Eyes of the Woods

by Eden Fierce

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  She laughed once. “I think you do. You look at him the same way.”

  “I…you…Why were you brought to Evander?”

  “For the same reason you were. For judgment.”

  “Acceptance,” I clarified.

  “Is that what he told you?” she said, her eyebrow arched.

  “Did you not ask Evander for permission to stay?”

  “Kyah gave me permission. I didn’t need his.”

  Had Daniel lied because he didn’t want to frighten me? Did he really lead me to Evander, hoping it would go the way he wanted? Surely he wouldn’t take that kind of risk.

  “He wouldn’t do that.”

  “Do what, Eris?”

  “Lie.”

  “What do you think would have happened had Evander not accepted you? Let you wander the woods? Let Daniel leave with you? He needs him, you know.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.”

  “Daniel wouldn’t have lied to me,” I growled.

  “Why not? Haven’t you lied to him?”

  “No!”

  “Have you told him how miserable you are?”

  I stared at her. “He saved my life. I wouldn’t do that to him.”

  “Is not telling the truth a lie?”

  If my cheeks could have flushed, they would have. “Why are you here?”

  “Do you wish me to leave?”

  I thought about that for a moment. Even with her mind games and questions, it was better than being alone. “No.”

  She leaned forward with a grin. “Okay then.”

  We sat in silence for a bit.

  “Are you Onan? Or, I suppose I should ask if you were Onan,” I said.

  “No.”

  “Skoran?”

  “No.”

  “Are you from Trou then?”

  “No.”

  “Which of the six territories were you from?”

  “None of them. I came from the south.”

  “The south. The south of what? The six territories make up an island.”

  “They make a peninsula, actually. There was a land bridge many generations ago that was flooded during the Fall. I traveled here with my family and others from our homeland. We were ambushed on the way.”

  “By immortals.”

  Ilana’s attention seemed piqued at my choice of words. “No. Warriors from what you know as Trou.”

  Trou was full of bandits and thieves before the Priory was formed. I thought of Chesek and his dirty rat face. The way he had severed the head of that boy whom Father had later buried.

  She continued. “Fifty of us made the journey to your island. Ayana and I were the only survivors. Kyah found us. Claimed us. She brought me here to live with Evander’s coven.

  “If you’ve been here for so long, why are you always alone?”

  “It wasn’t always that way.” She paused, seeming to decide whether to continue. It didn’t take her long to choose. “They brought me to Evander because I killed my mate.” She said the words without emotion. She enjoyed watching my reaction. “He was part of the raid on Jergden. They wiped out the entire town in a single night.”

  “You…killed him?”

  “His name was Elias. Tired of feeding on deer and vermin, he pushed a group to raid the town. When they returned, Evander condemned them, but he allowed them to live. Elias and I fought. He saw Evander’s decision to spare them as weak, and was planning not only another raid, but also to overtake Evander.”

  “You killed him?”

  “I was the only one who could.” She let that simmer for a bit, looking around again. “They didn’t believe me. They thought I made up Elias’s plans for revolt to save myself.”

  “But Evander let you live.”

  A quiet laugh made her move infinitesimally. “Because of you. None of it made sense, really. Evander’s willingness to discipline me. I had been claimed by Kyah. I am her responsibility. You, a daughter of the Priory, a new immortal, changed his mind. Against the majority. It’s unheard of.”

  “Daniel said he was merciful.”

  “Daniel is wrong. There’s something else going on. Evander’s forgiveness of Elias was unprecedented. If Kyah knew, I can’t imagine her reaction. The balance is too important.”

  “Why? My father has never spoken of the balance.”

  “Because it’s not his law. It’s ours. Before the Fall, there was no balance. Some immortals believe that is what caused the end. We were in hiding once. Then we weren’t. We lived among one another. Then too many humans coveted our abilities. Too many were changed. Too many wolves and not enough chickens, Eris. That is the thinking behind the balance. It’s good that they’re afraid. It’s good that they stay away. They can’t all be immortal. We won’t survive it again.”

