Chapter Eight

Ididn't know. But I did know. I just didn't know how I knew.

Until today, I had never known what a wisp was, let alone the monstrous creature that attacked us. That nearly killed Ayden, who put himself in harm's way to protect me.

I froze up. I never froze up like that before, but that voice in my head had paralyzed me.

The voice was in shadows in my mind. It sent chills down my spine and made my birthmark burn. Something that had only ever happened once in my life. Back when I had that premonition about Ayden on graduation day.

Because of my fear, I didn't help in the fight. The most I could do was tell them how to kill the damned things, but now I saw the looks in their eyes.

The questions. The confusion.

Even Rory seemed to wonder exactly what everyone clearly was thinking.

How could I possibly know what those things were? And why didn't I do anything against them?

‘What was that?'I asked my wolf. My arms wrapped around myself to hold back the shiver down my spine. I kept my eyes shifted away from everyone else as they helped Ayden to his feet.

‘I don't know,'she answered me. ‘I've never heard that voice before today.'

I hugged myself tighter as I thought about the voice.

It had been deep, though I couldn't quite tell if it was a man or a woman's voice. It wasn't any voice I had ever heard before myself, yet the frightening part of it was that I felt like it had been so familiar.

The mark on the back of my neck was back to burning again then, my hand moving up to rub the at the spot in an attempt to ease away the burn. As I moved, my eyes locked with Ayden, his gray eyes narrowed at my hand over the mark with suspicion.

I couldn't help but gulp as I pulled my hand back.

No one knew the origin of my birthmark. Not even Rory. It was a secret that only the adults in my family knew. A secret that I only learned when I turned eighteen and my mark burned for the first time.

My mother had been touched by darkness when she was pregnant with me. Infected claws had pierced her skin, and it took all she had to purge her body of the dark magic that threatened to consume her. The crones had cleared her and my health, with a promise that there was no more infection left in her body, but I was still born with the marks that matched her wounds at the back of my neck. Four small black crescent moon shapes, like the claws that had dug into my mother's neck.

"Let's get moving now," Ayden suddenly said. I turned, startled, and watched as he winced into a standing position.

He was clearly still in rough shape. I imagined his wolf was injured as well and doing his best to heal them, but it wasn't at a normal speed.

"Are you sure?" Baer asked.

"We don't have to go right away," Rory added. "You can rest more. We can make camp here, now that we are outside the forest."

Ayden shook his head. "No, we've wasted too much time. I don't know where those wisps came from or how they snuck up on us, but we need to keep moving. At least until sunset, then we can stop and make camp."

He looked over at me again, my eyes quickly averting as guilt rose up in my stomach again.

"Let's go."

I didn't argue. I didn't have the strength to fight him. All I could do was hold myself together as I drowned in this fear that I had never felt before.

"Okay, let's go then," I said as everyone turned to look at me.

Rory frowned as Baer nodded, and our group began to continue along the only path leading away from the forest's edge.

I remained silent, trailing behind to try to avoid the stares of the others. I'd catch them each looking back, could hear their whispers of my name on their lips when they thought I wasn't paying attention.

It was that voice in the back of my head, however, that I couldn't shake from my mind.

‘Don't fear, keep to the path. You will find what you are searching for soon,'the voice echoed.

My wolf whimpered as the voice faded in and out. The same message is playing over and over again in our mind. It made it hard for either of us to pay attention to the group or the scenery around us.

"It's like something out of a painting," Rory said from beside me.

I jumped, not realizing that she had drifted back to walk with me.

"What?"

"The view here. It reminds me of an old painting. It's ethereal. I'm not even sure I could have dreamed up a more beautiful place," she said, her hand gesturing around us.

"Oh," I looked around, finally taking in the views of the Forgotten Realm.

We talked as we passed meadows filled with wildflowers. Small colorful insects moving from each bloom, one after the other. I felt myself lightening at the sight of it. The calm of the world around us. As if nothing could go wrong here. As if the wisps hadn't just attacked us back in the forest.

"It is beautiful," I gasped.

Rory nodded and hooked her arm through mine. "Kind of makes you feel sad when you think about how this place has been forgotten. Could you imagine the history it may have held for our people? Maybe even for the humans as well!"

