by Anna Hub
I shivered. "I guess it's one thing to try and carry enough food but when there's no water, it's pretty limiting."
"Exactly."
We talked for hours about my experiences from the Valley and Tara's time in the village. By the end of the night, I found myself lightened by hope once more.
"I should probably check on Brayden." I stood up.
Tara rose. "He seemed to have a better grasp on his Enhancement tonight. Remember, understanding where it came from is the first step to controlling it."
I paused. "About that ... I don't think there is anything in particular that caused the Instinct to develop. Nothing dark anyway."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I asked him and he gave me a straight answer. An answer that made me realise I shouldn't have questioned him in the first place."
She tugged at her hair, a habit, I noticed. But she didn't respond.
"That's what you expected?" I wondered.
She met my gaze. "I needed to know if you doubted him."
I frowned. Did that mean it was some kind of test? "Why?"
"You're the only one who really knows him. If you truly trust him, then there must be a good reason."
My chest ached. "And what if I didn't?"
"Then, I would be cautious."
"I don't claim to know everything there is to know about his Instinct. And it's hard for me sometimes. But any time I've wondered about his humanity, he's always shown a side that I haven't seen before, and any doubt I had was erased."
"I'm glad to hear that."
I measured her expression for a long time, I somehow felt unsure of her intention. "I should go." She nodded but as I stepped closer to the forest, I realised something. "So is it even true?"
"What?"
"Are Enhancements really formed by an old part of someone's personality?"
"A lot of the time, yes." She crossed her arms. "But not always."
"Do you have one?"
Her expression remained neutral but her silence revealed everything.
I remembered our conversation about her job back in the Origin and suddenly it all became clear. "You can manipulate people."
For a long time I didn’t think she was going to say anything. Then her arms fell by her side once again. "It took me a long time to figure that out and no one else has ever guessed it before."
Anger rose in the pit of my stomach. "So this wasn't just about Brayden and his Instinct, you wanted to see if you could manipulate me?"
“The stronger the will of the person, the less likely they are to comply."
"So the fact that I asked him, proved both that you could manipulate me, and that I was unsure of Brayden?"
"Yes."
Guilt replaced the anger. How had I accidentally revealed that my loyalty had wavered momentarily? And no matter what I said now, she already knew the truth. "You said no one has ever guessed your Enhancement before. Do the villagers even know that the passing changes them?"
"Most Enhancements are invisible. A select few, such as Ethel have been honest about their skills from the beginning, but if she'd chosen to keep that knowledge to herself no one would know any better. She's probably the only person in the village who has a real idea of how many people are affected by Enhancements.”
Tara had an enhanced ability to Manipulate people and that gave her power over me if she chose to use it.
“I’m not a bad person, Selena. Using my Enhancement on you might not have been fair, but I'm taking a risk with you and I needed to know if I could use my Manipulation as a safe guard. A means to protect myself and the village I'm sworn to defend." Her expression softened but now I questioned whether it was genuine or all part of her facade. "The thing is, now that you know about it, I doubt it would ever work on you again."
Did that mean Tara was behind everything that had gone right for us? Other people helped but was it really by their own choice? And how could she have continued to visit us with new supplies if she hadn’t Manipulated the other sentries?
"I should go," I said.
She nodded. "I really meant it when I said I wasn't a bad person."
I studied her expression, unsure what to believe anymore. I needed time to process everything she'd told me and figure out what our next step would be.
Chapter Five
I struggled to sleep that night. My mind was too busy trying to process everything Tara had told me. If she was right, and knowing about her Enhancement stopped it working, then perhaps I could come to trust her again. In reality, she had the right to defend her village at whatever cost.
In the morning, I wanted to ask Brayden how he felt about the meeting with Tara, but he was already gone. I made my way to the river to bathe, shivering as the chill spread up my legs. Clouds hung low in the sky and I sensed that rain was on its way, but the fish still swam around me. Although we couldn't use a fire to cook anything at the moment, it was encouraging to see life flourishing once again.
A rustle in the plants caught my attention as Brayden came toward me. Even without looking directly at him, I knew something was wrong. He moved too fast and suddenly my heart was working overtime too.
“What is it?” I straightened.
He didn’t answer and the grey in his eyes thickened as he rushed into the water. "You need to cross the river."
"What?" The water flowed fast from the rains and getting across safely didn't seem so easy. He dragged me deeper but let go as we reached waist level. "You're not coming?"
He'd already backed away and I was left in the river alone. Every part of me screamed to stay with him but I knew his Instinct was stronger than my own. I waded deeper, using an overhanging branch to stabilise. Only a few feet from the other side, I turned back to check on Brayden.
He stood at the river's edge with nothing more than his own strip of animal hide to cover his body. He was shadowless beneath the clouds and therefore without a weapon.
Maybe it would be safer for him to run from whatever danger loomed. "Brayden?"
Three men appeared at the edge of the clearing, animal skin around their waists, proving they were permanent residents of the Shadowlands. They stepped carefully, as though searching for their own danger.
