Fɪɢʜᴛ Fᴏʀ Aʟʟ || Tʜᴇ Cʜᴏsᴇɴ Eɪɢʜᴛ Bᴏᴏᴋ Oɴᴇ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛᴇᴇɴ || ᴛᴏ ᴀᴍᴀʏᴀ

Lizzie

Two things I hate: prophecies and waiting. And guess what? I was now involved in both. Yay.

Hot sun beat down on the already dry earth, making the troops kick up dust as they moved around camp. Concorba heat waves were some of the worst in Amaya, I'd heard, although we were barely a week into spring. The thought of it getting even hotter made me grind my teeth.

"Lizzie."

Ah yes. Zarlo Scaups. Because he was definitely the idiot I want to talk to right now. Nonetheless, I turned in his direction.

"What?" The word came out sharp and harsh, just as I'd intended. It's easy to be cruel and emotionless. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it.

He barely even blinked at my tone. "The Greencloaks are heading west in search of the Copper Falcon of Essix." Zarlo stated, monotone and unyielding as always.

"Ah yes. Let me guess. Zerif is sending us out to stop them." I felt my face twist into a scowl for a moment, and let it. Then I straightened myself out and pulled my lips up in the illusion of a confident smirk. "I suppose it's about time that I meet the rest of the children from my prophecy, hm?"

Zarlo gave me a single nod.

I remembered then that his own sister was part of it. "Well? Wouldn't you say a family reunion is in order?" I couldn't help the wicked grin that curled my lips.

A muscle jumped in his jaw and he narrowed his eyes for a split second. Then the irritation was gone and he was nodding again. "I suppose so. I will notify the others that we are leaving immediately."

Oh Zarlo. You think you can hide from me? No one can hide from me.

"Good." I waved a hand dismissively and turned away again. Man, I loved being in charge. And now that I was, I was gonna make sure I stayed that way. At any cost.

Tazi

"Okay, whose idea was it to travel by horseback?" I heard Sasha grumble loudly, and chuckled with agreement. He was riding just ahead of me, and despite his complaints, seemed to be keeping up just fine.

Ryan twisted back around from her position at the head of the group. "Would you rather have walked?"

"Oh no, definitely not." It was Niko who jumped in this time. He received a grin from Tyler and a glare from Sasha for his comment, but the latter didn't seem to bother him.

Ryan shrugged at that. "There you have it, Sasha." She turned back around.

I tugged on my rein, struggling to keep my horse on the path. It flattened its ears at me, but continued forward at my urging.

"We'll be passing Concorba shortly," Tyler raised his voice above the conversations that had broken out, silencing them quickly. "Word has it there is a Conqueror camp set up outside of it, so we'll do our best to stay away from the city outskirts. We can't risk being spotted."

Lucia, who was riding her own spirit animal, let out a groan. "We can't even go in and get something to eat?"

My stomach growled at the thought of it.

Navia, who was passing me at that moment, shot me a knowing grin.

I blushed with embarrassment.