We sat down at the dinner table as Mom served up the food with our usual sage, rowan berry, and acacia tea. I had been drinking it with every meal for as long as I could remember as protection, just in case something tried to take a bite out of me.
“Axton tells us the thaghadh have been picked for this year. Anyone we know of who were picked?” my father asked the second we dug in.
“All the grade 12s left were finally selected and five of the really fit, smart grade 11s,” I said, keeping a straight face and seeing Luca able to do the same.
“Five? That’s quite a high number!” my mom said, surprised. “Who are they?”
“Elora Mason. Samuel Fresca. Seraphina Vent,” I started, and my parents exchanged looks that said they weren’t surprised. Elora’s parents were known for their high ranking in the alchemy and medicine quadrant. It was no wonder their daughter would be following in their footsteps. Samuel Fresca was a new one to me in terms of his family situation or standing; people hadn’t really heard much of his family. Seraphina’s was completely different; she was born before both her parents had become vampires in a tragic accident.
“Luca,” I said, and they looked at him in shock. My mom let out a yelp and grinned at him. He smiled bashfully, trying to hide behind his shaggy hair.
“Good to hear!” Dad said proudly. “And the fifth?”
“Me.”
The room exploded as both my parents bounded up from their chairs and moved around quickly to embrace me. I watched Luca step back, giving me a smug look as my mom jumped around excitedly in our hug, squealing her pride. And Dad checked to see that I wasn’t joking.
Then came the “responsibilities” talk.
“Now being a hunter is no easy job. Your mother and I know that all too well. You have to work for this. The hardest part of the selection is not over yet. You have to get in, and then the extensive training is even harder. You have to keep working when there’s nothing left in you,” he lectured.
I flicked my eyes to Luca, who was mesmerized by his words. I wanted to roll my eyes, but I restrained myself; I knew they just had my best interests in mind.
“I know, Dad, and I plan to. Don’t worry.” I sighed. And just like that, we were back to eating our food with little conversation but with big smiles.
The knock came at the door when I was washing up. As per usual, Luca and I hurried upstairs, always hiding behind the wall at the top of the stairs so we could eavesdrop like we did since we were kids.
Dad answered the door tensely, easing only when he saw who it was.
Peeking around the wall, I caught a glimpse of an older man. I knew who it was.
“Axton. Why the house call so late?” he asked, and I turned back to Luca in confusion.
“Why is Axton at my house? He never leaves the facility these days,” I whispered to Luca, who shrugged, just as perplexed as me.
“I’m afraid I need your and Anya’s help. The grove is restless. Some of the Seelie are beyond control,” Axton said, just loud enough for us to make out.
“An outside mission?” my mom said, moving into the entry hall. “Axton, we haven’t needed any missions outside the wall in years!”
I could hear the concern in her voice. It was setting off alarm bells in my head.
“I know, Anya. This is something we haven’t needed to do in a while, but it is necessary.”
And with that, they had to agree.
“Luca, Bianca, stay here and lock everything up,” Dad called up, knowing exactly where we were. He didn’t expect any different, no matter how many times we got in trouble.
The two of us moved into my room as my parents geared up downstairs.
“I think we should go see,” Luca whispered once we were alone.
“What!” I whispered back savagely, trying not to let my parents hear. “Were you not listening? It’s gotten so bad they have to go. If we follow, we could end up dead!”
“We’re almost hunters anyway. We can take our rowan knives, stay out of sight, and just watch,” he said slowly as if he had planned it out. “Please, B!”
“Even if we could, how do we get outside the wall? The sentry will find us before we get near the wall.” The idea of sneaking out was daunting, but it pulled me just as much. I wanted to know what was happening.
“I know someone who can get us outside the wall.” He smiled. “Please trust me. Bianca, you will be safe with me. I promise.”
Reluctantly, I grabbed my knife and followed him out my window, climbing down the pillars like a dryad on a tree.
We ran down the street. I kept my eyes out for red and orange eyes, hoping we didn’t run into anyone at all. After sneaking in the shadows and running into nothing sinister, I dared to speak.
“Where are we going?” I whispered.
Luca shushed me, climbing up a house. I didn’t recognize it, but I followed him up all the same.
He knocked on the second-story window, and I watched a man with dark hair and olive skin open the window in confusion. The moonlight made his irises so blue they looked luminescent. He seemed vaguely familiar. I’d seen him talking to Luca before, but I would’ve remembered being introduced to this gorgeous man. He smiled widely as he saw Luca and added a raised eyebrow at my attendance.
“Hi,” he said to Luca and me before focusing his attention to his friend. “What’s up?”
“We want to get outside the wall, and you know how,” he said carefully, getting a suspicious look.
“Why?”
“First hunter mission needed outside the wall in years. We want to know why,” Luca explained quickly and easily while I took in his friend. Who was he? How did he know how to get out and I didn’t?
“I’m in.” He smiled mischievously.
These two would be thick as thieves if they spent enough time together. It was a scary thought.
“You can’t,” I said quickly, to which Luca rounded on me with a look of disbelief. “I don’t know him.”
