(possible triggers: blood, death/loss)

CHAPTER TWO:
Two Hearts, Infinite Breaks

• • •

"When are you going to learn to use something other than your precious knives?"

I gripped the hilt of my weapon tighter, slashing forward in one powerful stroke. Leira dodged the blow, striking my smaller blade with her longsword. Tumbling out from under her hold, I spun behind her, hooked my arm around her throat, and felt her stiffen when my dagger poked beneath her chin.

"Whenever I stop being so good at using them," I remarked in her ear before releasing her.

"Cheater." She shoved out of my hold and walked off, tightening the band that held her pale pink hair up.

"I didn't cheat! I stayed out of your head!" I hollered after her.

Leira waved her hand dismissively. She always was a sore loser, but I knew she turned her back to hide a smile.

A low growl rippled over the stones of the cave, and approaching me was a black tiger with golden stripes and sapphire eyes—the form I was most familiar with. Midnight blue mist expanded and swirled until Namjoon shifted into his true self and stood in front of me.

"Your ego is up here," he held his hand to the level of his eyes, "but it should be about here," he finished, hand dropping all the way to his waist.

My eyes narrowed despite the grin on my lips. "Need to practice your shielding?"

He nodded, and the two of us went to lean against the wall where we could watch the others train below the hanging rock crystals and blue moss. All twenty of us were present, which meant more grunting, more clashing, and more sparks of color echoed and bounced off the rock.

As much as I enjoyed improving my skills with knives and strengthening my mind's reach, watching the others train had always been my favorite part of the meetings.

"I need to practice too," Callyn said as he jogged up to us. I slid closer to Joon to make room.

"Who first?"

"I asked before he did," Namjoon drawled, already closing his eyes as he rested his head against the granite.

Without warning, I reached into his mind, guiding that silver tendril of my power toward his thoughts. It was the same as usual—enough space for me to make it in, but his voice was muffled behind the midnight blue, tightly coiled shield he'd placed. I caressed it, and the scaled barrier shuddered like a living, breathing creature. Under my coaxing, it hissed and unfurled, loosening  enough for me to make out what he was thinking.

Why is this still so hard? Is it normal to feel so exhausted so fast? Should I already be sweating like this?

"Definitely not," I answered aloud. Namjoon cursed under his breath, raking a hand through his hair. I withdrew from him and laughed. "You're still better than most. It's easier for me because of how close we are. If you didn't trust me—if I was just a stranger, I doubt anyone could make it through."

Namjoon only sighed, ever the perfectionist. It didn't matter to him that our connection put him at a disadvantage.

I understood his frustration. We'd never met another elf gifted with the same power as me, but that didn't mean they weren't out there. According to Seeva, mind gifts were likely common at the Royal Palace for their stealth and spying capability, which was why he had everyone practice the art of shielding with me. That way if we ever were caught and searched for information, they'd fail to get it so easily.

"My turn," Callyn said.

I turned to the crimson-haired Alfir, finding his maroon eyes already waiting for me. I lashed my reach out, hoping to catch him off guard. The silver wisp that was only visible to me slipped past his temple, wrapping around his shield of swirling red fire—representative of his own gift. Finding a gap in the flames, I slashed through and caught onto a single, controlled thought from him.

Eight years of training like a true elf look damn good on you.

Had it really been eight years since Namjoon first brought me to the caves? Was I only thirteen back then? The memory was still so fresh despite all I'd grown and all I'd learned.

Returning to my own mind, my brow quirked. "I could still get through pretty easily. But good job controlling what you want me to hear."

Callyn smirked. "That's not the only thing I want you to—"

"Dammit Callyn, quit hitting on my best friend!" Namjoon barked out.

"We courted—"

"Exactly. Courted. As in no longer courting."

"Callyn knows I am not and never will be interested again," I said before pushing off the wall. Our eyes locked. "Right, Callyn?"

He leaned back and crossed his arms. "Right," he muttered.

