Heat was burning the top of my head, making my blonde hair feel like a heated plate. My skin felt like it was sizzling under the afternoon sun. And to top it off, my ribs burned every time I breathed or moved, while my right arm was a dead weight hanging along my body. All I really wanted was a nice cold sip of water and some cool house that would cover me from the sun. Who knew it could be this hot in the Green Lands? I certainly didn't.

My tongue licked my spliced lips once more in a futile attempt to moisten them. My eyes peered at the village in the distance - one that didn't seem to lessen much, no matter how long we walked. It had become larger, not much, but at least the separate houses were visible now. It wasn't a dark dot on the horizon anymore.

After this trip, I was going to stay far away from meadows and open fields. They were painfully long and boring. Nothing really happened around here. There were no sounds other than the wind and the rustling of the still low growing corn, wheat and maize. Animals existed of birds high in the sky, too far to really identify which ones were circling around and rats along the path. Those slithered away at my loud dragging feet. And Kate - well, she strode before me with a pace too quick for me to follow.

Sometimes, when I jogged behind her, to lessen the distance between us, I heard her mumble to herself. Ever since, I had wondered if she was thinking aloud or simply singing a song. It made me curious about what else the princess did without notice. Because it had become clear that her nervousness wasn't the only side of her. Yes, she clearly had trouble with staying still and her mind always seemed to be working overtime, yet somehow that only made her even more intriguing.

Kate turned around, her face completely covered in the shadows of her dark hood. Her long auburn hairs peaked out from the sides, glowing almost red in the sharp sunlight. Red that should scare me, but that nowadays wormed its way into my life through all the little cracks of my being. She didn't halt or slow her quick and short steps. Instead she turned back around and continued her walk.

By the time the sun started to shift lower into the sky, and warm my back more than it did my head, the city of death was finally in reach.

Tech Duinn.

The stories must've started at the entrance of the city. Simply looking at the irregularly placed houses of the town made an unease crawl up my spine. Bones, both big and small, formed the structures of the houses. Most were tents, made from animal skin, wood and clay-covered bones - animal and human alike. It was a strange sight. Even a little bit gruesome.

Think about Ayana's story, I tried to remind myself. The rumors were disappointing. A lie. Fake.

I noticed that lately, I had felt a lot more emotions - mainly fear, which I didn't like - than I used to. I was a trained fighter, a town with empty rumors shouldn't scare me like this. And yet, it did. It made me face the uncertainty of my life right now. Would someone even come looking for me, if I got lost here? Perhaps my mother, but she wasn't allowed. Ura certainly wouldn't, or it would be in the name of 'helping me', perhaps the lost souls weren't so bad after all.

Tech Duin was larger than I had imagined. It wasn't a simple campsite with a few dozen people. The white and brown houses stretched all the way across the high towering mountain wall, which was still far enough away to not tilt my head all the way back to see the top. There must be at least a few hundred people. Somehow, I had imagined these people as a group of wild, unstructured cultists.

Kate halted at the first tent, an animal skin set up on two wooden pillars. It casted a long shadow on us. My knees almost buckled in anticipation, but Kate's posture made me stop mid-sigh. Her eyes searched the empty street in front of her. She wore a certain carefulness around her, visible in the strong lines of her body, even with it being hidden behind the royal cloak. It was the more robust moving, the quick jab when her head turned around. It was a strange sight, I realized, a vampire on alert. Even a bit terrifying.

"Where is everyone?" She asked in a hushed tone.

My own eyes shifted from the princess to the empty street that existed of mainly dust and rocks. There was no one. Nor were there any sounds. A high toned wailing sound was all there was, and that I knew was from the small passage between the sharp cliffs right behind Tech Duinn. That must be Death Valley. The passage-way that connected the Green Lands with the Dry Lands. The place where Ayana had expected to meet her ghosts.

But just like Ayana had expected to be haunted, I had expected creepy bone people to walk around. Ayana was not the only one disappointed.

"I don't like this."

Kate shuffled in her place. Her hands reached inside her cloak and I could see the silver of a blade reflect the lowering sun.

"Let's walk a bit further. Maybe they like to have dinner together. Io once told me-"

Kate frowned. She looked confused.

"What?"

"I thought your friend was called Ura?"

Now it was my turn to frown. "And you think I only have one friend?"

Kate shrugged, then turned around and crossed the invisible town barrier. Her steps got eaten by the dust, and her cloak fluttered in the gentle breeze that was present. I couldn't help myself but think about the heroes of old human tales. Kate looked just as majestic as I had imagined them.

"Io is human." I kept my voice low. Kate kept taking careful steps deeper into the village, with me on her heels. "She taught me a lot about human customs."

Kate shook her head. Was she laughing?

"What?" I asked, annoyed.

She turned around, the sun reflected in her eyes, making them glisten.

"Why did they pick you for their end-the-vampire-race idea?"

I frowned.

