Mel’s feet kept sinking into the wet sand with every step she took and her legs ached in places she didn’t even know they could ache in. Above her knee, along the edges of her thighs, around the back of her calves and on the sides of her chins. Every step felt like a chore and she knew she had purposely forgotten the harshness of the wastes.

Last time she had been here, she had barely made it out alive and wound up in the hospital for days. She didn’t want to have the same experience this time and forced herself to keep moving at a fast pace, trudging forward through the damp landscape.

“Hey, Melissa, wait up,” Austin said from behind her.

Mel turned around and saw Flavio, Brandon, Clara and Gabriella, all struggling to keep up with her quick steps. Austin put his hand on her arm, over her cloak, but Mel still felt it like a wave of warmth brushing through her cold limbs. She looked down at his hand with a frown on her forehead, and Austin pulled away.

“No, I didn’t…”

“I think we need to slow down,” Austin interrupted her.

Mel couldn’t quite see his face in the darkness, but she felt like he was avoiding her gaze now, staring down at his feet. She wished she hadn’t reacted so strangely to his touch. She wished he would touch her again, but this time dare to linger.

“If we don’t make it to the village soon, we might end up dead.”

She threw a glance back toward the eastern gate leading to Aldrion. Occasionally, it was lit up by flashes of magic in the dark night. There was a low vibration coming from the sky and Mel knew the dragon was up there somewhere, but it hadn’t interfered with the attack in a while.

Something seemed to stop it from joining in and breathing fire over Aldrion. Mel didn’t know if it was like this every night these days or if this was an unusual night. She had spent the last few weeks down in a bunker during the attacks and didn’t know how the fighting had evolved.

“Yeah, I know,” Austin said, throwing a glance back at the others who were just now joining them. “But we also need to stick together and make sure we are walking the right way.”

Mel’s forehead creased as she watched his face. “I think it was just further up here. Maybe up that hill.”

She stared into the distance to the east, away from Aldrion, but wasn’t sure if there was a hill in front of them or just a long, winding flatness. It was so hard to see anything out here. Mel swallowed hard. Had she already gotten them lost in the wastes?

“Let’s keep heading east and hope we find the village, but at a slower pace,” Austin said. “Either we find the village or we get further away from the fighting in Aldrion.”

Mel nodded and turned her back to the group. She walked off again and heard Austin’s footsteps behind her. This time, her pace was slower, almost uncomfortably slow. She felt her legs protesting more now that she didn’t have a fire burning behind her back. By taking things slow, she had given into the pain and it was hard to concentrate on anything else.

Gabs moved up to her side and joined her in front of the group. She leaned into Mel while they were walking, almost making their shoulders touch.

“Are you sure this is the right way, Mel?”

Mel felt anger and frustration bubbling up to the surface. She took a few steps more vigorously and got a little ahead of Gabs.

“I’m sure,” Mel said. “Maybe not sure, but we need to keep walking. It’s supposed to just be up here somewhere.”

Gabs struggled to keep up behind her. “Slow down. We won’t get anywhere by walking to the wrong place. Maybe it’s best if we just stop and try to figure out where the village is. It’s clearly not here.”

Mel stopped, turned back, and stared daggers at Gabs. Gabs stood with her arms spread out to her sides, showing off the emptiness around them and the lack of village Mel had found.

“What do you want me to do?” Mel asked. “Conjure up the village right here. I told you, they have their houses on wheels. They can move the village. So let’s keep going until we find it.”

“But what if they moved it to the north or south, Mel? What do we do then? Walk until we’re knee deep in the wasteland and never find our way back? That wasn’t the plan.”

“Screw the plan,” Mel said. “I just don’t want to get caught out here with another shadow. Last time, I nearly got killed. We should never have gone back into the wastes. We should have waited for the morning until we could have been guided by the light. We should have…”

“What?” Gabs said. “Gone back in time and done everything according to the plan. Well, yes, we probably should have. But we didn’t and now we’re out here and need to figure out a new plan. We can’t go back and we can’t find the village by just walking further to the east. We might as well pass the village that way and head too far inside the wastes…”

“Hey, stop fighting,” Austin said. “And stop speaking so loud. You’re gonna wake up the void.”

