“David!”

  The scream woke David from a very restful sleep. He stretched, feeling the ache from the past day’s training in his joints. He groaned, trying to blink the remnants of sleep away from his eyes. He shifted, turning to his side to see the storm of black hair next to him. The soft fragrance of his girlfriend’s honey-infused shampoo washed over him.

  David grinned, pulling closer to her.

  She stirred, turning to face him. She was nude, her skin a perfect texture to his touch. She chuckled as she woke up. Then laughed into his kiss. She was stunning in the morning. Every morning.

  “She is going to ba—”

  The loud thud against the door made David groan. Then more came, fast and rough. He buried his face in his lover’s neck, not wanting to leave the bed. Or her.

  “Seli! Tell your boyfriend to wake up!” The voice called. “David, Dad is ready! And you promised Chloe you’d run with her. Get your ass out!”

  David sighed. Seli pulled him in a hug, kissed his face, then his lips. Softly, at first, then deeply. When she pulled away, her eyes sparkled. Filled with wanton promises that David would have preferred to training with Specter.

  “You should get ready,” Seli said, pushing him off with a smile. “I like that your parents let me sleep over, and I don’t want that to change.”

  She rolled off the bed, now fully awake. She was tall, slim as a whip, and beautiful. David watched her dress up, her back to him. Every movement from her reminded him of the night before. The slow wind of love-making. The tenderness of her tou…

  David…

  David turned around sharply. The voice had been a whisper. Barely one, even. But he heard his name, as if someone was yelling at him from a great distance. And the voice was familiar. Or it had felt so.

  “Are you alright?” Seli asked. David turned back to her, feeling grounded again in the present. She leaned on the bed, reaching for him. Her eyes were soft green, captivating.

  David nodded, pulling her in for a kiss. She let him have it before wriggling away. David chuckled. He liked the games too.

  He slid off the bed and picked up his glasses from the bedside stool. These were the most recent ones he got from Dr. Palmer. The last ones had broken in a fight with wild orcs in the last attack from the tower. He had almost died. He would have if his father hadn’t helped him.

  David tied the string behind his head to secure his glasses, and the world came into sharp focus. He walked over to his curtain and pulled it apart. The roof-to-floor glass let him see the outside, where the sun had splashed everything with light.

  “Will you join Maxwell’s squad for the scouting job?” Seli asked, brushing her hair into place. David shrugged, turning to see that she was watching him. At the corner of his eyes, something shifted on the glass. He didn’t see a face, only the movement of something large, shaped like a wing. It was there for a moment and then gone. So fast, and yet David thought he saw it clearly.

  “David?” Seli called. David snapped back to her, frowning. His eyes darted from his girlfriend to the glass.

  “Seli, did you see that?” David asked, pointing at the glass. Seli furrowed her brows, looking confused.

  “What are you talking about?” She asked. David sighed, shaking his head. There was nothing there anymore. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I just thought I saw something.”

  “David!” the call came again from behind the door. “You are dragging everyone else behind.”

  “Shut up, Zoey. We are coming.” David rushed through cleaning up and changing his clothes. When he came back out, Seli was ready to leave. She kissed him, her eyes suffused with love.

  She placed her hand on the door, and markings burned into the wood. Invisible before, now they shimmered, burning with essence.

  David stared at it in awe and envy. Not every human could use essence magic. And he had always wished he could use it the way others did.

  Seli undid the lock spell she had created on the door the night before, then turned the knob.

  Zoey was waiting on the other side. Fuming. She glared at Seli, then rolled her eyes at David. David grinned.

  “You let her use magic on your door now?” Zoey asked.

  “It’s either that or you barge in,” David said. Seli slipped by Zoey wordlessly, then vanished down the stairs. “And I think you are really pissed that you couldn’t break her spell.”

  Zoey scoffed. “Mid-grade lock spells are easy to break, David. Your girlfriend’s essence magic is too one-dimensional to cause me any trouble.” She looked past him, staring at the door. The marks were gone, and the door was as good as new again.

  “What’s the alarm for?”

  “Strays,” Zoey said, turning away from David. She was almost as tall as he was. Looked almost like him with her hair cut low too. “Tim said they need you. We have to go.”

  “I thought Chloe needed me,” David said, groaning. He hated working with Tim. No, he hated the whole squad. But they paid just as much as Specter for strays at least.

  “Dad took Chloe. Mum too. It’s just us. We are going with Ti—”

  Wake up, brat! David! You have to wake u…

  “What are you doing?” Zoey asked. David wheeled around, realizing he was facing his room again. Zoey was four flights of stairs down, looking up at him. The house was silent. Too quiet. But he couldn’t deny that he’d heard that voice. It was closer now. And yet, he couldn’t understand why it was both familiar and new.

