who’d seemed to be born to suffer. At least if the Malek killed her she wouldn’t have to worry about Eliya any longer.

Kat led the group after the blood trail until it dried up, then Rose took over. Her class, based entirely around nature magics, gave her an edge in many things. Tracking was one of them. Far too quickly, the ravine they walked through opened up into a wider area. And at the center was the Malek.

It lay crouched over something that had once had four legs, ripping chunks of meat from the carcass and chewing them slowly. It was somehow more terrifying in the light of day than it had been at night. Gray leathery flesh stretched over thick, powerful muscle with a spine of blood red fur. Paws the size of Allie’s head that held retractable claws that would shred her armor to ribbons.

But something was wrong.

This Malek had no wings. No tail. Instead, it carried an extra set of arms behind the first. The arms and the hands attached were almost human-like, though still tipped in lethal looking claws, and while one held the carcass close to the mouth the other remained curled to the Malek’s chest.

“Easy shit,” Kat said with a grin. “Nora, you and me will swing right while Allie goes left. We’ll attack first so its back is to her for the kill. Therese, as soon as it notices us, let loose, Rose, stay back in case someone gets hurt. Ready—”

“Wait,” Allie hissed. It wasn’t until Kat turned an arched brow on her that she realized her hand had shot out and grabbed the paladin’s wrist. “It’s an ambush.”

They all stared at her as surprised as she was. She knew it was true, she just had to figure out why. Far too slowly, the pieces came to her. “It doesn’t have a tail,” she said finally.

Kat frowned and Nora’s face remained passive, but Therese cursed. “That’s right, the one you fought had wings and a tail. The tail was how it shot the spikes, wasn’t it?”

Allie nodded. “That’s the other variant you showed me. No tail. The goat that its chewing on was killed by spikes. Plus, look at where it’s sitting. We’ve got the perfect angle of attack, room to pinch it, high ground for our ranged attackers…”

Kat’s frown deepened as she looked at the area. “They’re beasts,” she pointed out.

“And there are plenty of mythic creatures that have intelligence either on par or greater than humans and demi-humans,” Therese argued.

Kat made an irritated noise, but she nodded. “Alright, I’ll defer to you, then.”

A part of Allie was surprised by that, but she shoved it down. She suddenly felt more confident than she had in years. This was a trap, and they couldn’t afford to simply spring it. She looked over the area again with a more critical eye. “Your plan is the most logical option,” she said slowly.

High ground for ranged attackers. She looked around until she found an outcropping nearby that was angled enough so they couldn’t see what was on the other side. Then she scanned the ground around the Malek they could see. One side was wider and more even, the clear path for heavier warriors to draw aggression, while the other was narrower and uneven, perfect for a single attacker to sneak through.

“As soon as we put your plan into action, I’m betting something is hidden in those crags,” she pointed to the wide side, “to jump you two from behind. The second it does, the Malek down there turns on whoever is sneaking up on it while a third Malek jumps from there,” she gestured to the outcropping above, “and catches our ranged fighters unawares.”

They followed her gestures until Kat turned back to her with wide eyes. “Shit, girlie, I didn’t realize you were a tactician.”

“I’m not,” Allie clarified quickly. “I just know beasts, is all.”

Nora sucked in a breath and Allie realized what she’d said. She was far from an expert on beasts and monsters, but Karn had put Eliya through trial after trial against them. Zaren excelled in fighting people, but Eliya was a monster slayer. Once again, Allie was channeling Eliya subconsciously.

There was no time for panic. Not right now. She could have a breakdown later, when they weren’t in danger. Kat looked around thoughtfully, then nodded. “Right, then there won’t be any ambushes. Assuming you’re right, then we have to take the fuckers head on. Shit, what a pain.” The bloodthirsty grin she wore really undermined her words, but Allie didn’t mention that.

“Remember,” Allie interjected, “these things are smart.” The intelligence in the crimson eyes of that Malek still haunted her. “If we disrupt the trap, they’ll adapt. They’ll either run, or try to kill us all. My gold is on the latter.”

“Fuck yeah,” Kat breathed, twirling her sword. “New plan, then. Therese, you’re gonna open up with your biggest spell on the little shit down there baiting us and we’ll draw it to us. This is a natural choke point, so me and Nora will keep those two back while Allie takes whatever fuck is waiting to jump our backline.”

