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One trail follows the stream, meandering through the luminescent forest. The other takes a dive into a world where the light doesn’t dare go. A screech echoes through the ominous valley, reaching my ears and sending a rush of cold down my spine like an icy river. I drop Tanner’s hand, clutching my arms to my chest.
“What was that?” It is too dark to see anything in the valley.
“Only a banshee.” Grayson folds the paper and sticks it in his pocket, then lifts his torch. “We’ll take the high road this time. Less of a chance of losing either of you… but there’s always a chance. Ninety percent according to most.”
“You already told us that,” I say through gritted teeth. “It’s not like we need the reminder.” By now, I can hear my pulse in my ears. My footsteps struggle to keep up with my heart beats as I take in short breaths. There’s an electricity in the air, prickling my skin, and threatening to suffocate me. When we first entered the Unseen, the wilderness appeared mysterious and, in a way, lovely. With the new knowledge from Grayson, unknown threats seem to lurk behind every tree.
The path continues to follow the stream, which bubbles and gurgles beside us. Tanner’s hand is in mine. His skin is clammy, but we both refuse to let go. Any of the monsters Grayson mentioned could devour us as a late-night snack.
“We’re about twenty minutes away.” Grayson scans the forest as we walk, his fingers dancing on the hilt of his revolver. “Don’t expect a grand welcome. The other orphans grew up in the Unseen. Their parents were part of the human expulsion.” He stops and looks back at us holding hands. “And don’t use any of the higher than thou language you’ve used with me, because they’ll slit your throat quicker than a vampire.”
I never expected that moving to the Unseen would be a fun adventure, but I hadn’t anticipated the hatred the Undesirables feel toward the Citizens. “How long did it take you to be accepted?”
“When I made my first kill.” Grayson’s boots clomp over a bridge, then go straight through a mud puddle. Dirt and mud are about as welcome in Avren as the Undesirables.
Tanner’s eyes widen, sparkling in the moonlight. “Was it a vampire or a werewolf?”
“Neither.” Our guide keeps walking through the puddles Tanner and I are desperately trying to avoid. “He was a Citizen.”
“That’s a capital offense.” Tanner drops my hand, moving back from Grayson. “If I turn you in, you will face the firing squad.”
“Do you really think I give a shit about capital offenses here?” He glances at the moon, stops, and removes a silver dagger from his coat. It glistens in the warm glow from above. Silver daggers are for…
A low growl reverberates from the bushes to my left. I freeze. Other than the sharp end of the heels in my bag, I’m defenseless.
The creature springs from its hiding place, knocking Tanner to the ground. His screams echo through the forest, and all I can do is cover my ears and close my eyes, knowing I’m next.
Please don’t eat me… please don’t eat me…
I silently pray to the distant gods of the wilderness, unsure of what else to do. Grayson shoves past me, knocking me out of my frozen trance. He dives onto the back of the creature and sinks the silver blade into its back. The wolf lets out a deafening howl as it whips its head around to glare at the intruder behind him. Blood drips from its mouth, and I think I’m going to be sick.
The creature bucks to dislodge the man from its back, but Grayson is too quick. He pulls the dagger from its body, and with one swift movement, slides to the wolf’s underside, driving the weapon into its soft skin. Grayson rolls to the side and onto the ground, away from the wolf and Tanner.
A howl comes from its mouth before it whimpers and falls to the ground.
Shrieks fill the air, and then a hand covers my mouth. I’m looking at the scene from a faraway place, unable to control my body. Blood is everywhere, the smell overwhelming me. I taste it fresh on Grayson’s hand, metallic and bitter. In Avren, healers encounter bodily fluids, not everyday Citizens. The sight of it makes me dizzy, and I struggle to stand, only his hand holds me up.
“It’s alright. It’s over.” He keeps his hand over my mouth; his other one steadies my waist.
“Tanner.” We need to help him. There’s a pool of blood by his body beneath the wolf. Which one does it belong to?
His hand moves from my mouth to my forehead, smoothing back my hair. “He’s gone. I couldn’t move fast enough before the creature delivered its deathblow to his neck.”
My body shakes, and I’m unable to control it. Violence doesn’t exist in the city. Other than my mother’s slow descent into the sickness, I’ve never seen another human die.
Grayson turns me toward him, pulling me into his blood-stained shirt, and wraps his arms around me. It’s an odd mixture of comfort and horror. My head spins with the weighty scent of the carnage as everything goes black.
When I wake, my eyes focus on a canopy of lights above me. Tiny creatures and insects dance among the boughs and fronds of the trees, blissfully unaware of the turmoil in my heart. It doesn’t surprise me that only ten percent of Citizens make it in this cruel world. Our parents raise us to be sophisticated, valuing knowledge, manners, and discourse over strength and combat abilities. For Grayson to change his entire way of thinking in a matter of years seems unfathomable.
“Do you think you can walk?” He sits with his back to a tree, sharpening a stick with his knife. He must see me as a weak girl, more accustomed to balls and tea parties than hikes through the wilderness. And he’s not wrong.
I hold back the tears, not ready to show any further weakness. “How did you do it? Change, I mean.”
He sighs, leans his head back against the bark. “A damn good teacher. Someone who wouldn’t give up on me. And I’m sure he wanted to throw me into the Lake of Glass multiple times and never look back.” He stands up and holds a hand out to me, pulling me up. “I know this might be difficult to believe, but I was worse than you. With such a short time until my birthday, I thought I was on the track to follow in my father’s footsteps, and I had the arrogance to show for it.”
He still holds his arrogance, but it’s different than that of a Citizen. With Grayson, he has earned a right to be proud of his accomplishments.
“What is your percent of successful deliveries of new Undesirables?” I brush the grass from my blood-stained skirt in a useless attempt to appear presentable.
