章節 13: Another side

"You will regret going against us, human," hissed the Mirage, its normally emotionless voice laced with contempt. "You must be mad to assume that you can stop us from taking her."

Ras was buzzing with a confidence that I think might be misplaced. As the captain of the Ravens, I was sure he was capable of fighting against monsters. But if there were hundreds of them, now that was a different thing entirely.

I put a hand on his raised arm. "Ras, perhaps we should just run. There is a difference between being brave and reckless."

One side of his lips curled up. "I appreciate your concern, Rosie. But they'll be no getting out of this if I don't scare them away."

I loosed a breath. "Don't die on me, all right?"

He gave me a little laugh. "You underestimate me."

I didn't bother replying, lest I distract him any further. I was already useless as it was, and it seemed like I was being more and more of a burden to him the longer we stayed here.

Damn it, we'd only just met but I felt like I owed this man too many favors.

It happened too quickly. A moment too soon, a Mirage materialized right in front of us. It lifted its hazy arm that instantly shape-shifted into huge claws. Ras blocked the blow with his blade, pushing the claw back without much effort. In a single whoosh, he cleaved the Mirage in half. Like smoke the creature vanished, but ten more appeared after it.

One popped out from my back, reaching out for me with its long, glowing arms. Ras barely got to me in time to lodge his sword into the Mirage's stomach.

"Stay close to me, Rosie!" Ras yelled, returning to dealing with the Mirages that kept coming nonstop.

I scurried over to him, and huffed. "Yeah, that'd be so easy if you'd stay still—which you can't do because you're fighting off monsters!"

His eyes were wide with disbelief when he turned to me. "Seriously?"

I raised my brows. "What?"

He groaned inwardly, slicing a Mirage diagonally across the chest without looking. "This is a life and death situation, Rosie."

"And?" I put my hand on my hips. "I'm trying to survive!"

"It doesn't look like it."

I kept on following him, making sure that we're at least a few inches apart so I wouldn't hinder his movements. How considerate it was of me.

I rolled my eyes at what he'd said. "Stop talking and finish this already."

"I'm trying to," he said, sounding irritated. "But there's no end to them."

Indeed, the Mirages were endless. We had to think of some way to get rid of them entirely. Now. And running was not an option.

I knew nothing of these creatures, but maybe asking the watcher of this forest would help me think of a few ideas.

"Do they have a weakness?" I asked Ras, constantly keeping up to him as he slashed and slashed and slashed the Mirages without showing any signs of exhaustion. He was quick and nimble yet overflowing with raw force. It was another side of him I found beautiful.

"I don't think they do," he said, breathless. Okay, maybe he was a little exhausted. He was going at it for almost thirty minutes, after all. "Nothing that I know of, honestly."

"You're the watcher of Evernight, Captain Rasvien," I told him, "You should know a thing or two about the creatures that live here."

"I am aware of my responsibilities, Rosie." He huffed. "But Mirages are an entirely different case. Until now, they were seclusive and boring creatures that we didn't bother about."

I couldn't help but cross my arms. "They're creatures of light, Ras," I said, as-a-matter-of-factly. "Surely they hate the dark? Don't you have any tricks up your sleeve that is associated with the dark?"

I couldn't have imagined how he froze briefly. He was silent a moment, plunging his blade into the Mirages like there was no tomorrow. I thought he had not heard me, but then he said, "There is."

I failed to catch his words because of how softly he spoke. It was barely a whisper. "What did you say?"

"I said there is—there is a way." His back was completely on me the whole time he was talking. "But for this, you'll have to close your eyes."

"Oh," I uttered, "That's fine by me."

"You'll have to promise me, Rosie." He wasn't convinced by the tone of my voice. I wasn't either.

"Yes, I promise," I said, "I swear by the goddess."

He did a light chuckle before dropping his arms to his sides, the blunt edges of his blades grazing his legs. "All right. Close your eyes. Don't worry about the Mirages, I'll be making sure they don't touch even a strand of your pretty hair."

"I know that."

I closed my eyes, reassured that Ras would protect me no matter what. I didn't know why, he was a complete stranger compared to Galen and Lira, but whenever I was with him it felt as though I could wholly entrust my life to him. It was probably because he had saved me from the moment we first met, who knows? I was just sure that I could trust him.

But it was a mistake for him to trust me.

Because I opened my eyes.

What little there was to see of the sky darkened, like the night was forcefully nudging the day away to replace it. Tendrils of shadow rose from Ras' knuckles, climbing up to his blades that illuminated into the blackest of blacks.

As one, the Mirages gasped. I could feel their fear, thick and absolute, fill the atmosphere around us. I felt it as well, but probably because it was within me too. Was I scared? A bit.

The shadows retreated when the Mirages started to disappear. The sky was clear once more.

One sole Mirage was floating on the branch opposite us. It was showing utter unsettledness, like it did not know what to do, what to react to what it had seen. Until it, too, faded out of sight like the rest of its kind.

A single thought would stick to my mind for the rest of that day: Ras was a Shadow Mage.

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