Chapter 12

Chapter 12

That afternoon, the garden was quiet except for the gentle sound of the breeze passing through. Erik and I strolled along the path where fresh flowers bloomed.

At some point in our walk, a man with a long beard approached, pulling Erik to the side.

I stood near the flowers as I watched Erik and the man speak in hushed voices.

If I were to describe Erik, I would say he was a good man. He had bought me—no, he had rescued me, if I could call it that. He had given me food, shelter, and a slice of freedom. He treated me with kindness, yet I found myself neither belonging here nor wishing to spend my time as a slave.

I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but whatever it was, his expression was unreadable.

He slowly nodded, dismissing the man, and then turned to me.

"There might be a chance that the Moon Goddess will bless you, and you will be mated this full moon," the man said, and Erik slowly turned for a moment before returning to my side.

The corner of my lips curled slightly. Mated? I had only ever known people to wed, not mate. Mating was for beasts.

"Why do you say mating? Don't folks wed here?"

"We mostly marry," he replied. "But if we're blessed by the Moon Goddess, we find our match—our other half. The bond you feel after finding your match is so deep that even marriage holds no importance."

I blinked. "So you mean to tell me you don't choose who you want to spend the rest of your life with?"

"No."

"So what if you don't love your supposed other half?"

"You would," he replied. "When the Moon Goddess blesses you with that bond, you will feel nothing but love toward your other half."

After a few more minutes of walking down the garden, he spoke up. "I am going to meet a friend of mine. I will be late for dinner tonight. Take care of yourself, and don't try to escape."

I nodded as he turned around and walked away, leaving me alone in the garden.

"Good afternoon, Freydis," I heard a voice say, and when I turned, I saw Knut standing behind me. A half-smile appeared on my face as I remembered how he'd saved me from the hound that night.

"Come with me for a stroll," he said. "I'm to patrol the woods today, and I'm curious about the abilities you used on the tree to make it bleed."

"I have no such abilities," I said. Were the powers in me evolving? Was that even the right way to describe it?

"The tree bled from your presence. That is not something that has happened for years."

"Years?"

"Come with me," he said, leading me away from the garden.

"Hundreds of years ago, the trees in the forest bled. The leaves started changing colors. Some say it was a warning from the gods—that the return of the gods was near."

"But I didn't do anything to the trees. It could have been the sap."

We continued walking, and when we arrived at the stables, there was a man tending to two horses.

"Can you ride a horse?" he asked.

"I can't," I replied. "I have never ridden a horse."

"Ride with me, then," he said, extending a hand to help me onto the horse. Once we were seated, Knut rode us past the gate and toward the woods.

"Do you even have any idea why Erik brought you here?" he asked.

"Because he wanted another slave in the house?"

"Another slave?" Knut scoffed. "Erik doesn't see you as a slave."

Erik may not have treated me like one, but that did not change what I was. I had been captured from my village and sold to him. I was under his possession.

"You must know you are not a slave to him," he said. "Erik—for all the time I've known him—does nothing without reason."

A long silence stretched between us. The sound of birds singing in the distance filled the air.

"How did it happen?" I asked. "The scar on your face."

"A hound," he replied. "Not a mere one."

"Did it hurt?" I asked, and all of a sudden, the hair on my neck stood on end.

"What—"

"Shh," Knut cut in, as if he knew what was happening. "I need to take you back home."

Knut increased the horse's pace as he rode back.

A chilling cold brushed past my skin. My blood froze, and even when I looked around, I saw nothing. But I could feel it—the presence of someone around us.

All of a sudden, I was swept from the horse and fell to the ground. I groaned at the excruciating pain at the side of my head and when I touched my hair, I felt blood.

Blood.

My eyes widened.

Knut rushed towards me and helped me to my feet.

"Are you hurt?"

"I feel dizzy," i said wondering what happened. Knut led me back to the horse and once we were seated, he rode fast.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I never should have brought you out. It's never safe outside."

Only after we arrived home did my heartbeat return to normal.

"What was that?" I asked.

"You don't want to know," he said, helping me down. "Return to your room and rest."

"Was it a hound?"

"No," Knut replied. "It was something that should never have dared step foot on this land. We have spies on us."

Saying that, he turned around and left me.