To this, Luca rolled his eyes.
“Bianca, meet Sam. Sam, this is Bianca, but you already knew that,” he introduced in exasperation before turning back to me. “You become really oblivious when you study, huh?”
I blushed, knowing I had the tendency to become quite unobservant when it came to school. At least now I knew who Sam was. I’d never really put a face to the name.
“Sorry. Fine,” I conceded as Sam let us in his window.
“What weapons have you got?” Sam asked.
I held up my rowan-infused knife.
“That will do jack shit.”
“What?”
“Out in the grove, the only metal that hurts fae is iron.”
“And how do you know so much about this?” I defended. High school students weren’t allowed that information until extensive hunter training.
“My older brother is a hunter, and he’s been trying to help me be the same since he was picked.” He already pissed me off; just because there were hunters in the family didn’t give them free access to top-secret information. I sure wasn’t allowed it.
“Fun,” I said without energy, taking the offered iron knife and shutting up.
Luca took the knife eagerly, slashing it through the air a couple of times to get a feel for it.
“There’s a tree by the north wall. We can climb it to get over the wall, and then we just have to find a hiding place at the grove before the Seelie and hunters get there to meet,” Sam said with his commanding voice. It almost felt like he should be mapping it out on the floor. “How long ago did the hunters leave?”
He looked at Luca for an answer, obviously not informed about family dynamics. I was all too happy to point out his mistake.
“My parents left twenty minutes ago,” I shoved in quickly. I didn’t care if I sounded petty.
“Your parents
?” he questioned.
“Yes, my parents are tier 1 hunters. Your brother?”
“Tier 7.”
“Ah, sentry. We should move soon.”
“Okay,” he said slowly, eyeing me warily and grabbing his own weapon and a rope. “Let’s go.”
I went out the window first, followed by Sam and Luca. While the boys jumped off the balcony, I climbed down. My muscles and small frame would complain too much tomorrow if I landed on them the same way they did.
We ran down the streets, avoiding streetlights and high levels of activity. We made it to the tree by the north wall quickly, looking around for the sentry. I ran for the tree first, climbing it with extreme ease. Once I was up, I turned to the boys as I waited in the branches. Both stared. I didn’t understand it, but once they realized they were wasting time, they moved to follow. We were all in the tree when Sam tied the rope to the branch that hung over the other side of the wall. We all shimmied down quietly and ran through the trees, heading north for the grove.
CHAPTER 5
Morana
This time, death didn’t call. Curiosity did. The Royal Fae and most of the Seelie Court were called upon to meet with elders in the grove. There were whispers as to why; most of us knew some of the Seelie were hard to control, but many disagreed whether hunters should be involved.
I said no. They couldn’t be controlled either. Hunters were a breed taught how to kill, and sometimes that made me feel entitled to use their newfound skills.
I wanted to see. I made it to the grove before the Seelie, able to sense everything else that hid away, wanting to listen. I found my favorite rowan tree and climbed, but I soon found another figure in my usual spot.
Twigs snapped below me, and I looked down to see two hunters hiding on the ground, ready to listen too. The figure out on the sturdy lower branch wasn’t looking for me, but I could tell she had started to sense my presence.
She turned around slowly, making no sound as her hand drifted to her iron knife for security. She wasn’t a hunter; I could tell. I assessed her in the dim light. Her orange hair hung out in curls, not tied up like the true hunters. She was pale like she barely saw sunlight or drank blood for her livelihood. And with a small frame, she was barely visible to those in the clearing, even if they looked through the darkness.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I came to watch,” I spoke quietly, making sure her friends below didn’t hear. She relaxed slightly but kept her shaky hand where it was. She looked terrified. I caught her blue eyes, and the headache hit me hard. An invisible ice pick hit through my brain, forcing me to shut my eyes and face the images forced upon me.
I saw her face. She was screaming in the restraining hands of kitsunes.
The image changed.
She was screaming with a bloodied face, eyelids closed over deflated eyeballs.
Then it changed once more. I opened my eyes to look at her, and it seemed for a moment that her irises glowed red.
Everyone knew humans got allocated, but the pain I saw in her future hurt me so much. I couldn’t let her future go unchanged.
“Whatever you do, fight hard, thaghadh, or the vampires will have you,” I spoke, and then I climbed up to higher branches, able to get a higher viewpoint of the whole grove. She probably sat confused and petrified, but I did not want to explain how I knew these things. I had already altered her future by telling her.
The Seelie appeared in the grove, standing in wait until finally the elders from inside the walls approached, followed by ten hunters serving as warriors if anything went wrong. They faced each other in silence for a while before they began the proceedings.
“Some of the fae and other races have become too uncontrollable. They do not spend much time in this realm, but they cause mischief in sacred groves,” the prince spoke, and I watched as Alva stood at his side, a leader in his own right. I was so proud of him; without me, he was pure enough to stand there. I felt the guilt for holding him back all these years, and yet I felt the need and wanted to be with him.
“What do you suggest we do to remedy it, Your Majesty?” Axton spoke clearly.
