The Weight Of Remaining

CHAPTER 12

The city looked different when it was afraid. Fear had its own kind of noise. Doors slammed shut as we passed. People hurried through the streets with coats thrown over nightclothes, children clutched against chests, faces pale beneath the lantern light. Somewhere in the distance, bells kept ringing. Not the elegant kind from towers. Alarm bells, sharp and ugly. Impossible to ignore.

I walked beside Elias while the rest of the team moved ahead of us with the kind of focus that made it very clear this wasn’t their first time running toward danger. I didn't quite understand it, running away from danger had always made significantly more sense to me.

“Stay close,” Elias said without looking at me.

“You say that like I planned to wander off.”

“You looked like you were considering it.”

“I always consider my options.” I glanced at him.

“That’s not reassuring.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be.” I said with a dareing spark in my eyes.

For a second, something almost like amusement touched his face.

Then another scream tore through the street ahead.

Elias’ expression sharpened.

Kaiden was several steps in front of us, walking beside Rowan and Finn. He hadn’t drawn a weapon. Apparently the decorative sword had stayed home.

Talia disappeared down a side street with two others I hadn’t properly met yet, her gloves already glowing faintly around her fingers.

The air tasted wrong here. It reeked of smoke and blood. And something else. Something bitter that settled at the back of my throat and made The Knowledge stir just enough to make my skin prickle.

I hated when it did that, especially in public.

We reached the corner of the south district. Then I saw the river. And what was left of the street beside it. Several market stalls had been overturned. A carriage with fruits lay on its side, one wheel still spinning uselessly. Part of a building had collapsed into the road, spilling stone and dust across the pavement. Guards were trying to move civilians behind a line of wagons, but people kept looking back.

People always looked back.

As if seeing the danger clearly made it easier to survive.

It didn’t.

A creature stood in the center of the street. The ones from the bar had been terrible. This one looked like something nightmares had rejected for being excessive.

It was taller than the others. Broader. Its spine curved unnaturally beneath blackened skin, sharp ridges of bone pushing through its back. Smoke leaked from its mouth in slow, uneven breaths. It had four arms.

Of course it had four arms... Two clearly hadn’t been dramatic enough.

“That’s new,” Rowan said from somewhere ahead.

"It isn’t.” Finn looked at him.

“It feels new.” Rowan rolled his eyes at Finn's remark.

“That’s not how classification works.” Finn sighed with annoyance.

“Can we classify it after it stops trying to kill people?” Talia called from the east side of the street.

“You people are actually insane.” I stared at them.

“No,” Elias said calmly beside me. “They’re coping.”

“That was not more reassuring.”

“It wasn’t meant to be.” Elias said with something like a smile.

What a wonderful moment to use my words against me.

The creature’s head snapped toward us. For one second, the street went still. Then it screamed. The sound slammed into my chest hard enough to steal my breath. Civilians cried out behind the guards. Then the creature charged. Fast. Far too fast for something that size. The ground cracked beneath each step.

Rowan moved first.

He threw both hands forward and a line of golden light snapped across the street like a whip. It wrapped around one of the creature’s arms and yanked hard enough to drag it sideways.

The monster stumbled. Not enough to fall, but enough for Finn to move.

He was on the left side before I even noticed him leave the center of the road. A blade flashed in his hand, not large, but precise. He struck behind the creature’s knee, the impact made it buckle.

Then Kaiden vanished.

One moment he was near Rowan. The next he appeared behind the creature, close enough to touch it.

My entire body went still.

Teleportation... So that was real.

The creature swung backward with two arms at once. Kaiden tilted his head slightly. The movement should have been too small to matter. It did matter. The creature’s left arm jerked out of rhythm, missing him completely and striking its own shoulder instead.

I frowned.

That wasn’t strength. That was his power- Control.

Kaiden’s jaw tightened.

The creature resisted. I saw it in the way its body spasmed, in the way one arm stopped for half a second before forcing itself forward again.

So he couldn’t just freeze them. Good to know.

Rowan lunged forward, golden magic wrapping around his forearms as he struck the creature in the ribs. The impact sent it skidding back.

Talia appeared from the side street, both hands glowing with blue-white light. She pressed her palms to the ground.

The cobblestones beneath the creature shifted. Stone rose around the creature’s ankles, locking them in place.

For about two seconds.

Then the monster tore free.

Chunks of pavement exploded outward. A piece of stone flew toward me.

Elias caught it inches from my face.

I blinked at him.

He didn’t even look mildly inconvenienced.

“Observe from behind me,” he said.

“I was.” I said still thinking about the concussion I would have had if he didn't stop the rock.

“You were observing too close.”

“That is not a real thing.”

“It is tonight.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but I got interrupted by another creature that dropped from the rooftop above us.

Elias turned before I fully processed the movement. His hand closed around the creature’s throat midair. For one strange second, he simply held it there. Then he slammed it into the street. The impact cracked the pavement beneath our feet. The creature twitched once. Then went still.

Slowly, I looked at Elias as he adjusted the sleeve of his coat. I had several questions. Unfortunately, now felt like a bad time to ask them.

Across the street, Kaiden and Rowan were still dealing with the larger creature. Finn had moved behind it again, keeping low, striking only when the monster’s attention shifted away from him.

Talia was directing two guards toward a family trapped behind the overturned carriage.

That was when The Knowledge stirred again.

Not loudly. Just a sharp pull behind my ribs. My gaze snapped left towards a narrow alley beside the collapsed building.

It was empty?

No...

It wasn't.

A small child was hiding beneath what remained of a wooden stall. Too scared to move. And above her, clinging to the side of the building, something moved.

A third creature. Smaller than the others. Quieter. Its body pressed flat against the stone, limbs bent like a spider’s. Smoke slipped from its mouth as its head tilted toward the child.

Nobody saw it. Everyone was focused on the street. On the big creature, the obvious threat.

My stomach dropped. I glanced towards Elias, but he wasn't next to me anymore, he had gone to help with the big creature.

He was too far.

Kaiden was forcing one of the big creature’s arms aside before it could crush Rowan.

Also too far.

The creature above the child shifted. One claw loosened from the wall. Then another.

There was no time... It was going to drop...