The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 88

REMY

It was already dark by the time we found any signs of life. Lights flickered in the distance, and as we got closer, I saw several buildings in a clearing. They looked like small houses, but they were well built. The lights were coming from inside of the houses, and there were no signs of anyone walking around outside. My mom and dad led the way into the clearing, and we took it slowly, looking for anyone to talk to. If Cain was here, surely someone would know him and point us in the right direction.

"It's too quiet," my dad linked us. He stopped walking, and we all followed him.

Now that he pointed it out, it did sound unusually quiet. The sounds normally found in nature were gone. There were no small critters running around or birds flying from tree to tree. Even though it was night, the nocturnal animals should have been stirring. Even the sound of the wind was gone.

With us standing still, the only sound in the air was our breath, but even that we were keeping as quiet as possible. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the environment around me. I didn't notice it initially, but there was magic flowing in the air, and I was sure that was causing the unnatural silence.

With another breath, I sensed a new presence. My eyes snapped open, and my body prepared to fight.

"Someone is here," I said through the group link. I looked at Blade, but he had already noticed the presence, and he was on edge.

I was hoping the presence wasn't an enemy, but I was also prepared for a fight. After everything I had been through, I made sure to keep my guard up.

"Who are you?" a voice demanded. There was no one in the direction the voice came from, but I could feel the person's magic. They must have been using some sort of cloaking magic to keep their position hidden.

I locked my eyes on the area I felt the strongest presence from, and I felt a shift in the air. They were nervous.

"We are here looking for someone," my mom said, speaking for the group.

The presence I was watching moved a few feet over, and I followed the sorcerer's path. Were they testing me to see if I could see them even through their cloak?

"We are not welcoming any guests," the voice spoke, but it came from a different direction from where I was looking. There were at least two people here, if not more. "Go back to where you came from."

"We can't. We need information only this person can provide," my dad said, keeping his voice firm but not authoritative. He was being careful not to overstep, knowing we were walking into someone else's home.

The presence I was watching moved again, and it was easy for me to track them. It was like their magic was speaking to me. As I kept my eyes on them, I could feel their nerves slipping. They didn't like that I was able to see them.

"We don't have any information for you. Go home now. This is your final warning," the voice said. They sounded serious in their order, but it wouldn't be enough to get us to leave.

We had traveled all day, and we had too much at stake to leave from a simple threat. If they tried to fight us, we were ready. We wouldn't lose.

"We can't leave until we talk to the person we are looking for," my mom insisted. She widened her stance, and I could feel the magic light up inside of her. She was prepared to fight, too. "We are looking for a man named Cain. Does he live here?"

There wasn't a response. I was expecting another threat to come, but there was stillness in the air. Cain had to be here. Even without a verbal confirmation, their silence was enough. If they didn't know Cain, they would have just pressed us to leave again, but his name triggered something.

"We have no ill-will towards any of you, but we cannot leave here without speaking to Cain. Lives are dependent on the information he can provide us," my dad pressed. "As soon as we talk to him, we will leave and never come back here, if that's what you want. He's the only one who can help us."

"How do you know Cain?" the voice finally responded. Their confidence wavered as they spoke this time. They didn't like that we knew Cain by name.

"I'm his daughter," my mom said.

My dad looked at my mom, shocked that she gave up the information so easily, but I thought it was the right choice. These strangers didn't want just anyone to see their people, but if they knew we knew Cain personally, I hoped they would be more open to showing us to Cain.

"Cain doesn't have a daughter," the voice said, sounding irritated. "We don't have time for your nonsense. Leave now, and we won't kill you."

"Are you sure about that?" my mom challenged. "We can wait here while you ask him yourselves if you want. You don't want to be wrong, now do you?"

Another silence fell over the area. The magic presence I was watching moved to the left. I saw a glimmer of another presence, and then the first person ran off into the distance.

"Don't try anything or you'll regret it," the voice finally warned. "Also, you better not be lying, or you'll regret that as well."

"We won't attack unless you strike first, and you'll regret that," my dad retorted. His body relaxed, but his energy was still flowing as high as ever. Someone could easily mistake him as letting his guard down, but if someone was paying close enough attention, they would realize that he was ready to attack at the slightest indication of danger.

The voice didn't respond again. They didn't trust us, so I was sure they were focusing on every little move we were making, ensuring we weren't lying to them. We were assessing them, too. Neither party knew each other, and we didn't know what we were all capable of. One wrong move, and this little meeting would blow up in our faces.

After several minutes of tense air, I heard footsteps running back to us. I still didn't see anyone, but I could feel the person moving towards us again. I watched them approach another person and waited for them to finish whispering to each other. "Cain has agreed to see you," the voice finally said.

The magic shimmers faded, revealing five people surrounding us. There were both men and women, ranging from not much older than me to someone who looked like she could be a grandmother. She's the one who was speaking. I was sure of it. "Follow me," she said. She turned and started walking away, moving quickly without saying anything else.

We moved with her, and the rest of the people surrounding us continued to flank us, as if making sure we didn't try anything. Even though Cain had agreed to meet us, there was still no trust here.

We moved past the houses until there were no more buildings around. I looked back, confused as to where we were going.

"Is this some kind of trick?" I asked as we moved deeper into the forest. "Why are we moving away from the civilization?"

"You can't always believe what you see with your eyes," the woman explained without explaining anything at all.

I glanced back again, and this time I didn't see any buildings at all. It had been an allusion to trick anyone looking for the settlement.

I didn't ask any other questions as we moved forward. These people had created several levels of precautions to keep their home safe. I wondered who they were hiding from exactly, and I wasn't sure if I should be more afraid of the people hiding or who they were hiding from.

As we walked, I could feel a young girl's eyes on me. She was around my age, and I quickly recognized her magical presence as the one I had been watching before. She had hardly taken her eyes off of me the entire time, and it was making me uncomfortable. I tried to look away from her, but I could still feel her watching me.

It was several more minutes before we finally entered another area with buildings. This time, as we walked into the clearing, I felt a magic shield around us that had been keeping the buildings hidden, but once we were inside the magical bubble, everything came to life. People walked around the clearing, birds chirped in the distance. It was like walking into another world completely.

My eyes wandered around, and I wasn't watching where I was going. I accidentally bumped into Blade, who had stopped walking with the others. Standing in front of us was an elderly man. He had no color left in his hair, but his eyes were chocolate brown, matching my mom's exactly.

He looked at my mom and laughed to himself. "It really is you. I thought this was some kind of trick when they told me my daughter was here."

"It's been awhile, Cain," my mom greeted. She was trying to hold her hatred back as she spoke, but I could still feel it.

"You don't sound happy to see me," he noted. He clasped his hands behind his back as his eyes scanned through the group. His gaze landed on me, and he looked at me longer than the others.

"I wouldn't have come if it wasn't important," my mom said, stepping to the side to block his line of sight from me.

"You must have looked really hard to replace me," Cain said. "Most people don't know this place even exists, so for you to track me down must have taken a lot of effort. I hope you're not here to kill me."

It felt like it was a conversation between enemies, not family. They were both on edge, waiting for the other to strike or threaten the other.

"We're here about the prophecy," my dad said.

Cain snapped his attention to my dad. "We ended that when Xavier was killed." His voice was cold and full of pain.

"That's what we thought," my mom said. "But the prophecy was never about me."

Cain stilled. "It was about your daughter, wasn't it?"