Journey onto the Storm (BOOK 2)

Chapter 51

FENRER

'I can't leave him behind.'

Stars sparkled on silver lily pads, wet by the gentle rain over a moonlit lake. Compassion glittered in her aura of fire and ash, the inferno's scorching wipe. Adara bounced beside him as they crept closer to the battlefield, his bow at the ready. It fluttered in his eyes, and it soothed the tempest around him, but the cascade from the storm cell's core battered the ground. Icy mist pulsed and whipped with failing power and Yuven's blood magick. Fenrer choked at the sight and the way it tore through his aura — expending his own being to affect the flow. He stopped at the edge of the field, then checked the string of his bow. "Okay, Adara?"

He stopped at the embers when they fell at her feet, and she stared at the rooftop battlefield. Too many auras, but he recognized Yuven's. Crimson lightning drove deeper and revealed the corrupted thorn choking his Oathbound to the last edge of his life. Fenrer chewed on his lip, and whispered, "Adara."

"I don't... know if I can do this," she rasped. "I couldn't even do anything up there. They took us by surprise and I left Yuven all by himself."

He brushed the bow, then rifled through his small pouch. Wooden paws met him, and he tugged it out to rest the carved wolf in his palm. Days he spent trying to remember the precision it took to create an image out of nothing. He held it out to the rain, where it darkened into the depths he gave its mane. "You can," he said in the faith of the silver dawn, then held the wolf out to her. "Here. Take it."

"What?" Adara frowned, but she took it. Flames bit at his skin where they touched, but the aurora glowed around the moons. "Fenrer, didn't you carve this yourself? Why are you giving it to me?"

"I want you to have it." Fenrer tested the ground beneath his boots, then shifted into a proper stance. "You're not alone, Adara. I know we may not be the most tolerable companions, but you want to save Yuven? I do too." He tasted the spray of the sea, and drew a green glyph through the notch. It sharpened into a vine-wrapped arrow made from his magick, and he pressed his fingers against his cheeks. "I trust you. I have faith. Light it up, Adara." He smiled at her. "Let it ignite, don't stifle that flame of yours for anything."

Rain slicked through her waves and stuck to her face when she nodded. Fenrer held his stance when she shuffled to the end of the bow. "Do you even have a plan?" she whispered, and Fenrer breathed in the moonlilies when she held her two fingers to the point of the magick arrow. One ember. One spark in her aurora. He steeled his grip and resolve when she snapped her fingers. It chewed along the vines and spread the glow of a hearth to his fingers. One breath. Two. Calm, as Father taught him. Aim. He tilted back to point into the mist, finding a point of clarity. The arrow hissed with steam, and he loosed it.

It flew into the rain, a falling star.

Fenrer grabbed the last remnants of his magick when it whizzed into the ice. It tangled across his fingers, and he pushed through the glyph when it made a return. Vines wrapped around it, and created a bridge back into the fight, expanded by the opening she gave him. He rushed up it to return to his best friend — his Oathbound. Adara's footsteps pounded behind him. Closer. Fenrer leaped at a shape, kicking them to the side to force them out of the hazy edge. Wood pallets broke, but he ignored it to rush into the maelstrom.

Yuven struggled against one of the Iceshards, parrying a hit, but Fenrer readied his own blade when they lunged at Yuven's stumble. Metal clanged, and he pushed them through as Adara ran around the edge of the roof, grabbing onto Yuven, who snapped his head to her.

He kept himself in lowpoint when a thick aura of tar pushed the mist out of the air. It cascaded down the roof as Blackwall held both his hands downwards. In front of Yuven and Adara, Fenrer gripped the handle of his longsword, against human enemies instead of Derelict ones. Six in total, including Blackwall. We could make a retreat through the cliff paths, try and get around and back into the city — to the castle. Fenrer glanced at the shining lighthouse pulsing through the mist, though the tower itself was out of sight. They want these two... Fenrer prepared himself when one of the Iceshards came closer, and he elbowed Yuven in the ribs to push him for the staircase down, praying for him to understand his plan.