Phantom Moon (Nora's part)

Untitled Part 2

"I hate imps. Forest imps, fire imps, night imps, they're all the same. Vile, rotten thieves that will stab you in the back if you give them even half a chance. Even if you don't, they'll still find a way to take your stuff and leave you half dead on the side of a freeway. I've lost many a weapon to stupid imps."

I grunt as Ander shifts in his sleep as I'm carrying him.

"Have you been left half dead on the side of a freeway by an imp?"

I glance up at Rose, who is helping me carry Ander somewhere safer so he can wait while Lisa, Reese, and I get a new vehicle.

"Yes, once. He took my favorite dagger."

"You had a favorite dagger?"

"Yes. It was enchanted by moon witches, wind witches, and sun witches. One cut would kill any hostile monster, trapping its soul in the blade so that every kill made it more powerful. It was extremely aerodynamic so that I could throw it, and whenever I did, it would always return to its sheath. It was one of a kind..." I sighed. "That doesn't matter, of course. Even after hunting that imp down, I never got it back."

I look at Rose and I have to hold in a laugh at her face. She seems absolutely horrified, likely at the prospect of killing.

"Relax! Mythical creatures don't have the same kind of souls we do. They'd get reincarnated either as a plant, animal, or another mythical creature, depending on their strength. It's not like they really died."

Rose swallows and don't say anything. I roll my eyes and look away.

Finally, we make it to a particularly shadowy area in the trees. We set Ander down and I look back up at Rose, who is still deliberately not looking me in the eyes.

"Go get the others, would you?" I chuckle when she jumps at the sound of my voice.

She quickly regains her composure and nods before leaving. I watch her disappear into the trees before sitting down next to Ander's head. I look down at him and smile a little. A bit of his hair has fallen over his eyes and I brush it aside.

"You're much too good for this world, you know that? You deserve so much more than this life."

I lean down and gently brush my lips against his forehead, then quickly straighten. If the others catch me like this, Lisa's teasing and Iz's questions would be ceaseless.

When I hear the others approaching, as that many people is anything but quiet, I carefully arrange my face into an emotionless mask. They gather around us as I stand.

"Remember, if anything happens to him-"

Miguel interrupts me. "You'll kill us, we know. We won't let anything happen. He's our friend, too, you know."

"I know, it's just-"

Reese places a hand on my shoulder, and it takes a surprising amount of willpower not to flinch away.

"Nora, we should go. The sooner we do, the sooner we can get back."

I sigh. "Right. You have the cash?"

He nods as he takes his hand off me. We had to go to access Ander's bank accounts to get the cash I spoke of, but it had been a necessary risk. It was better to use an ATM than to use one of his cards to buy the car. Harder to trace our location that way.

"Then let's go."

I brush past them, deliberately avoiding any sort of contact. Lisa wordlessly follows, then Reese. I lead them through the forest for a while in silence, following the trail Miguel left behind earlier on the way to the gas station, getting the Gatorade. He was new to this sneaking around, so I can't blame him for such an obvious path, but once again, I wonder how we had such a hard time finding them earlier.