Chosen

It felt like I was falling down a hole and hitting the sides. Over and over again. By the time I landed, I was dizzy and in pain, though I was still clutching Scarlett's  hand.

I stumbled and released Scarlett's hand so I didn't pull her down. I fell on my back and laid there for a minute, catching my breath. When I sat up and looked around, I saw Julian laying on the ground with a wound on the side of his head. Jazmine was standing with her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. She was pale and looked very exhausted. Scarlett was leaning against a large boulder, looking nauseous and terrified.

I looked closer at Jazmine. She had a white aura around her. The aura of magic, I realized.

"Who are you," I said, "and what did you do to Julian?"

"I'm not discussing who I am right now. As for Julian, he...he's just a bit weak; he got knocked out when I teleported."

"You've been here before?" I asked.

"This is Azreal," Scarlett said. "You took us right to Azreal."

"You've been to Azreal?!"

"Possibly," Jazmine said. "It doesn't matter."

"If we have to travel with you, we have to know who you are."

"Actually, you don't; I don't know who you are, yet I'm traveling with you. We'll just have to trust-"

"The last time we trusted someone," I snapped, "we almost got killed."

At this point, Julian was waking up. He pushed himself weakly up onto his elbows and looked around.

"We should start going now," Julian said slowly, like he was exhausted. "Before we're tracked."

"I don't think we'll be tracked," Jazmine said.

"Well, thinking isn't knowing. We have to go before we get killed," I said, grabning Scarlett's hand. She squeezed mine.

Jazmine helped Julian up and then, after a moment of turning in circles, she pointed into a forest of thick trees.

"That is where we have to go."

Scarlett looked around at us. "We're all exhausted. We were just fighting - we should probably rest first."

"But-" Julian started.

Jazmine spoke up. "We'll be fine if we put up protection wards."

"We're out in the open," I protested. "We might as well go a ways to find a good place to hide and rest so we don't get ambushed in our sleep."

"But I can-"

"She's right," Scarlett said quietly. "We probably should find a place to hide."

Jazmine looked oddly at Scarlett.

"I remember you. Married to him?" she pointed to Julian. "And they all said you were weak and had no common sense. You've learned well since then, it seems."

"Actually, we aren't married, and never were," Julian said. "We were engaged."

"Were? What happened?"

"It doesn't matter," Scarlett said. "We should go now."

So Jazmine started into the forest, followed by Julian and then me and Scarlett. It was a wonder Jazmine could navigate through the trees, I thought, because they were so thick and identical. I would have probably easily have gotten lost.

But, it seemed, Jazmine knew this path, as if she had walked it a thousand times before. Who knew, she may have. She probably had.

Scarlett squeezed my hand again. I realized she was shivering, and her eyes were shimmering, like she was close to tears.

"What's wrong?" I whispered to her.

"N-nothing...I just don't want to see her - the Queen - again. And I don't want to endanger Rosalie. What if we fail? Then she's dead for sure. And...I just...I'm scared, Athena. I'm scared."

"I'll make sure nothing bad happens. We have two warlocks...and though we may not be able to fully trust her, two is better than one. And she seems...strong. She might be older than she looks. We'll just...we'll just have to hope. Try to keep positive, alright?"

Scarlett leaned her head on my shoulder. "I'll try," she murmured. "I'm...exhausted."

"Just a little longer," I whispered into her ear.  

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About half an hour later, we found a small dent in the ground about the size of a small pond. It looked like a pond, except the ground was cracked and dry. Nothing grew there. Scarlett shivered slightly as we headed there.

The trees were especially close around the dent. As we moved closer, I saw large spots of dried blood around on the dirt. They looked older than a few months. Scarlett shivered violently.

"What-?" I started.

"Nothing," Scarlett said quickly. "I'm...fine."

I sighed and squeezed her hand. "You can talk to me."

"I know. I know."

"Alright," I said. We went to the center of the hole and threw our belongings down.

"This will be safe enough," Jazmine said. "I'll go put wards up. Julian, go find some food for us, will you?"

Julian grabbed his bow and silently got up and left into the trees. Jazmine then left out of earshot as well.

"This," Scarlett whispered, gripping my arm tightly, "is where my mom used to cut me."

I stared at a blood spot. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said again.

"How-"

"This used to be a pond. The trees weren't this close together. She changed it so I was hidden. There is something that keeps animals and water out...so the blood stayed."

I sat back, horrified.

"I'm fine," Scarlett whispered. "I'm fine, because I have to be."

"But are you, really?" I asked, but Jazmine was coming back. Her magic was white but faint, drifting through the clearing like mist.

We sat there awkwardly until Julian came back with two dead rabbits. He handed one wordlessly to Scarlett. Jazmine started a fire magically and Julian put the rabbit over it. Scarlett drank the rabbits blood quickly and threw the carcass aside.

After everyone was done eating, we settled silently down to sleep, possibly the last time we would be able to sleep through the night.