“You’re concussed, idiot,” Mey muttered, pressing a hand to his shoulder. He only winked.
Eve reluctantly took hers, mostly because Lionel gave her a mocking stare. “Fine. But if I wake up blind tomorrow, I’m blamingher,” she muttered, jerking her chin at Ashley.
Ashley threw an arm around her anyway. “Cheers to new friendships!”
The laughter that followed was easy, real. For a moment, it felt like the war and the blood were far away.
Lionel placed himself beside me, knocking our cups together as we took a sip. Whatever I drank was strong, it felt like smoke climbing in my throat. I furrowed my brows and looked over at Lionel who snickered at my reaction.
I felt it then, the weight of someone’s eyes. Malakai was across the fire, sitting on top of a stump, cup danglingfrom his hand. His expression was unreadable at first. Then his lips curved, just slightly.
I forced my gaze away, pretending I was focused on Nate making a fool of himself.
But when I laughed at one of Ashley’s ridiculous comments and risked a glance across the flames, he was still looking. Not mocking this time. Simply… watching.
I scowled into my drink, fear crawling back into me, tensing my body. What if he would take the opportunity of us all being wasted and kill us? Maybe he was simply waiting for the perfect moment… what if he devoured my magic, like he had that mage?
I shivered at the mental image and decided to not drink any more of the alcohol. One of us needed to stay alert, keep watch in case the demon decided to betray us all.
CHAPTER
16
Sometime during the night, I had lost the battle against my eyelids and dozed off.
When I finally opened them again, I jolted upright.
“Mm, just a few more minutes,” Ashley muttered, her arms embracing me as she drooled all over our bedrolls.
“What the heck?” I chuckled in surprise.
Ashley rubbed her eyes, looking up at me. “You looked so cuddle-able. You should thank me, it was either me or… you know what, it was only me.”
I burst into laughter, shoving her arms away. “Next time, ask.”
“That’s no fun,” Ashley pouted, rolling over to her other side.
“I second that,” Nate teased, now sitting up with a can in his hands, eating.
“Nobody asked you,” Mey cut in, pinching his arm.
“Hurry up and eat,” Malakai’s voice interrupted. “We’ve lost plenty of time already.”
I stiffened and looked up at him, but he kept packing, avoiding eye-contact for once. Strangely enough, it eased me; he wasn’t mad at me specifically, for once. We followed orders, helping each other pack our bags.
“I’ll take yours,” Mey said, snagging Nate’s pack from his grip.
“I’m not crippled, hand it back,” he hissed.
“Give it to me,” I snapped, ripping it from both of them. “Nate you hit your head, Mey you barely slept.”
Their eyebrows shot towards the sky, left speechless as they had no argument to follow up with.
“Then that settles it,” Lionel added behind me.
Nate walked between Lionel and Mey, in case he felt dizzy, Eve walked ahead of them and Ashley and I kept to the back. It felt easier, watching the group, having eyes on them as the demon led us.
According to the map, we weren’t far from the village we had set out to reach, before hell had broken loose with the mages.
