Freya

The aching takes longer than it should to subside.

Even after one of the guards brings down a healing herbal tea, my bones protest at the impact of the hit they endured. Lei lies across from me, flat on her back on the single bed, staring at her fingers. The night has been and gone, yet neither of us have slept a wink.

We were upgraded to a single room on the second floor of the building Hana resides in. There isn't much aside from two single beds and a set of drawers, but it's sure nicer than the cells we spent most of our time in.

The lack of the metal bars should motivate me, but I can barely move as I sit against the wall, legs crossed, running through what happened in the forest.

"Maybe if we try at night," I suggest, my voice hanging in the darkness. "When he--Alaric--is asleep."

I run the situation through my mind. If Alaric is asleep, will his forcefield still work to keep us in? My body concaves at the thought of experiencing that pain again.

"Or maybe we could knock him out."

My suggestion goes unanswered. Lei, unbothered, seems unusually captivated by the shapes made by her hands.

We'd been back for hours, but neither of us had said a word. Until now.

"We'll find a way out," I say. "They'll come for us."

"Who?" Lei says, her voice flat.

"Casimir, Elex, Killian--"

Her humorous laugh cuts me off. "Nobody is coming for us."

"You don't know that."

"You can delude yourself all you want, but I won't waste my time waiting for someone who isn't coming." She swings her legs sideways to sit up on the bed, staring at me with heavy-lidded eyes.

I bite the inside of my lip so hard I start to taste blood. "I'm not deluded--"

"The dead don't concern themselves with matters of the living. We're on our own."

Her words hurtle through the air towards me but I duck past them, brushing them away as though they hold no more weight than a feather.

Because if what she's implying is true, then not only is all hope for escape useless, but hope itself.

A knock at the door interrupts us, cutting off my retort. I force myself to stand as the wooden door creaks, revealing one of the guards. Strong lines mark his forehead as he straightens his shoulders.

"They are waiting for you," he says, voice low.

Lei rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, we're coming. Off to sell more books and make absolutely no sales. How inconspicuous."

"Not you," the guard corrects. His gaze shifts to me. "You."

I exchange a glance with Lei who's mid putting her boots on. Me. In my mind, I see the forest, the forcefield, Hana and Alaric standing side by side over me.

"What for?" I ask, though I already know the answer.

"The marketplace. 5 minutes." He slips out through the door before I can put my boots on. My stomach tightens as I turn to face Lei.

She kicks her boots off and lies back on the bed again.

"You're coming, aren't you?" I ask.

She turns sideways and stares, deadpan. "You heard him. They want you."

"We should stick together," I press. "You said so yourself."

"You'll be fine."

"But--"

"They're not going to hurt their precious Cloud Piercer." There's not bitterness to her tone, she speaks matter of fact. "Now go, you've already wasted two minutes."

~

Winter has well and truly overtaken the forest. The trees, native to the area, have nearly lost all their leaves. I wrap my coat tighter over my shoulders as Hana leads me deeper into their grasps. In the daylight, it feels barren.

I always hated winter growing up. I despised the way the trees lost their green, providing no shelter from the grey skies that plagued the season. In Dadun, it feels more bleak. A colourless prison.

We walk for at least five minutes before the trees widen, giving way to a clearing before a steep hill. A lone figure awaits us in the clearing, their eyes meeting mine as Hana steps aside.

Alaric. The Kinjri.

I swallow the lump in my throat. He didn't speak a word last night, not even as Lei and I lay on the ground in pain. But his blue eyes pierce through the bland surroundings.

"Hana," he greets with a tilt of his head. Black clothing adorns him, making the blonde curls stand out. His eyes shift to me. "Alice."

I clench my teeth but force a nod. If Alaric holds the key to our freedom, I'm not about to make an enemy of him.

"You'll train early in the morning or late in the evening," Hana says to me. "Making sure you're making your shift at the stall in the market. We can't have anyone questioning your whereabouts. Be back before midday."

"You're not going to escort me?" I say snarkily. "Ensure I don't sneak away?"

Hana grins. "And where would you go?"

I bite back my response as she turns away, heading back the way we came and leaving me with the stranger. Alaric. I take a shaky breath before turning to face him.

Despite his youthful appearance, an air of intimidation surrounds him. Under his piercing gaze, I suddenly feel five years old.

"So," I start, swallowing my nerves, "you're going to train me."

Alaric steps closer. "Have you been trained with your gifts before?"

"I don't have gifts."

"That wasn't my question."

A memory plays through my mind. When Killian and Lei first took me from the castle and brought me to their camp, they tried to train me in that cave. But I push the memory away. I don't know him, but he's on Hana's side, which makes him Sanaa's enemy.