"That's enough for today," Seeva announced in his powerful tone. Everyone stopped their training—weapons sheathed, gifts reeled in.

"Seeva, when will you send some of us out for another mission?" Leira spoke up, hardly keeping her glare at bay. "It's been over a year."

The eldest sighed as he met her gaze. "There is no mission. Things have been quiet since..."

Since the Keepers caught Torin.

My hearts ached. It could've been any of us.

Leira was silent for a moment, but she wouldn't back down. "Send me out for recruiting. I'm sure I can—"

"No. Bringing in anyone new is too dangerous now. There aren't nearly as many allies as there were before. Not after the King posted all those extra Keepers."

"Then send us out for more vahna. We've been running low for a while now. Soon we'll run dry and be too weak if something really does go wrong."

The thought made me swallow. If anyone found us out as they had with Torin... Without vahna to strengthen our gifts, we'd stand no chance.

Seeva spent time observing each of us. It wasn't hard to see the sparks in our eyes, the need to act. Still, he answered, "Not now."

"Then what are we training for?" Leira snapped. "What were the past twelve years of my life for if I'm only meant to hide in here and do nothing?"

"The time to act will come. But not now. Practicing has to be enough until things die down. If you can't accept that then you put each and every one of us at risk."

Leira's jaw ticked, her gaze falling to the cave floor. "Forgive me."

Her tone went from bitter to dispirited, and I knew most of us shared her feelings. It was almost unbearable having to hide our abilities, having to wait so many years for the opportunity to challenge the laws of Idaea. All we wanted was the freedom to be who we were without fearing for our lives.

Seeva dismissed us and everyone waited their turn to leave. Pairs exited every several minutes. Namjoon and I eventually climbed up and out of the caves, allowing the others before us to get far enough ahead first. We were the lucky ones as our villages were closest. The rest had to walk at least twice as many miles to get home.

"Leira's going to get everyone killed one day," Namjoon muttered when we were out of earshot.

"You don't agree with her?"

He side-eyed me. "I think we all agree that we need to act. It's just a matter of how and when."

Adjusting the clasp on my cloak, I said, "But what if things never improve? Then we're waiting for something that will never happen and we'll miss our chance to bring change while we still can."

Namjoon slowed to a stop. I turned to face him, surprised by the tightness in his jaw and the hardness of his sapphire eyes. "If things are never going to get better than they are now, we've already missed our shot."

"How can you say that?" I whispered.

His gaze held mine as he caught my hand in his. "Because I'd rather stay hidden together for the rest of our lives than... than to do something that inevitably ends with one of us losing the other."

My brows furrowed. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him. "We won't lose each other. Ever. We're practically joined at the hip. I'd like to see anyone try to separate us."

He didn't chuckle, his chest only expanded as he breathed in, tightening his hold around me. My ear pressed against his chest to hear the beating of his two hearts. As long as they kept going, as long as they were close enough that I could hear them, I would be okay. Even if it meant hiding half of what we were for the rest of our lives.

The remainder of the walk to our village was spent in silence. I tried to enjoy the tranquility, but it was only a reminder of how things had worsened since I was younger. Sprites were far rarer than they once were as the natural vahna of the forest was fading away, and gifts were so hard to come by that the Sprites' time was better spent elsewhere—mostly near the capital, where high elves and nobles bathed in vahna and sprinkled it over their food and used their gifts freely.

Before I could grow too bitter, we reached the outskirts of the forest and strolled through the redblood camps, weaving past the different tents until the cover of trees gave way to the open sky and the scorching sun.

"Have anything to do before you head home?" Namjoon asked.

I glanced at him, noticing how the sunlight reflected in the golden strands of his hair. "Why? Planning on sticking with me a while longer?"

He shrugged. "You're not the worst company in the world."

With a faint scoff, I nudged him. "I was thinking of placing a couple bets and using what I win to buy some more seeds. I heard they had a new shipment from Rivadin this week."

