Page 85 of Midnight Reign
That leaves me to get the water from the sacred spring. I take a deep breath, steeling myself for what’s to come. “I’ll go to the Whispering Woods for the water.”
“Alone?” Corvus asks, concern evident in his voice.
I shake my head. “No, I’ll take one of Crimson’s shadow creatures with me. They seem to respond to me now, and it’ll be good backup if anything goes wrong.”
The guys exchange worried glances, but they know I can handle myself.
“Yeah, I’m not loving that idea. You will come with us, and then we will all go to the spring and meet at the stone circle.” Zephyr says, his tone serious.
We all nod in agreement. The reality of this situation moving ahead settles over us like a heavy cloak.
“Everyone be careful,” I say.
After getting dressed in my leggings and tee that Ig kindly dried using his heat haze thing, we all head downstairs. Ignatius and Zaiah set off towards the depths of the forest, while Zephyr, Corvus and I make our way towards the edge of campus, my hands clammy with nerves.
36
ZAIAH
As Ignatiusand I set off towards the depths of the forest, I get the very distinct feeling that we’re walking into something far more dangerous than we anticipated. The book’s cryptic descriptions of the Moonshade herb have left me uneasy, to say the least.
“So,” Ignatius says, breaking the tense silence that has fallen between us, “any idea what this Moonshade looks like?”
I shake my head, my eyes scanning the dark forest around us. The trees loom ominously, their branches reaching out like gnarled fingers in the night. I frown. “Were we really having sex like all day long?” I mutter.
Ig shakes his head. “Nope. Night has fallen early.”
“It knows.”
“It always knows. Moonshade?”
Focusing again on the question, I say, “The book wasn’t exactly forthcoming with details. Just that it grows in the ‘deepest, darkest part of the forest’ and that it ‘shuns the light of day’.”
“Brilliant,” Ignatius mutters, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Nothing like a vague, ominous description to get the blood pumping.”
I smirk at his comment. “Well, at least we know it’ll be a challenge. We wouldn’t want this to be too easy, would we? Oh, but hey, is that why it’s night now? So, we can gather the ingredients we need?”
Ignatius snorts, a small flame dancing between his fingers. “Oh yes, because everything about this situation has been a walk in the park so far. But yeah. Maybe. I wouldn’t put anything past MistHallow.”
As we walk deeper into the forest, the trees grow denser, their branches intertwining overhead to block out what little moonlight manages to filter through. The air grows thick and heavy, filled with the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves. The usual sounds of the forest - chirping insects, rustling leaves - fade away, replaced by a ghostly silence that sets my nerves on edge.
“I don’t like this,” I murmur my djinn senses on high alert. “It feels like the forest is watching us.”
Ignatius nods, the flame in his hand growing slightly larger, casting eerie shadows on the surrounding trees. The flickering light makes the forest seem even more menacing, the shadows dancing and shifting as if alive. “Yeah, I’m getting that too. Like we’re not welcome here.”
We push on, the undergrowth becoming more tangled and dangerous with each step. Thorny vines snag at our clothes, and more than once, I have to use my djinn magick to phase through a particularly dense patch of vegetation. Ignatius’s flame provides our only light now, the darkness pressing in on all sides like a living entity.
“You know,” Ignatius says, his voice low as if he’s afraid to disturb the oppressive silence, “I’ve been thinking about what Adelaide said. About Malachar and the elders.”
I raise an eyebrow, curious despite our current predicament. “What about it?”
Ignatius hesitates, choosing his words carefully. “Well, what if she’s right? What if we’ve been looking at this all wrong? Maybe Randall is the only real threat here.”
The thought had crossed my mind as well, but hearing it spoken aloud makes it feel more real, more possible. “It would explain a lot,” I admit. “But if that’s true, it means we’re even more in the dark than we thought.”
“Exactly,” Ignatius nods, his expression grim in the flickering firelight. “We might be walking into something far bigger than we realise.”
Before I can respond, I feel a shift in the air, a subtle change that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “Wait,” I hiss, grabbing Ignatius’s arm.
