Eyes of the Woods (20 page)

Mother hugged Lukas and kissed his forehead. “Run fast, my sweet. Be vigilant.”

“I will, Mother.”

Ilana seemed bored with all the sentiment. She walked through the door, and Lukas followed. Daniel and I joined them at the gate, and I looked up to my cousin Sven.

“Open it!” I commanded.

Sven strained against the crank, huffing as the mechanism lurched and complained. The gates opened just enough for Lukas and Ilana to slip through.

“You’ll protect him?” I asked.

“No one will touch him. I swear it.”

“Go!” I whispered.

The two were a good team, with tall, lean Ilana, her long, dark hair trailing behind her, and Lukas, stout and confident. He was broad shouldered, but his legs were long and had plenty of muscle to propel him forward. Ilana was clearly holding back, running just fast enough to encourage Lukas along. Even if he were the fastest of Dyre’s children, he was significantly slower than an immortal.

The gate closed behind Daniel and me, the thick wood and metal grinding together as the two ends of the double doors kissed.

Daniel slipped his arms around my waist. “Go. Spend time with your family. I’ll keep an eye on the wall.”

I touched my forehead to his chin. “Call if you see anything.”

“They won’t attack yet. They’re gathering their numbers. Planning a strategy.”

“I feel better already,” I said with a smirk.

Father and Mother sat together on the settee in the great chamber, watching the fire. I startled them when I sat down, partly because they hadn’t heard me approach, but more likely because each time they saw me, it was like I had arisen from the dead all over again.

Mother relaxed and reached for me. I leaned against her side.

“You’re so cold,” she said. “You should sit closer to the fire.”

I chuckled. “It won’t help, Mother. It’s just the way I am now.”

She put another blanket around me anyway and hugged me tight. Clemens and Emelen kept their distance. By the apologetic look on Clemens’s face, I knew why. Emelen was frightened by me. She was one of the Onan children who had been raised to fear the woods and who was forbidden to play near the tree line. My red eyes had haunted her dreams as a child. A lady and now the wife of a Prior, she wouldn’t act on her fear, but it was likely that both her heart and mind were screaming at her to stand and flee.

Clemens covered her hand with his, and it was then I saw their matching gold bands.

“Was the wedding nice?” I asked.

Clemens nodded and then looked to Emelen. Her fingers twitched. She opened her mouth, nervous and hesitant.

“It was beautiful. We had all the best florists and seamstresses. The Lornan sisters played their harps. Father Joseph officiated.”

“Only one thing missing,” Clemens said. “I wish you could have been there, sister.”

“Me too.”

Mother continued on about the wedding, and I watched Father, Clemens, and Emelen watch her with the fondness of memories evident in their eyes. I had fantasized about this moment for months—about sitting on the floor near the hearth, listening to stories about what I had missed while I was gone. I was relieved that my family had accepted me, even with my new abilities and crimson eyes.

But it didn’t feel like a return to my home. I was in their home, listening to their stories, and reliving their memories of a life where I no longer belonged.

My home, as it had always been, was the woods. Where Daniel had helped me build my nest. Where I learned the ways of the immortals. Where I fell in love with Daniel.

Suddenly the walls of the Helgren compound felt more like a prison than home, and it was then I realized I had always felt that way. I had never truly felt at home there, and I had never truly belonged. The paleness of my skin and the red of my irises had not felt foreign to me. Even Daniel had mentioned how quickly I’d taken to my new body. Before, I’d thought it was because I had been around nightwalkers dozens of times, but now I knew that I was wrong. It was because I was meant to be an immortal, living out my days in the trees, with the man I loved.

I turned to the dining room, in the direction I’d been avoiding since I had walked inside my former house. Jonathan lay there, still and surrounded by candles and covered in cheesecloth. Father had no doubt already harvested his blood for the Eitr, likely meaning to use Jonathan’s blood to kill the nightwalker responsible for his death. Maybe even me.

I walked over to my little brother, Mother’s voice murmuring in the background. Jonathan’s skin was as cold and pale as mine.

“I should have turned you,” I said. “I didn’t think about it. If I had turned you, you’d be here with me instead of lying on that table.”

Father’s heavy footsteps sounded, stopping right behind me. His large hands covered my shoulders. “His neck snapped the moment he hit the tree, Eris. You couldn’t have turned him. It was quick. He didn’t feel anything.”

I bowed my head and leaned forward, my fingers holding tight to the edge of the table. Jonathan looked so peaceful, just as he did in the mornings when I would wake him for breakfast.

I touched my cheek. I couldn’t cry, not even for my brother. I stormed out of the house and leaped to the top of the stone wall. My cousins slowly backed away, pretending to guard other positions. I crouched down and hugged my knees to my chest.

Daniel jumped over the gap in the wall where the front gate was and walked over to me. “Jonathan?” he asked.

I nodded. “He shouldn’t have died, Daniel. What good is my new hearing if I couldn’t detect a threat approaching?”

“You were seeing and speaking to your parents for the first time since your fall. You were focused on them. We all were. I didn’t hear her either. Not until it was too late.”

I pressed my face into his chest, and he hugged me close. “I miss him,” I whispered.

“I know. Jonathan wanted to help us make peace. He wanted a truce.”

“He just wanted his sister back,” I cried. “And I failed him. I’ve failed all of them. Evander and his coven will take over this place before sunrise. You tried to tell me something was wrong, and I wouldn’t listen. I wouldn’t give you time to find out what it was. I’ve been so selfish, and now we’re all going to die.”

Daniel pulled my chin up just as one of the cousins called from the other side of the compound.

“Nightwalker!” the guard yelled.

“Nightwalker!” another reported from the opposite side of the wall. They were going to surround us.

