Something nudged my foot.

  I pulled the cloak tighter, holding the last of the warmth against my chest.

  The fire had died sometime during the night. The cold had crept in slowly after it.

  My body wanted a few more minutes before moving.

  But the road didn’t wait for that.

  “Up,” Blade said.

  His voice wasn’t sharp.Not like the instructors in the castle who woke servants before dawn.Just neutral.

  I pushed the cloak back and peeked out.

  He was already packed, already armed, already impossibly awake. The fire had burned down to gray ash. The hollow was spotless.

  Only my cloak and blanket remained—meaning he’d cleaned everything except what was on top of me.

  I sat upright with a quiet groan.

  “You might have tried waking me,” I said, rubbing my eyes, “before resorting to kicking.”

  Blade handed me the cloak.

  That seemed to be the end of the conversation.

  Not talkative, I decided.

  I stood, stretching the stiffness out of my shoulders.

  The brand at the back of my neck throbbed once as I moved.

  I ignored it.

  Thinking about it only made the sensation worse, and there was nothing to be done about it anyway.

  My magic was still locked behind it.

  Blade was already on the road.

  He had stopped a short distance ahead, his attention moving across the trees before he continued forward.

  The Ashwood was colder today.

  Ash drifted between the trees like slow-moving snow. The skeletal trunks clawed upward, charred tips reaching for a sky that never brightened past gray. Every crunch of our footsteps sounded loud.

  Blade didn’t say anything.

  We walked that way for a while.

  In the Ashwood, even silence felt like it was watching.

  “So,” I said, quickening my pace so I wouldn’t fall too far behind, “this is the Ashwood.”

  “Yes.”

  “Is it… always like this?”

  “Yes.”

  I looked around the road and the trees beyond it.

  “It’s gray… and quiet.”

  “…Yes.”

  I waited to see if he would say anything else.

  Blade didn’t react.

  I kicked a stone off the road just to hear something.

  “Do you know why it burned?” I asked.

  “Monsters.”

  “What kind?”

  “Bad ones.”

  “Right,” I muttered. “That doesn’t narrow it down much.”

  He didn’t reply.

  We walked another quiet stretch.

  My mind drifted back to the slavers from yesterday.

  The monsters had torn them apart.

  I had seen what those things could do.

  Blade had killed them by himself.

  I still wasn’t sure what I‘d seen.

  I hesitated, then asked,

  “Where did you learn to fight like that?”

  He didn’t glance back.

  “Walking.”

  “Is that so?”

  I considered that for a moment.

  His answers weren’t wrong.

  They just weren’t helpful.

  The road bent slightly southwest. Blade took the turn without pause.

  “Where does this lead?” I asked.

  “Ridge. Then villages.”

  “Human villages?”

  “Yes.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I swallowed.

  “Are they… safe?”

  “No.”

  My heart thumped.

  “Safe for humans?” I clarified.

  “Sometimes.”

  “Safe for demons?”

  “No.”

  Well then.

  We kept walking.

  His steps remained steady.

  Mine wavered slightly as I quickened my pace to stay behind him.

  I still couldn’t figure him out.

  But being alone scared me more than being near him.

  And being left behind terrified me.

  We approached a rise in the road, the path sloping down into a shallow clearing.

  Fallen logs lay scattered among the trees, ash drifting in pale streaks across the ground.

  I barely noticed.

  My thoughts were still turning over Blade’s answers — or the lack of them.

  Blade slowed.

  That was when I looked up.

  Blade lifted his chin. Barely — a movement so small I might have missed it if I hadn’t been watching him.

  I didn’t know what he’d seen.

  I steadied myself and followed his gaze.

  Something shifted behind a fallen log.

  A glint of metal behind a rock.

  A shape crouched awkwardly among the branches.

  I went still.

  One.

  Two.

  Three.

  More movement farther back.

  People.

  Blade didn’t look at me. Didn’t breathe differently. Didn’t reach for his sword.

  He simply kept walking.

  He was waiting.

  The figures stepped out one by one.

  The leader stepped forward, lifting a dented blade.

  “Well, well,” he said, his eyes raking over my horns. “A demon girl. Rare find.”

  I straightened my shoulders slightly.

  “And who might you be?” I asked.

  The phrasing slipped out before I could stop it.

  Too formal.

  The man grinned.

  “Hear that?” he said to the others. “She talks like a lady.”