Therese nodded, taking a breath and dropping into a stance. Rose fell into step just behind her, soft green light trailing from her fingertips. “Ready when you are,” she whispered into her Patron’s ear.

Kat and Nora took their place in the front of the group and Allie stood behind them, gripping her blade in hands that weren’t nearly as sweaty as she’d thought they’d be. Then Kat hissed, “now!”

And everything went to shit.

Two crystals appeared, one over either of Therese’s shoulders. Beams of light shot across the small clearing and slammed into the Malek, sending it sprawling with a howl. Allie had seen a lot of different magics over her years, but she’d never seen attacks that moved as fast as Therese’s. Already another beam was on its way, hitting the Malek before it could recover.

Rose’s green light sank into the ground and moss spread from it to cover the earth around them. She waved a hand and vines erupted from the ground, forming a roof over her and Therese, just as a shadow shot from the exact outcropping Allie had pointed out. Thanks to Rose pointing the brunt of her vines at the outcropping, they were protected from the barrage of spikes that erupted from the winged shadow.

“Incoming!” Kat yelled. A second later, a gray blur was smashing into her shield. It had erupted from the crags faster than Allie could have ever expected, knocking Kat to the ground. Its smaller arms grabbed her shield and yanked it down while the others lashed out, but its claws bounced off her now-glowing armor.

“Shit!” Kat cursed.

Nora was there a moment later, slamming her hammer into its side. It reared back, but not before lashing out at Nora and drawing blood from three long gashes on her bicep. It was fast. Allie wanted to help, but she was the only thing between the flying Malek and their mages. The only problem? It seemed to have no interest in flying low enough for her to reach it, and it nimbly dodged the [Wind Blade] she hurled at it.

“Go!” Therese commanded. “Help them, Rose’s defensive spells will keep me safe if it decides to attack!”That wasn’t the plan, but Allie’s newfound instincts agreed. She activated [Conduit] and lightning crackled across her flesh. She shot forward just in time to intercept the original Malek before it crashed into Nora from behind, leaving the other two to deal with the first one. It snarled and attacked, but she was just quick enough to land a few shallow strikes.

Its leathery skin was so tough it nearly ripped the blade from her hands. She wasn’t going to kill this thing without skills, so she activated [Sword of Night]. Shadows wrapped around her sword and the Malek hissed, trying to back away, but she threw herself at it. She danced, not risking herself to get in any heavy strikes in the hopes that Nora and Kat would take care of their Malek soon. Her mana wasn’t infinite, but she had enough to at least keep this Malek busy.

Both her and the Malek fought a defensive battle, which was fine by her. It managed to land shallow cuts on her outer thigh, opposite hip, and upper arm, but she landed a dozen other strikes across its body. It was so fast, though, that she had no opportunity to so much as glance towards the others to see how they were faring.

That was her undoing.

It lunged to the side and she stepped out of the reach of its claws…right into the path of the spikes that the flying Malek had thrown. Two only left shallow cuts, but the third went through the meaty part of her calf. She cried out, falling to a knee, and the Malek pounced.

She dropped both [Conduit] and [Sword of Night] to throw up a [Winter’s Shield] between her and the Malek. It crashed into the shield, but its weight and the force of the attack launched her. The shield slammed into her nose, dazing her, a second before the back of her head bounced off hard stone.

Spots danced in her vision. Her ears rang and her lungs refused to work, but she couldn’t just lay there. Fuck, she couldn’t even remember the last time her bell had been rung that hard. She threw herself to the side, ignoring how the world spun, just in time to avoid the…whatever it was that slammed into the ground where she’d been laying.

She rolled to her feet, trying to get her bearings. The world pitched underneath her, but she remained standing. Her head pounded. Blood poured from her nose, and from the wetness on her back she was pretty sure it was dripping from the back of her head as well. She staggered away from the giant, hairless, six legged cat thing to buy herself a second to think.

Bile rose, but she fought it back. Yeah, Eliya was definitely concussed, which was probably why she didn’t know where the fuck she was or what the fuck was happening. A real pain in the ass, since it was one of the few injuries her skill could do nothing about. She lifted the sword in her hands, frowning. Usually she liked something a bit heavier than the long, one sided blade she now held, but she’d take speed over strength against a feline opponent. Judging from the burning on her leg, hip, thigh and calf, it had already landed a few blows.

