The sight of the forest cast into harsh light ahead brought my mind back to a perfect, crystalline horror. They hadn’t left. They were still looking - of course they were. As much as I’d hoped they’d just wander off, giving up on us, that was too much to hope for. Even if I didn’t know exactly what they were looking for, I knew they wouldn’t go to all the trouble they had for no reason.

Could we run? I raised Aedan’s phone, moments from starting to type, but stopped. I couldn’t ask - not without the light of it putting a target on our heads. I couldn’t talk - Aedan had been very clear on that. And I was still holding a knife - the knife he gave me. Somehow, I didn’t think he would have given me a knife if the plan was to run.

The quiet sound of leaves rustling brought my attention back front and center. He was creeping forward, slowly and carefully. I grabbed for him, my pulse thundering. What was he doing?

He only glanced back over his shoulder, a dark shape in the night.

“Come on,” he whispered, eyeing me. “Time to get a move on.”

I shook my head desperately, but he only grinned. “What, you don’t want to?”

I stared at him. He chuckled. “If we leave, they’ll just come looking for us later. These two are separated from the rest of their group. Now’s our chance. Stop whining.”

I wasn’t whining. I had a knife I didn’t know how to use, and I just wanted to go home. But he was already crab-walking on, inching closer and closer to the pair. A bead of sweat dripped down the back of my neck, but I was well and truly stuck. After a moment’s hesitation more, I crept after him.

The sound of their voices carried over the night air the closer we got to them.

“It’s fucking cold,” the one out front said, the flashlight in his hand sweeping across the forest around him. He had to push aside the branches to keep from whacking his head on them, muttering curses all the while. “Think you can convince Matt to just give up already?”

“No,” his friend said with a chuckle. He was shorter, his frame delicate in comparison. “There’s no way.” I could see his hand tremble from where I crouched, half-hidden behind a tree. His eyes flicked this way and that as he scanned the woods.

“Probably right,” the first said. “Have to say, I’ve never seen him so excited.”

“Lucky us.”

Aedan was continuing on, his steps suddenly soft and inaudible as he picked his way through the woods. I eyed the darkness ahead of me apprehensively. There was no way I could do that. I knew at any moment, I’d step on a stick or a pile of leaves, and the game would be up.

He seemed to recognize I wasn’t behind him anymore. I heard him sigh, the sound muffled and barely louder than a whisper. Before I could muster up the nerve to keep moving, he was coming back, heading straight for me.

The two men were moving right past where we crouched in the treeline, I realized. They’d missed us completely. I held my breath as they trudged past, until we were staring at their backs.

“I know these two,” Aedan whispered. I flinched. He was right beside me, murmuring in my ear. “Well. One of them, anyway. Real asshole. The little guy’s new.”

He knew them? I swallowed my questions, glancing sidelong at him. He smirked, the expression faintly visible in the half-light left by their torches. “Big one’s an elemental-type. Gravity, if I remember correctly. Let me handle him.”

I could only blink. Elemental-type? That made it sound like-

“Listen,” he said, his words still almost-inaudible. His hand clamped down on my shoulders. “We’re special, you and I. They’re special too. That’s all you have to know. Just focus on that.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “You can hang back. Don’t get yourself killed or anything. Just keep an eye on the little guy for me. I have no idea what his relic is.”

Relic. That word again. I could feel the necklace hanging around my neck, its presence like a weight. Was that what I had, then? A relic, or a focus, or whatever? That was what everyone was after?

He stared at me a moment longer, as though gauging my expression. “You’ll be fine,” he said, a hand pressed to his lips to hide his chuckle. “Just watch my back.” His eyes tightened, the smile fading from his lips. “Jon.”

I nodded slowly, caught off guard by the sudden shift in his tone.

“I...don’t know what contract you made. But, remember.” The ghost of a smile tugged at his lips. “You’re only limited by what you need, when it comes right down to it. What you ask for, and what you asked for.” His hand tightened on my shoulder. “It’ll provide. Trust it.” He drew back, half disappearing into the dark. “I’m pretty sure speaking fancy languages isn’t all you’re good for.”

