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Stripping off my cloak, I bundle it up and throw it under the makeshift bed made from two wooden planks, cloths, and feathers. My room is small, barely big enough to fit two people, but it is a lot more than what most have.
I grab the small box of ointment and strips of fabric and place them on the small wooden trunk sitting at the end of my bed. Opening the box, I check on my wound, pulling out a piece of fabric when a throat clears from behind me, making me wince.
“Seren, please tell me you did not just do what I think you did?”
I turn around and glimpse a look of disbelief written across my mother’s face. Her thick brown hair is pulled back, accentuating the elegant bone structure of her face and the sharp look she gives me. Her lips are taut with displeasure, ready to release whatever pent-up anger and worry she has.
My mother can be a scary person when provoked. As a former guard to the previous king, her skills and training arebeyond measure, her beauty and grace hiding a ruthless warrior beneath it.
No one provokes Aloisia unless they question their mortality.
“What exactly is it you think I did?” I ask, steeling myself for the oncoming lecture while angling my injured stomach out of her view. Seeing my small injury would only further her anger and concern.
Though she knows I can take care of myself and has seen me with much worse injuries, her worry for me always trumps any sense of duty.
Her sharp brown eyes narrow on me. “Now is not the time for games. Did you or did you not just sneak out to fight one of those dark creatures?”
I open my mouth to try to end this quickly, but she steps forward, her eyes alight with fury.
“What would have happened if you were caught? If they found out what you are, what we’ve been hiding all these years?” She knows she has trained me well, more worried about the guards catching me using my shadow powers than the dark creatures themselves.
Though, she has a right to worry. If the guards had caught me, I would be dead, there is no doubt about it.
But I can no longer hide myself away, not when the Sidus try to push back the dark creatures night after night. Not when the creatures grow in numbers and power.
Not when the Sidus’ light powers barely harm them anymore.
We need to do more.Ineed to do more.
The shield is no longer keeping the dark creatures at bay, its powers deteriorating and allowing more to pass through. We need to think ahead and plan for more than just fighting and surviving. We need a plan to live a life where we are not always fighting against some constant threat.
My hands tightly fist the piece of fabric. “I cannot stand by and watch another parent lose their son or daughter. Not when I can help. These abilities might as well come to our aid. If the Caligo choose to ignore what is right in front of them, then that is on their own consciences, but I will not spend another moment hiding when I can do something.”
She says nothing, watching me closely.
“You’ve trained me for this.” I step forward and wince, the quick movement aggravating my injury.
She growls as her eyes zero in on it. “I’ve trained you to protect yourself, not to become a vigilante in the cover of night.”
I hide the next wince threatening to reveal me, her words closer to the truth than she knows.
Grabbing the box, she makes me sit down so she can tend to my wound. Even in her angered state, she always looks out for me. It curbs some of my own anger, making me think before I say something I might regret.
“Ineedto help.”
“Seren—”
“I’m not a child anymore. I know there is more dark than light in this world. Let me at least try to find my own path in it.”
“Nineteen years of age is barely on the precipice of adulthood and does not give you the right to make decisions like this.”
“And what about the others? Those who cannot fight? Those who have no choice or say? Should we just ignore their pleas and sit back and watch?”
My mother stays silent, focusing on tending to my wound. I grab her hands and hold them tight, waiting for her to look at me. The anger in her face masks the true emotion seeping from her eyes.
Fear.
She fears what may become of me should I join their fight, and thinks she has to always protect me from the harsh natureof our world as she tries to be my shield. But it is about time I become someone else’s.