  The desperation in the voice shook him, as if he were the one desperate.

  “I am awake,” David said.

  “What?” Zoey asked. “What are you talking about?”

  David waved for her to wait. He waited too. For the voice to say something. Nothing came. The silence was loud, like the echo of emptiness. He sighed, shaking his head. Perhaps he was tired, or maybe he was going insane.

  “Where are the strays?” He asked.

  “Are you sure you are alright?” Zoey asked. “I understand you have been hunting a lot with Specter recently. If you want, I could tell Tim that you are tired.”

  “So he’d mouth off about my lack of essence?” David asked. “The jerk-off will have a field day with that. No.”

  Zoey shrugged. “If you say so.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The walls of the house twitched, blindingly fast. It all vanished for a moment, and through it David saw one great eye. Staring at him, expectantly. Then it was gone.

  The family’s armory was on the first floor, a long rectangular chamber lined with racks of weapons polished to a muted shine. The morning light through the tall window caught on steel and bronze, throwing thin streaks across the tiled floor.

  Zoey went straight for the back wall, her fingers brushing over the hilts and grips until she stopped at a sleek, curved bow resting in its case. She lifted it as if it weighed nothing, despite its reinforced essence wood frame. A soft shimmer ran across the polished limbs as she strung it with practiced ease. From the same case she drew two quivers, fastening one across her back and clipping the smaller one at her hip.

  David’s eyes lingered on her for a moment, then turned to the weapon rack beside the door. He reached for his sword—his third, technically, since the last two had broken in past hunts. This one was simpler: iron-forged, clean-lined, a practical weapon rather than a showpiece. He tightened the leather strap on its hilt, testing the balance.

  Just steel.

  Weak, the voice said. David ignored it.

  It was heavy and reassuringly real.

  “You hear about Elisha?” Zoey asked suddenly, voice casual but carefully so.

  David glanced up from buckling the sword at his hip. “No. What about him?”

  “He went down to the fight pit with Isaiah.” Zoey clipped her quiver into place, tugging at the strap until it sat flush against her shoulder. She gave him a look that was equal parts smug and wary.

  David scowled. “The pit? Are you kidding me?”

  Zoey shrugged, turning her bow over in her hands as if admiring the grain. “You know him. He wouldn’t listen. I told him it was stupid, but he said he needed the practice.”

  “Practice?” David’s jaw clenched. “The pit isn’t practice—it’s suicide. They let strays loose in there for sport. Half the time, the handlers don’t even keep control. If he got pulled into the lower tunnels—”

  “He didn’t,” Zoey cut in, her tone sharper now. “He’s fine. Isaiah was with him. They’re both fine. Stop acting like he is a kid.”

  David ran a hand through his hair, frustrated.

  The whisper of the strange voice earlier still worried him, making his nerves raw. “He’s not ready for that. And Isaiah? That idiot would throw himself into a pack of strays just to prove a point.”

  Zoey gave him a look that was all older-sister exasperation, despite her being younger. “Not everyone has to do things your way, David. Some of us don’t have the luxury.”

  He bit back a retort, tightening the strap on his sword until the leather squeaked.

  They left the armory together, the tension hanging between them like static. Outside, the family truck was already warm. Its battered frame rattled as the engine turned over, coughing before catching. David slid into the passenger seat, Zoey climbing into the driver’s side with her bow resting across her lap.

  The drive out of town was quick but bumpy, the roads pitted with cracks from the last monster raid. They passed burned-out shells of houses, their blackened beams jutting up like ribs. A few survivors watched from porches or half-collapsed fences, their eyes wary. No one waved.

  When they pulled up on the outskirts, five figures waited in the dust by the roadside. Tim stood at the front, tall and broad-shouldered, his grin already plastered across his face. He didn’t wait for Zoey to step out before he leaned down and kissed her, lingering too long.

  David scowled, stepping out slowly, but Zoey didn’t push Tim away. She kissed him back once, quickly, then turned her head as if it were nothing.

  “About time,” Tim said, straightening. He clapped David on the shoulder hard enough to sting. “Thought you’d sleep through half the day again.”

  “Had to drag my ass out of bed for this, yeah,” David muttered.

  Tim laughed like it was a joke. Then he gestured to the girl standing half-hidden behind him. “This is Gis. New. Don’t worry, she’s not useless—picked her a group of newly trained runts that Specter didn’t know what to do with.”

  David’s eyes flicked to her. Gis was shorter than Zoey, wiry, with skin like warm bronze. Her dark hair was pulled into a messy braid, and her eyes were alert but cautious. She didn’t speak, only gave a curt nod.

  “She doesn’t talk much,” Tim said as if it didn’t matter. “But she’s got protection magic. Barriers, wards, whatever. Good for cover. You’ll see.”