Brayden remained in position, knees bent in preparation but the men were yet to spot us. One held a bow and arrow in place, while a second man gripped a knife. They had to be from the village. A tight knot twisted my stomach. If they saw Brayden as the hunter he was right now, they would surely attack. If they hurt him, I'd be the only one who cared. But if he hurt one of them, who knew what kind of rage it might incite from the villagers.
Although Brayden had urged me to cross the river, I felt certain the men weren't here to hurt me. And I might be the only one who could stop disaster unfolding. I hurried back, careful to remain quiet but one man caught my movement and turned his head. His eyes fell on Brayden first and he cried out a warning to the others—all I heard was, hunter.
“No!” I screamed.
The second man prepared an arrow but when he released it, Brayden threw his knife and sent it spinning off course. I screamed again and the third man charged at me.
He pushed me before I made it out the river. I slipped on the mud and landed on my side so heavily it jarred my neck. I saw Brayden struggling with the two men on the bank before the other man pushed my head beneath the water.
Water filled my mouth before I could close it and I coughed as I tried to fight my attacker off. He pinned me to the river bed and his hands tightened around my throat. I struggled against him but he was too strong. Within seconds I would lose consciousness and the water would flood my lungs. I fought harder and managed to push off the ground hard enough to break the surface and catch a small breath.
Muffled voices reached me and finally, the hand slipped from my neck and I was able to sit up.
Tara yanked me from the water. "Are you okay?"
I gagged and struggled for oxygen, my windpipe burning. Brayden had two
men pinned beneath him, his hand squeezing at one man's throat, his face already purple. Matt pulled at Brayden's arms but couldn't free the men.
“How do we stop him?” Tara shook me.
I moved closer, still gasped for air. “Brayden’s fighting in defence. You need to stop them fighting back.”
Tara left me behind, shouting instructions to Matt as they both dove in and grabbed the men on the ground.
Matt pushed one man against a tree while the other escaped Tara's grip.
“Stop fighting back. Stop!” Matt growled. “What are you doing here?”
The other two men disappeared between the trees and the grey in Brayden’s eyes weakened. A wound on his shoulder oozed as the Instinct faded. I reached out to touch it but he flinched away, his eyebrows tightening as he obviously struggled to make sense of the scene around him. I took his hand but he slipped away before I could catch him.
Matt tightened one hand around his captive's throat. "You could have gotten yourself killed, Ben! What the hell was that?"
“He’s a hunter!”
“What did you think you were going to achieve by coming here?"
Ben ignored the question. “Everyone knows you're helping them.”
“He wasn’t in our home and you were an idiot to come here looking for him.”
“Do you seriously trust him?" Ben's eyes widened, glancing at me with venom before he turned back to Matt. “You saw how quickly he overcame us.”
“He was defending himself,” my tone came out even sharper than I'd intended.
“You're crazy if that’s what you think. He’s just like the others.”
Anger warmed my cheeks. “No, he’s not. He reacted to your intention. You caused this!”
“Hunters murder without reason. He shouldn't be here!”
I stepped forward but Tara blocked my path. “That’s enough. Why did you come here, Ben?”
“Since you can’t be trusted as sentries, we needed to check there was no danger." He glared at me again.
“Who decided you should come here?” Tara pushed Matt aside so she could stand in front of him.
Ben hesitated while he looked into her eyes and her Manipulation must have weakened him. “Joseph said the elders were worried about his whereabouts.”
“What happened here today was your own fault. Keep it quiet and don’t ever come back.”
Ben’s face turned passive and he slowly walked away. Tara shook her head as she caught Matt's eyes.
“Are you alright, Selena?” Matt asked.
“You told me the villagers were too afraid to come after him.”
Only it wasn’t just Brayden they had come for. One of the men came straight for me and had every intention of drowning me.
Tara sighed. “I'm sorry, Selena. I underestimated them.”
“What’s going to happen now?”
“Ben won’t speak,” she insisted, “but the others are probably already in the village. It's too late to stop them.”
"Does that mean others will come?"
"We can't be sure. But if we get back fast enough, we might be able to control the damage," Matt replied.
I nodded. "Should we run?"
The two sentries shared a look before Tara responded, "Not yet. If anyone tries to come after you, we'll send warning."
"Are you sure that's reliable?"
"I'll make sure you have enough time to escape."
"Because it's not Brayden I'm worried about. They're the ones who'll get hurt."
She nodded. "I know."
The longer we spent talking about it, the more time we left the men to alert the villagers about what had happened. "Go then."
I returned to the shelter but Brayden wasn't there. His absence made me more nervous than I would usually be. I kept myself busy by cleaning leaves from our bed but the hours passed slowly and he didn't return. Rain clouds darkened overhead once again and by the afternoon, I sought shelter under our usual tree. Although I desperately wanted to search for him, I didn't want to risk going too far. If something happened and the villagers did come after us, I wanted to be here for Tara's warning. If I travelled too far away, I might miss it and could make finding Brayden more difficult.
