Heart of Ash (The Dark Arcane Series: Book 1)

Chapter Thirty Seven

Three days had passed since Ashyn's disappearance, and the group had travelled deeper and deeper into the Red Jae Taiga.

The Ender had found a moment to gather his thoughts and repeat his plan. First, they had to find the Tegye San. Then, the traitor. Then, Ashyn. Only then, could he sort out his plan for defending the Tegye San.

"Does it ever get warmer?" Darius asked.

"What are you talking about? This is the hottest it's been all year," King Yeona returned dryly, her words realising as white smoke in the air, with not an inch of a smile evident on her face which was heavily bordered with thick fur from her coat.

"I don't think I like her humour," Darius sniffed as he complained to Sariem, who simply smiled good naturedly despite her own frozen looking nose.

It was almost frustrating to the Ender how easily Darius had fit into their group. He was pretty and charming and brilliant with words, it was like fitting another jewel into a crown; the crown looked fine to start with, so much so that you might never have realised it needed another jewel, but once you fit that amber on, it's like it had always belonged there.

Alright, he lied; Darius wasn't just pretty. He was, without a doubt, gorgeous.

Speaking of... his eyes trailed to Conan, and his broad shoulders, muscles barely trapped underneath his clothes.

He'd spoken to him the evening after Conan had blown up in front of everyone, but even so, he was still angry at him. He was hanging on longer than usual to this. It kept the Ender awake at night, knowing he was mad at him.

"We'll camp here for the night," he said from beneath his hood, as they arrived at a gap of fewer trees.

Earlier, he'd found a spare cloth and tied it over the bottom half of his face. The darn thing had lasted all of ten minutes; something about covering his face seemed pointless now that they knew the horrors that lay underneath. He realised if Kade could go against the Captain, he could face his fears too. So he made do with his hood, which didn't seem so out of place in this bitter cold.

"I recommend further ahead, Ender," King Yeona spoke to him not unkindly. "Something has already taken up residence here, I suspect."

She gestured to the ground, forcing him to look again. The clearing of the dirt that he had once thought so coincidental now seemed more purposeful, and the dark stains looked more like blood than simply dampness.

Conan nodded subtly in the corner of his eye, confirming the king's suspicions.

He tried to make eye contact with him, but Conan had already turned away.

The Ender looked forwards, cheeks burning. "Onwards, then."

The Red Jae Taiga had an eerie quiet to it. Too cold for crickets to chirp, and too dry for frogs to sing, it was mostly birds calling from the tops of the trees, though they were far too high to ever see them.

"What could have made their home there, do you reckon?" he asked Sariem, partly to past the time, and perhaps mostly to stride through the embarrassment he felt—it was hard, two leaders in one group. And Conan.

Fortunately, she went along.

"In this place? Could have been anything from bears to dogs to goats. Or maybe even part of that ghost army."

"Or a shifter." His mind snapped back to the night of the attack. Somewhere along the line, they'd started calling them shifters.

Humans that became beasts.

Kade had denied all knowledge of it, saying new Elites were being recruited all the time and that it could be a new development beyond the normal strength and skill of an Elite. But they had no idea how it was even possible. Witches were the only creatures capable of magic.