I looked around again with her words in mind, pushing away the fear that I had been feeling lost in my head. The strange voice finally died out as I watched a strange bird fly overhead of us.

She had a point. This place didn't even have a name anymore. It made me wonder what it was once called. If maybe the wildflowers each had their own name as well, long forgotten by the outside world.

And the bird, while strange looking to me, it would have once upon a time been known to those who lived in this region. It might have even been kept as a pet, or maybe livestock, to feed a village. It also would have a name forgotten long ago. Forever living apart from the rest of the world.

"How much do you know about the Forgotten Realm?" Baer asked Ayden then, the two walking ahead of us and taking in the same views.

Ayden shook his head. "Most of the research my family has done has been centered around the forest. It was a common practice for Alkmene to use the forest as part of her trials to prove our worth. We wanted to make sure that if any of our future descendants found themselves facing her trials, they would at least have some knowledge of the terrain."

"What happens if she doesn't use that place again because your family has studied it?" Baer asked.

Ayden shrugged. "Then I guess I'd better play close attention to the rest of the realm then and write down all that I see and learn. We don't want anyone to be blindsided by her the way my uncle had been. Although, we also have taken precautions with the young ones by using his story as a cautionary tale."

Baer laughed. "Oh yeah? What exactly did your uncle do to lose his magic? And why didn't anyone know he lost his magic? We knew he learned that new technique, but no one knew he completely lost his family magic."

Ayden sighed. "He complained about his magic. Wished that he didn't ever have it while he was drunk. Unfortunately, Alkmene had been watching him during that time when he said it. So, she showed him what his life would be like without his magic."

"And why didn't he get it back?" Baer repeated the question we had asked before.

Ayden sighed and looked forward. "Why do you think I'm after the same witch as you'll are?"

I frowned as Rory gasped, both of the men looking back at us with raised brows. I spun my gaze away when Ayden met my eyes, his gaze narrowing at me suspiciously.

"Minerva stole his magic from Alkmene," Rory surmised.

Ayden looked away from me and nodded at her. "Yeah. She tricked my uncle. He had no idea who she was, didn't exactly trust her, but still, she led him to the final trial where she made sure to steal his powers. For what reason, no one knows. Although my uncle seemed to believe that Alkmene had an idea. He said that she and her friends seemed shaken at what the other witch had done, but despite all her own power, The Fates still held her tongue from revealing to him what was happening."

"So, all you want from Minerva is your uncle's magic returned? What if she no longer has it?" Rory asked him.

Ayden flexed his fingers at his side. "Then I will make sure she tells me where it went." He looked back at me. "By any means deemed necessary."

Again, the voice whispered in the back of my mind, the sound distorted, but there nonetheless to remind me that Rory, Baer, and Ayden no longer trusted me. They all would still question me and how it was that I knew what I knew back in the forest. And even if I were to tell them the truth, that I didn't know how I knew, they wouldn't fully believe me, if they believed me at all.

Rory cleared her throat then, her arm tightening around mine as we walked.

"Are you okay, Sasha?" she asked quietly.

"Why do you ask?"

She let out a sign. "Because I know you far too well to not notice when something isn't quite right. So, if you won't tell me on your own, I have to ask you."

"I'm fine, Rory," I lied, the guilt of the false claim plummeting into my stomach.

I had never lied to her in my life. Never even wanted to. Never needed to, and yet now, I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth.

That I wasn't okay. I wasn't even close to okay.

I had a strange voice in my head telling me exactly how to fight off creatures I had never seen before in my life, and I couldn't bring myself to tell her.

"Sash, you know you can tell me anything."

"I said I'm fine, Rory. Please, just leave me alone. Watch the birds. Check out the flowers. Just leave me alone, please."

Her lips puckered into a pout, her arms loosening a bit, but not enough for me to pull free from her. I could see in her eyes that she wasn't about to give up on me. And I hated it so much that I couldn't just bring myself to tell her what had happened, how I didn't feel anything at all.

But at that moment, all I wanted to do was hide away from her in shame. That voice in the back of my mind was like an annoying bee once more, telling me that she wouldn't understand. That it was best to just keep it to myself. That they would all just judge me.

‘It's wrong,'my wolf tried to argue with a deep growl.

‘But what if it's not?'I argued back, my sight blurring with the threat of tears as I turned back to look at the strange plants and animals that we passed by.