The corner of Namjoon's mouth tilted upward. "You and your damn plants."

"Hey, you don't get to say anything after I've used those damn plants to heal you more than a few times."

"Yeah, yeah," he said with a wide smile before stepping closer and wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "You're my hero, I get it."

"Well, that's not exactly what I was trying to say, but you're not wrong," I laughed. He chuckled and tousled my hair, and I yelled out as I batted him away, "Not the hair!"

With lingering grins on our faces, we walked side by side to the village square. The two of us followed the street that winded between buildings made of stone and gold-tinted planks from the Viridian Forest—a couple of inns, the barracks for Keepers, the library, the healing center, and countless shops for tailors, blacksmiths, creature carers, and the like.

We didn't stop until we reached the open courtyard in front of the local temple. The village square, as most called it, was the main hub where farmers, crafters, and other merchants could sell their goods without an official store of their own. They set up temporary tables and shelves to display their goods, with tarped canopies above them for shade. There were so many of them that they formed multiple rows up and down the round courtyard, but I knew exactly where it was that I needed to go.

Tugging Namjoon with me, I led us through the bustling crowd to the farthest right aisle of makeshift stands. Each merchant tried to catch our attention as we passed, yelling out special deals and attempting to start conversation, but I pressed on until we reached the middle of the aisle. Approaching the simple, undecorated stand, the freckled man behind the table spotted me and widened his brown eyes.

"No," he started, shaking his head and putting his hands up, "Not you, not again. Not today, Moon."

I let go of Joon's hand, placing both of my palms on the table and leaning forward with a lazy smirk on my lips. "Come now, Cliff. You're not going to refuse service to your most loyal customer, are you?"

The redblood glared at me from under his shaggy blond hair. "You almost drained me dry last week. No way."

"And I'm sure the crowd I drew helped you earn it all back afterward and then some," I said easily, eyeing his reaction.

His mouth set in a straight line, but his shoulders dropped. "Fine, but I get to cut you off whenever I want."

"As you please, boss," I sang playfully.

Grumbling under his breath, he began setting up his game for that day: two cups and ten dice, which told me he'd decided on Liar's Dice. One of my favorites.

Namjoon stood against a nearby post that held the canopy up, crossing his arms as he watched our exchange. Cliff and I made our bets and started to play, shaking our cups and slamming them down on the table, peeking to see what we rolled, then stating our claims. His mind was wide open, a free space for me to read as I wished, and when his thoughts didn't reveal exactly what he rolled, I could still determine when he was bluffing or not.

He played it safe at first, keeping his numbers low and never calling my bluff even when my claims were absurd. And just to keep him from getting suspicious, I purposely lost a few rounds and let him pull ahead. When he got comfortable and thought to himself that he might win, he finally began lying, and I called him on it each and every time until the stakes were raised and he was down to one last die.

"Liar," I snorted at his final claim, and he didn't even bother lifting his cup before yelling out and slamming his palm to his forehead repeatedly. When he calmed down enough to glance back up at me, I sent him my most dazzling grin. "Double or nothing?"

His eyes darted behind me, taking in the small number of people that had started to gather. He inhaled and straightened up. "You're on."

So we played again, and I made quicker work of him the second time around. Feeling many eyes on us, I let him get away with several lies but still managed to work him down to one die again while I had two. It was his turn, and after our cups hit the table, I peeked at mine before waiting and listening carefully to his thoughts.

Just as he was deciding whether to bluff or not, a presence like nothing I'd ever known invaded my own mind, weighing on me and distracting me from Cliff's thoughts. Whatever—whoever—it was had a gift just like mine, and I could see their power as it swarmed my head in the form of a deep, emerald green tendril much like my own.

Aren't you a sly little thing, a low, masculine voice purred against my temple. I tried to shove him out of my mind, but his quiet laugh echoed as he said, Those defenses of yours need work, lovely cheater. Then he withdrew swiftly and of his own accord.

