Page 39 of The Book of Legends
“There you are.” A man no taller than Kainen walks up with similar features, except his eyes are blood red. “I was looking all over for you.” He stops, and his blood-red eyes take me in slowly.
“I was having a word with Kainen’s prisoner.”
The man tilts his head in my direction. “She doesn’t look like a prisoner.” Then he smiles. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Finnas.”
“Selene.”
He pulls back his hood. His hair is dark like ink. “Selene.”
The woman rolls her eyes. “What do you want, Finnas?”
Her brother. I wonder if he knows she has her eyes set on the dark prince.
“Mom was asking for you.” He drops his gaze to her basket. “I think she needs today’s take.”
She hands him the basket. “Good, then you can take it to her while I watch this one.”
“This one has a name,” I interject.
“Relax, Kiera. She isn’t so bad.”
“How would you know?” Keira looks at me disapprovingly. “I don’t trust her.”
“Keira.” Kainen’s voice cuts through the tension, as sharp and cold as steel. She turns, her claws gone, replaced by something softer. She walks to him, the transformation unsettling. How quickly a wolf could wear sheep’s skin.
I watch as her eyes soften when they land on Kainen in the doorway leading to a small house. She hands the basket to Finnas, and like a crack of lightning, she practically runs to him. Her long black hair escapes the hood of her robe.
When she reaches him, there is no doubt about the want in her gaze.
I recognize that want; I used to wear it like my favorite sweater when I looked at Micah.
Kainen bends so she can wrap her arms around his neck in a tight hug. His eyes clash with mine as he returns her embrace. I tear my gaze away right when he ushers her inside and shuts the door.
“Don’t mind Keira,” Finnas says with a smile. “She gets defensive when it comes to Kainen. Ever since the night he saved us all from the Nightfallen when they invaded our village, she sees him as her hero.”
“What happened?”
“They came in the night like moving shadows. Wyverns breathing fire, burning the entire place to the ground. The crops. Our entire food supply was decimated. The gorge is all that is left to grow vegetables safely and in enough amounts to supply Nythia. Since our powers are limited, we were practically defenseless, but then he came like a torch in the sky, destroying anything that was a threat.”
“I’m sorry.” It’s all I could say. I can’t blame them for worshiping the ground he walks on.
“It’s in the past, but all we can do is stick together, and there is no one you can really trust. Not everyone in Nythia is to be trusted. There are creatures that still have the need to hunt. And not all of us can survive on vegetables and animals.”
“But you do?”
He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes, and a sense of dread washes through me. “What do you eat? Usually.”
“Blood.”
I swallow. “Like vampires.”
He nods, but his eyes are like pools of garnet, his dark hair spilling over his shoulders. “Something like that. We’re Nightweavers. We hunt.”
“What do you hunt?” I ask, but I have an idea.
“Humans, mostly.” My steps falter. “Oh, but you have nothing to worry about. Keira was just messing with you. We arein charge of the gorge because we can move easier at night to plant the crops, and right before night sets, we pick.”
I look at the sky, the sun starting to set. The three moons peek out from the gray clouds.