Daniel didn’t take his eyes away from mine. “Use it, Eris. They took Jonathan from you. They want to take away everything. Use it when you fight them. You’re stronger than you know.”

The first arrow shot into the air, a faint whoosh sounding when it released from the bow. I zeroed in on the tip as it soared through the air. It glimmered with Eitr.

Father ran out, and Daniel and I jumped to the ground. Father tossed me two daggers, and Daniel a sword.

“Take care not to cut yourselves. They’re soaked in it.”

Daniel and I nodded and jumped over the wall to the ground on the other side.

I crouched, gritting my teeth, letting the anger sear through my body. Dozens of forms moved from the darkness to the wide halo of light cast from the compound. Some of the nightwalkers galloped toward us like animals, nothing like the frolicking coven I saw in the clear river near our nests.

Every one of them stopped abruptly, surrounded by the cloud of dust they had rustled up. They looked behind Daniel and I to the top of the stone wall.

I turned and looked up as well to see Kyah standing, her arms up, palms out.

“Immortals!” she yelled, her frightening voice a contrast to her tiny frame and flowing white dress. “Hear me! This battle is against our laws! Whatever Evander or Heinrich has told you, what you do now determines your commitment to those laws and our honor! Do not attack the humans! Stand against the tyranny with me! I stand against Evander! I stand against Heinrich! Those who stand with me stand for our laws, and for the elders before us who upheld them!”

The immortals turned from side to side, looking at one another in confusion.

Evander walked to the front of his army and pointed at Kyah. “Tell the coven the truth, Queen Mother! Tell them how your archaic laws contributed to the Fall! Tell them how the humans have kept us prisoners in that forest! We, the dominant species! We are powerful! We will hide in the woods no more!”

“We can live in peace!” Kyah yelled, ignoring Evander.

An evil smile lit his face.

“I have met with the leader of the Onan Priory! He is willing to listen! He has accepted his daughter…an immortal! This is unprecedented, coven! Do not throw away our chance at a truce!”

Some of the immortals walked forward, past Daniel and I. Daniel took my hand and squeezed it as more broke away from the crowd and walked by without a word. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing lines of immortals facing Evander, with expressions of determination on their faces.

Evander shook his head and dipped his chin, looking up from under his brow. “You have betrayed us, Kyah. You’ve led them astray.”

The night was completely silent. Kyah lowered her arms and looked lovingly on the immortals below her.

From somewhere in the back of Evander’s coven came a familiar whoosh, and an arrow flew through the air. Just as Kyah looked up from those loyal to her and their law, the arrow’s tip sank into her chest. She looked up, her eyes confused.

“Eitr,” she said, falling forward to the ground.

The immortals below her stepped back with a collective gasp.

“What have you done?” Daniel cried, rushing to Kyah’s side. He held up his hands while she convulsed. “No!
No
!” he screamed.

The look of pain on Kyah’s face was nothing I hadn’t seen before, but not from anyone I cared about. I looked away and closed my eyes, only able to hear her writhing against the dead grass and rocks.

A snowflake fell slowly from the sky, landing next to Kyah’s limp hand. Another fell, and then another. The snow had come.

Daniel and I stood, facing Evander’s army. Large, white flakes fell like feathers from the sky. Evander’s grin grew wider. “Your elder is dead, Daniel. The Priors aren’t the only ones who’ve been collecting for Eitr. Join us, or die.”

Daniel took a step. “I choose peace. I choose life. And I will die for it.”

“Fire!” Father yelled.

The cousins let their arrows loose, downing dozens of nightwalkers. Those behind them leaped over their bodies and loped toward the wall.

“Again!” Father yelled.

Some of the adult men and women from Kyah’s entourage jumped over the wall and landed, running toward Evander’s army.

Those in the front lines clashed.

“The back!” I yelled to Father. “Tell the cousins to aim only for those in the back!”

As Kyah’s loyals fought with the nightwalkers in the front, the cousins downed those in the back. Immortals were dying at an alarming rate, and it was clear from Evander’s face that he hadn’t planned on losing so many so soon. He yelled for a retreat, and after a short pause, his minions began falling back to the Glades.

Immortals loyal to Kyah chased until Daniel called after them, and they came back, beat-up and worn. Kyah’s body lay lifeless on the ground, the snow peppering her beautiful dress and matching skin. She looked like an angel in the snow.

Daniel knelt beside her and hugged her. The others began to whimper and wail. The queen mother was dead.

DANIEL LAID KYAH GENTLY ON HER BACK
, on top of the branches next to Jonathan. They were elevated on a rock table fashioned by our ancestors.

Mother covered her son and Kyah with cheesecloth, and when she backed away to stand next to Father, Clemens used a torch to light the dry wood kept especially for Onan funerals.

A fire sparked immediately, and soon the fire reached toward the sky, fanning its gray smoke to the stars.

I covered my mouth with my hand, and Daniel held me to his side. I was glad, because even with the strength of an immortal, my legs failed me.

Mother and Emelen wept. The immortals whom Kyah had left behind whimpered, moaned, and wailed.

“Should we not harvest Kyah, as we did Jonathan?” Emelen whispered to Clemens.

“No,” Father said. “Vileon will never be made again.”

A woman who had traveled to our compound with Kyah approached Father, took his hand, kissed it, and then touched the back of his hand to her forehead.

Father was deeply touched by her gesture, and when she looked back up at him, he pressed his lips in a hard line. “Forgive me.”

A small smile touched the woman’s lips, and she returned to stand and watch the smoke carry the souls of our beloved to the sky.

Father looked to me, and I reached out for his hand. He took it, and we stood together, human and immortal, a united front.