“Hold.” She crouched low, palm flat to the ground. Her grin vanished. “Not good.”
My pulse stumbled.
Malakai’s tone lost its mockery in an instant. “Report.”
“Tracks,” Ashley muttered. “Boots, heavy, too many prints to count.” Her fingers skimmed the prints, the edges warped strangely. “And they’re… frozen?”
I frowned, leaning closer. The trail of footprints didn’t sink naturally into the mud. Instead, each depression was filled with a thin crust of ice, glinting faint blue in the dim light.
A hiss of breath came from Mey. “Frozen water in the footprints. That shouldn’t happen. Not this cleanly.”
The mountain air was cold, yes, but there wasn’t any snow around this time of the year and this was precise, edges glass-slick, like someone had poured liquid and flash frozen it solid mid-step.
Eve shifted her rifle uneasily. “Mages.”
Lionel crouched, brushing the edge of a print with gloved fingers. A shard snapped off, sharp as glass. “An hour old, no more or it would’ve melted already.”
Nate’s usual humor drained away. He bent lower, squinting.
“Look at this.” Nate scraped aside some dirt to reveal vines lying on the ground as if someone had ripped them off a tree. But none of the trees around here had such vines. Where had they come from, if not an earth mage?
The air smelled faintly of minerals and wet stone, like riverbanks after a flood. Too strong, too close.
Mey coughed, twice, into her sleeve. Her voice was tight when she spoke again. “If they’re leaving signs like this, surely they want us to follow. Or at the very least, they don’t care if we do.”
Malakai straightened, scanning the ridgeline with that predatory stillness of his. For a heartbeat, no one breathed.
Then his hand tightened on the hilt at his side. “Fun’s over,” he said. “Eyes sharp.”
But before anyone could react, before I could find my tongue, the forest split open with a hiss of power.
A gust roared down the slope, ripping branches free, stinging needles slashing at exposed skin.
“Mages!” Malakai growled, voice sharp as a gunshot. “Positions!”
I froze for a second, then training took over. I brought my rifle up, taking aim and looking for any movement ahead. Shadows glowed between trunks, a swirling green light forming around one’s arm, blue frost spiraling up another’s neck.
The first mage struck, slamming a hand to the ground, the green light spreading from his arms to the ground.Earth ripped upward in spikes, exploding soil and rock across the path.
“Down!” Lionel shoved me aside, covering me with his body as shards tore through the air.
Gunfire cracked, Ashley’s weapon singing loud and chaotic as she whooped in delight. “Eat powder, magic freaks!” Her bullets tore into the nearest figure, causing him to fall back into cover.
Eve dropped to a knee beside a boulder, sniper rifle braced. One clean shot whistled past my ear, bursting a glowing ice sigil mid-formation before it could finish. She smirked, murmuring, “You’re welcome.”
Nate flanked left, laying suppressive fire. He kept glancing over his shoulder at Mey. “Stay back, sis-”
Too late.
A wave of force slammed through the ground, buckling the earth beneath us. Nate shouted as he hit hard against the rock wall behind us, his head cracking against it. He crumpled instantly.
“Nate!” Mey’s voice broke, her scream tearing through the air. She scrambled towards him, firing blind with her sidearm.
“Cover them!” Malakai barked, his own rifle spitting fire, cold, precise, controlled. He moved like he’d done this a hundred times, never wasting a bullet.
I snapped my attention to the others covering Mey as she made her way towards Nate.
How many mages were there? Earth and ice, two different elemental forces.
