Gabe hesitates, unaccustomed to following orders, then does ashe’s told. But not before he calls back to the guards, who are still waiting on the motorized cart. “I’m not going back. You can’t force me to return without restraining me, and legally, you can’t. So go.”
The three Guards of the Gate need no other permission. The cart’s wheels kick up grains of sand as it takes off across the dunes, its rhythmic whir disappearing a minute later.
I angle back towards the Huntresses. They look like statues, each one fixated in a different direction, slowly surveying the cloud-covered landscape that dips and crests for miles. A gentle wind flows through the helmet as I, too, fall under the spell.
There are no walls. No doorways or stairwells. Nothing to hold on to. Nowhere to hide. Even the ground gives way, like an endless void that won’t stop spinning while I fall through a vortex of sand and sky.
My knees collapse against the surface. I lean forward, bracing my palms on the cool earth while I attempt to convince my brain that the tunnels of Caligo aren’t trying to swallow me back inside.
“Being out here makes me feel like I’m stuck inside a sand clock.” Gem’s words ease their way through the tempest. She scoots up next to me and presses her knee into my own, providing the anchor point for the world to stabilize.
We stay in the quiet expanse for a few moments more.
When my vision settles, I notice Kalden returning from the large dune toward my right. He leaps gracefully down the steep decline while my feet sink and stick as I trudge my way back to standing. As he arrives, our group seems to come to attention, turning toward him without prompting.
“I know the commander ordered us to split up, but we’ll have better odds of making it through an attack if we stick together. Groundcover isn’t the priority here. Survival is.” Kalden’s neck tilts back as he takes in the clouds, which have brightened from a near-black grayto a slightly brighter shade of charcoal. “We’ve got a little less than half an hour till sunrise. If we head west for the tree line, we may make it before dawn.”
Before our enemies awake.
“Remember what we practiced. Adjust your form for long-distance running. Stamina over speed, until a threat arises.”
Kalden spins on his heel, leading our group towards the darker side of the horizon.
Gem falls into step on my right, Gabe on my left. Their pandering makes me want to push myself faster, but I refrain from doing so. The last thing I want to do is burn myself out in the first half hour. So, I focus on what Kalden taught me during our second training session: lean forward, higher cadence, shorter strides. The movement is gentler on my ankles and knees, redirecting the stress to the balls of my feet and my glutes.
Minutes pass, and I fall into a rhythm. Because of the angle, I’m able to avoid too much vertical oscillation, and my brain is grateful not to be jostled around. Like usual, there’s a pressure behind my eyes that pulses with every heartbeat, but it hasn’t reached a stabbing level of pain.
Yet, whispers an intrusive thought.
I ignore it. Worrying about when my next debilitating episode will strike will do me no good. If it happens—orwhenit happens—I’ll have to lean on the borrowed power from the sun instead of my own and pray to the shadows that it’ll be enough.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Silvery light illuminatesthe gnarled branches of the tree line ahead. Even with the dense cloud cover, the sun’s brilliance is already more than the dull violet lights my sensitive eyes are accustomed to. If this is dim, how much brighter will it be when the sky clears?
I inhale, catching a sweet floral scent mingling with the earthy marram grass, the forest ahead greeting us through the wind. It’s a nice change from the musty aroma that lingers throughout most of Caligo, despite the spiced fragrances they mix into the bioluminescent liquid to cover the stench.
I’ve spent most of the past thirty hours preparing myself for the horrors awaiting us above. Scorching heat. Formidable terrain. The scent of death closing in. I hadn’t once considered it might be . . . pleasant. Since dawn broke a handful of minutes ago, a comfortable warmth has permeated the steady breeze. Not too hot, but enough to chase off the chill beneath my leathers. If it weren’t for the weight of the steel resting atop my forearms or the sheathed weapon bouncing against Gem’s thigh or my ex-husband’s panted breaths, maybewe could forget that we’re running for our lives. Maybe we’d find enjoyment, even, in the shifting landscape and how the golden hues of the sand spill into lush greenery.
A low rumble cuts through our silence.
Gem glances over her shoulder. “Guess the storm’s back.”
Though the thunder had relented a minute after the guards parted ways with us, the reprieve seems to be ending. Yet when a second, third, and fourththumpreverberate through the charged air, unaccompanied by the telltale flash of lightning, alarm bells ring in my mind.
A screech pierces through the gentle wind, shattering the last remnant of the blissful illusion.
“Shift!” Kalden shouts from the front of our group—our signal to shift into speed sprints.
I elongate my strides, but my cadence suffers as the added impact makes my booted feet burrow further into the sand.
The ground rumbles in time with the thudding impacts, growing closer by the second.
Kalden is the first to disappear beneath the forest’s canopy, and the others soon follow. The dense woods won’t stop our assailant, but it might slow them down—or better yet, weaken their magic from the stifled sunlight. I want to scream at my legs to move faster, but my legs aren’t the issue. A familiar aura smears the edges of my vision, and my stride turns sloppy.
Gem and Gabe slow.
“Don’t you dare!” I yell at both idiots while clenching my fists, releasing the folded blades from my cuffs, readying to slice the palm of my gloves as soon as their backs are to me.
