“Tell me how to help. I can’t just stand here.”
“Try your magic,” Fen said through gritted teeth.
I closed my eyes and tried so damn hard to find some kind of foreign source of anything within me that I could push forward. A trickle of something small and so far away I could barely reach it flashed through my mind. I held on and tried to drag it forward. Nothing. The screaming continued, and Greeve grunted as he passed.
“It’s not working,” I told anyone who could hear me at that point.
The banshee shrieked a never-ending cry of pain and panic, and then Greeve landed on the frozen ground, heaving, the snow-covered ground stained with fresh blood.
“Gone,” he panted.
He was completely tattered. Whatever the banshee was in corporeal form, it had shredded the wind cleaver. He bled from a thousand slices all over his body. The other’s screaming faded, and Fen crawled across the ground to Greeve. He made it as far as he could, reaching out his hand to clasp Greeve’s.
“Wren?” I asked tentatively.
“Here,” she moaned, revealing herself in the fetal position on the frozen ground.
I walked over to Kai and knelt beside him. “Are you okay?”
“Never better. So glad we had Greeve to save our asses.” He grunted and sat up.
Fen stood, pulled Greeve to his feet, and dug through his bag until he pulled out a tin of salve. It was exactly like the one my father had kept in our barn. The only one who needed it was Greeve, but he barely used any. He changed his clothes and joined us around the fire. I’d never questioned Greeve’s intensity. He carried a dark mystery with him, wrapped in the breeze that flowed, but now? Now I knew he was a creature of legends.
“Anyone else carrying anything they want to talk about?” Fen asked.
The whole group turned to me.
“Oh no you don’t. Lichen should have never gone through my things.”
“I’ll admit, I am at fault. The book slipped out when I had everyone’s things in the cave with me. Curiosity got the best of me. Speaking of curiosity, isn’t it strange that the banshee did not target you?”
“Is it? I don’t know the rules of a fucking banshee. Maybe my birthright protects me. Maybe you shouldn’t deflect the blame.”
“You felt your magic though, didn’t you?” Fen asked.
“How did you know?”
He shrugged and looked away.
Wren cleared her throat, and my eyes snapped to her. “What was it like?” she asked Greeve, but I noted the subject change. They shared a secret and weren’t telling me. Nothing would hold my wall up better than lies and deceit.
“No. Don’t change the subject. How did you know?”
“I didn’t,” he said. “I just assumed you tried, that’s all.”
I read him carefully, but he didn’t flinch.
“Let’s just get some sleep. We’ve got a long day of dying ahead of us,” Greeve said.
“Hey, that was my line.” Kai threw his blanket at Greeve.
“Yeah, but I’m the hero, so I can say what I want.”
I walked over to my bag, pulled out my blanket and laid down separate from the group. I felt a wave of heat move over me, but Fen kept his distance. There was definitely something he wasn’t telling me.
As I drifted off to sleep, I fell into my nightmare. Only this time inky hands covered my mouth and I couldn’t make a sound as I was forced to go through the motions.
Nealla’s seductive voice echoed in the background. “You are nearly there, child. But do you need your friends? Should you drag them through the unknown? You don’t need them. You only need me, right now. Come, child. Come through The Mists.”
