Centuries

Chapter 13

I scrambled down the boulder and ran to back up the rest of the soldiers. Already several of them were dead. The Inferni with us lit tents on fire to draw anyone in them out into the open. There were far more people than we anticipated.

I only had a rifle and a dagger but that meant nobody would expect me to be a threat and I intended to use it to my advantage. My power was still a last resort despite how much the amplifiers being together again made me want to use it.

The first soldier spotted me and fired his gun. I dodged it and fired back. The bullet hit him in the leg. I fired again, hitting him square in the face. The only advantage we had was that the attack was supposed to be a surprise and we had lost that advantage.

The shadows surrounding us faltered and I turned my head to see the Darkling. A Fijerdan was holding his wrists so his power wouldn't help him right now.

"Bite him!"

He couldn't fight back much without his hands being free. He flashed me a confused look but  took my advice.

The Fijerdan reeled back in surprise and the Darkling pulled a blade from his belt and stabbed the Fijerdan through the heart. The Darkling looked disgusted but otherwise okay.

I was tempted to go check on him but there wasn't time. Half of our soldiers were dead by now. When another Fijerdan attacked me I shot and barely missed. I swore under my breath and fired again. The gun was empty. I quickly glanced around the camp to make sure nobody was looking and sent the cut at him.

I heard a loud crack and a squaller, one far more powerful than I knew we had with us brought down the last remaining tents with a gust of wind. I couldn't see them through all the chaos surrounding me but whoever they were I was grateful for them.

It tangled several of the Fijerdans in it, Kate burnt the broken tents. there was no way they could survive that. The squaller gave us a small advantage but at least half of our soldiers were dead.

I still didn't want to risk summoning light but I cut a soldier in half, there wasn't enough time for me to be as cautious as before so the only thing I could do was hope nobody saw me.

The Darkling called for a retreat when there were only seven of us left standing. We failed. The Fijerdans must have known that we were no match for them because they didn't follow us. That didn't stop us from running until we reached the place where we made camp. When we took a break everyone turned to the Darkling for orders.

"What's the plan?" asked Willow

"I don't know, I didn't prepare for almost everyone dying!"

Although Willow didn't ask anything unreasonable, the Darkling sounded mad at her.

Kate stepped forward to give orders instead since it was clear the Darkling didn't have any ideas.

"How about we pack the most important things from camp since we don't have enough people to carry everything and then we get as far away from here as we can tonight."

Nobody objected so I packed weapons and food which we decided were the most important things to keep. Everyone finished packing quickly. We hiked in silence as the sun set and well into the night. I thought we would just hike the whole way back but the Darkling told us to stop and set up a camp.

We had a small enough group now that there wasn't much point in finding open spaces in the forest so we were spread out around the forest, it wasn't as dense as it was earlier but it was still difficult to find spaces flat enough to set anything up.

While Willow and Kate slept I took watch. I wanted to talk to the Darkling. If anyone caught me using the cut it would've been him. I didn't want to admit it to myself but I was also worried about him.

I found him on watch sitting next to a small fire that was barely an ember. I settled myself next to him and waited for him to say something.

"Is everything okay?" I asked
It was a dumb question when almost thirty people died under his watch but I needed to say something.

"I led all of them into a trap. I should've known."

In that moment he looked so far from the monster I knew he would become one day. It almost seemed impossible that the loss of so few people compared to those he would kill would affect him at all.

"They chose to fight, it's war, unfortunately people die."
I said while placing a hand on his shoulder

"That doesn't change that they died because I fell for an obvious trap."
the Darkling snapped, he sounded angry but I assumed it was more at himself than me.

I really didn't know what to say to him since he was partly right. He did lead us into a trap but I had no idea how he would've known. He had to give General Janazain some responsibility otherwise he would begin to suspect the Darkling, he already hated him enough. And he would take any chance he could get to hurt the Darkling and the other grisha.

I wished I was better with words. Instead of saying anything I inched closer to him. We were touching the slightest bit now. I half expected him to move away from me but he didn't. I laid my hand on top of his. He held it lightly, I could feel his power amplifying mine. Neither of us said anything but I was okay with that, the only thing I could hear were crickets chirping.

I was supposed to be on alert for any sign of danger but I felt safe with the Darkling. When our shift was done I didn't want to go but if I stayed there any longer I would've fallen asleep on his shoulder.

"Good night Alina."
The Darkling whispered softly before I got up.

"Good night, Aleksander."
Saying his name didn't feel strange anymore.

I grabbed my pack that I had leaned against a tree and was rolling out my sleeping pad when someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around, I was expecting to see someone from camp. Instead I saw Zoya Nazyalensky.