Dafne had the makings of a leader, for sure. And even though I was more of a solitary type, I would’ve liked to follow her. Turning my head slowly, I found her looking at me. Curiosity glimmered in her gray-blue eyes, but there was something else, too. Something I couldn’t quite read, but it sparked my interest. For a second, the forest in its entirety disappeared. The clones, too. The shadow hounds and Haldor. Myst and her secrets. The entire world vanished in a puff of smoke, and only Dafne and I remained.
It only lasted for a split second, yet I perceived it as the longest moment in my existence because I had her full attention. Maybe my affection was reciprocated, after all? No, it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t afford to make the wrong move here. Dafne’s words could cut deep, if she wanted them to. I’d need more than this fleeting look.
“Caleb, we have a problem,” one of the vampires said, and I snapped back into this hellish reality. He was looking in our direction, and everything felt suddenly wrong. Like a bomb that would soon blow up in our faces. “See?”
Caleb’s clone narrowed his eyes, then smiled. He’d seen us.
“Crap,” Thayen hissed.
That was it. The end of our observation, and the beginning of another nightmare. The other clones immediately went into attack mode as they ran toward us. Caleb laughed. “Attaboys! Do me proud! It’ll get you extra points with HQ!”
“We have to go,” Astra said.
A moment later, we were running. The armory would have to wait a little while longer. There was no way for us to get around the village anymore. We had to get as far away from these clones as possible—they weren’t the only ones who scared me. No, I knew Haldor and his shadow monsters wouldn’t be too far behind. I dreaded another encounter with them. I had fire on my side, sure. I was a dragon, too… but still, there was something about this world and the creatures in it that ate away at me slowly, deliberately.
“There goes your let’s-get-friendly-with-the-rebel-clones plan,” I said as we bolted through the woods. The hard ground made my steps feel heavier than usual, but we were definitely moving at a faster pace than the doubles.
I lost track of time as we continued our hasty retreat, my breath ragged and my thighs burning. I could’ve gone full dragon, but the point was to keep a low profile, not to let the entire fake Shade know that we were there. I’d thought my dragon nature would help the most, but it was my fae fire that seemed more useful—that was my favorite irony, considering I’d always wanted to get closer to my dad’s side than my mom’s. I’d never really identified with the fae. How could I, when I had a roaring, fire-spitting beast within me?
“Don’t knock it yet!” Dafne eventually replied, pointing a thumb over her shoulder. “I don’t think they’re that keen to catch us.”
We slowed down, checking the faint trail we’d left behind. “Hold on,” Soph managed as she stopped to catch her breath. We must’ve been running at full speed for at least twenty minutes, if not more. “Hold on… did we lose them?”
“I don’t think so,” Thayen said. We took a break to get our bearings. GASP training and supernatural abilities aside, none of us were cut out for long-distance running—we considered long-distance to be anything over ten continuous miles, given our collective standards. On top of that, our energy levels seemed to have tighter limits here, and it had been a while since any of us had fed. We’d need nourishment and proper rest soon. “They’ve been great at tracking us before. We barely lost them before the cave, remember? No, there’s something else.”
“I think Dafne might be on to something,” Astra replied, her pink hair messy and riddled with leaves she’d inadvertently picked up along the way. “They stopped chasing after us. Maybe they didn’t actually want to follow us.”
“Then why point us out in the first place?” I asked.
“Caleb’s clone would’ve spotted us or caught our scent sooner or later,” Dafne suggested. “Perhaps the rebel doppelgangers didn’t want to give him another reason to punish them. They seem to be under some kind of fragile truce.”
“So, if they signal our presence and run after us but fail to keep up, at least Caleb’s clone will know they’ve tried,” Thayen concluded, nodding slowly. “Yeah, that makes sense. I think it’s a reasonable premise, actually. You all heard them. They just want to be left alone.”
Astra exhaled sharply. “They seem to have made a life in this wilderness. I wouldn’t blame them for trying to play by their maker’s rules in order to survive.”
“You do realize what this means, though. Right?” I asked, feeling my eyes burn, my mind opening up to a plethora of new possibilities in a land that didn’t leave much wiggle room. My blood rushed, heart pumping with newfound excitement. Thayen and the girls looked at me, curious about what I meant. “It means they’re not all into this sick game. Like Caleb’s clone just said, they’re not robots. They can be swayed. They can be broken. They can be pitted against one another.”
“And some might even serve as allies,” Dafne insisted.
“It could be too soon for that,” Soph warned. “Just because they didn’t catch up with us now doesn’t mean they won’t try to kill us the next time they see us.”
Dafne seemed disappointed, mainly because she knew Soph was right. Nevertheless, I felt the need to give her some form of agreement, so I gently took her hand in mine and offered a smile. Only when she stilled from my touch did I realize what I had done. Ironically, my fear of rejection had been trumped by my desire to comfort her—and the sky hadn’t crashed down on me for it, either. I still couldn’t read her, since she just stared at me without saying anything. “We’ll go to the armory first and see if we can stock up,” I said, finally finding my voice. She didn’t take her hand away, though. That had to mean something. “Once that’s done, we can come back and speak to them. It’s not a good idea to approach them now. Not while Caleb’s clone is out there. But we can certainly consider your suggestion later.”
“I agree,” Thayen replied.
We used our memory of The Shade’s terrain to find the armory. We weren’t sure we’d find it where we expected it to be. We weren’t even sure we’d get what we needed from it. But it was still our best shot at gaining a minimal advantage against the clones and Haldor and whatever other creatures dwelled in this realm.
I’d seen enough to understand that we had to step up beyond our current limits if we were to survive and get to the truth behind this massive farce. Acquiring weapons was barely the beginning of a complicated and dangerous mission. I only hoped we’d get there in one piece. The darkness around us had secrets. I had a feeling the forest itself was watching us, and only so much of this suspicion could be attributed to paranoia or fear.
Tristan
Once we revealed ourselves, it didn’t take long for the Dainians to take notice and start asking questions. It was our only avenue to follow, given that Anunit had vanished, leaving us to untangle the mystery ourselves. I figured it was part of the trial—seeking the truth and reaching the conclusion that Shezin had to die. That there was no other way to complete this challenge.