Chapter 2
“It’s not a cave.” Tanner states the obvious as we both stare into the Unseen.
My breath catches in my throat, and time seems to stand still as I step into the forest behind Grayson. All the stories we’d heard growing up at home and in school were false. This isn’t a vast underground cave system but a scene of pure enchantment. The trees bear leaves that emit a soft glow, casting a gentle, otherworldly light upon the forest floor. The air is alive with the mesmerizing dance of fireflies, an insect I’ve only read about in books. Their luminescent tails trace intricate patterns through the serene darkness.
“But trees… insects, they’re only found in the wilderness.” And that is impossible. The government locked the iron doors to the outer world decades ago. The humans banished to the harsh landscape experienced untenable conditions.
“I was fed the lies too.” Grayson reaches above his head and plucks a piece of fruit from a tree, holding it out in his hand. “Take a deep breath. Taste the fruit. Let out the scream you’ve held inside for so long.”
For the first time in my life, the air doesn’t smell like the chlorine used to disinfect the germs left behind by Undesirables. There’s a heady scent I’d describe as woodsy even though this is my first time standing beside a tree. It’s the soil of the plant Caron brought my mother.
Tanner takes the red fruit from Grayson’s hand and inspects it. “It’s an apple, like slices we get in plastic bags in the cafeteria. I didn’t know what a whole one looked like.” He bites into it and the juice runs down his chin. “Tastes like one too.”
Fear strikes my heart. Everything I have ever believed as true is false. I had anticipated Grayson leading us to rooms in an underground cavern where we’d live out our lives serving the citizens of Avren, but here in the forest, I don’t know what to expect.
Grayson bends over and removes a coat from behind a tree and puts it on. It appears heavy and loaded down with weapons. “This way.” He leads us down a trail where brilliant stones guide our path through a mystical labyrinth.
The peacefulness lulls me into a trance. My goal is to place one foot in front of the other and remain upright. Grayson is a spider, leading us to the center of his web, and I can do nothing but follow.
“Look at the water, Mari.” Tanner breaks my foggy state of mind. He points to a stream beneath a bridge we cross.
The glistening waterway whispers secrets of the Unseen, mirroring the stars above in their luminous ripples. It is as if Grayson has led us through the portal of dreams where magic and reality intertwine.
A hooting noise comes from above, waking me from my trance, as a giant winged creature dives at my head, narrowly missing it as it lands in a nearby tree. I cling to the railing on the bridge, worried about more diving beasts.
Grayson laughs. “Come on, Mari. It’s only an owl. There are much greater things to fear in this world.”
Like what? If the adults in Avren didn’t tell us the truth about the caverns, what else did they lie about? What made a person undesirable enough to drive them from the city to this savage world?
“Was this your reaction?” I walk beside Grayson, my heels clicking on the smooth stones. His quick gait and straight back hold a confidence I can’t imagine achieving.
Grayson continues his pace, not slowing down to answer. “Of course. We are all fed lies by the Council. Your parents didn’t know any better when they told you stories of the Unseen—a place they never visited. We face instant death if we breathe a word of the true nature of our world.”
“And how does Avren keep you under their control?” I stop and bend to buckle my shoe. Grayson’s strides are too much for my best heels. “Can we rest for a minute?”
“Yes, but not for long.” He leans against a tree in the shadows.
Not caring too much about my white skirt, I sit on the grass and unbuckle my shoes before removing a pair of socks and boots from the government issued bag. Tanner plops down beside me and shakes out the contents of his sack.
“When you leave Avren, the government issues an ankle bracelet. This tracks you.” Grayson rolls up his pants to reveal a glowing blue ring around his leg. “If you don’t show up to work, the soldiers find you. If it happens too many times…” He runs his finger across his neck.
I rummage through the bag and remove my tracker. It glows in my palm, casting a luminescent blue over my skin. “And what if Tanner and I refuse to put them on?”
There’s a click, and Grayson points a gun at my head. “It’s not a choice. If the two of you don’t comply, they come after me.”
The only ones allowed to carry guns within the city are the guards. It is a capital offense if a Citizen is caught with one.
“Where did you get a gun?” Tanner has as many questions as I do.
Grayson doesn’t move the barrel. “Put on the trackers, and I’ll answer everything.”
As much as I don’t like the idea of Avren’s soldiers tracking me, it’s not much different from in the city. There, they track us with cameras. This started in public places—stores, schools, and parks—but then the Council passed Law 291. Each household needed to install a camera in every room. There were protests at first about privacy. But what did Citizens really have to hide? We were all loyal to the High Council. We shared all resources equally. And from what I heard from my friends at school, the government provided every household with a black cloth to cover the camera during private times between a husband and wife. These were limited to ten minutes, and a soldier would come knocking if they went longer.
