Chapter 22: Knowing [2]

The realization settled in Rael’s chest like a cold weight. He could not yet say with certainty that Suzy hid something dangerous, but the pieces refused to fit any other way. Nathia had never known her before the Dream Realm. Neither had he. And in all the days they had spent together—through injuries, fights, and quiet moments in the cave—Suzy had never once used a priestess skill. When his hands were burned she had simply offered a health potion. A real priestess would have tried to heal him herself.

He turned and started running back toward the cave.

Nathia caught up after a few strides, breath already short. "Rael, what happened? Why are you suddenly running?"

"Run with me," he said. "I have a bad feeling about this."

They covered the distance in silence after that, the only sound the steady impact of their boots against the earth.

Inside the cave, the two women who had stayed behind were preparing food. Lila knelt by the small fire, feeding it carefully with dry sticks. Suzy sat a short distance away, slicing strips of boar meat with a short knife. The ordinary sounds of the work—the soft crackle of flame, the rhythmic cut of the blade—filled the narrow space.

Suzy spoke without looking up. "Hey. I’ve been meaning to ask. Why do you only hunt at night?"

Lila kept her eyes on the fire. "We never told you, did we?"

"Told me what?"

"Rael has a theory about why the high-level beasts are here in the First Realm." Lila added another stick to the flames. "He thinks there’s a Summoner. Someone pulling the strong ones in from outside. That’s why we move at night—he believes the Summoner’s control weakens then."

The knife stopped mid-cut.

Suzy’s hands went still. The soft sound of metal against flesh vanished. Lila glanced over, frowning.

"What’s wrong, Suzy?"

A slow smile pulled at the corner of Suzy’s mouth. When she spoke, her voice was low, almost thoughtful.

"Of course he knows. The Solaria genius."

Lila rose halfway to her feet. "Why are you saying that?"

Suzy turned her head. The change happened in the space of a single breath. Her teeth lengthened and sharpened. The soft lines of her face hardened, cheekbones sharpening, eyes darkening with something that was no longer human. Her hair shifted color, threads of deep red spreading through the strands like spilled ink. The air around her thickened with a sudden, heavy bloodlust that made the small cave feel colder.

Lila froze.

Suzy stood, the knife still loose in her fingers, and took one slow step toward her.

Rael and Nathia reached the cave mouth at a full run and stepped inside. The fire still burned low. The smell of cooking meat still hung in the air. But the two women were gone.

Blood marked the stone floor near the fire in a wide, uneven splash. Some of it had already begun to dry dark at the edges.

Rael sank down against the wall, staring at the stain. "Shit. Shit."

Nathia moved closer, voice tight. "Rael, what happened?"

He did not look at her. "It was Suzy. She’s the Summoner."

Nathia stared at him for several long seconds before the words fully landed. When they did, her face went pale. The pieces rearranged themselves in her mind with brutal clarity—the timing, the missing beasts, the way the ape had turned toward Suzy only for Luke to die protecting her.

Rael pushed himself back to his feet. "She summoned those creatures. And now she’s taken Lila." He dragged a hand through his hair. "I don’t understand why she waited this long. Why not attack earlier?" The answer came almost as soon as he asked the question. "Maybe Lila told her about the theory. Maybe that was the moment she decided she couldn’t risk us knowing."

Nathia’s hands curled into fists. "No. This can’t be true." Then the memory of the clearing returned—the ape’s sudden shift toward Suzy, Luke throwing himself in the way. "She... she let Luke die."

Rael was already moving toward the entrance. "We have to search. They can’t have gone far."

They stepped back into the afternoon light. Rael activated Eagle Eyes and swept the surrounding forest in every direction. Nothing moved. No birds. No small animals. No sign of two human figures. The entire region felt emptied out, as if something had quietly erased every living presence except the two of them.

They searched through the rest of the afternoon. Every promising trail ended in bare earth. Every distant sound turned out to be only wind. By the time the light began to soften, Rael knew they would find nothing more that day.

He stopped and turned to Nathia. "We have to find a new place to stay. She already knows this cave. Staying here is the same as waiting for her to come back."

Nathia’s eyes were bright with anger and the leftover grief that never fully left her. "I’m going to kill that bitch."

Rael understood the fury. He felt a version of it himself. But standing still and feeding the rage would only get them killed.

"Now isn’t the time," he said. "We move first. Then we hunt her."

Nathia held his gaze for a long moment. Finally she gave a short, sharp nod. The two of them turned away from the bloodstained cave and started walking, searching for any new shelter the forest might still offer before night returned.

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