  He bowed slightly, mocking the gesture.

  “Well then, milady,” he said. “We’re the ones relieving travelers of unnecessary burdens.”

  His eyes shifted to Blade.

  “Mercenary?”

  Blade didn’t answer.

  He stopped walking.

  “Passing through,” he said.

  The leader smirked.

  “Good,” he said. “Then this is simple.”

  He lifted his blade and pointed it toward me.

  “Hand over the girl. Leave your packs. Walk away.”

  His grin widened.

  “You keep breathing. We keep the rest.”

  Blade said nothing.

  The leader took another step forward.

  Blade moved.

  His scabbard snapped upward, knocking the man’s sword aside.

  Steel flashed.

  The leader stared down at the blade in his chest, as if it had appeared there by mistake.

  Someone shouted.

  Another man lunged forward.

  Blade stepped past him.

  The man stumbled.

  I didn’t see the strike.

  Only the moment when he collapsed.

  It was already too late to talk.

  The remaining bandits shouted.

  Two rushed Blade.

  Another broke away toward me.

  “Grab the girl!” someone yelled.

  “Hold her!”

  I didn’t think.

  I raised my hand.

  Focus.

  That was the first rule.

  Find the ember.

  I reached inward, searching for the spark of fire that had always answered before.

  It flared weakly in my chest.

  Shape it. Release it.

  I reached—

  Agony.

  White-hot lightning tore through my nerves as the magic slammed into the brand at my neck.

  The spell collapsed inward like a dying star.

  My knees buckled.

  I hit the ground, gasping.

  Pain burned at the side of my neck, sharp and blinding.

  I wasn’t used to pain like that.

  It felt like something had reached inside me and twisted.

  No.

  Not now.

  Not here.

  I forced myself up, breath shaking.

  The brand punished me for reaching.

  “She’s branded!” one bandit shouted.

  “Today’s our lucky day, boys!”

  “Look at that mark,” another said.

  “Two hundred gold easy.”

  “Put a leash on her and we’ll double it.”

  The humiliation burned deeper than the pain.

  The nearest man reached for my cloak.

  A knife whistled past my cheek.

  It sank into the bandit’s chest before he reached me.

  He fell backward, eyes wide.

  Blade didn’t look at him.

  Didn’t look at me.

  His sword was already buried in someone else’s ribs.

  He hadn’t even turned when he threw the knife.

  I staggered upright. Another man fell.

  One of the bandits rushed him with a shout.

  Blade stepped aside.

  The man stumbled past him.

  Blade’s blade slid into his back. -sword

  The shout cut off.

  The last bandit froze.

  Blade turned toward him, sword already lowering into place for another strike.

  For a moment he didn’t move.

  The bandit stared at him.

  Then the man ran.

  Blade lowered his sword.

  He didn’t follow.

  I wondered if he had meant the man to run.

  When the last survivor fled screaming into the trees, Blade wiped his blade on a cloak and sheathed it without ceremony.

  He stood still for a moment, listening to the forest.

  Only then did he look at me.

  His eyes flicked to the brand.

  He studied the mark for a moment.

  I stiffened.

  For a moment I wondered what he would do with that knowledge.

  “The mark suppresses magic,” he said.

  “I know.”

  My voice cracked despite myself.

  Heat rose behind my eyes.

  Everything ugly.

  He didn’t recoil.

  “Can you walk?”

  “Yes,” I said cautiously.

  “Good.”

  Then he turned back to the road.

  -----------------------------

  We cleared the road.

  Blade lifted the bodies.

  I dragged the weapons.

  I took coins with shaking fingers.

  I pretended the tremble came from adrenaline, not embarrassment.

  Finally Blade said,

  “Let’s go.”

  He didn’t check if I was ready.

  I followed anyway.

  After a few minutes, I muttered,

  “Back there.”

  “Hm.”

  “I’m… not trying to slow you down.”

  He didn’t respond.

  I swallowed.

  Then said,

  “I intend to keep up.”

  That was the truth under everything else.

  Not trust.Not closeness.Just fear of being discarded.Again.

  Blade didn’t look at me.

  He just said,

  “Keep up.”

  And kept walking

  His pace didn’t change.

  Ash drifted through the trees as we moved deeper into the forest.

  Blade walked ahead, steady and controlled.

  I followed.

  Determined not to fall behind.

  Not now.

  Not ever.