  David nodded back at her, but the silence pressed. He couldn’t shake the thought that she looked far too young for this.

  The voice stirred again. David… wake up…

  His head snapped around. And for an instant, he wasn’t looking at Tim, or Zoey, or Gis. A man stood in front of him. Armor black as soot, helm shadowing his face. His eyes pierced through David, reaching and pleading. He was familiar and terrifying, like the voice.

  David staggered, blinking hard. And just like that, the armored figure was gone.

  “You good?” Tim asked, eyebrow raised.

  “Fine,” David muttered, searching for the man again.

  Tim smirked, waving a hand toward the dusty road that trailed into the hills. “Job’s simple. Clear the strays a few miles out. Level fours, nothing you can’t handle.”

  “Level fours?” David frowned. “Why aren’t Specter squads handling it?”

  Tim shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. Pays the same. More, if we get it done fast.”

  “That’s not how this works,” David shot back. “If they’re ignoring level fours, there has to be a reason, right?”

  Tim’s grin widened, shark-like. “Or maybe it’s free coin. You want to sit around and lose on this, be my guest. I’ll take what’s offered.”

  David clenched his teeth, but Zoey cut in before the argument could spark. “Let’s just get this done.”

  They piled into two vehicles—the truck and a smaller jeep one of Tim’s men had brought. The drive out took them across low hills and into the edge of a smaller town, half-abandoned. Windows were shattered, doors torn from hinges. Scorch marks lined one of the main roads.

  The monsters had been here. Recently.

  Tim hopped out first, waving for the others to follow. “Alright, we’ll have to split. Get this done quickly. I want that extra cash.”

  David’s frown deepened. “Splitting is stupid. We don’t know how many there are, or if they’re still nesting nearby. We should stay together, sweep the town clean.”

  “That’ll take too long,” Tim shot back. “We split, we finish before sundown. Easy. Don’t whine, please.”

  Zoey shot David a quick look, but she didn’t argue.

  Tim started pointing. “David, you’re with Gis. Take the east. Stay sharp. Strays like to hide.”

  David opened his mouth, but stopped. He glanced at Gis, who was already adjusting the straps of her gear, ready. Her face was blank, unreadable.

  “Fine,” David muttered.

  He and Gis peeled off down the eastern road. The town was silent except for the creak of broken shutters in the breeze. The farther they went, the worse it looked and smelled. Bodies half-buried under rubble, and blood dried dark across the pavement.

  A shadow darted between the ruins ahead. Small, fast.

  David’s hand went to his sword. He raised his free hand slightly toward Gis. She stopped, her eyes narrowing. A faint shimmer of light flickered over her skin, like heat off stone—her barrier magic stirring.

  The first stray came out of the alley, crawling on all fours, its body twisted and torn where it had been cut into before. Its wounds had festered, but it was lively. Its jaw unhinged too wide, teeth jagged and dripping. Two more loped behind it, their limbs too long for their bodies. Their eyes burned faintly red as they fixed on David and Gis.

  David drew his sword with a rasp of steel. “Stay behind me.”

  Gis didn’t argue.

  The strays snarled hungrily, and then they charged.

  Behind David, Gis sighed,

  Stop!

  David froze, his sword hanging mid-swing. He pulled, trying to move his body. But his muscles were locked in place. He tried harder, frantically, panic rising up his chest.

  The girl, Gis, walked over to stand in front of him. She stared at him, her disappointment obvious. Confusion riddled David’s mind. The strays were in front of him, frozen just like him.

  “Olam,” the girl said, sighing. “I think this is enough. You have played your games.”

  “Oh oh!” An old voice laughed.

  The strays shattered, flesh tearing from bones as the space around them was sundered. Words formed in the air in front of David, bright against the blurry background of a world he slowly realized was not real.

  Olam, the Eternal of Passage, has opened a path!

  You have found the holder of all fates!

  Gis frowned, shaking her head as she turned to David. “Let’s go. Eternals are not patient beings,” she said with Vith’s voice.

  The hold on David vanished, and he was able to move again. “What about Zoey?” he asked. “And Elisha and Carlos?”

  This world had seemed imperfect and yet good enough to be real to him. He had wanted it to be real.

  “These are not real, David. Your family and friends are not here.” She walked through the path Olam opened, but she wasn’t gone. David could suddenly feel the fragment within him. So clearly that he realized that he was the one blocking Ignis’ voice before.

  He looked around, feeling the sharp claws of guilt graze the inside of his chest. He should have known that wasn’t Zoey, yet he had wanted her to be. He had wanted Seli and his parents. As terrible as this reality Olam fabricated was, David had wanted it to be real. Because it was easier.