  “But what would Evander’s motive be?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  I picked at the ends of my long braid. “I thought I knew the woods. I thought I knew a lot of things.”

  “Don’t we all?”

  One corner of my lips curled up. Ilana was different. Brutally honest. Unapologetic. I decided that was exactly what I liked about her. “They’re not all afraid, you know. The woods are poached all the time. My father buried a young immortal not long ago…” I sat up tall. “There was a girl he spoke of. From Trou. A poacher was searching for her in the woods. Her name is Moira.”

  Ilana stood up and walked to the doorway. She looked down at the forest floor for a few moments and then pointed. “She’s just there.”

  I rushed over and focused on the area where Ilana was pointing. Skipping along with a few other young ones was a girl with red ringlets, smiling and happy.

  I let out a sigh. “So they didn’t feed on her.”

  “No. She was being mistreated. Beaten so badly one night, claiming her was the only way to save her life. A few in our coven decided to take her in.”

  “Mistreated by whom? Her family sent a man to search for her.”

  “To kill her. Her father was a councilman. He couldn’t risk anyone finding out what he’d done.”

  I walked to the center of the nest and crouched down, covering my mouth with my fingers. Was there anything I believed before that was true? There were no monsters in the woods. The monsters lived beyond the tree line, in the clearing.

  The sun began to burst from the horizon, and Ilana stepped out onto the branches in front of my doorway. “If you don’t want me to come back, I won’t. But seeing that we’re both sort of unwelcome, I thought I might…say hello.”

  “Hello,” I said with a nervous smile. She returned my smile with one of her own, and then dropped out of sight.

  I was alone again. Daniel had been out all night, and—although I would never embarrass myself enough to ask—I was feeling irritable that he’d left me alone for so long. I had become dependent on his company and felt lost when he wasn’t around.

  The day before was Clemens’s wedding, and I wasn’t there. It was times like that when I wished I could sleep for more than two hours. I just wanted to close my eyes and forget what I was missing out on, to dream of the trees and sunshine, instead of dreaming of Mother struggling to enjoy the day as she also mourned her only daughter.

  The shadows fizzled away in my quiet home as the sun rose higher in the sky. The night had been long. Besides enduring the loneliness, throughout the night Father had been searching for me again with my brothers and cousins, calling my name. Before, it was always a marvel to me that I couldn’t hear Father’s steps in the thicket. Now I wished I couldn’t.

  I could no longer hear them. They had returned home. And I was here. Alone. Still crouched on the floor, I hugged my knees and began to rock back and forth. Even after my family had gone home, the footsteps and the sad calling of my name wouldn’t go away.

  Daniel appeared in my doorway, and upon seeing me in the floor, he rushed to kneel beside me
.

  “Eris,” he said, his voice thick with sympathy and concern.

  I clawed for him. “It’s been too long,” I said, gripping his shirt in my fists.

  “I know.”

  “I need to see them. We have to fix this.”

  “We will.”

  “We’ve been planning for weeks. Father is never alone. They’re searching day and night. He won’t accept that I’m dead.”

  “Maybe because he can feel that you’re not. My mother once said she experienced the same.”

  “I have to talk to him,” I whispered.

  “Not until he’s alone, Eris. It’s too dangerous.”

  “He won’t hurt me,” I begged. “He won’t. I’m his daughter.”

  “What if he did? You would put him through that?”

  I pulled away from him and scrambled to my feet, standing against the far wall of my new home. “You don’t understand. It was different for you.”

  “You’re right,” he said. “But you know as well as I do that your father will put an ax or an arrow through your head, desperate to free you from what you are.”

  I shook my head. “We don’t know that. He…” I started for the doorway.

  Daniel stood in front of me and took my face in his hands. “Listen to me. You’re not his daughter anymore. If he doesn’t kill you, Clemens will.”

