The Hidden | ✅

Chapter Twenty-Five

By the time we'd made it to the road, the sky was darkening and I had regained enough strength to walk on my own, however, my powers were still a bit weak.

I sighed and looked both ways down the road. It was just infinite dirt. Alex lightly bit his bottom lip.

"Which way should we take?" Victor asked.

"Left." Alex said swiftly.

"Did you get a hunch?" I asked as he started to walk.

"Nope. Just took a guess."

I furrowed my eyebrows at him before looking back towards Victor. He understood my look and soon took flight to scout above. There was no way I was going to base my life on a guess.

Victor came back swiftly and nodded. So at least the path was safe. There was no sign of hunters anywhere on it. Perhaps they hadn't found it yet.

And I was hoping that they never did.

_ _ _ _

I kicked another rock as we continued to walk. The moon had peeked its way from behind the clouds, now and it was dark. Well, maybe not to me, but I could tell the others were struggling a bit.

Victor had used up a lot of energy with his constant shifting to do recon searches and was weakened, so he couldn't use his abilities for a while. Now we had no way of knowing where exactly we were headed, so we were basically walking blind.

Alex sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Everyone alright back there?"

A chorus of mumbled yeah's soon followed. He nodded and turned back around, continuing to walk. That's how it had been for the past hour. Just like that. Alex was a lot more tensed up and I could see his body stiffen up at even the slightest sound. He was anxious. He was scared. We all were.

"Alex, I think we need to take a break." I said softly.

"No. No breaks until we get to civilization. Out here, we're practically sitting ducks. Once we make it to at least the outskirts of the city, then we can rest. There, we'll have more cover and time to work out a game plan." He said.

"But we won't make it to the outskirts of the city if we aren't rested. Alex, we're all tired, stressed, and afraid, okay? Victor's stitches are coming undone and he's weak. Evanora looks like she's about to collapse any minute now and my powers are drained. You may be able to go one for centuries, but we can't!" I said a bit more forcefully than I intended.

Alex stopped suddenly and whipped around. "You think I don't know that, Circe?! I'm tired too! I want to just fall down right here and sleep and try to find the energy to get back up, but guess what? We're not just teenagers anymore! We're fugitives! And we're surrounded! If we take the time to rest right now, we're basically telling Dorian's men to have at it! I'm not going to sit around and lose another family! Not when I can do something about it this time!"

"But we're not them, Alex! You have to understand that! We're going to make it, okay, but we just need a few breaks!"

"Did you not just hear me?"

"I heard you, but did you hear me?" I retorted.

"Circe, right now you need to just listen. Breaks equal death. Continuous moving equals survival. Take your pick." He hissed.

"I pick putting our friends' needs above your paranoia!" I exclaimed.

"And I pick survival! And because I'm the leader, my pick matters more than yours!" He yelled back.

"Guys..." I heard Victor call.

"Well last time I checked, a good leader listens to his group!"

"Guys!"

"Well last I checked, a good leader makes the hard choices!"

"Guys, please." Evanora pleaded.

"A good leader isn't some self absorbed, scared prick!" I yelled out.

Suddenly Victor rushed over and covered my mouth, Evanora doing the same thing to Alex.

I looked up at him with a mix of annoyance and questioning. He placed a finger up to his lips and mouthed, "They're here."