8

~Faye

“Cal,” I say softly, my eyes unable to remove themselves from the gaze of the escaped Silent. “I think you need to turn around. 

In time with a single flinch, he twists around, his bow loaded for a split second before he shot in the direction of which I was staring. I made the mistake of blinking, missing the arrow hit right into the tree, where T had originally been standing. 

He was gone. Just like that. 

“Is that your way of distracting me?” he asks, a dazzling smile attempting to mask my earlier fright. I simply blink, completely stunned by what I am looking at. Cal’s shot would have been fatal had the Silent been standing there.

Had he been? Or has he plagued my mind to the point where I’m having hallucinations and I actually thought he was there?

Cal distracts me by walking in front of me, pausing with the fledging of each arrow pressed lightly against his chest. “Want out of here?”

I consider keeping on the subject of T, but I move on, accepting it as a trick of the light. 

“That would be nice, thank you,” I say. A chill has settled over me since seeing him, so now, I want to go home. “Escort me back, Huntsman?”

If he’s surprised that I suddenly want to turn around and walk back to my room, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he looks perfectly amused by my current situation pinned to the tree by his arrows. Mercilessly, he plucks each one out, letting me stretch out my arms and step away from that damned trunk. 

“Thank you for ruining my clothes,” I say, although we both know it doesn’t bother me. 

“Come on,” he says warmly. “Let's get back.”

***

Dazed, I blink warily into the darkness, tinted only slightly from the moonlight. The time of night is impossible to tell, considering the last time I slept was after midnight. 

I sit up in bed. I just have been stirred by something, and when I glance out my window, I notice hard hitting rain splattering across the glass loudly. That has to explain it. I believe that until I glance slightly to the end of my bed…

A figure stands there, shadowed, even by the moonlight. They stand directly at the foot of my bed, clearly staring at me. 

My first instinct is to scream for Cal’s assistance, however, my voice is lodged in my throat, as if some sort of imaginary block has been placed where my vocal cords are. I even try to escape, but the feeling of my limbs pinned to my mattress is overwhelming. 

I'm not going anywhere. 

A flash of lightning brightens the room brilliantly, to the point where the intruders identity is revealed. A part of me isn't even surprised. T, the Silent. 

Then he's gone again, and all feeling returns to my limbs in a rush of warmth. My immediate reaction is to stagger out of bed, my sheets entangled around my legs. I barely make it to my bathroom before I throw up, the feeling of distress too overwhelming to manage. 

Cal is immediately at my side. He check my room and around it multiple times before he deems it safe. I only fall asleep when he agrees to keep his door open. 

***

“You slept late last night. Night terrors are common,” Cal explains at breakfast. 

I had just spent the past hour singing to the Goddess, which only caused my voice to crack shoulders to slump. I'm beyond exhausted, and not just my lack of sleep. I've been too afraid to go down and visit T, to question him about what I keep seeing. My Guards assure me he's still there, which means at least that he's not escaping. 

I can't shake the uneasy feeling though. It's completely drained me. 

“I'm going to see a Gaze Reader,” I mutter of a spoon of cereal. Gaze Readers are magical beings from the Devotion Pack. They have the ability to look into your eyes and see what you have seen, and what you will. I need to know if what I've been seeing is real, or just a fabrication in my mind. 

“I suppose that's an option,” Cal mused, giving me an immediate feeling that he's not fully opposed to the idea, however, seems speculative. 

I know of a single Gaze Reader who would be willing to see me today. There is no way I'm willing to spend the night with visions like that. 

After a few hours with my head against my work desk, dealing with things every Alpha despises, Cal escorts me to a Gaze Reader in a close by village. She's well known to my family, and her home has always fascinated me since I was a young girl. The idea of seeing it against is admittedly exciting. 

Her house it on the outskirts of the small village. It's beaten down, and although my family have paid her generously in the past, she claims her preference lies in staying as close as possibly to nature. 

When she answers the door, she has a brilliant smile on her face. That's what I love about Gaze Readers. They have this amazing ability that they don't show off at all. 

“Alpha Faye, what a pleasure,” she claims, ushering me into her home, Cal following in after. 

He looks strange in this room, with his broad shoulders and towering height. Yazzmine, the Gaze Reader’s roof sinks in the middle of her small home, causing Cal to almost duck to fit in. Instead of ridiculing that, I pay attention to the books she has lining almost every wall. Some are even stacked on floor, pushed into corners of propped on furniture. 

“As you know, I would like to gaze read,” I say, sitting down at a table right in the middle of the room. It's the only clear space in here, ready for any appointments Yazzmine may have. 

“Of course,” she says, pulling back her chair to sit in it. Cal remains standing, watching everything carefully, while glancing out the window every now and again to make sure no one followed us here to watch. “Anything in particular that you would like answered?”

I swallow uncomfortably. “Well, I've been having these strange moments where I see someone…then the next second they are gone. Are they real?”

Yazzmine grabs my hands, clasping her cold fingers around mine. I shiver at the intensity of her gaze matching mine. 

“It's hard to see…” she says softly, her eyes creasing as she focusing hard on my pupil. “Perhaps ask another question, and we will come back to that.”

“I was threatened by a Silent. Was his intentions to kill me?” I ask nervously. 

She takes a moment to answer. “No.”

I exhale slowly, trying to take that in. T doesn't want me dead, or at least, didn't when he threatened me. It doesn't mean I trust him anymore, especially since he's been plaguing my thoughts so often. All I want is him out of my home, and preferably put on trial. 

“Will his trial be put forward?” I ask. 

“No,” she replies. 

My jaw clenches. That's information that's only going to make things worse. 

“So who is he then? If he doesn't want me dead, then what does he want?”

These questions are detailed for a Gaze Reader. They warn that direct consequences can change with Fate’s manipulation as, or perhaps even the Goddesses. They also stress that they are not always able to produce detailed explanations, since they see only what they can interpret. 

She takes awhile to answer. “I cannot see his motives, however, he is…not who you think he is.”

I want to say that's a given but I keep my mouth shut. 

“Okay. Can we go back to the visions?” I ask anxiously. That's why I'm here, to figure that out. “Are they real, or are they not?”

She clenches her jaw, seeming to put all her possible focus into it. 

“It's impossible to tell, but the one in the visions is…”

Suddenly, her complexion turns pale, as she shields her eyes away from me, trying not to make any further eye contact. She pushes herself away from her chair, having to turn away from me, her breath laboured. 

“What did you see?” Cal questions. 

I try take a softer approach. “Is everything okay?”

“I apologise,” I hear her say. “What I saw shouldn't be shared with anyone, including you, Alpha. I may have some herbs to ward off your visions at night. These will only mitigate them, however, I doubt you will be able to put an end to them for now.”

Her words are as frightening as her frantic actions. She bustling around her kitchen, plucking herbs from one shelf, and a glass bottle from the other. She stuffs the rusted brown plant into the bottle, places the cap on it and hands it to me. Still, she refuses to look her in the eyes.

“What did you see that scared you so much?” I ask. I need to know what T is. Clearly she saw something to do with him that terrified her.  

“Nothing I can share, Alpha,” she exclaims, shoving the vial into my palm to wrap my fingers around. 

My confusions shrouds my sanity. How could she not tell me something that seems important? I'm her Alpha, who deserves to know why she doesn't get the answers to her visions and hallucinations. 

Cal makes as much protest as I do, however, she's quick to usher us out as she was to get us in. 

“Please,” she says, as she closes the door. “Don't involve me with him.”

To that, she closes the door in our face, and leaves me with only more questions. 

Who is T?