When Sylvie decided she was brave enough to exit the carriage, Kerensa wasn't even around. Kian couldn't sense her either. "She must've gone ahead of us."
"Foolish," Elias remarked, unbuttoning his shirt around the wrists and rolling the sleeves up.
"Let's go then," Sylvie said, swallowing as her voice seemed to echo off the imposing stone pillars around the castle. Besides them, it was silent. Just like the time she walked through Trion's horrible forest, it seemed all sound ceased to exist.
Walking briskly, they made their way to the main entrance, the imposing doors hovering over them in dark stillness. Sylvie knocked, but when nothing stirred behind it, she gave the handle a hard pull. The door didn't budge, even when Elias tried. Kian muttered some magical words and tried next, but still, the doors stayed sealed.
"Something powerful warded these doors."
"Can you sense anyone inside?" Sylvie asked.
Kian's swallow and concerned face answered her long before his words did. "No. There are no signs of life."
He paused and looked over at Elias before finishing. "But there are bodies in there."
Sylvie's heart sunk as flashes of her visions appeared in her mind. "All of them?"
"I don't think so. There are old energy signatures leading away from the doors. Lots of them. Maybe they found other courts to live."
"Evergreen is the closest. Why wouldn't they tell the central kingdom if they were alive?" Elias asked.
Kian clicked his tongue against his teeth, and Sylvie realised his intention. He was lying.
"Don't lie to me, Kian."
"I didn't. I made an assumption, doesn't mean I think it's true."
"Do we think the Vampires did this?" she asked, turning to jog down the steps. Then, without knowing why, she headed to the hedge maze gardens as Kian and Elias followed behind her.
"Seems likely. But it doesn't explain the warded doors."
She picked up her pace, rounding the castle and froze dead in her tracks. It was gone. Every living thing. Dead. The green foliage of the maze had disappeared, the fine brown coating around the wiry branches likely the last remnants of it.
Walking again, she took Kian's hand, breathing deeply when a calming wave ran between their hands. Though she preferred he didn't manipulate her emotions, right then, she appreciated it. The nerves from what they were about to see didn't need to trigger her into a psycho mate-killing lycan.
They cut straight through the maze, the hedges skeleton crumbling as they pushed it aside, and eventually, they came across the only living thing left in the whole court: Milena's willow and the magic crow perched atop the lowest branch.
"Hey, little guy."
It opened its mouth as if to caw, but as expected, nothing came out.
"What happened here?" She asked it as if it would respond, and it tilted its head at her before flying down and scratching at the exposed roots.
"You want me to go in?"
"No." Elias pulled her back, but she shook her head at him.
"I'll be fine." She stepped towards it and looked back at her mates. Their identical expressions— dark eyes, clenched jaws and fists made her bite her lip. "You'll pull me out if I get stuck in there, right?"
Elias' face darkened even more, and before he could whisk her away into the safety of his arms, she turned away. Cracking her knuckles, she shook the jitters from her fingertips. "It's been a while."
The second her finger pads touched the bark, she melted into it, her mind filling with visions faster than she could decipher. "Wait, wait, slow down!" She spun, looking for an escape, but there was no way out.
A woman wandered down a darkened path under the light of a crescent moon. She touched her lip, a calming habit she picked up as a child. She stroked the hairline scar from her doctor-made cupid bow to the slight hook of her nose and back. They did a good job. Anyone who didn't know her wouldn't realise she ever had the cleft until they were right up close.
Sometimes, she wished she had photos of her face before. Her parents never thought to ask the hospital; now, it was too late. Someone burned it down when she was a teenager. The tinkling bells of the stores beside her played tiny melodies as she continued her walk. She knew exactly where she was going. It was her favourite place in the whole city.
Clove park.
Its solitary tree, planted in its centre, seemed to grow as she did. A small sapling she danced around as a child, now a magnificent forty-foot giant. She jumped over the short chainlink fence and padded over to it, the darkness much clearer as nature swirled under her feet. She always felt more grounded barefoot on the grass than on the concrete and asphalt blocks around her home. When she made more money, she would move to the country. She would. That's what she told her parents before they died, and she would do it.
With a sigh, she sat at the foot of the tree and closed her eyes, letting the gentle sway from the wind soothe her. Sometimes when she sat at its base, it felt like coming home.
Her friends used to call her weird, but she had no other way to describe it. Her favourite part, though, was the crow that would sometimes come and visit, more often than not sitting a few feet from her as she hummed wordless melodies.
"Mom?"
The woman opened her eyes and blinked. "Hello?" When nothing answered, she leaned back again and smiled. Only a few more months of study and she would have her masters in Natural Resources and sustainable forest management. It was probably too late for her home town, Verloren Valley, but her skills would be needed further north. She'd already started applying for a job in Alaska.
"Excuse me, miss. Are you okay?"
