“Have you come to harass me more?”
“No, I want to tell you another part of the story that I haven’t told the others.”
He passes me a bottle of water and sits opposite me.
“I know you don’t trust me, Kaida, and, to be honest, I’ve given you no reason to. But I want you to understand why I've done and am doing the things that I do. There is no one else in the world I would explain myself to but you.”
I want to ask why, but the Fang’s words sit heavy in my heart, and I can’t.
“You expect so much from me, and you have no idea I’m just running for my life,” I say bitterly.
“Kaida, you only have to give as much as you can, and if it’s a word of encouragement, the people here would be grateful. These people talk about you in their homes, whispering of you because you are incredible but also defiant. You succeed where so many have failed. You are a symbol of hope. And hope is something we don’t have.”
When he reaches out and takes my hand in his, I don’t pull away.
“I grew up outside the city in a hidden little village called North Shore. The Beta’s Path seldom came to my home, and we generally had a warning when they were coming and were able to get into the forests and hide.”
I try to imagine living a life like that. I can’t.
“When I presented as alpha, my parents got scared, and they started training me in weapons and survival. But it was around that time I had the first dream.”
“Dream?”
“Yeah, I know this may sound crazy, but just hear me out, okay?”
I hesitate, but in the end, I incline my head. “I’ll listen.”
“The first dream was a dream of a woman. I couldn’t see her face, but I was standing behind her, and she was looking out at the sea. I remember being confused about why the ocean looked so strange, and then when I looked up, I saw a sky full of stars and a huge crescent moon. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”
“What was it like?”
“There were so many stars, Kaida, more than I could ever count, and the moon made the world glow.”
“It sounds amazing,” I murmur.
“In my dream, we stood there looking at the stars until the sun rose. When I saw the sun for the first time and a dawn, I was stunned by the colours. Oranges, pinks, the yellow of a sun too bright to look at. And the bluest sky.”
I try to imagine it, but I can’t. The sky has been grey forever. Blue is not a colour I associate it with.
“The next night, she called me by name. Night after night, she returned, showing me a world that I had never seen. Until the seventh night, when she sat down and asked me to sit with her. She said she needed me to do something when I was older. Something that was so important it would change the world, and maybe if we succeed, everyone can see the world like this.”
“Did you agree?”
“Not at first. How could I? It was a dream. I would have looked crazy, and things at home were hard. Food was getting scarce, and there were rumours that the Path was pushing out towards us.”
“It must have been really confusing,” I say and bite my tongue, frustrated that I’m getting sucked into his story.
“It was really confusing and a little bit frightening. She had a power and urgency that made it all feel real. And then one night, things got bad. She was there, but she wasn’t. This person said I needed to get all the children and go into the forest. I needed to hide them and protect them.”
I stare at him, absolutely mesmerised. He tilts his head back, closing his eyes as if he’s fallen intothe memory.
“I listened to her; I don’t know why. There was this feeling I couldn’t dislodge, and I just thought, just this once I’ll listen. I think it was partly because she was so scared. I gathered the children, and I tried to get my parents to come, but they refused. My parents said they had met the woman in my dreams and that this was the only way for us to be safe.”
He laughs bitterly.
“I thought they meant all of us. So, I took the children, and we hid in the caves. In the morning when we went back…”
He stops, breathing hard, and I crawl over so I’m sitting beside him, bracing myself for rejection. I reach out and gingerly take his hand, threading my fingers through his.