“Hunter sentries should patrol the grove, no hunting of any Seelie. But should they come across any fae causing trouble, the permission is given for imprisonment.”
I could feel the unrest in the trees as those watching realized how close they were to losing their truce protection. If hunters were allowed to do that in the grove, the hunters could use that excuse to kill whomever they wanted in self-defense. The grove was a safe haven no longer.
* * *
I was still outside the wall later that night when I heard the suspicious rustling. I expected to look around the tree to find fae being rowdy, but instead I saw shadow figures in the dark, their eyes not lit up at all. No color meant black irises. Witches.
Still in the grove that surrounded the Citadel, I found myself questioning why the witches were active this far into civilization. They usually lived in the barren land far away from all others; they didn’t like the other races and were never trusted by them anyway.
I stood behind the tree, only just allowing my eyes to move around the trunk for a few seconds at a time, and watched the two witches as they moved.
They seemed to be working together, inspecting the grove for any onlookers, which made it hard for me to stay hidden. But they moved closer inland towards the Citadel. They stopped just outside the Citadel walls and waited, and soon another shadowy figure – one with purple eyes – moved over the fence. I watched, unable to hear their conversation as they discussed with the purple-eyed figure, and then they retreated back into the grove too quickly for me to follow. Something was amiss, and I wasn’t sure how to determine exactly what I was seeing. But I had to keep an eye out in the future for more happenings with witches; things were off in this realm.
CHAPTER 6
Bianca
I scribbled my notes feverishly, no longer bothering to keep them neat; I needed to perfect this. I needed to make sure I became a hunter. I told Luca to meet me early before school, and I had been here since the school library opened.
He sat down in front of me, but I didn’t look up. I couldn’t stop.
“Did you eat breakfast?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled, still scribbling down my Gaelic translation of the text. Tea and two biscuits were shoved in front of me. I could smell the rowan berry before I felt the steam on my face. I finally looked up. “I need to study.”
“Breaks are important too,” he countered.
“Just a short one,” I said, giving my hungry stomach biscuits, hoping that it would be satisfied. The tea washed it down easily, the rowan berries comforting me that at least for today, vampirism was not an option. Once I was done, I returned my attention back to the Gaelic language book and proceeded to translate more from a separate textbook.
Sam sat down too, and the conversation between the two of them started easily. Every word grated on me, pushing at me like a loud screech I couldn’t get away from. I needed quiet.
“Can you take the conversation elsewhere?” I snapped.
“What’s up with you?” Luca challenged, finally noticing me. “I know you’re study crazy, but this is obsessive.”
“I know some people have relatives that tell them everything they need to know, but the rest of us need to learn it all in half a semester on our own. I need to be selected.”
“So does everyone else, but that doesn’t mean you lose sleep, hydration, and food over it. That’s too unhealthy,” he said, making me finally look up at him in exasperation.
“You don’t understand,” I said, losing my temper.
“Then make us.”
“When we snuck out,” I whispered, and they both leaned in, curious and confused, “there was another girl in the tree with me. She wasn’t human. She knew things. She told me I needed
to work harder or the vamps would have me.”
Luca looked worried, but Sam didn’t seem convinced.
“And you believe her?” he challenged.
“She looked me in the eye and called me thaghadh. There was no hesitation or question when she called me that. She knew, and I believe her.”
I was still scared, and Luca reached over to touch my arm, trying to calm me like always. Sam heard the tremble in my voice, and his face softened.
“Look, we can help you too. But you don’t need to damage your health to do it,” Sam said finally.
They left me to study till class started, and I forced myself up to go to class.
CHAPTER 7
Bianca
After school this week, we were all at Sam’s. We would usually go to my place, or on rare occasions, it would be Luca’s. But for some reason, this week—the ninth week of preparation—it was different.
There was no talking for hours as we sat down with our notes, mentally recapping folklore, history, realms, Gaelic, and different faiths. Luca had a copy of my notes as well as his own, so he was set, and Sam and I just used our own.
I heard the slam of the door, bringing me back to the room. I looked up to see Sam’s older brother, Jayden, wander into the room with a woman under his arm. He seemed somewhat surprised to see us there, but he recovered quickly.
“Sam, who are your friends?” his brother asked.
“This is Luca and Bianca. Who is your friend?” he retorted at his brother, flicking his eyes toward the woman with her arm around him playfully, her gorgeous curves pressed against his side.
“This is Lucinda,” he said, turning his large smile back at her.
I watched as Sam and Luca were entrapped by her beauty, her dark hair falling in perfect twists, sitting on her tanned shoulders. I wasn’t surprised by it; her beauty was unparalleled. She moved with such grace as if there was nothing in this world that could ruin her swiftness. Her eyes looked between us, but when the purple caught my eyes, it was quickly hidden under her hair. Purple? Did I see that right? I tried to catch her eye again, but she seemed to look sideways, her eyes staying tight on Jayden and her hair covering my view. She leaned closer and whispered to Jayden, prompting his eagerness to move. “We’re going to head upstairs. Enjoy your studies.”
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