Tam's POV

We crept slowly through the thick forest, shivering in the European winter. Snow covered every branch, and icicles threatened to drop on my head. I was keeping everyone shrouded in shadows, but the footprints in the snow behind us were a dead giveaway. 

I decided not to mention it, because It was so quiet in this forest, the smallest sound echoed around for miles. 

Sophie said it was called the Forest of Dean, in a human territory called England. 

I thought it was a terrible place for the Neverseen base. It was too fragile here, like the amount of evil could knock the forest down, shattering its delicate beauty. Biana touched my hand, signaling me to shadow whisper to her.

"What's up?"

"Do you really think this is going to work? I mean, there are only five of us, and dozens of Neverseen. The odds are against us."

"I know. We can only hope Dex got our message. Even if he did, it's impossible to break out of Eternalia. We can only try anyways."

Biana nodded and grasped my hand. I added a fresh layer of shadows over everyone, making sure they were fully covered. I could sense we were drawing closer to the Neverseen base. Linh stepped on a frozen branch and froze as it snapped.

I turned around to her. I could see everyone through their shadows, and Sophie and Keefe were both looking for the source of the sound. I shadow-whispered to them that it was just Linh, and they relaxed. Sophie slid one of her new arrows back into her quiver.

She had spent all her downtime working on making dozens of arrows to add to her quiver, and now she had a new bow that was painted black with a white Moonlark symbol on it. She was still the Moonlark despite the Black Swan dissipating, and she took her job very seriously.

I had a feeling that she was doing it for everyone she lost.

Another branch cracking turned my attention back to the forest. I raised an eyebrow at Linh, who had stepped on four sticks so far. She shook her head. Not me, her expression explained.

Sophie knocked an arrow and held it ready. Keefe closed his eyes and felt for human presence. he could do that now if he concentrated really, really hard. He gasped and opened his eyes. 

"Sophie, I wouldn't shoot."

"Why?"

"Because if you did, Dex would be dead."

Sophie gasped as Dex stepped out of the shadows, followed by Rex, Lex, and Bex. He gave a shy wave. He was at least a foot taller, his strawberry blonde hair longer and he had more scars, but his eyes still looked happy.

"Hey Sophie. Mind if we join your party?"

He waved his hand at the forest, and two dozen more elves appeared. I spotted Juline, Kesler, Tiergan, Jensi, and several other prodigies from Foxfire. Sophie gasped as a fifth figure shook off her hood.

"Edaline?"

_________________________________________________________________

"Hey, Dex, how did you get out of Eternalia? I'm assuming it wasn't easy."

Biana was making a handshake with Bex as they walked, no longer shrouded in shadows. There were too many people for me to cover all at once. I would have to wait until we got closer to the Neverseen base to hide everyone. Dex smiled.

"I rigged the gate on the opposite side of the city to explode, which distracted the Neverseen long enough to get everyone through. I had to adjust some of the cameras along the way to make sure it was like we were never there. I even left some things for the Neverseen to find so it would seem like we were still there."

He shrugged.

"No biggie."

Sophie rolled her eyes and punched Dex in the shoulder.

"Dex, you need to stop underestimating yourself. You are so talented, you just need to realize it." (This goes for all of you guys reading this. You are amazing, you just need to realize it:)) 

Dex sighed and gave Lex a fist bump. He was having fun forming snowballs out of thin air and dropping them on people's heads. Lex formed an especially large ball and was about to release it over Keefe's head, which I would have approved of, when Sophie held up her hand to halt the group. 

Lexes snowball vanished. Biana and Bex stopped mid-shake.

We had reached the Neverseen base.

And it was a lot bigger than we expected.