She jumped up from the sudden intrusion of a wiry man and nodded emphatically. "Oh, I'm fine. Thanks." She smiled even though she hated every second of the false niceties. Go away, creep. His teeth seemed yellow under the light, his sagging skin and dark eyes making her shiver.
"Oh, that's good. That's very good. Thought you might be one of those strung-out homeless chicks."
"Nope." She smiled again and clutched her bag, contemplating reaching for her bear spray.
"Do you wanna get a drink? I could shout you a Starbucks. It's pretty chilly out here."
"I'm fine, actually. Just had a coffee before." She shook her empty KeepCup for added effect.
"You know," his voice took a turn. Why did they always have to take a turn? She couldn't even count how many times men had accosted her. Fucking animals.
"It really isn't safe out here for a woman like you."
"A woman like me." Yep. Bear spray.
"A beautiful one."
Before she could retort, the man was suddenly on the ground, another man cloaked in shadow hovering above him, his face buried in his neck. Was he kissing him?
The wiry man struggled, her gurgling moans forcing her to back up, her back hitting her tree and drawing her to its safety.
"Wait." The new man said. "Don't disappear." He spun, red eyes sparkling in the moonlight and blood around his mouth. She thought she should be afraid. Terrified. But she wasn't. Something about him ebbed her fears.
He punched the gurgling man on the ground into silence and asked her, "Why didn't you kill him?"
What?" Her voice was breathier than she liked. "What do you mean?"
"You're a dryad, aren't you? A powerful one at that. I could scent your magic from three blocks away."
She shuddered as his words sunk in. Dryad. Dryad. Dryad? Despite it all sounding like gibberish, it all felt right. It felt real. After floating through her entire life watching others succeed around her while she struggled, she finally felt something true. From this man's lips. His blood-coated lips. His beautiful full lips. A tether she had been missing formed in her chest, and his shocked smile added another fastening. She didn't answer his earlier question. Instead, the only word that came to mind exited her mouth in a faint hush.
"Hi."
"Hello."
She licked her lips. "I'm Coralie. Kora," she amended. She wanted him to call her by her nickname.
He kept his distance, but his eyes, his now green eyes, made it seem as if he were only millimetres away.
His chest rose and fell as if he fought something inside himself. "Kindred." His whisper hit her ear, and her lips parted. Was that his name?
He swallowed, the action making her step closer.
"I'm," he paused and stepped back as she approached unafraid.
"You are?"
—
"No."
Sylvie screamed and pushed at the memory, the names making her body ache with longing, hurt, and betrayal.
Find him. A voice stirred her hair around her face. The voice was the wind.
Find your father.
"He is not my father. You're wrong."
We cannot be wrong. We are simply what is. What will be. What has been. We are.
Sylvie pawed and stretched towards the light, anything to get her out of the willow, but her body felt glued to the trunk. If she stayed there any longer, she would never escape.
"Okay! I'll look for him. Just let me out!"
—
The woman shook as she placed her bundle on the house's front porch. The couple had a toddler; surely, they would be a good fit. They could keep her safe. Safe from the world that took her father. It overlooked Clove Park, so maybe one day, when she was bigger, she would come to visit her. She wouldn't be able to leave again without risking her baby's life, but it would be enough.
She reread the note tied around the bundle and nodded. It would be enough.
'Kalina Sylvie, my heart.'
She blinked as tears dripped onto the note and stepped away from her baby. She didn't even make a peep. The woman knocked on the family's door and spun, running as quickly as she could to the tree. As long as she stayed hidden, the world wouldn't come for her child. She would be safe from a fate worse than death. The last thing she saw before disappearing into a forever sleep was her baby being lifted into the arms of another.
"Goodbye," she whispered.
—
"Sylvie?"
"Wake up!"
"Just shake her again."
Sylvie blinked into the sunlight, and the three haloed figures before vomiting at their feet. She shook her head to clear the fuzzies, and everything returned to her in horrible waves.
"Oh shit."
"What is it?" Elias and Kian helped her to her feet as Kerensa looked on with a scowl. Man, she was glad to see it.
She sniffed and coughed as an acrid burning smell hit her nostrils.
"What's on fire?" She didn't exactly expect an answer, but Kerensa gave one she didn't expect.
"Stone court. There's nothing left for us here but darkness. Fire purges."
"Okay," Sylvie said with a cough. "We should go."
"Uh uh." Kian squeezed her bicep, his curious eyes boring into hers. "What did you see?"
She sighed and shook her head. "Mostly my mother, I think, but it's more important what I know." She looked at Elias then. "I know who my parents are now, how they met, and what we need to do next to start healing the divide. Fates be damned," she grunted the last part, enjoying how it made Elias chuckle.
Kian, on the other hand, furrowed his brow. "Well?"
"Well, for one, my father isn't dead. And we need to find him."
Elias' eyes narrowed. "Who is he?" when she didn't answer with anything but a grimace, he added, "And where?"
"He's in Argyncia." She swallowed. "And his name is Magnus."