Chapter 2 Brush and Bruise

Hidden Trail to Drowmere, Dawn

_______________

Some roads are hidden not to protect the traveler, but to challenge the people who would be bold enough to discover them.

________

The trail whispered to me as it always did - twisting like silver cord between the roots of the trees and old breath. I traveled down it with ease, my fingers pushing aside vines that glowed with ancient magic. They knew me. They heard. But today the woods felt. watchful.

I heard Elipha stumble once more behind me.

"You're limping," I told her without turning around.

"I'll be fine," he snarled. But I detected the grit in his voice, the tension in the posture in which he stood.

He had stopped asking me hours ago, but the air between us pulsed with all that he didn't ask.

"What's Drowmere like?" he finally asked.

I tarried long enough for him to catch the reluctance in my eyes. "Ancient. Guarded. We don't take to strangers."

"Why did you bring me there, then?"

Because you dream the same sigil carved on my birthstone. Because the moon whispered your name like incantation. Because seeing you makes me recall who I am not.

"Because I need answers," I said to him. "And you might have them."

We moved quietly until the trail narrowed, our shoulders brushing against one another. He stumbled, and I caught him - palm flat against his chest.

"Sorry," he breathed.

"Don't apologize for hurting yourself," I said, holding him still.

He turned his head then - looked at me. "I've never dreamed of someone so real. Not even asleep."

I let him go. Too fast. My heart slammed against my ribcage.

Kael. Think of Kael.

Elipha' POV.

She pulled away as if I had burned her with my touch, but her eyes stayed. Stone can be weathered like Drowmere, but Coci was carved from it. And something in her broke about me. I had not been deceiving her. Had I?

Drowmere emerged from the fog like something recalled in legend - high wooden palisades carved in shining runes, houses bent like roots into the earth. Fire burned both day and night, watchful and relentless.

I passed through the Sentinel gate. I was not refused.

Elipha hobbled after me, worse and worse now. I led him straight to my quarters - a simple stone hut packed full behind the armory.

"Wait here. Close the curtains. Don't speak to anyone."

He frowned. "And you?"

"I need to report to Kael."

His voice dropped. "Is he cruel?"

Only when he needs to be so.

"Only when disobeyed," I told him out loud.

I left him with his questions - and my fear.

_____

Kael'POV

She smelled of wind and secrets when she came with me. I could taste the difference in her blood. She lied when she told me she'd come alone - I'd already sent a scout past the southern stream. But I let it pass. For now.

Tonight, I would run with her.

Tonight, I would find out what she was hiding.

Because Coci Flameleaf was mine.

And no dreamer boy, no woods, would steal her away from me.

I went back to the cabin and found Elipha writing frantically in front of the fire. He glared up at me as I came in, holding out a charcoal sketch - Kael's face, ugly and brutish.

"This man. He is evil. I have seen him. In a dream."

I seethed.

"You do not love him," he said softly.

"I don't have to."

"Why stay?"

I sat beside the fire. The warmth didn't reach the chill ball in my heart.

"Because I swore to protect this pack. Even if death takes me and it means I must marry a man who uses me as a tool."

His fingers brushed against mine. Gentle. Human.

"You deserve better."

I didn't respond. Couldn't.

And then the knock came. Booming. Demanding.

"Coci Flameleaf, you are summoned to the council hall."

I returned to him. "Hide there."

"I'll wait for your return," he said.

I hoped he would.

---

Wrenna already sat in the council room. Kael's second. My rival. Beyond that ever.

"You look out of breath," she did a slow smile.

"Long patrol," I said.

"Strange. North watch they never saw you."

The danger was veiled but not hidden. She sensed something. And Wrenna never let her guard down once she smelled blood.

---

Later, I returned home in the evening.

Elipha was slumped at the hearth, sleeping with only a cloak tossed over his shoulders. He was too peaceful for this world. For mine.

I sat beside him, hands tracing his forehead.

He awakened. "You returned."

"Of course."

"I dreamed of you again."

"Armor or fur?"

"Neither," he replied, smiling in the dark. "Just stars."

I didn't answer. I couldn't afford to want this - not now.

"I'm changing," he whispered. "Like the forest is in my blood."

It is.

"If Wrenna finds out?"

"She'll kill both of us."

He nodded, serious eyes now. "She hates you."

"And still loves Kael," I said. "Which makes you a threat she'll never accept."

We sat, fire between, darkness creeping in.

Above, the moon was rising.

Inside, fate tied us up in a noose. Or a bond.

I had no idea yet.

________