She shifted her weight, but she was just dizzy from the knock. She hadn’t yet lost enough blood to become light headed, which meant she had plenty of time to kill this…thing. She grinned as the beast snarled at her. It was feral, but smart. Shorter snout, retractable claws, thick skin and powerful legs. It’s bite was more for holding its prey in place while its claws did the work. Claws that were sheathed to keep them from being dulled by nature, which meant they’d cut deep without ripping her up too much. The other two arms were really throwing her for a loop, but they seemed shorter. She’d worry about them as they came.

Her grin widened further at the look in its eyes. A clever creature, and a cruel one. This wasn’t some poor animal Karn had captured and forced into an arena, this was a hunter. A killer. It wore no collar, which meant its malice was natural. She could kill it and sleep like a baby tonight. Her favorite kind of trial. She couldn’t wait to tell Zaren about it.

“Alright, kitty cat, let’s dance.” Her voice sounded all wrong, but she attributed that to the probable brain damage. She danced on the balls of her feet while the cat thing circled closer. Once it was within range, she cast [Quicken].

Strength filled her limbs, but it was all wrong. It wasn’t the thickening of her blood vessels she was used to, but she still felt quicker. Even stranger was the arcs of blue lightning that danced across her skin without harming her. There must have been someone else in the trial helping her, then. Whatever, she’d figure it out later. She had an evil cat to kill.

She shot forward with more speed than [Quicken] should have given her, but she adapted quickly. The beast lunged, its powerful back legs launching it with as much speed as she had, but she expected that. Eliya dropped to a slide, letting the beast sail over her. It went just too high to land a solid blow on its hopefully weak underbelly, but she’d expected that, too.

She pushed off, shooting for the beast even as it whirled around to meet her. Pain laced up her side as claws found purchase, but her grin didn’t falter. It had landed a blow, but so had she. The tip of her blade found the beast’s eye and cut deep, earning her a pained roar as she created a nice fat blind spot to work in. It tried to back away, swiping at her, but she stepped further into its reach.

One of its small arms shot out at her, but her blade flicked up and knocked it away even as she twisted it to leave deep cuts on its neck. Too low to hit anything important, but enough to make it bleed. It tried to slam its shoulder into her, spinning to try and compensate for its now-blinded side, but she spun low to the ground and came up on its non-blind side to leave it with four more cuts along its flank.

More pain in her shoulder when it whirled back, but the cuts weren’t deep enough for any real damage. Her blade parted the flesh of its arm, sliding through the thick skin easily, and the beast finally managed to leap away.

“Where are you going, kitty? We aren’t done yet,” she said, her voice still all kinds of weird. She went to flick the blood from her sword only to pause. The blade was wrapped from hilt to tip in shimmering black shadows that she knew all too well.

Zaren.

Warmth bloomed in her chest. He was here? Karn rarely let them fight together! She wanted to search him out, fight shoulder to shoulder with the boy she’d fallen in love with while she could, but the cat was still too close for her to lose focus like that. She’d have to take care of it, then look for him. He was probably off somewhere fighting like eight of these things. Idiot was a magnet for things that wanted to kill him.

A laugh slipped out of her throat when she threw herself back at the beast. If Zaren was around, she wasn’t going to play with her food any longer. She charged straight at it, her body low to the ground, then halted to a stop as soon as the muscles bunched for its leap. It jumped, underestimating where she was going to be, and she nimbly stepped around its lightning-fast claws. Her blade was a flash of black as she left a line of cuts up its arm, cutting deep enough to render it useless, while she spun towards its blind side again.

It turned, slowed by its bad leg. She plunged the blade into its neck and ripped downward, ripping it open and sending a deluge of blood spattering against the stone and dirt below. The beast staggered, but big fucks like this one always had too much blood to take chances. She made two long, horizontal cuts along its flank to balance out the vertical ones she’d left on its other side and stepped back.

It snarled at her weakly, blood pouring from its many injuries, but it only made it a few steps before collapsing underneath all the injuries she’d left on it. Blood loss was the safest way to kill these things in the long run.

