Awakening (Born From Shadows #1)
Chapter Thirty

“When we were in Faithorn a woman came up to me and said some things to me,” Tatianna told Nik who was seated behind her. Ida’s feet moved slowly along the path. The pace wasn’t ideal, but it was all that Riley could manage.

“What did she say?” Nik asked curiously.

“Something about how the Hunt isn’t who we should be worried about. That there is some woman called the Lady of the Night coming after me. Have you ever heard of her?” she asked.

“No,” he replied, “why haven’t you brought this up before?”

“I don’t know if I should trust what she said. She killed herself right after saying it so the source of the information didn’t seem all that reliable,” she truthfully answered.

“The Lady of the Night…” Nik repeated, “perhaps she could be the one supplying all the weapons to the Hunt, or the Hunt’s leader.”

“The way she said it though…it almost sounded like she wasn’t related to the Hunt but was a part of something else entirely,” Freya joined into the conversation

“A part of what?” Nik asked.

“I don’t know, some evil organisation or something,” Freya exclaimed.

“Evil organisation got it,” Nik replied sarcastically.

“There is no such thing as evil, just those who are misunderstood and fall down the wrong path,” Tatianna told them.

“I have reasons to debate that,” Nik said and rested his head onto her neck so that she could feel his breath on her skin.

“Be that as it may, there is something else going on that we are not aware of,” Freya said moving the discussion onwards.

“Being ignorant usually leads to your death, you can’t fight something if you don’t know what you are fighting. It’s like jumping into the water and praying some shark isn’t there to eat you up, if it is then you are dead no matter how strong of a swimmer you are,” she said.

“True, so we need to work out who this Lady of the Night is or if she even exists,” Freya said.

“Every member of the Hunt always kills themselves before we have the chance to question them, so did the woman at Faithorn. We can’t get any leads,” she said annoyed.

“Then they are all trying to hide information,” Nik concluded, “we just need to get one to talk.”

“How?” Freya asked.

“They don’t talk because they are extremely loyal, they have to be to kill themselves for the cause. Fear is a very strong emotion; our instinct is to survive, and fear helps us do that. We need to make their fear overcome their loyalty,” she said.

“You’re not suggesting what I think you are…you’re not going to torture someone,” Freya said in distaste.

“I don’t want to but if it was necessary…” Nik’s voice drifted off.

“I say we capture one first, make sure they are alive and have no way of killing themselves. Then we will decide on how to make them speak,” she said, knowing that it would probably lead to torture but at least it allowed them the opportunity to speak freely.

“I can’t believe we are even debating this,” Freya said. “It makes me feel sick.”

“Sick is better than dead,” she told Freya. She didn’t know if she had it in her to torture someone…sure she had done bad things in her life, but torture was not one of them. To listen to someone screaming for hours…she didn’t want to think of it. First, they would capture them, then they will work out the details.

An uncomfortable silence settled over them as none of them knew what to say next. Tatianna looked over to the trees, noticing the layer of snow that covered their leaves was no more. Winter was ending, spring was here. A small blue bird stared at her from the branch of the pine tree. It was looking at her like she was some sort of science experiment, she thought it was because she was an Elf. That seemed to be the reason for most things in her life.

It made her wonder if her parents were Elves why leave her in a place filled with people you wanted to kill Elves? It didn’t make any sense to her, perhaps they wanted her to die. Yet the dagger at her side begged to differ, she didn’t remember who gave it to her, but she assumed it must have been her parents, no one else knew her at such a young age. So, they armed her then left her to rot in some city? Did the Hunt kill them too?

“Tatianna, I have something for you,” Nike said. Only then did she realise that Nik drifted Ida way from the hearing range of the group.

“What?” She asked.

“When I asked your age, you said that you were eighteen now…which meant your birthday had passed, so I decided to get you a gift in Faithorn.” Nik reached down into one of the saddlebags and pulled something out. It was a small box. He placed it into her hand.

“Happy birthday,” he whispered to her. She almost dropped the gift out of shock. He was giving her a present. She couldn’t believe it.

“Nik, you didn’t have to,” she said trying to hold in her smile. She hadn’t even opened it yet and she was filled with joy.

“I thought you’ve probably never had a birthday present before and turning eighteen is a big thing, so I felt inclined to do so.” She didn’t correct him on his statement. She had been given a present before on her birthday. Once many years ago but that didn’t end up well. She decided to push away those painful memories and replace them with this one.

“Thank you,” she replied.

“No need to thank me, open it,” he told her. Her slim fingers pushed the lid of the box off to reveal a necklace. One with a black leather string a pendant of a silver wolf on the bottom that had bits of sapphire laced through it and on its eye. It was beautiful.

“I was going to get a full gold necklace, but you aren’t most girls. I thought this would be better suited for you,” he said.

“I love it,” she admired the piece of jewellery. She had never owned something like this before, it meant everything to her. She looked down at Nylif who was by Ida’s side. They were both wolves now, in their own way.

“Can you put it on?” she asked gesturing to the necklace. He nodded and took it from her palm. His hand brushed away her caramel hair, his fingers faintly touching her neck as he tied the necklace on.

“Beautiful,” he said, “both you and the necklace.”

Tatianna’s cheeks went red. Being called beautiful was another thing that she had to get used to. She wasn’t being called a piece of trash or filth or a psycho with creepy eyes, she was being called beautiful.

“Thank you…so much,” she told him not knowing what else to say.

“Anything for you Storm,” he replied.

“Now are you going to tell me why you call me Storm?”

He smiled. “At first it was because of your eyes, but now it is also because of your personality. Storms are deadly, they can be destructive and catastrophic but also beautiful and renewing, filled with possibilities. Utterly extraordinary. You are a Storm.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said. He turned her head to face him, and he did not waste the opportunity to kiss her on the lips, his mouth this time was soft. There was something else behind the kiss, more than just passion. An emotion she didn’t have the time to pinpoint before he pulled away.

He guided Ida back towards the others, she noticed Riley starting to struggle to stay on the saddle and she felt horrible knowing there was nothing they could do to help him. She looked back towards that bluebird and watched it soar above their heads. How much freedom would she have as a bird, to go through land and air. She wondered what it would be like to be able to stretch out a pair of wings and feel the air fly through her feathers. S sense of freedom that she craved more than anything. Freedom is what she fought for, not her life, because she was never truly living if she was not free.