Pain throbbed through Emily’s chest spreading in waves of white-hot agony. Every beat of her heart grazed the blade and reopened the wound there. Tehila stared up at her as though waiting for the last visages of light to die from her eyes, but Emily was only too happy to disappoint.

  Reaching down she placed a hand over the woman's clenched fist and began pulling the obstruction out of her chest cavity.

  Tehila ground her teeth and tried to stop the blade from coming out, but Emily’s blood would not allow it.

  Her look of triumph was rapidly turning into one of distrust.

  “They were right you’re unnatural filth. I should have chopped your head off when I had the chance...” she growled.

  At the same time, Emily wrestled the dagger from her chest, and when it was out she could finally gasp in a breath.

  “...I’m not at all sorry to disappoint,” Emily said.

  The blood from her chest lashed out around her pushing Tehila back and ripping the tent to smithereens.

  Tehila screamed and tumbled free, scampering away from Emily.

  Most people in the camp were resting but a few on duty saw the sudden commotion and raised the alarm.

  Tehila saw Emily's narrow gaze fixed on her and when she glazed around a dark smile appeared on her face.

  “Help! Help she gone insane.” Tehila screamed in a melodious voice.

  This woke more people up and they started gathering in the area.

  “She’s talking shit!” Emily snarled. “She attacked me!”

  Tehila's eyes were locked on Emily but she could see a dangerous light there.

  “I did not! Do you think anyone is going to believe you after you acted like that earlier? I just wanted to comfort you and you assault me! You’re insane!” Tehila wailed.

  Her voice carried a certain quality to it, even Emily found herself wanting to believe Tehila, but then she shook her head clear.

  “Don’t listen to her she’s talking shit!” Emily ground out, but from the looks of things not many people were listening to her.

  There was a glazed-over look on their faces as anger started to appear around her.

  “This is ridiculous” Emily muttered.

  Seila arrived on the scene with Atticus at her back.

  The moment she saw the current scene a heavy look appeared on her face.

  “Emily I don’t know what's going on but you need to calm down,” she said firmly.

  Which only frustrated Emily more.

  “Hey, I’m the victim here!” Emily said tugging on her shirt to show the bloody hole there.

  “I only did that in self-defense after you jumped me!”

  Atticus was glaring at Emily but as of yet, he had not moved to act. He seemed to be weighing up something.

  Whatever skill Tehila had used was potent because several voices were starting to rise from the peanut gallery.

  “Why is she even here if she can’t work with us.”

  “They should have kicked someone like her out of their team a long time ago.”

  “Did you see, that the same girl from earlier?”

  Emily clenched her fist but refused to take even a step back.

  She was no stranger to this type of treatment. I usually just meant she needed to flee and come back when things had died down. The difference this time was she hadn’t done anything wrong and with Tehila’s skills she would poison the Wandering fangs against her. Emily didn’t care if they liked her or not, but she needed at least the minimum amount of trust if she and Alex were going to continue traveling with these people.

  Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

  Alex pushed his way through the surrounding crowd and when his eyes landed on Emily and Tehila an angry light entered his eyes.

  Emily pressed her lips together she could try to deny it again but for the looks of the crowd people were interested in believing her. If that was the case should she just kill the woman now? Suffer the consequences to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It was obvious why Tehila was acting this way. She’d clearly drank the religious cool aid, even though she said otherwise.

  Atticus finally made a decision.

  “Emily relax, we don't want anyone getting hurt. Let's talk this out and see what we can do. For now, why don’t you-”

  “No! Someone like that doesn’t deserve nice treatment! She should be punished for this. She made an attempt on my life for crying out loud!” Tehila cried, her voice wavering. That same influence tried to find a way into Emily’s mind but she brushed it aside. The same could not be said for the others. Loud cheers erupted from the crowd of bystanders as they began to edge.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Emily lowered her stance as she kept her eye on Tehila.

  Alex suddenly made a move towards Emily drawing his sword, she cursed pivoting towards him, only for him to turn at the last second and face the crowd.

  “Enough! All of you. I know you’re afraid and that you lost a lot last night, but I trust Emily. You all need to back down, or this will end badly,” Alex said loudly.

  His words had the biggest effect yet, and people hesitated. The nearby Wandering Fangs that had been drawn in seemed to glance between one another.

  Emily stared at Alex’s back with an unreadable expression. Emily had given him no reason to trust her here, and yet he was willingly stepping up to vouch for her? Emily did not like this

  Selia cleared her throat a spoke.

  “Alexander is right. We are all up pressure and Kael has promised to assist where he can, but for now, let the Wandering Fangs deal with its people. Everyone uninvolved should return to their tents and wait. If you have a complaint you can direct it to myself or Atticus.”

  Her voice carried a note of finality to it, and the surrounding people glanced at one another, the spell seemingly broken.

  Tehila didn’t like this at all and the dark scowl that appeared was the only warning they got.

  “She’s an affront to the gods and yet you would let her move amongst us?! I'm sorry but I can’t let that happen,” she said. Right after that she took a breath and screamed.

  This was nothing like when she had used her instrument to soothe their pain or hide them from the beasts out there.

  It was harsh and discordant, grating on everyone's senses.

  Emily groaned as she fell to the floor covering her ears. It felt like the air was trying to vibrate her into a puddle. When he tried to call her blood it responded slugishly but she couldn’t hold it together as her brain vibrated in her skull.