With the blue trackers clicked around our ankles, Grayson drops the gun and holsters it at his waist. “There are ways to get things in the Unseen that aren’t available to us in the city. As an Undesirable human, you work as a servant for the people of Avren. As a Redeemed, you earn credits to use here. In the city, you’re given the same things as everyone else. Here, it’s survival of the fittest.”
“It sounds terrible.” Tanner stands, his boots laced up. “And what’s stopping people from stealing?”
Grayson taps his holster, and a devilish grin spreads over his lips. “Weapons… locks.”
“You have locks?” I scramble to my feet. There were locks on the way to the Unseen, but I had expected them. We had to keep what lurked in the wilderness out of Avren.
“Yes, we have locks. It’s the price of freedom.” He runs his fingers through his unkempt hair. “It will take you a while to understand. The locks keep out the beasts that roam the Unseen, seeking to prey on unsuspecting humans. The Council banished them in the second purge of the city.”
“Thirty years ago?” Tanner asks.
“No, that was the purge of the undesirable humans. This was the purge of Arazian and his followers.” Grayson picks up my bag, slings it over his shoulder, and starts walking. “The original founders of Avren had opposing views to Arazian. When they banished him, they erected the iron doors to keep out those they saw as monsters.”
Tanner takes my hand again as we both struggle to hold on to reality. “Are they real monsters?”
Grayson doesn’t turn to look at us. “Mutated humans built into Arazian’s army. He prefers Citizens over Undesirables. Also, vampires, fairies, dragons, nymphs, werewolves, mermaids—basically anything you read as a myth in the city exists just outside of your perfect little world.”
My body goes numb. He’s messing with us. It’s a way of scaring the new recruits—hazing. “So, if what you’re saying is true… the Council sees fit to throw orphans, the elderly, and mentally and physically disabled people literally to the wolves?” A fire burns deep inside me as I think about how many Undesirables the Council expunged from Avren each year.
Grayson whips around, his eyes burning with fire as he stares into mine. “And before you knew this, you thought sending people to work camps was ok?”
No, not really. But it was part of our life.
“You must learn to navigate this world. Most want to live in peace, but they don’t want city-dwellers to interrupt it. About ten percent of Avrenians make it past the first night.”
Tanner grips my hand tighter as we absorb this new piece of information.
“But don’t worry.” Grayson lifts the side of his jacket, revealing his arsenal of weapons inside—silver blades, wooden stakes, bottles with swirling potions. “That’s why the Council requested me as an escort. As orphans, I’ll take you to my cabin with the others of our kind.”
“How many are there?” I ask, still rifling through my knowledge from fairytales about which weapon kills which creature.
“There are four of us right now.” He removes a piece of paper from his pocket as we approach a split in the trail. “With the two of you, it will make six.”
One trail follows the stream, meandering through the luminescent forest. The other takes a dive into a world where the light doesn’t dare go. A screech echoes through the ominous valley, reaching my ears and sending a rush of cold down my spine like an icy river. I drop Tanner’s hand, clutching my arms to my chest.
“What was that?” It is too dark to see anything in the valley.
“Only a banshee.” Grayson folds the paper and sticks it in his pocket, then lifts his torch. “We’ll take the high road this time. Less of a chance of losing either of you… but there’s always a chance. Ninety percent according to most.”
“You already told us that,” I say through gritted teeth. “It’s not like we need the reminder.” By now, I can hear my pulse in my ears. My footsteps struggle to keep up with my heart beats as I take in short breaths. There’s an electricity in the air, prickling my skin, and threatening to suffocate me. When we first entered the Unseen, the wilderness appeared mysterious and, in a way, lovely. With the new knowledge from Grayson, unknown threats seem to lurk behind every tree.
The path continues to follow the stream, which bubbles and gurgles beside us. Tanner’s hand is in mine. His skin is clammy, but we both refuse to let go. Any of the monsters Grayson mentioned could devour us as a late-night snack.
“We’re about twenty minutes away.” Grayson scans the forest as we walk, his fingers dancing on the hilt of his revolver. “Don’t expect a grand welcome. The other orphans grew up in the Unseen. Their parents were part of the human expulsion.” He stops and looks back at us holding hands. “And don’t use any of the higher than thou language you’ve used with me, because they’ll slit your throat quicker than a vampire.”
I never expected that moving to the Unseen would be a fun adventure, but I hadn’t anticipated the hatred the Undesirables feel toward the Citizens. “How long did it take you to be accepted?”
“When I made my first kill.” Grayson’s boots clomp over a bridge, then go straight through a mud puddle. Dirt and mud are about as welcome in Avren as the Undesirables.
Tanner’s eyes widen, sparkling in the moonlight. “Was it a vampire or a werewolf?”