"No," I say. A frown etches onto his face. "I didn't know my mother was Kinjri until a little while ago. In fact, I didn't know I had any connection to the cloud."

"Then I guess we'll start from the beginning."

"The beginning?"

"Every Kinjri receives training from the day they turn 5 years old. An untrained Kinjri is like an unmanaged fire."

A chill crawls down my spine. "My father was human. I'm not Kinjri."

"You hold the power of the cloud inside of you," Alaric corrects. "No human would survive that."

His words hang in the air between us, thick like smoke. I keep my face straight, stoic. Alaric shifts closer to me, eyes raking from head to toe. They're a deeper shade of blue than Casimir's, and hold a softness that is rarely shown in Cas's, but they remind me of him all the same.

Alaric settles against the trunk of a tree, folding his arms across his chest.

"Tell me about your interactions with the cloud," he says.

"Aren't you supposed to be training me?"

"I know what I'm doing. I've been training the younger Kinjri since I was twelve. Now, tell me about the cloud."

I let out a long sigh, rifling through my mind as he watches me. "The first time I saw it, it came through Veymaw in the form of a storm. I got caught in it."

"And what happened?"

"A man lost his life. The cloud made him drown himself."

"I'm asking what happened to you, when you got caught in it."

I meet his gaze, trying to decipher how much to tell him. It feels like a betrayal to reveal the information he seeks, but if I want to control the cloud, he's my only chance.

For a brief moment, I think of Killian, the thought coming with a twinge of the usual wave of anxiety. Is this how he felt all that time in Veymaw? Constantly deliberating whether revealing information to me would help his ultimate goal?

I seek his voice in my head to tell me what to do, the one that's guided me since waking up in Dadun, but it's silent.

"I hallucinated, just like everybody else does," I say. "I thought I heard my father calling out for me, even though he's dead. And then I saw my little brother being dragged away by shifters. When I tried to stop them, one of them bit my ankle. It wasn't until Kill... until somebody told me the truth that I realised I'd caused the wound on my ankle with a knife."

"That was the first time. What about the others?"

"What makes you think there are others?"

"I saw you in the Saulun mountains. I know you didn't get all that way by avoiding the cloud completely."

I swallow. The reveal that he was present during that battle unnerves me. How much did he see? How much can I hide?

"The next time was... different. I was with two of my friends. The cloud got to both of them. It got to me too. I started to hear my father again, screaming for me, but... but then it got easier to ignore."

"Why?"

Samu's voice. It guided me through, grounded me, reminded me that it wasn't real. But instead, I shrug. Samu is a piece of information I will never reveal to these monsters. "I don't know, it just did. The other times in Torrinne were the same. I could still hear the calls, experience the hallucinations, but I knew they weren't real."

"And in the mountains in Torinne, when you summoned the cloud, did you hallucinate then?"

I shake my head.

"And you don't know how you summoned it?"

"I didn't even know that I had. I would never have touched the hyacerite if I knew what would happen."

"You would've preferred Ereon had it? Knowing what he would do?"

I meet his gaze. There's a shift in the way that he looks at me, genuine intrigue sparks in his gaze. A stark contrast to the bored mask he stared at Lei and I with last night.

But I don't answer his question. I don't want to think about what could've happened if I hadn't touched the hyacerite. If Casimir and I were still together, if Hana still had Killian captive, ready to execute him. Because the truth is, I don't know if that outcome would've been better. At least now, their fate is a mystery. Not definitive.

They could still be out there alive, searching for us while we search to escape.

They have to be out there.

"Meet me here this evening, just after the last light," he says in my lack of response. "Hana will be expecting you back soon."

The reminder of my daily duties knocks me back to the present -- where Killian and Casimir's fates are nothing more than a mystery. I shake the heavy feeling in my stomach and turn around, intending to head back the way Hana and I came.

"I didn't think commoners in Veymaw were allowed tattoos."

I half-turn. With his soft curls and icy eyes, Alaric blends in with the wintry forest. I follow his gaze, resting on my palm where the black marks maim my skin. I close my fist. "How do you know about Veymaw?"

The left side of his mouth twitches upwards, creating an indent of a dimple in his cheek. It softens his look, making him seem more his age than the serious exterior he wears.

"I know more than you think, Freya."

The use of my name catches me off guard. I had assumed that like the others, Hana hadn't told anyone my real name, using only Alice to avoid a slip up in public. It makes me wonder how close the two of them are.

I recompose myself, tucking my hand behind my back and force a smile. "Have a good rest of your day."

His gaze follows me the whole way back.