The silence that settled over the clearing was sudden and suffocating, broken only by the hiss of the dying torches and my own ragged, whistling breaths.
I stood frozen for a long moment, my arm still outstretched toward the empty space where the red vortex had just snapped shut. My hands trembled violently. I looked around the clearing, my blurred vision taking in the gruesome scenery. The perimeter guards were scattered across the dirt—lifeless, broken, and completely still.
They were all dead. But the victory felt entirely hollow.
Panic, cold and sharp, cut through the shock. The house, I thought frantically. There had been other mercenaries at the mundane shack. If Malakai didn’t return soon after the full moon rose they would come looking for us. I was a sitting duck in the middle