“Neither.” Our guide keeps walking through the puddles Tanner and I are desperately trying to avoid. “He was a Citizen.”
“That’s a capital offense.” Tanner drops my hand, moving back from Grayson. “If I turn you in, you will face the firing squad.”
“Do you really think I give a shit about capital offenses here?” He glances at the moon, stops, and removes a silver dagger from his coat. It glistens in the warm glow from above. Silver daggers are for…
A low growl reverberates from the bushes to my left. I freeze. Other than the sharp end of the heels in my bag, I’m defenseless.
The creature springs from its hiding place, knocking Tanner to the ground. His screams echo through the forest, and all I can do is cover my ears and close my eyes, knowing I’m next.
Please don’t eat me… please don’t eat me…
I silently pray to the distant gods of the wilderness, unsure of what else to do. Grayson shoves past me, knocking me out of my frozen trance. He dives onto the back of the creature and sinks the silver blade into its back. The wolf lets out a deafening howl as it whips its head around to glare at the intruder behind him. Blood drips from its mouth, and I think I’m going to be sick.
The creature bucks to dislodge the man from its back, but Grayson is too quick. He pulls the dagger from its body, and with one swift movement, slides to the wolf’s underside, driving the weapon into its soft skin. Grayson rolls to the side and onto the ground, away from the wolf and Tanner.
A howl comes from its mouth before it whimpers and falls to the ground.
Shrieks fill the air, and then a hand covers my mouth. I’m looking at the scene from a faraway place, unable to control my body. Blood is everywhere, the smell overwhelming me. I taste it fresh on Grayson’s hand, metallic and bitter. In Avren, healers encounter bodily fluids, not everyday Citizens. The sight of it makes me dizzy, and I struggle to stand, only his hand holds me up.
“It’s alright. It’s over.” He keeps his hand over my mouth; his other one steadies my waist.
“Tanner.” We need to help him. There’s a pool of blood by his body beneath the wolf. Which one does it belong to?
His hand moves from my mouth to my forehead, smoothing back my hair. “He’s gone. I couldn’t move fast enough before the creature delivered its deathblow to his neck.”
My body shakes, and I’m unable to control it. Violence doesn’t exist in the city. Other than my mother’s slow descent into the sickness, I’ve never seen another human die.
Grayson turns me toward him, pulling me into his blood-stained shirt, and wraps his arms around me. It’s an odd mixture of comfort and horror. My head spins with the weighty scent of the carnage as everything goes black.
When I wake,my eyes focus on a canopy of lights above me. Tiny creatures and insects dance among the boughs and fronds of the trees, blissfully unaware of the turmoil in my heart. It doesn’t surprise me that only ten percent of Citizens make it in this cruel world. Our parents raise us to be sophisticated, valuing knowledge, manners, and discourse over strength and combat abilities. For Grayson to change his entire way of thinking in a matter of years seems unfathomable.
“Do you think you can walk?” He sits with his back to a tree, sharpening a stick with his knife. He must see me as a weak girl, more accustomed to balls and tea parties than hikes through the wilderness. And he’s not wrong.
I hold back the tears, not ready to show any further weakness. “How did you do it? Change, I mean.”
He sighs, leans his head back against the bark. “A damn good teacher. Someone who wouldn’t give up on me. And I’m sure he wanted to throw me into the Lake of Glass multiple times and never look back.” He stands up and holds a hand out to me, pulling me up. “I know this might be difficult to believe, but I was worse than you. With such a short time until my birthday, I thought I was on the track to follow in my father’s footsteps, and I had the arrogance to show for it.”
He still holds his arrogance, but it’s different than that of a Citizen. With Grayson, he has earned a right to be proud of his accomplishments.
“What is your percent of successful deliveries of new Undesirables?” I brush the grass from my blood-stained skirt in a useless attempt to appear presentable.
He shrugs on his coat and rolls back his shoulders. “Currently? Zero percent. If I get you to the cabin, it will be fifty-fifty.”
I touch his sleeve, not believing what I’ve just heard. “We’re your first deliveries?”
“You’ve got to start somewhere.” He flashes me his dazzling grin and heads down the trail.
I jog behind him, out of breath, trying to keep up to his long strides. “Why didn’t you tell us you were new to this?”
He spins around, his eyebrows drawing in. “I killed a werewolf to save you, so stop whining about my credentials.”
“But Tanner died!” And I could die before we reached safety. “What makes you qualified for this job?”
“Maverick Donnely was the greatest trainer to walk this wilderness. I learned from the best. And now you will learn from the best, so stop thinking you know better than I do because you lived in a walled city and wore fancy clothes.” He stops and points to a two-story cabin nestled in the trees. Smoke rises from the chimney and warm lights welcome us in. “If you insult the others like you’ve insulted me, you’ll wish you died with Tanner on the way here.”