My head shot to the side where I thought I'd felt his presence move, and I scanned over the many faces of the crowd, spotting one man who wore a conical hat braided of black reeds. The rounded edge of the hat veiled the upper part of his face, allowing me to see only the tilted smirk on his lips. Then he turned and pushed through the sea of people, vanishing from sight.

"Moon," Cliff raised his voice, and I looked back at him. "Are you challenging my claim or not?"

I shook my head and breathed, "Sorry, could you say it again?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Two fives."

I was too frazzled, my mind too jumbled and—and weak from that foreign presence to catch whether Cliff was lying or not. He kept his face an undecipherable mask, and I could only vaguely sense his focus drifting to someone he found attractive in the crowd behind me. I was stuck guessing.

Peeking at my dice again, my expression remained straight. "Three fives," I stated clearly, earning a few whispers and ooh's from the crowd.

Cliff's gaze locked on mine. "No way," he said, then lifted his cup. I lifted mine too, relieved to see that he really had rolled a five. When his eyes set on my two fives, he roared and knocked his cup to the ground.

The crowd applauded as Cliff begrudgingly tossed me a pouch of my earnings. I blew him a kiss and shook the bag, relishing the sound of the coins clinking together.

"Let's go," Namjoon said into my ear as he smoothly wrapped an arm around my waist to steer me away from the stand and out of the crowd. When we were farther down the aisle and had escaped the commotion, he asked, "What happened back there? You froze a bit."

I scanned the people ahead of us, searching for any sign of that distinctive black hat, but whoever it was had long departed. "I just... thought I heard something," I answered, because it was easier than explaining that some stranger had so effortlessly breached into my mind and toyed with me. That someone who wasn't a part of the Order knew I was gifted, knew I was cheating and found the whole thing worthy of amusement.

"Well, do you want to go get those seeds you were so excited about?"

I gave him a smile and nodded. "I might even let you choose which ones."

"What an honor." Namjoon chuckled, and the tiniest part of me wished I wasn't so good at hiding my feelings. But being able to hear and see just about anyone's emotions taught me how to shackle my own so deep down that nobody would ever have to bear the same weight as me unless I wanted them to.

━━━━━━ ◦ ♔ ◦ ━━━━━━

After visiting the merchant who sold gardening supplies, Namjoon walked me back down the winding streets until we reached my family's cabin.

"I expect to see those flowers blooming a week from today," he said as we slowed to a stop in front of the small yard that was speckled with an array of different plants—herbs and flowers, mostly.

"You can't rush beauty," I replied, then laughed as I held up the small pouches of seeds. "Although, the ones you chose aren't exactly beautiful. You have the oddest taste."

He smiled broadly to show off his dimples. "I bet you'll grow to love them."

"We'll see," I teased.

"See you tomorrow?"

"Like always. Don't be late!"

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said, flicking my nose before turning on his heel.

I watched briefly as he headed toward the western edge of our village where he and his parents lived, then I went straight to the empty patch in my garden, noticing that the soil was freshly raked. It seemed my mother had prepared it before I could.

Kneeling in front of the loose dirt, I was making small indentions in the soil when the cabin door creaked open.

"Hey," Sky's mild voice greeted me. Her bare feet made the grass swish as she came over. "What took you so long today?"

"Just hung out with Joon for a while after our training," I said while beginning to place the seeds.

"It hasn't been that long since you told Mom what you really do out there." She paused to kneel beside me, holding her open palm out. I dropped a few of the seeds into her hand. "She worries about you. We all do. Maybe next time you could stop by first and let us know you're going to stay out longer."

"I don't need you guys to keep tabs on my whereabouts every hour of the day," I replied quietly, though the bite was still audible in my tone. "Not anymore. Especially her."

Sky sighed, leaning back after she finished packing the dirt. "You know it's her way of caring."

"And you know it's too much," I sighed before rising to my feet. "Unless you've forgotten with how lax she is regarding you."

