It was nearly dusk when they made it back to the Hallowed Ground. Erik’s limp had worsened by then, Lochlan’s arm had begun to turn green from below the elbow and Reuban needed support to walk. Avery’s broken hand was still broken, of course, but at least he did make it back without any help.

  “What the hell happened?” Charles’ eyes opened wide when they arrived. Clara, Elizabeth and Harriet hurried over as well. “Especially your arm, why is it green?!”

  “Spider bite.” Ava explained before Lochlan found the strength to talk. “Clara, you need to heal him.”

  His sister nodded. The relieved expression she had when she noticed them returning had been replaced with panic. As they helped the wounded sit down, Clara began healing Lochlan. Elizabeth and Harriet quickly started cleaning their wounds.

  “What kind of spider bites like that?” Charles breathed out quietly.

  While they worked, Ava stepped out of the church, and lifted her hand in front of her, palm facing down. A pile of cut branches appeared on the ground with a faint glow, which quickly faded away. “We need to get to work on the defences.”

  “Yeah.” Jason glanced at Charles. “We’ll get started on that.”

  “Good.” Charles grabbed Alaric’s arm. “We’ll help in a minute. Can we talk?” He asked, then pulled him towards the other side of the boulder. The wolf followed them, and the other wolf also hopped down from the boulder and sat in its shadow.

  “Wolves?” Charles asked, pointing at them. “You had this ability and didn’t tell me?” His brows were furrowed, his eyes narrow and his forehead scrunched. His anger was visible and made both wolves’ ears perk. They watched silently.

  “I didn’t know. I think I got it down at the altar to the Chthonian,” he raised his hand to stop Charles before the man could cut him off. “I don’t know how it works, it’s got something to do with this,” he showed the back of his right hand, where the mark – the bleeding circle – was quite visible. It almost looked like a tattoo.

  “You didn’t know you could turn our enemies into defenders?” Charles scoffed. “I don’t know how you can be so careless and inattentive while our world has been turned upside down.” His anger was palpable. “My sister could have died out there, and-“

  “She didn’t.” Alaric cut him off. “We fought the creatures off, and everyone will be fine.”

  “What if everyone wasn’t fine?” Charles clenched his fists. “Why only two wolves? Why didn’t you turn the spiders?”

  “Do you seriously want gigantic spiders walking around here while we’re trying to survive?” Alaric shook his head, trying to suppress his rising anger. I didn’t cause any of this. “I nearly died too – Ava wasn’t the only one in danger. We all were.” So stop taking your anger and stress out of me. “Now we know, and everyone is fine. I’ll make sure to make use of the Mark.” He took a deep breath. “Are we on the same page?”

  Charles looked away. “Yeah. We are. That ability will be very useful, so make good use of it.” With that, he walked off to help Jason, leaving Alaric behind.

  With a sigh, he sat down. Suddenly all the exhaustion from the day settled in. His legs felt heavy, his hand hurt from all the fighting, and his arms were still sore – especially his left arm. He gently touched the still too pale skin where the wolf tore it apart.

  “You should give them names.”

  Victoria’s voice startled him. When had she approached him, and how hadn’t he noticed her at all?

  “Like what?” He asked with a faint smile.

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  The young woman crouched next the wolves. “What about Romulus and Remus?”

  Alaric grimaced. “… I don’t think that’s such a great idea.”

  Victoria nodded. “True, this one’s a girl. What about Luna and Sol?”

  “Moon and the sun?” Alaric shrugged. “I mean… if you want to, you can call them that.”

  “Luna and Sol it is!” Victoria exclaimed with a smile. She reached for the one on her left but paused for a split second before touching its head. “You’re Luna.” She said as she somewhat sheepishly pet it, then directed her attention to the other one. “And you’re Sol.”

  Luna’s tail wagged, while Sol’s ears lowered, and he panted.

  “I think they like it.” He chuckled. “Victoria, how did you do… that?” He lowered his voice. How did you cast spells like that? He needed to learn to control the Mark.