"What, you think I'm not good enough?" My voice came out harsh, but I didn't care, the object was still sensitive.

Her free hand, the one not lingering on her hidden blade, let her hood fall back. "I think you are not Hunter enough for what they were planning." Before I could respond with a nasty comment - because who was she to say I was not Hunter enough? She had no idea what I was capable of. Stupid vampire! - a bony boy with trimmed hair walked onto the street in the distance. He couldn't be older than sixteen, with his too-long legs and arms. He was lean and scrawny and it looked as if he walked on stilts, not entirely balanced.

My hands had pulled both daggers from their case. Kate stood still next to me, still not revealing her own weapon. She took the lead, I stayed only a step behind her, like her shadow.

"Hello," the princess said, her voice regal. "We'd like to have an audience with your council." Then she bowed. Deep. Her nose almost touched her knees. Without questioning the strange move, I followed her lead.

My eyes remained on the dust that hid the rocky underground, while the boy came closer. I tried to remain still, but I couldn't help the nerves rising when the silence stretched and his feet creeped closer.

"You are expected," he said in a creaking voice that should not belong to someone so young.

Before I had a chance to straighten up, a harsh object hit the back of my head. My vision blurred. A second smack and my lights flickered out. The last thing I felt was my chin hitting the dusty rocks of the ground.

***

Waking up in a dark room that smelled like mold was frightening, especially when the only thing I could see were red eyes hovering so close I felt warm breath hit my face. In shock, I pushed the person off me and scrambled backwards. My sore back hit an uneven wall which made me hiss in pain.

"Careful," the familiar voice said. "There isn't much room here, we don't want you getting injured now."

Red eyes stared at me from the dark. My survival instinct should've kicked in. No one in their right mind would be calm in a situation like this - stuck in a small room with a vampire - yet, my previous alarmed state was no more. It was almost annoying/frightening how at peace I felt around her.

"You don't have permission to drink from me. Even in a situation like this," I mumbled back. Testing my limbs, I tried to sit up.

"Then I won't drink from you," Kate promised. She moved closer in the dark. "Trust me when I say that I want to prove control is possible just as much as you do. You might smell amazing, but I have no desire to feed from you."

A little pang in the depth of my chest went off. I ignored it.

"Good."

Kate moved next to me, her eyes reflecting the single ray of light that slipped through what I thought to be floorboards. Why were they so hypnotizing? Then I realized her eyes hadn't been this red before.

"What's up with your eyes?" I heard myself ask, while I leaned forward. Kate's hands landed on my shoulders and held me at a distance.

Her breath got stuck in her throat. In the silence of our little prison, it was more than audible. Unmistakable even.

"Nothing."

She averted them. My hand reached in the darkness, hoping to catch her jaw and not something less pleasant. What I felt was wetness. Kate grabbed my hand, pulled it away from her mouth, but didn't let it go. Instead, I felt her slow breath hit the inside of my wrist.

"If I say it's nothing, please accept it as an answer."

"Why don't you talk about yourself? We have been traveling for over a week now, we have both saved each other's lives even though we really shouldn't have. There is some weird link between us, no matter what you believe. Yet, despite it all, I barely know anything about you."

Kate let out a deep breath, as if she had been holding it for too long. Our hands fell in her lap. I wished I could see her, but instead I looked at the darkness, in the direction I imagined the princess to be seated.

"You know I'm a vampire and a princess, isn't that enough?"

My hand turned into a fist.

"No, it's not."

"Why not, Sky?"

"Because I'd like to know more about you."

"And then what? Spill all my secrets to your Kind? Hoping that they will take you back? I can't trust you. I shouldn't even be traveling with you. Don't you understand that? I am constantly and repeatedly betraying my people. You and me, it's not a thing. It will never be a thing. It can't. The sooner you accept that, the better."

She pulled her hands free and moved again. Further away from me. It left a cold behind.

How stupid was I? Of course she was right. What was I even thinking? I wasn't. I was feeling. The biggest mistake a Hunter could make. The reason I was cast out. The reason I had never felt like I belonged in Helfarch, with the other Hunters.

My jaw clenched, my fist squeezed painfully hard, leaving crescent moons on my palms behind.

Why couldn't I just be normal?

Footsteps were heard from above, a shadow cut off the only ray of light, plunging us in complete darkness. Then, the lid was tilted up and there was light. Our little prison was indeed small; four steps forward and I would've walked into the other wall. The ceiling was higher than I had expected though, much higher. And in the ceiling, the wooden lid lay open and a lanky man with gray hair to his shoulders peered down. He looked so very ... bleak. There was nothing of color to him, only gray and white.

"Hello, sir. My name is-"

"I know who you are, princess. It does not help your case in the slightest." His voice was quiet, sand-papery. "The town has made up its mind, you are guilty."

"Guilty?" Kate asked with a raised voice.

My heart rate spiked for a second, before I got it back under control. No more stupid emotional mistakes.