Now, time to find Zaren.

“What the fuck was that, girlie!?” a voice called.

Eliya frowned, looking for the owner of the voice. A black haired girl in armor with a dozen blades strapped to her and a tall, muscular redhead were fighting another of the cats while a platinum blond and a Dryad stood uphill, weathering attacks from another cat, but this one with fucking wings and a tail.

Other subjects? She didn’t recognize them, though Karn could have brought them from one of his other labs. He’d done it before. But a quick spin showed no sign of Zaren. Where was he? Her blade was still covered in his shadows, so he had to be near.

The armored girl and the redhead weren’t having too much trouble, though they were fighting much more cautiously than she had. They’d take a bit longer to kill their enemy. The two on the hill, though…She watched the flying cat. The way it circled, adeptly dodging the beams of light that the blond girl was hurling. Where it was shooting spikes from its tail. Where it was aiming. In seconds she knew what it was going to do before it happened.

Whether she knew them or not, Eliya wasn’t going to let Karn kill anyone while she could help it. The armored girl was once again preoccupied with the cat she fought, so Eliya shot for her first. The lightning still crackled, which must have been a skill from one of them. She closed the distance between her and the armored girl in seconds, which made the girl curse foully in surprise, and deftly plucked a large, curved blade from one of the many scabbards on her body.

A blade in each hand, she shot towards Blondie and the Dryad. She hadn’t taken two steps before the flying cat dropped like a stone and slammed into the wall of vines the Dryad was using to shield the two of them. Its claws sunk into the vines, but the tail was long enough to curl around and take the Dryad’s feet from under her. She went down, and so did the vines.

Eliya had almost made it when it leapt from the Dryad to the blond girl, who was firing beams rapidly in the beasts face while circling away from the Dryad. She was trying to draw it away from her companion, which was admirable but unnecessary.

She’d been the target from the beginning.

Blondie screamed when the cat pounced on her. Claws sunk into her body and its wings beat, but Eliya threw herself at it before it could take off. It howled when she sunk her blades into its hide, but it didn’t release the blond mage.

Eliya held on tight, glad she’d gone for a curved blade since its bite was the only reason she wasn’t thrown off the beast when it took to the air. She heard screams behind her, but she had other things to worry about. Like finding a way back to the ground that didn’t involve a splat at the end.

She slammed her longer blade deeper into the beast—flat side down so gravity didn’t simply rip it free—and looked at the rippling muscles in the cat’s back that twisted with each pump of its long, black feathered wings. Trusting her instinct, she ripped the curved blade free and plunged it into the muscle at just the right time in just the right place.

The blade hit bone and stuck fast. The beast howled and its wing went stiff, stuck in a lowered position. They pitched, the wing just high enough to keep them gliding but not high enough to give the cat any altitude, and the ground raced up towards them.

Totally planned out, the beast rolled just enough for Eliya to drop to the ground without shattering all the bones in her body, clutching her remaining blade close to her body while she rolled. Not only that, but it landed on its side, not on the blond girl. Its body took the brunt of the impact, its wing crunching underneath it fairly horrifically, and the girl went tumbling. She landed hard, but she immediately started to drag herself away with one arm, so she was at least alive.

The beast turned towards the blond girl, but Eliya was already up and moving. Its wing was in no shape to fly any time soon, but its tail was still a problem. It was covered in those gray spikes and looked plenty sharp enough to be used as a weapon. For the third time, she used [Quicken]. For the third time, lightning crackled across her skin. It must be the blond girl, then.

It turned on her when she was close enough, but she wasn’t so inexperienced to not recognize a bait when she saw one. She ducked its strike, dragging her once-again-shadow-wrapped-blade along its side. It lashed out at her with its tail, the spikes along its ridge ripping into her ribs, but she cut so deep into its base that it went limp. It raked its claws across her back, but the pain barely slowed her down.

Karn had done unspeakable things to her, but it had left her with a tolerance for pain second to none. She whirled, going for its eye again, but this one wasn’t going to fall for the same trick. It ducked enough that she got its forehead, but its eyes remained open and unblinking. She launched herself at it with a flurry of strikes that mostly found purchase, but it nicked her just above the knee with a well placed strike that sent her to the ground.