Mel felt her heart pounding in her chest and her breath coming in ragged bursts. She kept staring daggers at Gabs, feeling her face only inches from her friend’s. A part of her wanted to launch herself at Gabs or Austin, tear them down to the ground. But she willed herself to stand still and to let her emotions ebb into a simmering pot of frustration.

Her eyes left Gabs’ face, and she leaned back on her heels, feeling them sink into the ground. Her gaze caught with the other nobles standing behind Gabs and she felt like they were on Gabs’ side, her allies, not Mel’s.

Austin stood next to both of them, equally giving them his attention, but Mel felt like he would take her side if she asked. In her mind, a question came through. Why was she even thinking about sides? Weren’t they supposed to be in this together?

Mel felt her hands finally relax down her sides and her palms uncurling from the balled up shape they had held since they’d gone into the wastes. She took in a deep breath and sighed out her exhale.

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“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I’m just scared. We’re out here in the middle of nowhere and I just want to find safety for all of us.”

Flavio stepped up next to Gabs and put a hand on her shoulder. “Well, if you two are done fighting, could we please get out of here?”

He looked around them, and Mel finally caught his anxiousness. She noticed a change in the air and in the sounds around them. Like low vibrations getting closer, perhaps two or more vibrations. What was that?

Flavio took another step forward, and then his eyes widened. He was looking over Mel’s shoulder and suddenly his posture grew stiff. Mel didn’t have to ask what it was. She could already feel it now. The hairs on her neck were standing up, and she heard the low growl coming from behind her back. It was a beast.

Mel turned and watched the brown eyes glowing in the night. She looked around them and saw two more pairs of eyes circling the group like wolves. They had them surrounded, and Mel brought up her dagger from the lining of her pants. She unwrapped it in slow movements while watching the beast standing right in front of her.

Austin brought up his sword and Mel saw water glowing blue inside it like veins. She felt Gabs, Brandon and Clara bringing up their weapons around her and closing the group tight together.

“Screw this,” Flavio said.

He dashed in front of Mel and the beast got ready, but Flavio stepped out of the way, evading and heading away toward the darkness to the south.

“Get back here!” Austin yelled after him.

But Flavio escaped with his gray cloak vanishing into the night. The beasts didn’t follow him.

Mel had no time to react when the beast launched for her instead, making her stagger and bring up her hand to shield herself. She fell to the ground, but Austin was there, bringing up an icy shield right in front of her outreached hand. The beast’s teeth snagged the ice, and the magic crumbled into shards, but it missed Mel’s flesh.

It fell back after the attack, waiting for its friends to back it up. The three monsters circled them and Mel struggled to get to her feet again, feeling her heart banging in her chest. That had been close, too close.

“We need to push them back,” Austin said.

Gabriella swung her staff around and fire leaped out from her weapon, lighting up the ground and the beasts fell back from the area. It forced them to the side, afraid of the fire. Brandon followed Gabs’ move and spread fire around the beasts, in an attempt to close them in.

He leaked fire to more places than Mel thought he had intended too, and there were flames blocking off the path for the group, too. They had all been locked into close combat and Mel wasn’t sure it was best to face three beasts head on.

Austin seemed to read her mind, and he splashed water to the side of Mel. Mel took a chance and moved away from the group, a beast following in her steps. She swung her dagger at it and focused on the hot feel of fire and melting rock. She could almost feel the pain and destruction in her bones and between herself and the group, the sand melted and burned.

“Shit,” Brandon said, dragging him and Clara away from the pit of lava.

The beast didn’t step away fast enough and was caught in it, its paws sinking into the flames and the melting sand. It growled and Mel looked away in horror at the sight. She felt herself growing nauseous and wanted it to stop. The smell of burning flesh was strong.

She willed the dagger to stop glowing and from the corner of her eye she saw the pit of lava cooling slowly. But the beast was already burning and sizzling in front of her.