"Excuse me, what are we guilty of?" I asked, my voice steady and strong.

"Ask your vampire friend," he answered before he stepped back and let other faces take his place. All of them looked equally drained of color. Some with their hair long and loose, others with their hair so short that you could see their skulls, even from down in our little prison.

"Let justice be as painful as the crime," a low voice from above said.

Loud creaking noises from metal against stone overpowered the buzz of our spectators. I hadn't noticed the small gap with metal bars in the opposite wall. Now, the bars disappeared inside the stone, leaving an opening only big enough for a single hand.

Kate backed away. Her eyes skipped from left to right, as if looking for something. She turned around, let her hands trail over the stone wall with incredible speed. She cursed under her breath when she didn't find what she was looking for. It was like looking at a trapped animal, trying to find its way out.

I, of course, hadn't heard the hundreds of thousands of little footsteps approaching. Otherwise, I wouldn't have stood there, waiting.

Hundreds of insects crawled out of the little gap in the wall, making its way towards us at incredible speed. The clipping of thousands of little footsteps on the hard floor echoed in the little cellar. Before I noticed what was happening, the first of the little crawlers was climbing up my boot.

"Get it off me!"

Kicking my leg up and down, I tried to move as much as I could. Three more were already making their way above my belt. I squirmed around, hoping for them to fall off. "What did you do, Kate?" Fear and anger made my words come out like throwing knives.

"Stop moving so much!" Kate hissed. The princess stood still, letting the insects walk all over her. Her legs were already black with them. "Those are Skin Scarabs."

Listening had never been a strong suit of mine, so her words went straight from one ear to the other, missing every vital part of my brain that registered information. I kicked and swatted my arms around. Until I felt it, a very painful bite in my leg. It was like someone was cutting a piece of skin out of my leg. I felt the heat of fresh blood well up. My eyes looked up into red ones. They had turned huge, and were fixated on my legs. Kate's teeth clenched with a clap, the tension of her masseter muscle lining off her jaw.

"Kate!" I warned her.

She shook her head. I saw her flinch.

"They eat fresh meat," Kate got out, but she sounded tense and out of breath. "They're blind and deaf, but they have amazing senses when it comes to movements. They find their prey through vibrations. So stop moving!"

"My heart beats, those are also vibrations," I managed to hiss back, before more of them bit me. Blood started to well up along my leg, never enough to trail down, but enough to leave red spots behind.

"Stay still!"

Then she hissed, and plucked one of the scarabs off the inside of her leg. Another mumbling of curse words.

Fighting against every survival instinct - no attacking, no running - I tried to turn myself into a statue. Even though they were still biting and my legs were starting to burn, I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing. I remembered a story Io once told me, about the mind being the strongest of muscles. You could turn any weakness into a strength, if only you thought hard enough. She had laughed about it, "only the smartest people can trick their own mind. Ironic, isn't it?"

Right now, I was hoping that I was smart enough to trick my body. I thought of Io, of how she managed to turn a blank piece of paper into a magical picture with only colored dust and oil. I thought of Ura, of how we had sparred so many times, and had fallen into the wet soil on our backs, out of breath, laughing. I thought of my mother, when she had climbed into my already small bed and hugged me after a particularly difficult day. I thought of how she had told me everything would be okay. I thought of how not okay anything was. And then I thought of Kate. How even though nothing was really okay, she somehow made it bearable.

It was working. At least for me. Kate, on the other hand, was getting nervous again. She was fidgeting, her hands might not be running over her legs like she usually did, but her shoulders were tense and her hands were anything but still.

"Enough!" Kate shook her body, attempting to free her from the Skin Scarabs. 

Black insects the size of my finger flew off her. In two steps, she ran towards the opposite wall, the one with the gap, and jumped up. Her foot landed in the gap where she pushed herself off towards the ceiling. By some miracle, her hand actually reached the opening. One of the men looked down, let his foot down onto her hand. Her cry of pain pierced my heart. Out of instinct - or whatever reason you want to call it -, I forgot our previous argument and grabbed a handful of Skin Scarabs, who were enjoying the flesh on my hands, and threw them up at the colorless crowd. I repeated the action, and up went the insects. Out of their cage.

Now the screaming didn't come from us anymore. My impulsive action gave Kate the time to climb up and grab the closest person by the neck. She disappeared from sight. For a second, I feared she would leave me behind. She might have saved me multiple times by now, but it was clear she still didn't want me around. My thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched whistling sound, and not only my fear was pushed back into its cage, but so were the Skin Scarabs.

It took longer for them to withdraw, then it had taken them to appear. Some kept biting with their small mouth and their razor sharp teeth. In the end, I was left standing with barely kept together clothing and lots of blood covering my otherwise white skin. The only good thing was that they were all superficial cuts.

"You okay?" Kate called from above.

"Yeah," was all I had to say, before I let myself drop to the ground, suddenly feeling very tired.