Equinox

twelve

We are lucky to have Corvus's connections and resources.

About an hour ago, the five of us slipped out of the wards and used his illegal anywhere portkey to Albania. Theo hasn't said a word. I'm not sure he even knows why we're doing this or where we're going. Pansy barely knew besides the fact that I needed her here. Lilith is walking with Corvus in the back of the group behind us. Pansy is walking with me as we lead the group. Theo reduced to being alone in the group off to the side.

"So," Pansy finally breaks the silence by speaking low, only for me to hear, "why are we in our combat training uniforms, strapped with weapons, in a random country." She pauses for a moment and looks around the rolling mountains covered in lush greenery. You could even spot the vibrant colour without the sun. "Where are we?"

I shrug, "Albania?" I close my mouth and motion a hand to the unoccupied cliffs. "Countryside Albania."

She offers me a kind yet unsure expression, as though she is hesitant about the circumstance but trusts my faith. "And why are we in Albania?"

I grab one of the short blades from my holster, my hands growing fidgety. "The Chantrea Brothers are meant to be here," I admit. "And we are going to break the tie."

Pansy nods to herself a few times as though she's lost in deep thought. "I suppose that would've been an obvious assumption when you'd yanked me away from my slumber not more than an hour ago."

I can't help myself but snort. "It's moments like this where I wish Ginny was here."

"Yeah," Pansy agrees with a rasp. "She'd have a snarky one-liner going on right about now."

"I'm sorry," I say to her, bouncing the blade between both hands. "That she's not here."

Pansy rests her hand on mine and freezes my fidgeting appendage. "Thank you," she says, and those two words were a sentence that held more meaning than the muggle bible. It was heavy, only due to the fact that it absorbed all the weight from my shoulders.

I suddenly wanted to thank her, but for what reason? That she'd just absolved my guilt. Maybe because I'd assumed she'd never stand the sight of me after the death of her love. Or even because deep down, Ginny's death was because of me. I've put the people I love in danger, and many of them have already lost. It's a suffocating burden.

I shake her hand away and start juggling with the singular blade, trading which hand caught it by the hilt. "How did we all get to this point?" I retort. "Training for a war that may happen this month or when we're twenty-five. We're in Albania for the love of Merlin because I am supposedly soul-tied to my ex-boyfriend."

"We're both in our prime," she half-jokes. "Merlin, are we peaking at the age of sixteen?"

"I don't believe we could get any cooler, Pans."

"Head up that peak," Corvus orders us. I catch the blade and peak at him over my shoulder and spot him pointing ahead and slightly to the right. When I turn my head back, I spot the mountain he's referring to. I squint at it, attempting to see what is called to him. The trees catch my attention first, fluffy patches of greenery that I believe I could hug something as soft as a cloud. Then I spot it. A small shimmer that rippled the air surrounding the peak.

Magic.

"We are looking for a cave," he tells us. "You'll know the right one. Their magic hums at indescribable frequencies. It would be hard to ignore."

The hike to the top was mostly quiet. I felt the magic grow more intense the higher we got. It was like a small ringing occurring across the house, you don't realize how loud it is until you're right next to it. We pass a few caves, but the magic is what made me realize they were dead ends.