Awakening (Born From Shadows #1)

“We can’t wait any longer, the sun has already been down for half an hour. They know we would have left by now and wouldn’t come back here,” he told Tatianna who insisted on staying here.

“What if they’re dead?”

“They could be, and we will be next if they revealed anything about us. We need to leave,” Nik told her.

“It’s my fault…they are here because of me. I didn’t even say goodbye to them,” she said in thought.

“Freya was the one who suggested we split up, they knew the risks,” he said. “It isn’t your fault but if we die here right now that will be on you so come on.”

Nik offered his hand to Tatianna from his place on the back of Ida. “Ida can’t eat meat, she will die without the supplies,” Tatianna realised. “We need to go into Cainva.”

“That wasn’t a part of the plan,” he told her.

“I’m not watching that horse die knowing I could have prevented it!” she shouted at him. “So, I am going with our without you.”

“Tatianna, think about what you are doing,” he pleaded of her, “Cainva is a small well-connected town. One person sees your Elven features and you are dead. You’re willing to risk your life for a horse?”

“Yes, because she is innocent of any crime. She didn’t choose to come on this expedition without food. We bought her, she is our responsibility, and I will not let her die.”

Tatianna had had enough of the conversation and started to walk towards the town.

“Tatianna,” Nik said on top of Ida, walking beside her, “please get on the horse.”

“No,” she replied with anger.

“I’ll take you to Cainva seeing as you are too stubborn to change your mind,” he compromised. “It will be quicker on the horse.”

“You definitely taking me to Cainva?” she asked before getting on.

“I promise I will take you to Cainva,” he asserted. She looked towards him, pushing away any thoughts of how good he looked and onto his words.

“How do I know you won’t break your promise?” She asked.

“You don’t,” Nik replied, “you just have to trust me.”

Rule four: don’t’ trust anyone.

She remembered one of their first conversations at the dance. He knew what he was asking from her, something that wasn’t freely given. It had to be earned and nothing he had done was even close to what he needed to do to earn her trust.

“Then I guess I am walking,” she told the man astride Ida.

The walk wasn’t very long, only half an hour or so, but every second of the way Nik followed her in silence. Proving his intentions were to go to Cainva all along, or at least they were to stay with her.

By the time they reached the city, it was well and truly night. No one walked along the streets and all the shops were closed, but Tatianna knew that wouldn’t stop her from going inside. She needed those supplies no matter how bad she felt about stealing from someone else, taking away something that could be important to them.

They walked past the shops, looking for one that had hay on the inside. At some point, Nik had gotten off Ida and was walking beside her. Tatianna constantly glanced around hoping that she would see Freya or Riley, but both were missing.

The night was darker than most, her vision wasn’t as good as it was before. It was like she was human again. Could she turn back? She didn’t know what was possible. She decided that it was probably her hunger and tiredness.

“I’ve been here at night before, it was never this quiet,” he told Tatianna.

“We will be quick,” she told him, peering through yet another shop window. “Found it!” she exclaimed.

“Do you have a knife on you?” she asked Nik.

“Why?” he replied.

“I need to pick the lock,” she answered.

He sighed and reached into his shoe. “I always have one when I don’t have my sword.” He pulled out a small blade, much smaller than her own dagger, and gave it to her. She looked at its size and realised that it would work.

“You have a sword?” she asked with interest whilst working on the door look.

“Yes, and I would have brought it with me had I time to prepare for this sudden expedition.”

“Got it,” she said, proud of herself and opened the door. “I’ll go in and you can stay with Ida.”

She didn’t give him time to debate her decision before she walked into the store alone. It was definitely a horse supply store for travellers. She picked up four of the leather saddlebags and then shoved hay inside two of them compacting as much as she could into the space. Just as she was about to leave, she smelt a whiff of something so horrendous she almost threw up.

Instead of walking away like any other would she approached the source of the smell, trying to figure what it was. She walked behind the counter for the store.

“Oh my gods!” she yelled, unable to control her emotions.

At the sound, Nik immediately came rushing into the store. “Tatianna, what’s wrong?” he asked.

She was frozen, looking down at the image before her. She had seen dead bodies before, but nothing compared to this. The man or woman, she couldn’t tell, was just one withered pile of rotten flesh with a bone sticking out of it. The eyes were just black holes, small insects ran between the body’s fingers and the smell. The strangest thing was she could see the body deteriorating in front of her. Something that should take years was happening in seconds. She could smell the rotting flesh. It was so strong she was surprised she missed it before.

“We need to leave,” he told the frozen girl. “Now!”

He grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the body, dragging her back towards Ida. He threw her onto the horse’s back along with the saddlebags still clutched tightly in her hand. Nik placed himself behind her and kicked hard into the horse’s sides.

“Go!” he shouted at the horse in pure panic. Tatianna did not understand what was happening as Ida broke into action and galloped forward.

“Faster,” he prayed, kicking into her sides again. Had it been any other situation she would have yelled at him for being too violent to the horse, but she could see his face and knew that it was necessary. That he was scared, no terrified of something. Sure, the body had shocked her, but his fear was something else.

“Shit!” he yelled and tried to get the exhausted horse to move faster, but she did not have the energy in her.

“Nik, calm down!” she yelled over the wind that was throwing her hair back.

“Go!” he shouted at the horse, ignoring her words. Ida’s hooves pounded onto the stones until there was snow beneath her feet. Even after they left the town Nik did not stop pushing the horse.

The further away from the town they got the more her eyesight cleared up. Nothing was making sense to her. “Nik, we’re out of the city. The body is far away you can slow down,” she told the man behind her. He did not even consider abiding by her words.

“Nik!” She shouted trying to snap him out of his fear, yet he was in some sort of psycho daze. She watched the town go out of her view and Nik kept pushing Ida into action. Tatianna felt the great beast’s heart beating hard against its lungs, she felt her muscles that were trembling with every stride.

“Nik, you’re going to kill her!” She exclaimed, feeling the horse beneath her.

Only then did he slow down. As soon as they got to a walking pace, she threw herself off the horse. “You are insane!” she shouted. “What the fuck was that?”

He halted the horse and got off, as soon as he did Ida collapsed to the ground, her legs giving up beneath her. Tatianna immediately reached into the saddlebag and pulled out as much hay as she could carry, bringing it towards the exhausted and starved horse. Had it not been for the melted snow during the day she would have died along with the rest of them. Ida happily took the hay from Tatianna’s hand.

“I would have let Ida die rather than stay in that town. We need to keep running,” he demanded.

“I’m not moving an inch until you tell me what is going on,” she demanded.

“The Cararsak are here,” he said. “And if we don’t move we will die.”