  Her beaming smile turned into a frown. “I’m not entirely sure. I’ve been noticing things I couldn’t before.” She raised her hand, wind swirled around her. “Mana – magic. I can feel it. Like you’d feel the wind on your face. So when I felt such an overwhelming amount of it by the obsidian nest… I just used it. The wolves needed to be stopped, so I… I made them stop.” She shrugged, though she did seem somewhat frustrated. “I don’t know how to explain it better.”

  “Thanks.” He forced a smile. “You saved us.”

  “I did do that, yeah.” Her beaming smile returned. “We should probably help Jason, right?” She stood up and offered him her hand. “Come on.”

  He was about to take her hand, but he pulled back at the last second. His heart skipped a beat. That was close. “Before that – do you know where Charles put all the extra cloaks and gloves we brought?”

  “In the small room of the church. Why?” She glanced at her hand with a mix of curiosity and hurt.

  “I don’t know-“ he shook his head. “I can’t control this,” he tapped at the back of his hand. “I don’t want to accidentally… you know.” He tilted his head towards Luna and Sol.

  Victoria’s lips parted as understanding dawned on her. “Oh, I see. Yeah that’s a good idea. I’ll bring you the gloves then, wait just a bit.” She ran off towards the church before he had a chance to speak up.

  Thank god she understands. He sighed a breath of relief. A part of him was still afraid of disclosing that. It was dangerous enough to completely destroy anyone’s trust in him. Maybe it doesn’t work on people. He didn’t really believe that though.

  It worked when the Witch used it on me.

  Victoria came back before long and dropped two leather gloves in his lap. “These should fit, right?”

  “Thank you.” As he put the gloves on, he felt just a little bit more relieved. This time, he did take her hand.

  Building the cavalry spikes took longer than they first thought. While they had plenty of materials, they had only two hammers, and no saws. They sharpened the sticks with knives, dug a small moat using the dullest swords and their hands, and buried the bottom half of the sticks into the moat before covering it back up. Medium sized rocks proved useful in making sure the spikes didn’t budge at the slightest nudge.

  “God, why is it taking so long?!” Ava cried out at the halfway point. Her hands were covered in dirt, and the dull sword she used in place of a shovel wasn’t proving particularly useful. “How many more?”

  “About fifty.” Alaric muttered. The leather gloves had already proven their worth, sparing his palms from countless stray cuts. Small kitchen knives were not the proper tool for sharpening sticks.

  As their work neared its completion, an exhausted Clara stepped out of the church. “They’re fine now. The venom seems completely gone. I’ll heal Reuban and Avery tomorrow – I’m out of healing.” She shook her hands in exhaustion.

  “Thanks,” Jason forced a smile, then winced as he dropped one of the rocks on his foot. “Bloody hell, I’m sick of this…”

  They all were, but despite all the challenges, about two hours after dusk, a system message appeared in front of everyone.

  OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED – BUILD DEFENCES

  REWARDS GRANTED

  PHYSTICAL ABILITIES INCREASED MINISCULLY

  HALLOWED GROUND PROPERTIES INCREASED

  THIS HALLOWED GROUND IS FORTIFIED AGAINST THE CORRUPTION OF NESTING SPIRES FOR 12 HOURS

  That’s new.

  Twelve hours was enough time to rest and plan for the next day.

  “We’ll need to deal with those spires somehow.” Charles muttered, putting aside the knife he used to sharpen sticks. “But for now, let us eat first. I’m starving.”

  Their meal consisted of fruits, some hunted rabbits, and tea made of… something. It tasted somewhat odd, though Harriet reassured them those plants were safe.

  Discussions about how to handle the spires stretched out all the way into midnight. Once he noticed he was about to doze off, Alaric finally stood up, declaring he needed to sleep. That marked the end of the day for everyone, and soon the whole camp was asleep, save for the two people keeping the first guard shift. The wolves lay outside, sleeping.