She stood too, wiping the dirt on her apron. I observed her curly black hair, noticing it was wilder than usual. Her violet eyes were tired, yet they still were bright against her umber brown skin.

"I do know."

"Then there's nothing left to say." Before she could reply, I brushed past her and entered our home.

━━━━━━ ◦ ♔ ◦ ━━━━━━

I wasn't able to make it to the Order's meeting the next day. I'd woken up feeling sick, and the symptoms didn't subside until the following morning, only thanks to my personal tea recipe which I asked my mother to brew for me. It was the perfect blend of herbs and spices from my garden—a concoction I came up with after a year of experimenting to find what would best strengthen the body against illness.

Of course, my herbs weren't the only thing that helped. Being a halfling came with the perk of healing a tad faster than the rest of my family would've.

The next evening when it was time again for the usual meeting, I dressed in my black pants, a white top that wrapped tightly around my torso, and my dark cloak. My fingers were fumbling with the ties of my boots when Father passed by on his way to the kitchen.

"Hey, I'm heading out. I'll be back just before sunset," I told him.

He stopped, clad in colors similar to what I wore, though his shirt was looser and long-sleeved. His brown eyes held the same wisdom they always did, and his mouth spoke far less than what was in his mind, just as it always did.

I kept out of my family's thoughts as much as possible. Not only to keep boundaries but to avoid hearing how worried they constantly were of me. But moments like this made it difficult to resist.

"Try to make it back for dinner. Mom's grilling warkin tonight."

Make it back with plenty of time before dark, was what he really meant to say. Don't push the curfew.

"Warkin?" I questioned as I finished tying my boots. "Haven't seen that at the market for a long time."

"Your sister caught it this morning near the coast."

"Did she?" It was hard to imagine her hunting such an aggressive creature, but it was even harder to get over the fact that Mother was anxious every time I went out while Sky could venture freely so long as she returned with food of some kind. I stood and leaned up to kiss my father's cheek. "I'll do my best to make it back in time."

Then I was off into the forest, trekking the usual path—or lack thereof—to the caves, ensuring I was quiet, that I left no obvious trail, and that no one was following me.

When I arrived at the entrance and raised my hand to brush the plants aside, my body stilled. Half of the usual curtain of vines was torn off and laid on the floor, flattened like it had been stomped on. Concentrating on my senses, things were abnormally silent, no buzz of thoughts anywhere nearby. I caught the scent of something strange in the wind. My gut constricted with the realization of what the odor was, and then I was running.

Speeding down the narrow descent, my breaths grew labored as I passed by the torches that normally lit the way, many of them knocked off the walls and scattered on the floor. The blackness left me straining to see what was ahead. The stench burned my nostrils the closer I came to our training space, and when the opening was finally in front of me, dimly lit by a few glowing plants, my knees buckled.

The cavern was stained of death.

Dark blue liquid marred so, so much of the rock. The floor, the walls, it was all splattered with their blood. Weapons were abandoned and scattered on the ground. My breath caught in my lungs long enough for the sound of dripping water—I hoped it was water—to echo in my ears. My palms braced the floor and my shoulders trembled as I bent over and retched. When nothing came up, the sounds morphed to something else—something awful and raw and still not even an ounce of what I truly felt: a scream so loud it tore my insides apart and left me open and empty and crumpled on the ground.

They were gone.

They were caught.

Killed.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Second chapter down! Although it's more of a first chapter since the previous one feels a bit like a prologue. I promise the next chapter will be picking up and getting the story rolling!

What do you think of things so far? Let me know because your comments really do help me and they mean a lot! 💕

Also, don't stress if you didn't understand how the game of Liar's Dice worked. The rules of the game are not important—only seeing Moon use her power and hearing that voice interrupt her scheme. Speaking of which, can you take a wild guess of who that was? I'm sure most of you know ;)

Please don't hate too much for the ending 💔

See you all in the next one! As always, thank you for reading.

- Kat

June 27, 2021