Chapter Twenty
Vhaena
TRUST NO ONE
Inka and I got lucky for the second night in a row—waking to another day with our lives.
Just five more days. You can do this.
I’d heard demons in the distance all through the night. Some seemed to get quite close, but I wasn’t able to spot them. At one point, I swore I saw a tall shadow move across the forest floor right in front of me, and my heart stopped, thinking I was about to be attacked. But nothing happened.
At least I was able to get a few hours of sleep. Inka and I took turns keeping watch. Having that small bit of rest was enough to keep me going. I was still exhausted, but hunger and thirst kept me awake during my shift.
As the first pale rays of light cast across the sky, I woke Inka.
It was still mostly dark but just light enough for us to make out the shapes of the landscape.
I truly hated the nights here. They weren’t just unnaturally dark, they were…
wrong, as if the shadows weighed down the island, and something unbalanced pressed in.
I wondered if the moon was able to even touch this wretched place or if it simply refused to.
Like it was too vile, too forsaken to be worth illuminating.
But dawn brought a welcome reprieve, and with it, another day to survive.
Inka groaned as she sat up and leaned against the boulder next to me. “This whole island thing is getting old. I’m ready to get off this isolated piece of crap.”
A smile tugged at my lips. “Just a few more days. But first, water. I don’t know about you, but I can’t go much longer without it. I’m tempted to drink my piss at this point.”
Her nose crinkled. “We don’t want that.”
“No, we don’t,” I huffed.
I helped her to her feet before we began heading in the same direction we were going last night—not paying any mind to the ebony bird that followed.
Inka walked a bit easier today after having more sleep than the previous night, but we were still moving slowly.
While I could have traveled much faster if I were alone, I was glad for her company.
She kept my spirits up and gave me a little more motivation to make it through this.
It was nice to be around someone again who wasn’t family.
I never used to be alone so much. I had a lot of friends I hung out with when I wasn’t working; sometimes even when I was.
Ainsley and Silke would always come to my eatery and chat with me when I wasn’t busy with customers or would hang out with me back in the kitchen while I cooked, gossiping about the latest drama.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised they were so quick to turn on me once the rumors started, and now I felt bad for every time I engaged in those sorts of stories myself.
“Alright, today is your turn,” Inka said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I talked about my life all day yesterday. I want to hear about yours. What did you do for work? What did you do to get voted out by your town? Do you have friends or a boyfriend you left behind?”
I pondered for a moment on what I should tell her.
I supposed it didn’t matter if I told her about where I worked—keeping it a secret wasn’t exactly relevant anymore.
But I was hesitant to tell her about why the town voted me out.
She was the closest thing I’d had to a friend in a long while, and I was admittedly nervous to tell her about the rumors.
“I worked as a cook in one of the restaurants in town,” I started, keeping the conversation to one of her questions and hoping I could keep it that way.
“Oh, you can cook? How long have you been doing that?”
“Since I was a kid, actually. I used to help my mom with dinners, and I loved doing it. She taught me all she knew, thankfully, because she can’t cook anymore.
But I had taken over our kitchen before that happened.
I love making new things, new recipes with different ingredients, especially rare spices.
My family, bless their souls, tried everything I made with gusto.
” I laughed softly to myself. “There was this one time I wanted to try to make roasted fish stuffed with sauerkraut. It was absolutely horrible, and none of us ate that night because it was so bad. They were still willing to eat it to spare my feelings, but they were so relieved when I hated it just as much.”
Inka chuckled. “Well, that explains the spoon then.” She gestured to the utensil tucked into the waistband of my skirt.
I forced a small grin as the night I was taken flashed through my mind, and the air shifted.
“Do you like to cook?” I asked, trying to stave off the sadness surging through me.
“Oh no, you don’t. You’re not done talking,” she chided playfully. “Tell me about your family. Your mom seems nice. You said she couldn’t cook anymore. How come?”
I told her of my mother’s condition, how she’d suffered from an episode of paralysis that affected one side of her body and had struggled to function fully since. She listened intently as we walked, and I went on and on about my mother. I even told her how she referred to her cane as a weapon.