  I swallowed. “I have to try.”

  Daniel’s hand slipped from my cheeks to my neck, and then my shoulders. “I wish I could make this easier for you. I didn’t realize it would be so hard to watch you…”

  I realized how close we were. His scent permeated the air around me, and my shoulders relaxed. He looked down at my lips.

  “I’ve been watching over you for a long time.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “I don’t…I don’t know.”

  “I have to know,” I whispered. “Did you mean to change me all along? Was it part of your plan for a truce?”

  His hands fell from my shoulders, and he stepped back. “No.” He shook his head. “No,” he said again, this time sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than me. “I tried to get to you. I tried to stop your fall. It wasn’t until I had already made the decision to change you that your role in a possible truce came to me.”

  I watched him for a moment.

  “I swear to you, Eris. It’s the truth.”

  I nodded and then walked away from him. “Okay. If we can’t find an opportunity to get my father alone…one of my brothers then.”

  “Not Clemens,” Daniel said.

  “Jonathan,” I said. “He stays behind. He works in the bakery. We could catch him alone. He might listen.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “No. But we have to try.”

  “If he doesn’t believe you, he could tell your father you’re claimed. They would stop the search and begin a hunt for certain.”

  “Then we’ll just have to find a way to convince him. Bring him here so he can see.”

  Daniel shook his head. “I couldn’t protect him, Eris. They’ll kill him.”

  “Then something! We have to find a way!”

  Daniel thought for a moment. “The sun. If he sees one of the myths debunked, we may have a better chance of convincing him.”

  I looked down. “Is that really all we’ve got?”

  “Let’s just pray it’s enough.”

  Daniel and I walked together to the tree line. I cowered behind a tree, peering at my home in the distance. Father, Clemens, and Lukas were unloading the wagon. They looked exhausted.

  Daniel frowned. “What are the chances that Jonathan would have a weapon that contained Eitr?”

  “Low. Why?”

  “If it gets into your bloodstream, he could kill you.”

  “I’m aware of how it works. He won’t. He might be surprised and maybe afraid, but he’ll listen.”

  “Maybe we should wait. I don’t feel good about this, Eris.”

  Jonathan hopped from the back gate of the wall and trudged down the road to the bakery.

  “I can’t,” I said, pushing past him.

  THE WORLD BLURRED ON EACH SIDE OF ME as I quickly approached my baby brother. Before I could change my mind or he could react, I gripped his shirt in my fists and yanked him toward the woods.

  Jonathan grunted, and in the next moment, he was covering his head, pleading with me just inside the tree line.

  “Please, please! I’m begging you, don’t kill me!” Tears overflowed from his eyes and down his still-chubby cheeks.

  He lifted his hand, and I saw the shiny dagger and batted it to the ground. It was mine. He had been carrying my weapon.

  “Jonathan, hush. Look at me,” I whispered, grabbing his chin and forcing him to face me. His eyes widened, he gasped, and then leaned away.

  “Oh my God…no…,” he said. His eyes drifted to Daniel, and then he began to slap at me. I easily held down his arms.

  “I’m not going to hurt you, Jonathan! Look at me!”

  “I’m looking! You’re a nightwalker! Let me go! Help! Help!” he cried, stretching his neck toward the clearing.

  “I need you to listen, Jonathan. I promise not to hurt you, but you have to be quiet!”

  Jonathan calmed down, his lip quivering. “What about him?” he asked, gesturing to Daniel.

  “This is Daniel. He’s my friend. The day I disappeared, I fell from Hopper’s Tree into the ravine. I was dying, Jonathan. Daniel saved me.”

  He nodded, still scared.

  “I need you to speak to Father for me. I’m okay, and I want him to know. But more than that, I want to see him.”

  Jonathan’s eyes narrowed, and he began to struggle again. “You mean to trick me! You mean to trick him! Help! Help!” he yelled.

