“I am Nicron,” he bowed his head slightly. “If you want, I’d like to invite you to our camp, Runora.”
I glanced over at Malakai, who was as blank as a piece of paper.
“Really?” I asked, looking back.
Nicron was watching like a hawk, and slowly he looked over at Malakai, realizing my hesitation, before looking back to me again. “Yes, we haven’t had a fire mage in ages, we’d be honored to introduce you.”
My heart bolted at the knowledge he gave me. Fire wasn’t a common magic amongst them? Why?
They hadn’t seen one in ages… was I the only fire mage alive or the only one they had met?
“Sorry… introduce us to whom?” I asked, trying to keep my voice polite to not offend them with my eager questions.
A smirk spread on Nicron’s lips, it felt like I had committed a fault and he noticed. “Our leader at the encampment, of course.”
“Of course,” Ashley muttered behind me, not able to resist the urge to open her mouth anymore.
I nodded slightly, as Nicron turned and walked back to his fellow comrades, before turning to wave for us to follow.
I swallowed hard. This was it, our way in, our opportunity to talk to them and their leader. This was an accomplishment, a step into the right direction. Even if wehad barely told them anything about us, we could now test the waters, so to speak and get a view of their thoughts on the war, on life itself.
I think we were all on edge as we walked, bitter silence swallowing us all. Nicron and his people never spoke a word amongst themselves, perhaps because they knew we would have been able to overhear.
Ashley played with a bomb in her hand, earning a few confused glares at times.
“Behave,” Nate snapped at her, and she sighed.
“Stop,” Nicron said suddenly, and we all followed suit.
His head snapped towards the right and all I heard was the wind howling between the trees before a small branch snapped, and Nicron instantly produced shards of ice in his hand.
“Wait,” I raised my voice, holding my hand out as my eyes darted to the side.
No way.
I saw Lionel and Eve walking with their hands in the air, surrendering. His eyes were locked on mine, but Eve kept hers on our new acquaintances.
“Who are you!?” Nicron shouted aggressively, as his ice shards danced around in his palm.
“They’re with us,” I snapped quickly. “We got separated.”
Lionel pressed his lips together into a thin line, as if holding something in.
But he came back.
I was ready to laugh, to cry—I never thought I’d see him again.
Nicron glanced back at me, his jaw tensing before he looked over to his female comrade, who shrugged in response. “The more the merrier?”
“Are you the only fire mage amongst you?” Nicron asked, looking back.
“Yes,” I answered quickly, maybe too quickly.
He nodded slowly. “If you try anything funny, we’ll kill you on the spot, understood?”
“Yes.” I understood his sudden concern; we were suddenly two more, and we already outnumbered them before this addition.
But since they never asked the others to show their powers, I gathered they were too invested in mine to even care if they broughtungiftedalong or not.
