Eyes of the Woods (16 page)

“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?” Jonathan 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.

“When did you start this?”

“This is the only one. Not long ago. It was Lukas’s idea. Until now, I didn’t think it would work.”

Daniel frowned. “It wouldn’t have if I weren’t distracted. Thinking through this plan, combined with walking so close to you, has my mind in other places.”

“I’m distracting you?”

“Clearly,” he said with a smirk.

EVANDER TOWERED OVER US
, noticeably unhappy. “Was that your plan, Daniel? To allow a terrified child to reveal Eris and our coven to Dyre Helgren?”

“Not…at first. But Eris believes Jonathan will at least convince his father to speak to us alone, and I trust her judgment.”

“The judgment of a daughter of the Priory you’ve known all but a few months?” he seethed. “Now that he knows, he could be planning an attack, Daniel. We agreed you would be present for this discussion. You assured me that before he had a chance to act on the offensive, you would end it.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “We’re prepared. We could easily overpower them. Why do you fear my father?”

“I fear war, Eris. I fear lives lost. Do you desire a battle, Eris? Do you desire for your brothers to die when they attack and we must defend ourselves? We had the tree line to divide us. If they come here and have even an inkling of our numbers, the Fall will happen all over again. Our evasion was the only way to keep a balance between human and immortal! You two seem determined to bring us all to ruin!”

I sank back a bit.

Evander sighed. “You must go to him. Both of you. Now. And if he doesn’t accept what Eris is…if he doesn’t listen, you must kill him. If you don’t, I’ll have no choice but to order the coven to descend upon Ona. Heinrich will not allow us to wait for them to come to us.”

“Understood,” Daniel said, taking my hand and leading me away.

We ran to the tree line just as the sun began to set. Daniel was agitated, and I put my hand on his arm.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Daniel shook his head. “It’s not that. There is something else he’s not saying. The anger in him you saw was not the Evander I know. Him speaking of war and balance. That’s Heinrich talking.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. There’s something else I’m not seeing.”

A small group of torches gathered at the front gate. Daniel and I stiffened. As the sun lowered slowly behind the mountains, the torches came closer to the tree line. I gasped when I saw my mother holding one of them. A deep line had formed between my father’s brow, and I could tell he was already suffering.

“He’s coming to kill me,” I said. “He didn’t believe Jonathan.”

When they came closer, Daniel and I backed away from the tree line, keeping the thicket to our backs. The torches lit up the surrounding area, and my family charged through, my mother at the back, standing with Ander.

My father’s arm was already high, his largest ax in his hand. Lukas had his bow drawn.

“Just look at her first, Father! Just hear her, first!” Jonathan said.

“Wait. Wait!
Wait
!” Mother cried.

“Father!” I screamed, holding up my hands.

Father hesitated, and I took that half second of opportunity to blurt out the most important thing. “Let me save you!” I screamed.

My words confused Father just long enough for Mother to push past Clemens and look over Lukas’s shoulder.

“Is it her?” she said, her voice breaking. She took in a sharp breath when she saw me.

“See?” Jonathan said. “Her eyes are red, but she’s still Eris. She didn’t hurt me, Father. She let me live. She wouldn’t do that if she was controlled by the thirst.”

“What if she’s different, Dyre?” Mother said, begging in her voice. She tried to reach out to me, but Father stood in front of her.

It took me a moment to process the scene. Daniel and I stood just two meters from my entire family. I choked out a breath and then smiled. “I’ve missed you all so much.”

Mother’s cheeks were already wet with tears, but more came. She reached out for me again.

“I told you to stay back, woman!” Father commanded.

Mother gritted her teeth and then burst from the line of men, surrounding me with her arms. Father and all the boys except Jonathan readied their weapons.

I hugged her to me. “I’m sorry, Mother. I’m so sorry! I’ve missed you so much!” My tears didn’t come, but I still cried.

Everyone around us watched in shock, even Daniel.

“I don’t believe it,” Clemens said.

“I told you!” Jonathan squealed.

Mother’s knees buckled, and I helped her slowly to the ground. She took my face in her trembling hands and shook her head, smiling. She was staring straight into my eyes.

“I’ll just have to get used to them.” She kissed my cheek and then pulled away, her lips quivering. “You’re so cold.”

“I know. But I’m okay. I swear to you. Now that I get to see you again, I’ll be okay.”

“How is this…possible?” Father said. He looked to Daniel. “Is it true? Eris was dying at the bottom of the ravine?”

Daniel nodded.

Father’s jaw flitted under his skin. “Does Cala know?”

Daniel’s eye twitched. He clearly wasn’t prepared for my father to recognize him. He nodded.

“Did…Ireck?”

Daniel nodded again.

Father shook his head and nearly dropped his ax. He looked down at me. “Your eyes, daughter.” He gripped his ax and raised it above me. “They lie to us, Ingrid! Just as demons do!”

“No!” Mother screamed, covering me with her own body.

Daniel was there too, covering Mother with his.

Father froze, his ax held with both hands above his head. With heaving breaths, a tear rolled down his cheek.

“Father,” I said, nervous. “I swear to you. I’m still me.”

He relaxed his arms, letting his ax finally fall to the ground. He dropped to his knees and began to cry quiet tears.

I crawled slowly to him, stopping just short of his knees. “There is so much wrong with what we know. If you’d just listen. I didn’t believe it myself, but now I can feel the strength they have. Their heightened senses. They could overtake us, Father. But they choose not to. They seek a truce.”

Father frowned.

“I know…I know it’s hard to believe. You don’t have to make a decision now. It doesn’t have to change overnight. I’m just asking you to listen to what I’ve learned. That’s all.”

Lukas knelt down and then took me into his arms. I hugged him back. It was a bit unsettling, hearing his heartbeat like it was inside my head, and his blood whooshing through his veins, but I didn’t feel the slightest urge to sink my teeth into him.

Clemens leaned down to help Mother to her feet, and just when Father was about to speak, Jonathan was lifted off his feet and hurled into a tree. His back snapped like a branch, and he fell lifeless to the ground.

I was on my feet, as was Daniel. Father scrambled to his feet, and Clemens pulled Mother behind him as her scream echoed for miles.

Ayana perched herself on the tree above Jonathan’s limp body, a satisfied smile on her face. “Now you will know, Eris, half the agony I felt when you took my child from me.”

Father hurled his ax, grunting as he pitched it, but instead of hitting Ayana, Efraim, her partner, was stopped in midleap and violently cast backward, to the ground. Ayana screeched.

The moment I decided to move, I was yards away, cradling Jonathan in my arms. Mother wailed as Clemens dragged her away, and Father charged us.

“You don’t know what you’ve done!” Daniel screamed to Ayana. “Eris!” he tugged at me as my father ran toward us at full speed. Still, he was nearly in slow motion.

I took one look at Jonathan’s face, still a bit chubby, signaling the years he still had of his youth. I arched back my neck and wailed to the sky.

“We must go, Eris! Now!”

My dagger was still in Jonathan’s belt, so I pulled it out and held it in my hand. “I’m so sorry,” I cried.

Daniel pulled me away with one arm and scrambled up a tree with another, leaping over and over again until we were too far away to hear my family’s cries.

When he finally stopped, he pulled me into his arms, holding me tight while I sobbed. It didn’t matter. I was inconsolable. I couldn’t think or hear. The only thing I could do was let the grief crush me. My entire body shook, and even as the sun rose, I writhed in Daniel’s arms. The pain was excruciating, total, and unabating. The sound of Jonathan’s bones cracking played over and over in my mind.