“Lionel,” I whispered as they got closer. “You’re back.”
He nodded slowly. “I… I just need time to process.”
“Told you,” Nate murmured behind us.
“I didn’t think you’d come back,” I said, not able to hold back a faint smile.
“Me neither,” he said, his voice still stern. “I’m still mad youlied.”
I bit back my smile and averted my eyes. Of course, I knew that, it would’ve been weird otherwise.
“Nicron here is taking us to their base, since we’re runaways,” I said, sneaking in the information to them, so they knew what we had told the mages.
Eve glared at them, not able to hide her disgust for them in the slightest. Lionel was blank, as he simply nodded again, falling in line with the rest of us.
“No more surprise guests, then?” Nicron teased, his eyes sharp, making it seem like a potential threat.
“No,” I said firmly. “This is all of us.”
CHAPTER
24
Nicron and his fellow mages led us through the forest until we reached a dirt path.
“It won’t be long now,” he assured us.
I felt stressed. I wasn’t easily bothered by anything, and even becoming a part of the Ashen Corps didn’t make me nervous or uncertain; I knew I had what it took to be one of them.
Here, though? Mey and I were newbies at everything concerning magic, since I had rejected mine for so long and she had no idea she even had it. But not only that, most of the people we brought with us had none, and the mages didn’t know about it. Would they kill them if they found out?
The thought alone put me on edge, wanting to keep close to the rest of the group.
We crested a hill and our eyes met with the ‘camp’ that waited down below on the other side. It was more of a village, at least in my eyes, with a large building at the center, and a myriad of houses built around it. Some open spaces that looked like shooting ranges, but the people were firing magic at the targets instead of bullets. The architecture of the buildings was fancier than anything wehad seen, a different material that looked smooth and tough compared to the rough and ramshackle buildings back home.
“Wow,” Nate exhaled behind me.
“We’re far away from home,” Lionel murmured quietly, not sure if it reached Nicron’s ears or not.
I swallowed. They considered this their camp. It made me wonder, how did a village or city look in their eyes?
Nicron turned, eyes on me. “There,” he pointed towards the central building. “That’s our base, where our leader will meet with you, fire mage.”
I nodded, but I saw in the corner of my eyes, how Lionel flinched at the words ‘fire mage’.
“You’re put into categories depending on your type of magic?” Lionel asked carefully.
Nicron gazed at him. “Sort of… although, your friend here is one of a kind.”
Lionel stiffened at the words, but he never glanced at me, as if refusing to let himself do it.
Instead, I peeked over at Malakai who was watching the towering building in the middle. His magic was one of a kind too, or at least that’s what I gathered. I had never seen or heard of blood magic, and when I asked if he was going to show it off before, he had told me ‘they couldn’t handle it’. I’d assumed that this was what he had meant, that it was foreign to them as well. Their interest in me was obvious, but I wondered what it meant for us all. Would they want to use me, or craft an alliance with me because of it?
It wasn’t as if they couldn’t produce fire, everyone knew how to make campfires after all. They simply couldn’t control it. And neither could I, at least not in my current state.
“Did he know?” I heard Lionel’s low voice next to me as we walked. “The Lieutenant.”
I glanced over at him, but his focus was straight ahead. “He figured it out.”