“She’s funny and has this way about her that makes you smile. Even after her initial attack, she kept going, refusing to let it ruin her life. She adapted and made the best of it. You remind me of her a bit, actually. I think you’d like her.”
“I probably would,” she chuckled. “And she reminds me of you, taking an ordinary and generally non-threatening object as a weapon.”
My lips spread into a wide smile at that.
“What about your other family?” Inka asked.
My smile faded, and I felt that brief joy drain away. I stayed silent, unable to voice it.
“Oh…” Inka’s head lowered. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
The back of my eyes stung, and I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“It’s a painful topic, but it’s my reality.
My father died several years ago when he went out to check the cattle one night and found a demon slaughtering them.
My father recognized him right away, but he never told us who it was.
The next night, he was ripped out of the house by a bunch of them, and the following morning we found his body in front of the house with his head next to him.
And my brother… He tried to stop the demons from taking me for the Hunt and… ”
I had to look away. I couldn’t see the sympathy in her eyes.
“They sound like great men who would have done anything to protect you.”
I nodded, holding back the tears.
We remained quiet for a long while as we continued on, but my thoughts had begun to spiral to my family. I faintly noted the raven flying off but was too stuck within my mind.
“Let’s change the subject!” she said with a grin. “You never answered my question about a boyfriend.”
I half-snorted and rolled my eyes. “No boyfriend.”
I was glad for the change of subject and even more grateful for the distraction it provided, though pretty much any other topic would have been better. Daemon’s face flashed in my mind, burrowing into my thoughts like a tick. He was the last thing I wanted to think about right now.
“There’s not much to say about my love life, seeing as it’s non-existent.”
“Oh, I doubt that. I’m sure there’s someone out there. Was there anyone you liked or even an ex? Come on, give me something to concentrate on other than how thirsty I am—and how we might die at any moment.”
“Alright,” I sighed. “But, really, there’s not much to say. I’ve had past flings, but nothing serious. And I had a crush on someone a long time ago, but that was never happening.”
I tried not to think about when I made the decision to push Daemon away. I had lost years of hope that day. It used to make me cry myself to sleep at night, and I already had enough weighing down on me as it was.
A squawk caught my attention just before the raven flew down and landed in front of our feet, stopping us.
He opened his mouth and dropped several round objects from his beak before ruffling his feathers.
Our eyes widened when we realized they were hawthorn berries.
Though the seeds were poisonous, the flesh of the fruit was edible with a sweet, tangy taste.
And I was starving.
I took a cautious step toward the bird and lowered to my knees in front of him. The little shit was eating them right in front of us, taunting us. I threw my hand out and snatched one of the berries from his pile. He plucked it from between my fingertips just as quickly, nipping me in the process.
“Ah! You bastard! Give me those!” I brought my bleeding finger to my lips to stop the blood.
He scooped up the rest of the berries in his mouth again and flew off just as I leapt for him, landing in the dirt.
“Hey, get back here, Wingnut! Where did you get those?” I asked the raven.
That’s a bird, Vhaena. He can’t talk.
I leapt to my feet and chased him through the trees, Inka following.
A couple of minutes later, he stopped and landed on a branch.
I glared at him while I caught my breath.
When I glanced down, I gasped. The raven had landed right above a bush full of deep red hawthorn berries.
I immediately popped one in my mouth, breaking the skin of the fruit with my teeth and separating the seed with my tongue before spitting it out.
My mouth exploded with a sweet, tangy flavor, and the liquid coated my tongue like divine nectar.
Immediately, my mind imagined all the things I could create with these berries.
Pies, jams and jellies, delicious tea. My stomach groaned, begging for more.
Inka and I acted like savage animals. We gorged ourselves on the fruit, filling our stomachs.
The juice of the hawthorn berries was quenching enough to satisfy my thirst, and I had never appreciated something so simple as a berry before.
It didn’t take long for a pile of seeds to accumulate on the ground next to us.