Freya

Lei ignores me for most of the day.

When I try to catch her eye from across the marketplace, she avoids my line of sight. Her bright and cheerful smile, while horrifically fake, charms many of the villagers as they muse at the books at her stall.

It's a stark contrast to her active glances yesterday, her nods to side streets, her widened eyes to potential weapons latched at the belts of an unsuspecting passerby.

By the time we start to pack up and she finally acknowledges my presence, it's only to force a small, fake smile when Hana invites both of us to dine at the local Tavern for dinner.

I glance at the sky as we make our way through the cobblestoned streets. The sun rests just about the horizon line. Not long until nightfall, until training again. I shove the anticipation away and pick up my pace to match Lei's, nudging her in the side.

"Hey," I say, keeping my voice low to avoid Hana up ahead. "You okay?"

"I'm starving," she comments.

Music calls us around the corner, dancing through the air as we walk through the village. All around us, villagers are heading home from work. Those working in the fields come with sweat stained shirts and tired faces. The familiarity of it burns.

I never thought I could miss Veymaw so much, normality.

The local Dadun Tavern, affectionately named The Rose, is alive with movement as we approach from around the corner. A cacophony of laughter vibrates through the doors, jovial music pulling us closer.

Hana stands at the door and waits for us to enter behind her, gaze never leaving mine. As we enter, the humid air wraps around us, eacha attendee offering welcoming smiles. I find myself curious as we shove through the crowd to empty tables at the back. The tavern in Veymaw always seems this lively from the outside, but I was never old enough to go in.

Hana takes a seat at the end of a long table with the others. I wait for Lei, dawdling behind. She takes one look at the table and opts for the other instead.

I ignore Hana's frown and sit opposite her, trying to ignore the guard who also sits at the end of our table. It's the same one who waits outside our room and delivered us food when we were still in the cells.

Leaning closer, my voice hidden from the guard by the mask of music, I nudge her foot under the table.

"The guard only follows us when we're in public," I whisper. "In the room, there's never anyone waiting at the bottom of the window."

She glances at me briefly, as if I haven't even spoken, before looking back at the lively crowd. I bite the inside of my cheek in frustration.

"Lei, have I done something to upset you?"

"Not everything is about you, Freya."

"Then what's wrong?"

At that, a small laugh escapes her mouth. "What isn't wrong?"

I don't have a response, because she's right. Settling back in my seat, I take a sip of the glass the server placed in front of me just as Alaric emerges through the crowd. He pushes his blonde curls back off his forehead, eyes searching the space till they land on Hana's table.

She calls him over. I follow his movements as he breaks away from the crowd, each footstep, each apologetic smile as he disturbs people around him. It almost feels as though I should notice something different about him, something Kinjri. But he blends in just as well as the others.

He settles down, smiling as Hana murmurs something to him. His eyes dart towards us, but I quickly glance away, back to Lei so he doesn't notice me staring.

"I'm supposed to 'train' again with him tonight," I say to her. "But it wasn't really training at all. He was just asking a lot of questions about the cloud and the times we've seen it."

"So you're helping them?" she asks, looking at me for the first time.

"I'm not helping them. I'm trying to help us."

She doesn't respond, just stares at me boredly. "Lei, I have to learn to control it. If I don't... what happened in the mountains... I might hurt somebody."

"That's the whole point, Freya. They want you to hurt somebody. That's why they're training you."

"I know." I lean closer, widening my eyes. "But we won't be here when it comes to that. Killian and Cas will come and we'll be able to get out of here."

Lei laughs, not bothering to keep quiet, not caring at the guard whose eyes drift to her. "Killian and Cas are not coming to save you, Freya."

"Why?" I demand. "Why do you have so little faith?"

"Why?" She doesn't wait for a response. "Because they're dead."

"You don't know that--"

"I do know that. You know how I know that?" She doesn't wait for a response. "Because you told me. You told me you saw Juem's dead body. You told me what happened when the cloud rolled through in the mountains, when you could hear Casimir calling your name, when you left Killian writhing in silver chains as the cloud engulfed him. If he's not dead, he's infected with evocian, which is arguably worse. Nobody is coming to get us because everybody who could is dead! Why can't you get that through your head?"

