It’s worse.

  Of course, getting out is worse. We walk across the plaza to the other side, and the guard there looks at us, holding out a hand. “Sorry, uh, what are you doing?”

  “We were planning on leaving,” Bay supplies. She’s looking impatient already.

  “Ah, right, uh. Please stay until Mayor Hinterberg has given his speech,” he says.

  Oh. Was that how it was gonna be?

  Norman shrugged. “Well,” he said. “Guess we’re stuck.”

  I looked from the guard, to him, then back to the guard. Jess smacks him with her elbow, gesturing at me, and he grimaces. Inu gives them a weak smile. “We really should work to find reliable people to team up with,” she says, trying to get her parents on board.

  The guard smiles at that. “Yeah. Lots of people here. Just get talking, I’m sure you can find like minded people,” she says.

  Thatch grimaces. “Not… quite what we meant. We got friends out there. That aren’t here.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. This really shouldn’t take long, though. And it’s important to see, what with digital things being unavailable,” she says.

  I glance at the sky. At the eyes bearing down. Jess and Norman don’t seem to mind staying, really. Inu and Thatch are fully on my side, and Bay seems to be on board with her son. I look at the guard.

  She turned to me and gives a fake smile, the kind you put on when dealing with troublesome customers. “What is it?” she asks. “Can I… help you?”

  “We would like to leave,” I say. I [Select] her.

  “I’m sorry, please bear with us? I can get some police staff here to help explain it if you’d like to follow me?”

  Her smile is fake. Painted on. She smells of grime. Like old oil. The sticky kind, that gets on your fingers and doesn’t wash off. I wanna know more, and my skill twists to supply me with answers.

  There is something off. Very off, here. The way the mana sticks to my skin is all wrong. I trust the pinpricks out there more.

  “We would like to leave,” I say. It makes me sound silly, almost like a parrot. I don’t usually repeat myself that much, but with people like this? Being a brick wall makes me less of a target. I want out.

  She grimaces with fake empathy. “Okay, I’ll just wave someone over,” she says, raising her arm.

  “Come on Snow,” Norman says. “This seems… safe. We can stay a bit.”

  I glance at Thatch. My gut twists, but he looks back at me and nods. He gets it.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  A second passes, and [Suppression] smacks into the woman. Then, without hesitation, Thatch lights up with [Rage]. He barrels forward, and when she tries to stop him, she fails. I feel her try to activate a skill, but I stifle it with my will.

  Bay’s eyes widen. “Hey!” she yelps, chasing after Thatch. “That’s dangerous!”

  Using the chaos, I try to slip out, and so does Inu, but the guard reaches out to grab her. My blood runs cold. I double down, triple down on [Suppression]. My mana twists and burns, and the woman gasps for air, stumbling and choking.

  [Suppression 4 > 5]

  Inu slips by, and I take a relieved breath, focusing more of my skill on the creature under my skin. Jess’s eyes widen, and she moves forward too. When the guard tries to stop her, the woman [Freezes] in place. Norman just sighs, and slips by undetected.

  “Trouble,” he sighs. “You kids are all trouble. Inu, what are you thinking?” he starts arguing before we’re even out of earshot.

  The mana pricks my skin again. A moment passes and I shift my skill fully back to the creature under my skin, suppressing it. The guard yells behind us, and tries to chase, but her feet are stuck to the ground.

  - - -

  We escape. It takes a chunk of running, some use of skills, and by the end of it, I’m panting and bleeding, but we escape. Blood thrums in my ears. My breath comes hard, but we keep walking anyway. Uphill, now. Towards the castle.

  “What the hell was that about?!” Bay asks her son. “You storm off like that all of a sudden, do you have any idea what could happen?”

  Thatch just smiles at her, scratching the back of his head. “Well,” he said. “I wanted out. It felt… off.”

  She rolls her eyes. “That’s why you just… sprinted out of there? Kid, you gotta think! There was police! What if you got shot?!”

  I catch my breath and look over. Norman grumbles. “I’m with Bay. What’s so wrong with waiting a few hours, kids?”

  Inu turns to him. For the first time, she looks a little angry. “Shut your mouth, dad. A few hours? Yeah fucking right. As if police shit ever takes ‘just a few hours’.”

  He flinches at her words, then turns a little angry. “Don’t take that tone with me-”

  “Or what?!” Inu demands. “The world is ending, dad. This isn’t a fucking joke. This isn’t a day where you can just sit it out and go back to work next week. Look at the sky. Look at it, dad. Look up.”

  Norman doesn’t. He just gets red in the face. Angry. Jess lays a hand on his shoulder. “Back down, love,” she says. Her voice is calm. “I think they’re right.”

  “We’re not kids,” Thatch adds. “We’re plenty adults.”

  I smile. He says it almost with a pout, to the point where it becomes comical. But I back him up. “Norman,” I say, and the man’s gaze snaps to me. “We’ve killed two people in the last day.”

  The words come out so calm that he freezes.

  “Thatch killed that policewoman. She used a skill on Bay, I’m pretty sure. A manipulative one. I killed an old man, who put an arrow through your daughter’s shoulder. We’ve all killed goblins,” I say.

  He swallows his retort.

  “The mayor? I don’t care. Police? I don’t care. I am not staying there. That was a deathtrap, waiting to happen. They try to lock someone down who isn’t with their family, think of that. Imagine you were in there, and your kids out here. With goblins. With whatever that shadow thing was.” I pause, taking a deep breath. Then I walk faster.

  “I am not letting my friends die,” I say. “Not Inu or Thatch, not Opal or Sylves.”

  If there’s a response, I don’t hear it, too focused on the path forward. On mana, on my skills. Humans are trouble. Unfortunately, Opal and Sylves are humans, too.

  I don’t mind, though. They’re worth the trouble. I will take care of it all.

  3 books (over 100k words each) done, and am well on my way into B4. It's been very, very fun. Since I have a big backlog, I will be posting twice a day for the next month-ish.

  My is and will stay 40 Chapters ahead!!!