I sat in place, completely frozen. What exactly was he trying to say? What was he expecting? Before I could say a word or ask him to explain himself, he turned. Within moments, it was just me and the forest. I was alone again.

Cover his back. Right. I eyed the two men, gripping the knife he’d given me. I could do that. Probably.

They were still standing side by side, bickering as they walked on. I stared as they went, my eyes flicking between the two of them. The little one, then. The one he’d told me to watch. He was off to one side, still watching the trees anxiously. Slowly, carefully, I slid off into the dark, doing my best to avoid stepping on anything. I needed to get in a better position, if he was going to start something.

Finally, with one last mutter as I almost ran headlong into a tree, I eased the phone out of my pocket. They were ahead of me, and the risk of me falling flat on my face outweighed the risk of them happening to turn around unexpectedly.

Even with a light, it wasn’t comfortable. I clutched my knife, my heart thundering in my ears. At any second, I knew-

I never heard him, never saw him approach. Out of nowhere, Aedan lunged at the two, holding his knife at the ready just like when he’d saved me before. I froze, adrenaline coursing through my veins as he threw himself at our pursuers.

They were every bit as caught off guard as I was. The little one didn’t notice him at all, his attention too focused on the brush around them to note the insane man jumping out of the trees with a knife.

His friend noticed, but it was too late. He turned, zeroing in on the sound of Aedan’s steps, but the man was already too close. Aedan’s knife flicked out with practiced ease, cutting straight for his throat.

The split second of reaction that the one Aedan had called an elemental-type had bought for himself gave him enough time to get an arm up and in the way. The sound of his pained yelp rang out across the otherwise silent night all the same as Aedan slashed a line of red across the skin.

He lashed out a moment later, grabbing for my new friend, but Aedan was already on the retreat. His hands closed on empty air as the crazed man skittered away. I heard him curse, the words too quiet for me to hear. His fist clenched a moment later.

The world seemed to groan, the trees creaking perilously. I froze where I was, my heart in my throat as I stared. The forest around us seemed to pause, something building under the surface.

The sound of branches snapping was the only warning we got that the moment was over. I stared, wide-eyed, as the forest in front of the man seemed to crumple. The limbs from overhead came crashing down in a cloud of dust onto where Aedan-

Onto where Aedan had stood, a moment before. He was already running, putting distance between him and the bigger man. They had flashlights on him, following his movements - and giving him the light he needed to keep going, I realized with a crooked smile. He was circling back around, racing along a roundabout path back towards the pair.

Whatever the bigger man was doing, he wasn’t stopping. Everywhere Aedan ran, the world seemed to shiver. Branches fell a few scant feet behind him no matter where he went, along with the occasional dead tree. It was as though-

My breath caught in my throat. The smaller of the two was standing stock-still, even as his friend was stepping closer to Aedan. He was motionless, staring at my ally.

Aedan stumbled, shaking his head as he pressed a hand to his face. It was just a momentary hesitation, but the sound of the bigger man’s chuckling rolled through the woods. It was all of the pause that he needed, apparently. Just like that, the air around Aedan shuddered - it had caught up at last.

He leapt forward, pushing himself even harder as he jumped clear of whatever it was, but something was wrong. His leg was caught behind him. Even as I watched, his knee hit the ground hard, as though someone had stomped on the back of his calf. With a muffled cry he tumbled, faceplanting in the dirt.

The air hummed, crackling with barely-contained energy. I pushed myself upright, rising to my feet even as the bigger man held his hand out. Lit up by the second man’s flashlight, I could see the brush around Aedan flatten, pinned down by some invisible force.

An elemental type, Aedan had said. I could only stare at what I saw, my mind working through it chunk by chunk.

I’d always been different - what I did wasn’t normal, and there wasn’t a rational explanation for it. I really shouldn’t be surprised, then, when I came face to face with something else unexplainable. All I knew was that it looked for all the world like magic - and given what I could do, the tricks I had, I wasn’t able to push away the notion so easily.

Abandoning my preconceived notions about what was possible and what wasn’t, my thoughts whirled in that single, frozen moment. If Aedan was right, and this guy was harnessing some sort of elemental...magic...then it looked for all the world like gravity itself was warping out of control in the woods around him.