Her knee slammed into the hard ground painfully, but she didn’t let that momentum stop. She rolled with the fall and ducked her head so that the strike that should have taken off her head only ripped into her offhand shoulder. She kept rolling and carved deep into its underbelly, but when she tried to stand her leg buckled underneath her.

The cat tried to pounce, but beams of light slammed into it. Blondie couldn’t even sit up fully, but that wasn’t stopping her from launching beam after beam from where she lay, covered in blood, a determined look on her face.

Eliya pushed of the ground, keeping her weight on her Un-fucked leg, and positioned herself so that the beast was between her and the mage. More beams slammed into it, covering it in burn marks. It turned towards the mage, but Eliya leapt forward and cut its tail off completely. It howled, spinning around, but the mage never stopped. Eliya was slowed by her injuries, the blood loss finally catching up with her, but between her and the mage the beast finally fell into a pool of its own blood.

She was beginning to feel woozy, but Eliya practically lived with the effects of blood loss. She needed to make sure the blond girl didn’t bleed out before she worried about using [Bloodletting] on her own injuries. There was every chance that doing so would make her pass out, and she knew from experience that she still had at least a minute before blood loss made it too hard to stay standing.

She limped as fast as she could towards the girl with the platinum blond hair, still lying on the ground in clear pain. One of her ankles was twisted, and her arm hung limp at her side, but it was her face that gave Eliya pause. She looked up to Eliya in a fear and confusion that was usually reserved for when people looked at Zaren.

Zaren.

She needed to find him and see if he needed help. Those cat things were much stronger than the beasts Karn usually sent them against, and she needed to make sure he hadn’t underestimated—

“Allie?” The blond asked, her voice trembling. “Allie, what’s going on?”

Eliya frowned. Allie. She recognized the name. She knew the name. It was… It was on the tip of her tongue along with something else. Something important she’d forgotten. The redhead from earlier. The one with biceps the size of Eliya’s head and a badass hammer. That wasn’t Allie, though. She knew that much. The redhead’s name was…she knew it…it was…

Nora.

Something inside her shattered. For a brief moment, she wasn’t Eliya or Allie, she was both. She was the scarred, tortured girl who knew that the only person she could count on in this world was Zaren. He was the strongest of them, and he was also the only one Karn would never kill. Karn’s most important experiment, and the most important person in Eliya’s life. The only one she could ever afford to love, even if he could never know it.

And she was also the lonely woman who knew that, if Zaren was even alive, he was somewhere she couldn’t reach. He was gone, and to Eliya that was far too much to handle. Pain racked her that had nothing to do with her injuries. She felt like a part of her had been ripped out, leaving a hole in its place. Zaren was gone. Zaren was gone.

Her blade slipped through her fingers as Eliya faded away and Allie returned. The pain she felt inside was matched by the injuries she’d sustained. It drove her to her knees and a sob slipped from her. There were shouts and the pounding of multiple sets of feet, but Allie couldn’t see past the film of tears that obstructed everything. It was too much. It was all too much. From what she’d felt in those last moments of Eliya to what she now felt as Allie.

Strong arms wrapped around her, lifting her from the ground gently and moving her closer to Therese. She felt a hand on her, then something warm and comforting started to spread from the hand. Ropes of something with weight that snaked across her body and covered her injuries. Large, callused hands wiped the tears from her eyes and she looked down to see flower-covered vines wrapping around her. She traced them back to Rose, who had her other hand on Therese. The mage was covered in similar vines, and Allie knew Rose was healing the both of them.

“Allie, talk to me,” Nora pleaded, her arms still wrapped around Allie.

“I’m back,” Allie said, her voice weak and trembling. “I’m me again.”

Her hands shook so violently she couldn’t even clench them into fists. She felt so cold despite the warm vines pumping magic into her. Nora cradled Allie’s head into her chest, but Allie couldn’t tear her eyes from Therese’s gaze. Pale blue eyes wide with worry for her.

“What—” Allie cleared her throat. “What happened?”

It was Therese who answered. “You went down hard, and when you got up…” She forced herself to sit up with a wince despite Rose’s protests. “You weren’t you.”

Allie closed her eyes, unable to look at any of them. “What do you mean?”

