The fire had died down to faint embers, casting a soft, reddish glow over the camp. The cold air was biting now, seeping through my clothes and chilling me to the bone, but it wasn’t the weather that had me on edge.

Everyone was here. Seth, Clara, Ethan, Mascot, Jacob, and me—sitting around the dying fire like ghosts of our former selves.

There was an unspoken weight in the air, something heavy and unsaid between us, and I could feel it pressing down on all of us. We’d been fighting together for so long, but the truth was that we didn’t really know each other, not deeply, not truly.

It was time to come clean. I hugged my knees to my chest, glancing around the circle. Mascot was sitting beside me, his eyes on the ground, deep in thought.

Jacob sat on the other side, his body language relaxed but his face tense. Seth leaned against a tree, staring into the distance, while Clara and Ethan sat across from us, their expressions hard to read.

“We need to talk,” I said finally, breaking the silence. My voice was quiet, but it cut through the tension like a knife.

“About everything. We’ve all been holding back, hiding parts of ourselves, and it’s time we stopped.” No one said anything at first, but I could feel their gazes shift toward me.

Mascot lifted his head, his eyes meeting mine for a brief second before looking away. Jacob’s hand brushed against my leg, a silent gesture of support. Ethan was the first to respond. He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees.

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” he said, his tone light but edged with something darker.

“I am what I am. You know that.” I nodded, though Ethan’s words didn’t surprise me. He was always the straightforward one, the one who rarely let his emotions get the better of him.

But even he had layers, secrets buried beneath his calm exterior. “I think we all need to go back,” I said softly.

“To where this all started. We’ve been fighting side by side, but I don’t think we really understand each other’s reasons, our pasts.” I glanced over at Seth and Clara, who had been unusually quiet since we started the conversation.

Seth shifted uncomfortably, his fingers playing with the hem of his jacket. Clara glanced at him, her eyes full of something I couldn’t quite place. Guilt, maybe? Sadness? It was Clara who spoke first.

“Our past isn’t easy to talk about,” she said, her voice low but steady. She glanced at Seth again, and he nodded slightly, giving her the go-ahead.

“But you’re right. You deserve to know.” She took a deep breath, her eyes flickering toward the fire before settling on me. “Seth and I weren’t always… involved in this kind of life,” she began.

“Before we met Sarah, we were just trying to survive.” Her voice wavered, and Seth took over, his tone rougher, like he was pulling the words from some dark place.

“We weren’t always part of this fight. In fact, we weren’t meant to be in this world at all, not at first.” Seth’s eyes met mine for the briefest moment, then he spoke.

“Clara and I grew up in a quiet village far from all this… chaos. We were simple people back then. I spent most of my days buried in books, studying magic—harmless spells, mostly. Clara, though… she was different. She had real power, even as a child.”

Clara looked away, clearly uncomfortable with Seth’s praise. But I noticed how her hands clenched in her lap, her magic sparking just beneath her skin as she recalled the past.

“Our village saw her as a blessing at first,” Seth continued. “But soon, people began to fear her. They said her magic was too wild, too dangerous. That she was cursed.” Clara winced, and Seth reached over, placing a hand on her arm.

“They didn’t understand. Magic like hers—it’s unpredictable, yes, but it’s not evil. But fear… it changes people. It makes them cruel.” Clara swallowed hard. “They exiled us,” she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Seth and I were forced to leave our home, with nowhere to go and no one to trust.” I swallowed hard, the weight of their words sinking in. I hadn’t known that about them. They’d always seemed so strong, so unbreakable, but hearing the pain in Seth’s voice made me realize just how much they’d been through.

“We were alone for a long time,” Clara continued, her eyes distant as if she were reliving it. “We didn’t know what to do or where to go. We wandered for months, scavenging for food, trying to stay hidden from the werewolves. It wasn’t until we met Sarah that things started to change.”