Even as my mind was focusing on that, my feet were moving under me. Aedan was in trouble. I couldn’t just stand around and watch. The part of my mind thinking logically was shrieking, trying to put a stop to my flight, but the rest of me was already focused on the pair of men walking towards him.

“Don’t kill him,” the second one said. “Matt was pretty clear on that.”

I tucked the phone into my pocket as I squared off, my steps gathering speed.

Aedan twitched, one eye cracking open as he glared daggers at the bigger man - who only chuckled, his fingers tensing. I could hear Aedan wheeze as the air was forced out of his lungs.

“Hey - Hey, knock it off, Paul,” the other one said, faltering. “Are you listening to-”

“I’m not going to kill him,” Paul said. “Fucker’s cut me too many times. He’s not going to die just like that.” He grinned down at Aedan. “I got faster, asshole. Nice try.”

Whatever Aedan’s response was, it was lost to the sound of leaves crunching under my feet as I abandoned any hopes of being stealthy. I charged, clutching the knife with one hand as I tore the tape off my mouth with the other. Aedan hadn’t wanted me to give away the element of surprise by using my ability - well, the fight was on. The element of surprise was well past us, and I needed to breathe.

The two men spun, eyes going wide. I winced as their flashlights shone into my eyes, but plowed onward. They weren’t expecting me. I had a single instant to work with.

The big guy was his - that’s what Aedan had said. Even as I sprinted in, pushing my way clear of the trees and onto a hard-packed dirt trail, I could see him turn over, coughing for breath.

The little one was my problem.

He yelped as I bore down on him, but there was no way for him to recover in time. I gritted my teeth, pushing aside the last of my fears and doubts, and plunged my knife into his shoulder.

He screamed, grabbing at me. The sound was almost enough to ruin my resolve. I had not signed up for stabbing people. The two of us tumbled to the dirt and leaves, rolling. My hand was still wrapped around the knife buried in him. He grabbed for my face, trying to push me off. His eyes met mine, going unfocused.

I blinked, caught off guard by his sudden and apparent lack of resistance. Should I stop? Was he surrendering, or-

A moment later, a wave of exhaustion swept over me. I shuddered, my head drooping as my fingers slackened on the knife. I shook my head blearily, trying to blink it away, but it was persistent.

The memory of Aedan stumbling as he ran rose up in my mind. A wave of adrenaline washed through my body, overcoming the fatigue just long enough to begin piecing things together.

He was still looking at me. I could feel the drowsiness returning, sweeping over me again. I shook my head, desperation taking hold. He’d be armed - the rest of them were, after all. It was too dark to get a look at him or to try and find his weapon, and I was too tired. My mind was foggy. They’d said that they weren’t supposed to kill Aedan. The same did not seem to apply to me.

Grasping at the fleeting tendrils of my awareness, I pulled the knife free. Droplets of blood splattered across my other hand, turning my stomach. I didn’t care. Even as the blade came free I twisted the hand that was buried in his shirt. My still-broken finger screamed at the motion, erupting into searing agony all over again. The waves of fresh pain were enough to banish the last dregs of my opponent’s magic.

He’d been trying to kill me. I seized on the fact, even as I raised my borrowed knife over my head. He squirmed, trying to pull free, but I wasn’t about to let him go. With one last indrawn breath, muscles tensing, I-

The concussive blast hit me hard. I gasped, the knife sliding from my fingers as an inexorable force slammed into my shoulders. Before I could so much as twitch I was flat on the ground, the other man pinned under me.

It was like being at the bottom of a lake, with the weight of the world on my shoulders. The air itself felt thick - or maybe it was just my lungs, fighting for every breath I could get.

“P-Paul,” the man under me gasped, trapped just as surely in whatever this was. I couldn’t see him - I was blinded by the light in my eyes. Paul stalked towards us, muttering under his breath. His other hand was a dark shape in the dim light, palm-down and out to the side.

“Sorry, Jake,” he said, chuckling. “Warned you - crew’s hard on first-timers, and that was awful sloppy. We’ll make sure your focus goes to a good home.” His head swiveled this way and that as he spoke. He was good, I realized. Even while he killed us, he wasn’t going to lose his surroundings.