“The way you fought was completely different. You’ve always been so precise and practiced, standing tall and proper, then suddenly you were…”

“Feral,” Nora offered softly.

“Yeah. You charged that Malek without an ounce of fear. You didn’t so much as flinch when it clawed you. You moved in a way I never thought you were capable of to kill it, and the look on your face was…”

It hadn’t been her. It had been Eliya. “It was like I was enjoying myself.”

“Allie, what…” Therese trailed off.

Allie’s next words were directed at Nora. She was too tired and beaten to care that Therese and Rose heard them. “I was her, Nora. I was Eliya.”

Nora held her tighter. “An episode, then.”

“No. Not like that.” How did she put it into words? How could she explain why she was so fucking scared of what had just happened. “It wasn’t a blackout or a flashback. Nora, I was Eliya. I fought like her. I thought like her. I still remember all of it. Every second. Every line of reasoning behind every move. I was still in control, I just wasn’t…me.”

And it had felt so natural. For that brief moment, the line between her and Eliya had been painfully blurred. Like they were bleeding into each other. Even now, she felt like she had more parts of Eliya in her than before.

She felt wrong now, but when she’d been Eliya she’d felt so…

“Nora,” she whispered. “What if one day, I wake up as Eliya and Allie never comes back?” It had started as an irrational fear the first time she’d failed to break free of Eliya when the nightmares started and had slowly become more and more rational every day since.

Nora pulled back to cup Allie’s cheek. “Then I’ll just have to keep loving you until you do.”

Her words cut through the hopelessness that Allie felt like she was drowning in. “You…”

Pressing her forehead to Allies, Nora said, “I love you, Allie, and we are going to figure this out. I swear it. I’m not going anywhere, no matter what.”

The tears returned, but this time they weren’t born of despair. “I’m scared,” she whispered, still uncaring that Therese and Rose could certainly hear every word.

“I am too,” Nora admitted, “but that isn’t going to stop me. That I care about you enough to be scared is a nice change of pace.”

Allie nodded. “I love you, too.” She pulled away, warmed by the smile Nora wore. She turned her attention back to Therese and Rose, who both very clearly had questions. “I’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions. I’ll explain what I can later.”

Therese nodded, her face becoming a mask again. “Alright then. Kat?”

“Securing the other two bodies,” Nora explained. “She was using a keystone to transport them back ahead of us, she should be—”

“Fuck me sideways, girlie!” Kat called, loud enough to make Allie wince. “You didn’t tell me you had that in you.”

Allie leaned into Nora’s chest and closed her eyes. “Now seems a good time to mention that I’m almost definitely concussed.”

She felt Nora’s hand gingerly touching the back of her head and Kat cursed. “Sorry about that, I got hung up on the fact that you fucking annihilated that Malek. Here.”

Allie felt an armored hand on her shoulder and her headache started to clear. Every time Kat used her magic it was a little easier to fight down the revulsion she felt at the feel of it. The reaction wasn’t Kat’s fault, but rather the blond man who’d abused Eliya, Zaren, and the other experiments so horrifically. The one who’d killed the twins. He’d been a Chosen, and whatever part of Eliya she carried remembered that.

“Concussions are considered status effects,” Kat explained, “which is something I can take care of. I’d offer to heal your other shit, but Rosie here is a much better healer than my ass is.”

“Rose,” Therese corrected softly, but firmly.

Kat rolled her eyes. “You four really are no fun, you know that?”

Rose cleared her throat. “Rosie is what my last Patron called me. He wasn’t a good man.”

Even Kat had the grace to look away at that. “Shit, sorry. Fair enough. Won’t happen again.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Fuck, how do I always find the worst shit possible to say?” She walked over to the Malek and gave it a good kick. “Good shit, by the way, taking these fucks out with blood loss.” She walked a bit further and retrieved the tail. “They’re mostly intact, which’ll make the scribes n’ scholars cream their pants. Rose, they ready for travel yet?”

Rose looked at them both. “Keystone travel, sure, but it would be best for them to rest a few days before getting back. Therese especially, since she broke bones.”

Kat pulled out her other keystone. “You got it. Nora, help me move this fucking thing over here so we can get back. I can’t wait to see the look on Bennet’s fucking face when he sees these three.” She chuckled. “Then we can take a few days off before we go on the real mission.”