Selene's limbs throbbed; blood covered her body, pouring out from her open wounds. She slid on it as she sprinted through the stone tunnels.

She pumped her legs as hard as she could, attempting to outrun the monster that chased her.

The walls blurred as she ran, her breath coming out sharp. She passed openings in the tunnel, each lit in the red glow of torches. The flames seemed to throb as inhuman screams of agony rose from the other end of the tunnel.

Selene kept running.

She had escaped, but she knew what it would do if it caught her once again. It would take its long nails and slice open her skin, listening to her scream as it broke her bones and drank her marrow. Selene had a hazy memory of a face covered in tattoos that emit a faint glow, a feline smile that was followed by blinding pain. The thought made Selene run harder, faster. She was flying over the stone, but she wasn't fast enough. In front of her she saw a puddle of liquid, blood, and in the puddle, as if it were a depthless pool, was the top of the monster's head. She jerked to a stop, horror filling her veins as she struggled to think of a way out. It looked up at her, its red eyes shining with anticipation. It rose from the puddle as if standing from a lake, blood streaking its feminine body.

It rose to its full height, two heads taller than her. Its hair was black and seemed to move on its own. Its eyes were red, no eye white or iris, just red with a black pupil that contracted with every breath Selene took. All over its face were black tattoos that pulsed and spread as the mist around it thickened.

It grinned, an inhuman thing that was followed by a deep-throated growl. It lashed out and grabbed Selene by the neck, hoisting her up six feet from the ground.

Black spots danced in her eyes and she struggled to draw air into her lungs. The creature smiled, showing its pointed teeth. They were jagged and broken and covered in blood and pieces of ruined flesh.

Selene kicked and thrashed in its clutches, attempting to escape. She landed a blow to its chest and sent it sprawling. She fell to the floor, her head cracking on the stone. Regaining herself, she shot up and sprinted away.

She only got a few feet before she felt cold hands on her ankles. Before she could blink, she was on the ground, her chin hitting the floor and her teeth biting through her tongue. She dug her nails into the stone, trying to get a grip. Fear clouded her mind, blurring her senses.

She didn't have time to scream before she was dragged back and down into the puddle of blood.

***

Selene jerked awake in the middle of the night, sweat coating her body. Breathing hard, she pushed herself up onto her elbows. The hayloft was dark, too dark for her to feel comfortable after her nightmare.

She grabbed one of the extra blankets Lucius had left and wrapped it around herself as she made her way downstairs. Hopefully, some fresh air would clear her head.

She didn't bother to put on her boots, wanting to feel the cool ground beneath her feet. It also helped her sneaked out quieter and avoid disturbing the horses, two of which slept standing in their stalls.

She squeezed out the door and took a deep breath, clearing her sinuses of the dust and spider webs.

She began walking toward the cottage which was on the other side of the property. There and back would be enough, then she could hopefully go back to sleep. Thankfully, her stitches were barely a dull ache now. She'd kiss Lucius the next time she saw him. As she drew closer to the cottage, she noticed a light in the window of Cedric's room.

Strange, she thought.

She silently crept up to the window and strained her ears to see if anyone else was awake.

She heard Gwen's voice through the wooden wall.

"Why isn't he getting better? He's been sick for weeks now. Has the doctor said anything about what's wrong with him?"

"He doesn't know a damn thing about what's wrong with the boy. Only that his time is coming," Arthur's voice followed.

Gwen gasped, "Don't you dare say that! He'll get better. I know he will."

"You've heard the stories, Gwendolyn. Children, men, and women alike are falling ill. The General said the sick are being moved to a city outside the capital."

"I will not send my son to that infested place."

An epidemic?

Selene had heard nothing about a sickness traveling around while in town. Maybe everyone was afraid to summon bad spirits with talk of the plague.

"We may not have a choice. The King's men are searching for people who are sick."

"What if someone gives him up? What if someone in the town tells them about Cedric?"

Selene recalled the story the elders of the village used to tell the children, of the royal family's massacre. All killed in one night, 16 years past. Selene was only four years of age when they fell. Now, the military ran the kingdom of Radëgon waiting for someone to rise to the task and lead. But rumors had been spoken of the General's love of power, others had said that the lords just didn't have an interest in leading the kingdom.

No one knew what had happened to the royal family. Only that they had all been killed. Some people believed poison, others believed that the Angels themselves had struck them down.

Selene believed neither.

Arthur spoke again, "Maybe leaving will help him. There the doctors will be able to reach him easier, and they'll be finding a cure as well."

