I Am Seer - Book 3

Chapter 7 - Wind

"We shouldn't stay here for too long." I said. "We'll lose our head start."

"Hmm." Bohai hummed quietly in response, but the corner of his lip tugged downwards slightly as he crouched a few feet away from me.

I sat up slowly. "You don't think I should go, do you?" He refused to look me in the eye, and for a moment, I thought he would just ignore me.

"I don't think it's right for a bunch of old men–including my father—to trick you into thinking you're doing the right thing by dying for them." He said firmly. "When the time comes, they'll all be perfectly willing to muster armies of young people to take over land, so they can rule after the earth has absorbed all the bloodshed for them."

His eyes finally shifted to meet mine, and I could read his sincerity in their depths alongside anger. The idea that I had to die for this cause had caught him just as off guard as it had caught me, and I'd been too absorbed in my own shock to think about what he must be feeling. His own father had hidden the truth from him, leading him to believe he was on a noble mission.

"You ask what I think...I think you have no ties to us. I think you and Kotaro should leave without a second thought, because my people have sat here uselessly without putting up any fight as our culture dies around us." He ground his teeth together. "Now that you're here, though, we're willing to stand behind you while you give up your life for something that won't even help you...I think it's not fair how all this was presented to you—how they've made it seem like your only reason to be alive is so you can die for us. After everything they've done to you since we started this whole damn thing, it would serve them right if you ran off and never returned."

In regards to me, Bohai had always been a man of few words when he wasn't pleading with the tribes to join our fight. We'd barely exchanged more than a few sentences beyond generalities, and his sudden outburst was mildly surprising to me. My death meant his people could carry on living, but here he was telling me to ignore all of them and live for myself. I was almost overwhelmed by the sincerity in his voice and eyes.

"Why are you helping me if you don't agree with what I'm doing?" I murmured.

"I'm not entirely sure myself." He cleared his throat. "I thought at first I would force you to stop this madness—if only because it's the solitary apology I have to offer for the deception my father cast over you. But then I saw how determined you were and how you seemed to have already thought through all of this and still felt the need to move forward. I could tell you'd seen something that made doing this seem like your only option, so I made up my mind to follow you and do whatever it takes to keep you alive, because that's all I can do for now."

"Thank you." I said. "For not holding me back."

Despite the fact that I hadn't spoken a single word of what was going on in my head, my burden felt a little lighter after hearing what he'd had to say. I would never have been able to explain my reasons to Kotaro, because he was far too careless with his life where I was concerned and would have damned the consequences just to be by my side. I'd thought I should just keep it all to myself, but now, I wasn't so sure I had to do that. Bohai was willing to follow me without a clear reason, so it only felt fair that I share the truth with him.

"If I don't go to the Eighth," I looked away from him, pressing my lips tightly together. "I won't be able to learn what power I possess as a Seer, and in the end, someone will be able to use me to kill him."

Uttering the words aloud felt wrong somehow, and a lump formed in my throat. Tears stung my eyes as I recalled the feeling of warm, sticky blood coating my fingers—a vivid reminder of why I had to keep going no matter what.