  Emily began casting a ‘lift’ spell at Tehila but Alex got there sooner.

  His blade flicked across her throat cutting the scream short.

  Immediately the pressure lifted and Emily could breathe again, she took a look around and saw everyone had been affected.

  Alex was no exception but he seemed to have braced himself for the attack which is why he was the first to react.

  Emily glanced over at Tehila and saw the blade had cut clean through her neck. Her head had separated and rolled a couple of meters from her body.

  She frowned and glanced from the corpse to Alex. He wore a solemn look and shook his head.

  “Everyone disperse! She was infected with Sam’eth’s ideology. If you need medical attention please head over to our Healer, but this is done.” he said turning towards Emily.

  “Follow me,” he said.

  Emily glanced at Selia and saw that she didn’t look as concerned as she had moments before; she looked relieved.

  Atticus tore down a tent to cover the body and then turned to help everyone, but Emily could feel his gaze on her back.

  When they were far enough away Emily turned her head toward Alex.

  “Okay, what was that all about? You always seem so pissy when I kill someone, but it's fine when you do it?”

  Alex shot a glance around him and lowered his voice.

  “Kael will explain everything, but I think you already have a good idea of what’s going on. They were in that camp for over a week. Those who gave in immediately were taken away, but for the ones who resisted the Redeemers, there’s no way to know how far gone they are.”

  Emily groaned.

  “Seriously, so now we have to walk on eggshells for crazy people.”

  Alex pressed his lips together and pulled Emily off to the side.

  “Emily this is serious. They may seem crazy but their intelligence has not left them.” Emily wanted to say she begged to differ but Alex continued.

  “Right now, Kael is going through everyone, and he thinks he has gotten everyone but he can’t be sure.”

  Emily frowned.

  “Well, what about him? Isn’t he compromised too?

  Alex nodded.

  “Exactly, which is why I’m going to be working closely with him to monitor his actions,” he said as he pulled their final stretch to the tent.

  Alex pushed the flap aside and found Ashe currently sitting cross-legged across from the man in question.

  Kael looked far better than she’d remembered so he must have gotten a change of clothes and a nap in. Which reminded her how long had Tehila waited before attempting her assassination. An hour or two, either way, it was too short to be considered beauty sleep in Emily's mind.

  Alex went up to Kael and began whispering in his ear. Kael frowned and looked at Emily.

  “And you have witnesses to this?”

  Alex nodded and Kael rubbed his chin.

  “Fine, I’ll back you, but remember my warning,” he said quietly.

  Alex nodded and sat down in one of the other open spots.

  Turning to Emily he sat up straighter.

  “I’ll apologize for what happened to you, but I’m not too worried. You handled it well, and if what Alexander said is true, it’s resolved now. My leaders are on high alert, but as you can probably tell, we’re still working to get everything under control. We were planning to go over all of this in a couple of hours, but since you’re technically one of the employers here, I see no reason not to fill you in—provided you can keep the information to yourself.”

  Emily pressed her lips together. There was a change in Kael's demeanor toward her but right now she couldn’t tell if it was for the better or worse.

  Fortunately, Emily was good at taking things in stride.

  “Thanks, I’ll think of how you can repay me later. Please, go on,” she said.

  Kael nodded and looked down at a map he unrolled.

  “Crossing the grey sands is nearly impossible. The only reason we might succeed is that I know of a midway point where we can stop and rest—my old settlement. The problem is reaching it in the first place.”

  Emily stared down at the map in front of her. It was a little different from all the others she had seen in the city.

  They normally cut short near the plains to focus more on the mountains and gorge, but this one was a map of a desert. Dry sands were annotated on the map for hundreds of kilometers, and in the center, there was a written name. Emily squinted and could just make out the translation.

  ‘Daemon’s hold’

  Humming to herself she looked up at Kael.

  “The place sounds lovely,” she said, though she had always wondered what kind of environment his people had come from. By now Emily had figured out that Kael was not human, but it didn’t feel pertinent to ask at this stage.

  Kael shrugged at her comment.

  “If you understand what you are doing it isn’t all that bad, however, if you go into the deserts unprepared it’s a death sentence.”

  Alex looked up from the map.

  “And are we? Prepared I mean.”

  Kael licked his lips and nodded.

  “The supplies we gathered before we left are enough to carry us through for about a week. Whatever else we need I can find us on the way.”

  “And this settlement, they will let us in?” Ashe asked as she scrutinized the map.

  A fond smile appeared on his face.

  “Almost certainly not but… I have a way of forcing their hand, if they’re still alive.”

  Emily glanced at Alex and from the way he’d spoken previously, this was the same plan Kael had come up with last time, so they had to be alive.

  Ashe looked alarmed.

  “If, what do you mean ‘If’,” she asked.

  Kael let out a sigh.

  “I don’t think you understand the gravity of this journey. The environment and the creatures that live there will be trying to kill us the moment we set foot in it. Every year is a challenge that could wipe out my people. So, if they are there, that’s good. If not, we’ll have to make do. Luckily it looks like the winds are on our side. We’ll be leaving as soon as everyone is ready. You have to make a decision. If you want to leave then now's the time because once we are in, there's no turning back.

  Blood points: 340