"I said I will not send my child there."

"Have it your way, woman. When the King's men come, I'll point the finger towards him and you. Maybe they'll finally get you out of my hair."

She heard a door slam and Gwen throw a string of curses after it.

Selene stepped back from the window and stared at the wood. This sickness was worse than she thought. Many die from sickness, but so many people all infected with the same thing...

She quickly hurried back to the barn and climbed into the hayloft. Still wrapped in her blanket, she tried to clean her head of what she'd just heard. Part of her wished she hadn't gotten out of bed.

***

Selene hadn't been able to sleep so she decided to get an early start to her chores. She shoved down a quick breakfast of the two apples and some eggs she'd been able to cook, pulled on her old cloak, and opened the barn doors to get some fresh air in. It was still dark; sunrise wouldn't happen for another hour or two.

She entered the forge, hanging her cloak and moving to light the fire. She quickly got the furnace roaring, heating the cold stone room. She rubbed her hands together in front of it, thawing her fingers.

She didn't think much while she worked. She found that her thoughts clouded her mind and made it almost impossible to get her chores done. But as she stared at the forge's fire, she couldn't help as Saavni's words crept back into her mind.

She was still trying to sort through what the smith had said, what she had meant. How did she know so much about Selene? She had stripped Selene to the bone in a span of a minute. Laying her bare as if those walls she had spent years building were made of eggshells.

And then there was Jack. He had known what her father did, the whole town had known. They saw her come into town wrapped in bandages she thought she had hidden well, struggling to move. Struggling to keep her head above the water her father kept threatening to drown her in. Part of her didn't care if they knew or not because it didn't make a difference. But the thought of them pitying her made her angry. Of all people, they were not allowed to pity her.

Then there was the problem of Jack himself. It was likely that their marriage may become a reality if things went according to Gwen's plans.

Selene leaned back on her knees and imagined what it would be like.

No doubt they would marry, as everyone already believed. She'd give him children and he'd give her a home. They'd go to pray every week to the Angels that protected them, then come home to make bread and pastries. Selene would sit in a rocking chair and watch the children play outside as he stoked the fire inside. She'd never be hurt by Arthur again, maybe he would even die quickly. Gwen would go mad in grief after Cedric died and never speak again. Axl would be forced into the army and Lucius would travel the world, bringing back gifts for his nieces and nephews.

Selene imagined what it would be like to love Jack, to have his arms wrapped around her every night, to wake up to his face and brush the hair from his eyes.

Life would be perfect.

And yet, it wouldn't. Selene felt nothing towards Jack and she knew in her heart that if she married and stayed in this village forever, she would be miserable. That porch would be her new meadow, nothing but a prison.

You do not live here.

How had Saavni known that? Had she read it in Selene's eyes, in the ring of amber that always seemed to burn. Of course, Selene was from this place, but her heart laid somewhere else. Maybe that distant land she spoke of, or even farther. What was she doing here in this town that wasn't even large enough to have a name?

The fire crackled in front of Selene as if trying to answer her question. She stood and walked to her workstation, looking at herself in the small mirror.

Her dark circles seemed darker, her hair duller, her eyes not as bright. She was dying. Not her body, just her soul. Every day Arthur would take a piece of it and rip it to shreds in front of her. She was losing her will to go on, to fight.

A dark thought entered Selene's mind. She needed air, to get out of the heat even for a moment. She rushed into the cold air, sucking gulps down as if she had been suffocating. Her head was spinning, and her lungs were failing. She leaned against the wall and sank to the ground, putting her head between her knees and squeezing her eyes shut.

She made herself breathe, through her nose and out her mouth. Her heart rate slowed, and her head stopped spinning. She didn't move from her position save for opening her eyes. She looked at the ground and the dirt that was littered with tiny rocks.

Angels' mercy, what is happening to me?

Selene stood, taking one last deep breath before heading back into the forge. She picked up a hammer and pulled the red-hot iron from the forge. She laid it on an anvil, the metals hissing against each other. She brought her hammer up and then she brought it down. Again and again, until it was completely flat. Then, she began hitting the anvil. The hammer sparking on the rough surface.

When her body was sore from the effort, she stopped. Her arm hung loosely at her side, barely holding the hammer. Selene closed her eyes, holding back the tears that threatened to spill over.

Crying wouldn't solve her problems.

The only sound around her was the crackling of the fire in the forge. She had always hated the heat. Hated how it seemed to suffocate her and choke her.