  I put my hand over his mouth, and he settled down. I could hear his heart throbbing so loudly, it sounded like Hopper’s Tree when it crashed to the ground.

  “Jonathan!” I hissed. “I would never harm Father! Or you! I only want him to see that we were wrong. Nightwalkers aren’t what we thought they were. Most of them don’t even hunt humans! Do you understand what I’m telling you? They want a truce!”

  He slowly relaxed, and I took my hand from his mouth. “A truce?” he asked.

  I nodded. “We feed from animals, Jonathan. Daniel could have fed on me, but he saved me. They’ve accepted me, even though they knew I was a Prior. They don’t hate us, and if Father would just speak with me, if he would only listen, we don’t have to be apart.” I pulled him over to the tree line, and held my arm into the sunlight. “Look.”

  The sun shone on my arm, and Jonathan’s mouth fell open. “How…how is that possible?” His eyes began to water again, and his lip quivered.

  “We’ve been told so many lies, Jonathan. If I can convince Father to hear me out, I might be able to come home. We can stop the killing on both sides. Do you understand what that means?”

  “He won’t listen to me, Eris. He’ll kill you.”

  “Not if you tell him that I found you and let you live. If you tell him I am still me. That the thirst doesn’t drive us mad.”

  “He won’t believe me. I wouldn’t believe me.”

  I held up a ragged, bloody piece of my red dress. Jonathan took it and stared at it for a long time.

  “We’ve killed their children, Jonathan, and yet they still desire peace. They just want the war to end. If that happens, we can be a family again. Mother can stop being so sad.”

  “I hear her crying every night.”

  “Sometimes, when I get close enough, I can too. I don’t want her to be sad anymore. I want to hug her and show her that I’m okay.”

  “With those red eyes, she won’t be so sure.”

  “She will if she sees for herself. So will Father. Will you help me come home? I just want to come home.”

  Daniel put his hand on my shoulder, and Jonathan’s eyes watched his hand gently squeeze.

  “You did this to her?” Jo
nathan asked.

  “I didn’t want her to die,” Daniel answered.

  I let Jonathan go and handed him my dagger.

  “Where do you live?” he asked, placing the blade into his belt.

  “I can’t tell you. Not until Father understands. It’s too dangerous.”

  Jonathan kicked at the dirt. “I’ll try.”

  “You will?” I smiled. He nodded, and I hugged him.

  “Too…tight…,” he grunted.

  I let him go. “I’m sorry. I’m still getting used to my new strength.” I touched his cheek. “I’ve missed you. I’ve missed all of you.”

  “We’ve missed you too. Nothing has been the same since you died.”

  I smiled. “I’m really okay. I just need to see my family.”

  He nodded.

  “You should go before they think something happened to you.”

  Jonathan eyed Daniel once more and then hugged me before sprinting through the trees toward home.

  “We should head back,” Daniel said. “Tell the others what we’ve done so they’re prepared.” He took my hands. “This could change everything.”

  “Or ruin it,” I said, my eyebrows pulling together.

  We walked back to our home, Daniel a few steps ahead. He was eager to speak with Evander, but I was dreading it. I had no idea what to expect, and I feared punishment. This part of the woods was familiar. It was one of the paths we took when we hunted. I saw a familiar tree and remembered the day Lukas and I spent here. My eyes widened.

  “Daniel, stop!” I yelled.

  He froze in place.

  “Don’t take another step!”

  “What is it?” he asked, his back still to me.

  “It’s a trap!” I stepped carefully passed him and bent down. With a light finger, I moved the leaves, dirt, grass, and branches away, revealing the metal trigger that Lukas had set up just weeks before I died.

  “Trap?” he asked, confused.

  “We set it here, four paces south from the mossy stone by the dead tree. See? Watch.” In a split second, I pressed on the metal and pulled my hand free as the rope tightened and jerked up, and a ball pierced through with jagged glass and pieces of metal swung forward with enough momentum to penetrate anything the rope held captive.