She hadn’t known until now they would be this human in a way, not like the smokey shape of a shadow, but like the shape of an animal. She saw the two other beasts taking a step back from Mel, but she had already separated herself from the others and only now realized her mistake.

She swallowed hard, looking at the fire surrounding the group and the lava between them. She reached out her hand, as if she could touch Austin through it all. He caught her gaze for a quick second and one of the beasts launched at him.

“No,” Mel said.

But Austin brought his sword up, the blue glow piercing the night, and he rammed it straight into the beast's mouth. An icy glow shot out from the sword and the skin of the beast looked frozen.

The last one of the three monsters took his shot and launched at Clara. She fumbled with her short sword and cut a small gash in the beast’s side, but it brought her down to the ground. A scream escaped her lips, and the beast snarled, sinking teeth into her arm.

“No, you don’t,” Brandon said.

His sword went through the beast's neck as he threw himself into the fight to help Clara. The beast released her arm and his jaw went slack. Brandon rolled the body off of Clara and pulled out his sword.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Clara lay on the ground, looking dazed, and flames shot up around her. Some had been quenched by the wet ground, but others burned in a steady beat. Austin spread out a splash of water, creating little drops like sideways rain around them. Mel felt herself growing cold from the water, but at least the flames sizzled out.

Gabs hunched down next to Brandon, reaching for Clara’s arm. “I need to take a look.”

At first, Clara looked reluctant to let Gabs take a look. But then extended her forearm to Gabs’ hands. Gabs brought down her backpack from her shoulders and took out a fresh-looking bandage. There was some dark goo around the teeth marks and blood dripped from her arm.

Gabs looked around them and then her gaze stopped on Austin. “Can you clean the wound?”

Austin’s sword still glowed blue, and he brought it down to Clara. Mel stepped closer, watching from above as Austin washed away the darkness clinging to Clara’s wound.

Gabs wrapped Clara’s arm in the bandage and parts of the first layer bled through immediately. Mel swallowed hard, wondering if they should head back now or continue forward. They had already lost Flavio and Clara was hurt.

Gabs kept wrapping the cloth, and eventually only white fabric could be seen around Clara’s arm. She seemed to have stopped the worst of the bleeding, at least. Brandon brushed away strands of black hair from Clara’s forehead and he kissed her cheek. Clara responded immediately by reaching up toward him, catching his lips with hers. Brandon smiled in the blue light and Mel felt heat rise up her cheeks. This felt intimate.

Her gaze lifted from the couple and caught with Austin’s. His lips didn’t have a smile on them, he just watched her intently. His dark eyes seemed to glow from the blue light and Mel felt a low burning deep inside her belly despite the chill out here in the wastes. She swallowed hard and willed herself to look away from Austin. She needed to focus on getting them out of here, alive.

“We should head back,” Mel said.

Clara sat up, leaning against Brandon. “No. I’m not leaving without Flavio. I know he’s difficult and he should have stayed and fought. But he’s our friend. We can’t just leave him out here to die.”

“But you’re hurt,” Gabs said.

Clara lifted her bandaged arm up to her chest and cradled it. “I’m gonna be fine.”

She reached for Brandon, and he helped her up to her feet. Austin walked around the group, looking down at the ground and walking in circles toward the east. Mel watched him with a frown on her face and then her eyes caught with the scorched ground.

Mel could see little in the darkness, but her eyes had adjusted a bit by now and she felt happy Austin had extinguished his blue light. For Mel could see the destruction she had created with her dagger. She saw the beast, laying half covered with rock created from the melting sand. It was clear in places, just like glass and in others it was scorched and burnt. The beast lay dead with its eyes glazed over. No more glow was coming from inside them, and Mel felt her bones growing cold.

“I found his tracks, I think,” Austin said.

He was crouched next to the ground, his hand pressed to the earth and his eyes in the distance. The group stepped closer to him and he stood up next to them.

“I think we should see where he went, at least. But this time, let’s be quiet and try to not attract more monsters.”