The music rages on, but the voices, the dancing, the music -- they all come to a pause. It's only when Lei stops that I realise her loud voice has drawn the attention of all those around us. The villagers stare at us with peculiar gazes, whispering to one another.

I don't concern myself with their gazes. I can't draw mine away from Lei, my vision blurring, gaze burning.

"Please excuse them," Hana jumps up from her table, stepping in front of ours as she faces the crowd. "We miss our family so greatly in Portson. Some of us are having trouble with... the grief."

Slowly the villagers return to normal, but I cannot. Rage pulses through my veins. At her words, at her nonchalant expression, her lack of faith. But worst of all, the thought that maybe, just maybe, she's right.

The humid air gathers around my neck, making it hard to breathe. I shove up from the table, continuing to glare at Lei, but she refuses to look at me, back to staring emotionlessly at her cup.

I shove back from the table and push through the crowd till I'm spit out the door.

Her words scream through my mind.

Dead. They're dead. I put my hands to the sides of my head and squeeze my eyes shut. She doesn't know what she's talking about, she wasn't there.

I open my eyes. Alaric stands across from me, his eyebrows knitted together. With a jolt, I jump backwards in surprise, trying to compose myself by standing up straight and shifting to a neutral expression.

"Sorry," he says. "I didn't mean to scare you."

I cross an arm over my chest, like it can somehow prevent my heart from sinking any lower. "What do you want?"

"It's dusk," he explains, gesturing to the sky.

Training.

It's the last thing I feel like doing. Especially after my argument with Lei. But if the other option is going back in there and facing her after what she's said, perhaps training isn't so bad afterall. I can't bare to look at the blank look on her face, the vacant eyes -- they all remind me of what I refuse to acknowledge.

She could be right.

I nod without a word, following when Alaric moves towards the forest edge. Neither of us speaks as the forest engulfs us. Orange streaks paint the sky, the silhouette of birds ducking in and out creating a picturesque scene. In the soft light, Alaric's curls burn a more pink tone. We come to a stop just before the clearing, still sheltered by the naked trees.

Alaric turns to look at me. Trying to shake Lei's words, I meet his gaze.

"What now?"

"First things first -- protection."

"What does that mean?"

"It's the first step to any Kinjri training. Before you learn to control your gifts, you must learn to be able to protect yourself," he explains. "There's no point in being able to use a deadly gift if you kill yourself with it, too."

"Are you speaking from experience?"

"Would I be standing here if I was?" He raises a brow.

"I assume your gift wouldn't kill you. You'd just trap yourself somewhere accidentally or something," I explain, tilting my head sideways. "How does that work, by the way? How do you tailor the forcefield to keep just Lei and I in without affecting any of the villagers?"

The edge of his mouth tilts upwards. "This training isn't about me."

"It's just a question."

"Is it?" He gives me a look that tells me he can see right through me. "And no, I've never trapped myself somewhere because like I mentioned, all Kinjri including myself receive training on how to avoid harming ourselves with our gifts."

I sigh, admitting my defeat. "So tell me how."

"I assume you're already doing it a little," he says. "The past few times you were in the cloud, you managed to ignore its pull. How?"

Samu. The way his voice called through my mind, pulled me through the mist and agonising screams.

"I... I don't know."

He stares at me for a few seconds before speaking. "This isn't going to work if you aren't honest with me, Freya."

"I just told myself it wasn't real," I say instead. "So it wasn't."

Eventually, he leans back against the tree. "And you're confident you'd be able to do it again? Perhaps even extend it to others?"

"That's possible?"

"I assume so. With any Kinjri gift, we can usually extend our protection to others."

"You keep forgetting I'm not Kinjri."

"I'm not forgetting anything."

I stare at him. The sun has mostly set now, and in the absence of it, shadows darken his bright blue eyes.

"Follow me," he says. "I'll show you something."

He doesn't wait for me to follow. As he disappears further into the dark trees, I glance over my shoulder, back towards the village. There's a softness to his appearance, making me want to trust him.

But as I turn and follow in his direction, I remind myself of the truth. He is the one keeping us trapped.