By dusk, shivers took hold. The tree caught a lot of the rain but a cold wind blew fierce and wet hair made it impossible to warm up. I bent my knees closer to my chest and tried to preserve body heat. Eventually Brayden walked through the clearing. He paused as he saw me, his expression somehow numb despite the lack of grey in his eyes.
I stood up and reached for him but he remained still and didn't open his arms to me. I paused, unsure how to behave when he was like this.
Blood had dried around the wound on his shoulder. He'd obviously made no effort to care for it.
"Does it hurt?” I asked.
He stared ahead vacantly as I examined the cut. "No."
What was wrong with him? “Do you remember what happened?"
"No."
It must be hard to lose control of your own body and forget everything that had happened. He met my gaze but didn’t say anything. “Those men came here looking for trouble. They deserved what happened to them."
“Do you even realise I can’t control it?”
“Yet," I insisted. "It only controls you when you have reason to protect yourself.”
He shook his head. "You don't get it. It's not a matter of fighting to overcome it. When the Instinct rises, nothing else exists. I don't feel, I don't think ... I'm just gone and the Instinct is all that's left."
We'd spoken about this before but he'd never held the dead expression in his eyes before. Suddenly I felt desperate to keep him close. "Control won't happen overnight." I reached out but he shrugged me away again.
“What makes you so sure the hunters in the Valley didn’t start off this way?”
“Because when you were so overrun you couldn’t even talk to me, you still saved my life. You never hurt anything that wasn’t trying to kill us.”
“What if I’d killed them? What would you think of me then?”
“You wouldn’t have.” I don’t know why I said it. We both knew it wasn’t true.
He rubbed his face once as though it was enough to wash away any emotions he might have then he was blank again. In an effort to keep himself safe from heartache he didn’t realise he was probably making the dark side of himself stronger.
The morning came slowly. I'd barely slept and Brayden didn't look as though he had either. We didn't talk as we shared breakfast but at least the rain had eased and we were able to sit inside our usual shelter. I understood why he was so distant. Obviously he needed to work through things in his own head. But I was afraid by what had happened too, and now more than ever, I wanted to be close to him.
His eyes greyed and my heart thumped wildly as footsteps sounded outside our shelter. We both stood and caught Tara's angry expression as she joined us.
"What's going on?" I asked.
She dumped her bow on the ground and let various bags slip from her shoulder. Her hands moved to her hips. “Village politics.”
“What do you mean?”
Matt arrived just seconds behind her. “The story spread pretty quickly.”
“It didn’t go down well?” my voice shook.
Tara paced. "The backlash was huge.”
“Worse than we expected," Matt added.
A branch snapped and we all turned as Brayden walked away. I wasn't sure if I should go after him, but I needed to know more first. "What happened?"
"The people were having a hard time with the theoretical idea of a hunter living out here but it just became too real for them,” Matt explained.
“What does that mean for us?”
“They're no longer happy to just have you out of sight.”
“We can’t stay near the village and we can’t ask for help anymore,” Tara added.
The air seemed to thicken in my throat. “Wait a minute, you said we?”
Tara
growled before she snatched her bow from the ground and disappeared too.
“We were forced to make a choice—you or them,” Matt said.
“And you chose us?”
Matt sat on a log. “It wasn’t as simple as it may seem. Obviously they know we set him free, so the blame immediately fell on our shoulders. From their point of view, if we hadn’t interfered in the beginning, the matter would have been dealt with already.”
I felt sick even at the mention of the trial.
“In a way, Tara and I were being judged more than Brayden. Everyone was against us. We probably would have chosen to spend some time away from the village even if we hadn’t been exiled.”
“Exiled?”
“If we wanted to stay we had to surrender ourselves to be guarded at all times. We would no longer be sentries. We would have been sent to dig for metal or grow crops—not a career choice either of us wanted—and we wouldn’t have chance to warn you.”
“What about the other sentries, your friends?”
“It’s better for everyone involved if they pretend to be against us.” He sighed. “Tara is angry of course but only at the villagers, she doesn’t regret her decision.”
No doubt she would have tried to use her Manipulation to sway the vote again. “So what are the villagers going to do?” I asked.
“We don’t know but we can't rely on food stock from them and we should probably think of another place to set up camp."
Panic built as I thought about how much we'd struggled when we'd tried to go west. I forced myself to breathe slowly. “They’re going to come after us, aren’t they? But there's nowhere else to go.”
“That’s not entirely true,” he replied.
“But we already tried west, and Tara said the climate in the south was too unpredictable.”
He shook his head. “Why don’t you find Brayden and tell him what’s going on? We need to get out of here as soon as we can.”
If Tara had been with us, he probably wouldn't have told me so much. I wanted to ask more but there wasn’t time, I needed to make sure we were ready to leave.
“I’ll meet you back here,” he said.