I sat very still and felt something I hadn't expected—not anger, but something colder and more focused. Fear with a tactical edge. I was calculating distances and exit routes when, from the other direction, I heard my name.
It was Drew's voice, carrying through the trees with the controlled projection of someone trained to issue commands across distances. I looked toward the sound, then back at the three figures. They had gone still, but they hadn't seen me yet.
I reached for the nearest large branch—old, dry wood—and sent a sharp, focused pulse through it. Not an explosion. Targeted. Deliberate.
Crack.
The branch split loudly. Below me, the blue-clad apprentice spun around. From thirty meters away, I saw Drew's head come up. His eyes found me in the tree with uncanny precision. His expression shifted—relief, quickly followed by confusion as I pressed one finger to my lips.
He went still immediately. I watched him read the situation: the three figures below me, their posture, their intent. He didn't need more explanation. He moved to a different tree with the quiet efficiency of a predator and climbed.
He was beside me within two minutes, close enough that I could feel the warmth of him. Neither of us spoke. Below, the voices resumed.
"She's around here. I can smell the Wood element—all those stupid little trees she made."
Drew turned to look at me. I mouthed: Three of them. He nodded once, already looking down at his hands. I watched a faint silver sheen begin to build in his palms.
"You won't touch her if you don't want to drown in your own flame," the leader below said. "Ava will be mine tonight. Then I'll take responsibility."
The silver in Drew's hands intensified to a blinding glow.
The first stone fell from the branches with the force of a cannonball. It hit the shoulder of the nearest red-clad figure and sent him stumbling. The second stone was larger. The third larger still. Drew's face was absolutely expressionless in the way that very controlled anger looks from the outside—evacuated of everything except focus.
Below us, chaos. Shouting, crashing, someone's fire element flickering out as concentration broke. The blue-clad apprentice took a rock to the head and went down hard.
"Run! Run!" they screamed. The stones followed them, relentless and heavy.
"Drew." I kept my voice low. "They're leaving. That's enough."
The rocks grew larger, tearing through leaves.
"Drew." I put my hand on his arm. Nothing. He was somewhere else entirely, in the place where the things they'd said about me were still echoing. "Drew, look at me. They're going. It's over."