“Sarah saved us,” Seth said quietly, his eyes hardening. “She taught us how to fight, how to defend ourselves. She gave us a purpose—told us about Eden and the artifact, and why we needed to stop him. We didn’t know what we were getting into at the time, but Sarah made it clear that this fight was bigger than us. So we joined her.”

Clara nodded, her gaze flickering toward the ground.

“We didn’t have a choice. Sarah was the only hope we had. She was the one who gave us a reason to keep going.” There was a pause, and I could feel the weight of their story settling over the group. I hadn’t realized how deeply their past was tied to Sarah’s quest, how much they had lost before they even met her.

“How did you meet Sarah?” I asked softly, my voice barely above a whisper. Clara sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly.

“We were hiding out in an old cabin, deep in the woods. It was falling apart, barely standing, but it was the only shelter we had. We were hungry, scared, and exhausted. That’s when Sarah found us.”

“She came out of nowhere,” Seth added, his voice tight with emotion. “One minute we were alone, and the next, there she was—like she’d been tracking us. We thought she was one of them at first, a dark werewolf. But she wasn’t. She was… different.”

“She was fierce,” Clara said, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “And determined. She told us about Eden, about the war that was coming. At first, we didn’t believe her.

We just wanted to survive. But Sarah had this way of making you believe in something bigger than yourself.”

“After that, we stayed with her,” Seth said. “She trained us, taught us how to fight. She became like a sister to us. We would’ve followed her anywhere.” My heart ached as I listened to their story. I’d known Sarah for a while now, but I hadn’t realized how much she meant to Clara and Seth.

She wasn’t just their leader—she was their savior, the one who had pulled them out of the darkness.

“Do you still believe in her?” I asked softly, my voice hesitant. Clara and Seth exchanged a glance, and I could see the anger in their eyes. Clara’s hand tightened into a fist, and she looked away for a moment before answering.

“She was like a sister to us,” Clara admitted. “She practically gave up her life to make sure we escaped Eden. Why won't we believe in her?” Seth nodded, his expression grim. “I still believe in the cause. I still want to stop Eden. But I don’t know how we will survive without her.

But I'm determined to see this through.” The silence that followed was heavy, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Seth and Clara’s story had opened up a floodgate of emotions, not just for them, but for all of us.

We were all fighting for something, but maybe we hadn’t been honest about what that something was. Jacob shifted beside me, his hand resting lightly on my knee.

“What about you, Tasha?” he asked softly. “What are you fighting for?” I blinked, surprised by the question. I’d been so focused on everyone else that I hadn’t stopped to think about my own reasons for being here. What was I fighting for?

“I don’t know,” I admitted quietly. “I guess… I’m fighting for all of us. For the people I’ve lost, and for the ones I still have. For Mascot, for you.” I glanced around the circle, my gaze lingering on each of them.

“I don’t want to lose anyone else.” Mascot’s eyes met mine, and I could see the flicker of understanding there. He knew what I meant, even if I hadn’t said it outright. We were all fighting for each other now, not just for some distant cause or a promise made long ago.

“I think we’re all in the same boat,” Ethan said, his voice breaking the silence. “We’re fighting because we have to, not because we want to. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less important.” Clara nodded slowly, her eyes distant.

“We’ve come too far to turn back now.” Seth glanced at her, a flicker of determination in his eyes. “Yeah. We’ve lost too much to give up.” I felt a surge of resolve wash over me, the connection of our shared pasts binding us together in a way that I hadn’t felt before.

We were all broken, scarred by the lives we’d lived and the battles we’d fought. But we were also stronger because of it. “We’ll get through this,” I said softly, my voice steady despite the uncertainty that still lingered in my heart.

“Together.” There were no more words after that, just the quiet crackle of the dying fire and the steady breathing of the people around me. It wasn’t a perfect resolution, but it was a start.

And for now, that was enough. But then, my eyes wandered over to Ethan, our famed werewolf hunter.