The man under me - Jake twitched. I could feel him trying to speak, trying to force words out of lungs that no longer had air in them. It was useless. The pressure was building moment by moment, straining until I could hear my joints cracking. I felt around desperately with my suddenly-free hand. Jake had a gun, somewhere. He had to. Maybe if I found it, I could do something.

I knew it was probably hopeless, but I had to try anyway.

The pressure lifted in an instant as Aedan lunged out of the shadows again, jumping onto Paul’s back. Screams split the night as he buried his knife in the crook of Paul’s neck. The air shimmered around the two of them as the bigger man pulled at his power instinctively, still reaching for Aedan. Aedan clung to him with every twist and flinch, pulling the knife free and driving it back into his chest.

I could see his satisfied grin from across the distance, illuminated in the shadow of a dropped light. Paul couldn’t cast properly - not with Aedan clinging to his neck, not with a knife stuck in him.

Jake thrashed under me, his eyes wide and terrified. I blinked, coming back to reality in the same instant that he threw me off with a burst of adrenaline-fueled energy. I rolled clear, coughing for breath.

Jake wasn’t wasting any time. Even as he gasped he was staggering back, reaching into his jacket. Blood had soaked into his shoulder where I’d cut him. It had to have hurt, but he didn’t seem to notice.

My hand closed around the hilt of my dropped knife at the same moment he pulled his gun free. I stared, the world falling away as he swung it towards me.

My legs screamed, too-tired and aching as they gathered underneath me. I was rising, straightening, but he was faster. He had distance, he was more prepared than me, and he had a gun. He knew it, too. I could see from the victorious light in his half-shadowed eyes that he knew he had me.

All the same, I had to try. None of this made sense, despite the pieces that were beginning to fall into place. And there was no way I was going to roll over and die before I got some answers.

Something inside me was humming gently as I stood, feet breaking into a run. It burned, like embers lighting on a gentle breeze. All of my attention was fixated on him - on the gun he held in his hands, the barrel trembling as he leveled it in my direction.

I could see it. I could see all of it, the way his chin lifted, the tightness in his wrist. The ragged breath he took, solidifying as his lips pressed together into an obstinate line. The way his barrel veered away a fraction of an inch as he squeezed.

Now.

I lunged, throwing myself to the side as something in my mind screamed. My arm exploded into pain as a line of fire tore across it, even as my ears rang with the sound of the shot.

My mind was blank, dumbfounded by what had just happened. I had no idea what had just happened, actually, but I didn’t have the time to ponder through it. Jake’s eyes widened as I hurtled towards him. Clearly, he’d been just as surprised by my sudden dodge as I was.

For the second time in as many minutes, we fell hard to the ground. His back arched as he swallowed a cry, my knife digging deep into his arm. His fingers quivered, resisting a moment, but I gritted my teeth, twisting the blade. The gun fell from his hand as he screamed.

Any reservations I’d had about killing him had vanished somewhere in the flood of adrenaline pouring through my veins. He’d tried to shoot me. People kept trying to kill me, and I didn’t fucking deserve that. I’d just wanted to get some dinner, and here I was in the forest, covered in blood and with some asshole shooting a gun at me.

He struggled as I pulled my knife clear again, shaking his head. I didn’t care. I was done. With one clean motion I raised the blade, muscles tense, and-

“Hold on, there,” someone said. I flinched as a hand wrapped around my wrist, holding me in place before I could finish the job. I glanced back over my shoulder.

Aedan grinned. He was covered in dirt and more than a little blood, but seemed well enough.

Paul’s body was still and unmoving on the ground behind him. I stared. In the patchy light, I could see Aedan’s knife sticking from the dead man’s eye.

“Think I might have gone overboard with that one,” he said, actually managing to sound chagrined.

Jake thrashed under me, still squirming. Aedan didn’t look down, didn’t react at all. He just put his foot on the man’s still-bleeding arm, leaning over until the man froze, whimpering.

“Well. Anyway. See, I think we need to talk to one of them, and Paul’s a no-go. So, looks like Sleepy here’s up,” he said, smiling crookedly.

I swallowed hard. Aedan chuckled, patting me on the shoulder.

“Besides, I think you could use some answers.”