She opened her eyes, taking a deep breath, letting the air fill her lungs.

Just breathe.

She put the metal back into the forge and took out a new piece. This time when she lifted her hammer, it no longer felt as heavy, though barely.

She worked until after the sun rose. Arthur hadn't come into the forge yet, and Selene hurried to finish before he finally did. She was on her last piece of iron when he arrived. Selene tried to ignore him, but she could almost feel his sour mood radiating off him. He began to work at his station, not bothering to greet her. Which wasn't uncommon.

She bet the two of them had been arguing for most of the night again, most likely about Cedric and what to do with him.

She finished the iron as fast as she could without ruining it and practically ran from the forge, almost tripping over her own feet. She hurried to the barn and fed the animals and then let the horses roam the field.

She heard a call and looked over her shoulder to see Gwen waving for her to come. She went and helped her clean the bedrooms and kitchen. Selene dusted the shelves and wiped the windows with a cloth. After that, she scrubbed the floors and washed the clothes and sheets, hanging them to dry.

Gwen examined her work and demanded she did it again, claiming it was not suitable results for a wife. Selene cleaned the house thrice more before she deemed it fit for living.

It was a few hours past noon by the time Selene had finished cleaning. The boys were nowhere to be seen, and she wasn't even sure Axl had risen from bed yet. She had an idea for where Lucius was spending his time, most likely sketching by the meadow. She loved to watch Lucius sketch, to watch as his face turned hard in concentration and his eyes dart as he took in his surroundings with an artist's precision.

She walked around to the back of the house, her boots kicking up dust behind her. She found him exactly where she assumed he'd be.

A piece of hard parchment laid across his knees as he sat in the shade of the cottage, his back pressed against the old wood. Selene sat down next to him, glancing over at his work.

He had drawn the forest, almost a perfect copy of the pines and the meadow moving in the wind. The only difference was a woman standing in the grass. She looked towards the forest, seemed to be walking towards it. Her hair flowed to her waist and was blown sideways into the wind.

"Who is that?" asked Selene.

Lucius looked out at the forest as if it watched him and he dare not look away.

"I don't know."

Selene furrowed her brow in confusion. She turned her head out towards the forest as well, watching as the trees swayed slightly back and forth and the needles seemed to wave at her. It looked so very peaceful.

"I come out here sometimes in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep. I feel as if something is calling me and if I don't come out every night, don't always keep a lookout for what is calling, I'll miss it and I'll be stuck here forever."

He paused long enough for Selene to think he had finished talking before he said, "I see you sometimes."

Selene's breath caught in her throat. She had always felt as if something were watching her, and for some reason, she didn't believe Lucius to be the only one.

"I sit right here, every night, just as the moon sits between the tallest pines there," Lucius pointed to the two pines that towered above the others, like a beacon.

"I watch you walk into the field and right up to the forest's edge as if it didn't scare you. I watch you hesitate right in the line of trees like a rope is pulling you back. Sometimes, you come out after a beating and I see you struggle to get there, and yet you don't stop until you do. You look so small next to those trees, sister. If you sat here in my place you would be able to see the scars that litter your soul. I know the scars that litter your body, I've seen them delivered... But the scars on your soul are so, so much deeper. It's only at the forest's edge that you can see them when you look into the darkness and welcome it."

Selene sat quietly and listened to him. She'd never heard him talk like this before.

"When I stitched you together last night, I had never felt such disgust and rage at myself for letting this happen. I wasn't able to sleep so I came out here and sat for hours, listening and watching the trees," He paused again, as if searching for the words, "I saw a woman. She came from the forest and ran towards me. I would have stood if I had not been in such shock. I realized she wasn't walking towards me, but you. She slipped into the barn and out again in a matter of minutes and then ran back into the meadow, but she stopped in the middle. She just stopped completely. I knew at that moment, she was what had been calling me all these years."

Lucius looked down at his sketch, sadness blooming in his eyes.

"I watched her disappear into the woods and I felt as if a part of me left with her. I don't know who she is or why she was here. But just seeing her stand there in that meadow-"

His voice caught, and she resisted the urge to reach out and comfort her brother.

"I'm never leaving here, Selene. I'll be in this town for the rest of my life."

She didn't say anything. She knew what he was feeling all too well, hopelessness. There was nothing she could give that could fill that hole in his heart. The hole carved out by the woman in the meadow.

Selene didn't look at him, she feared if she did, she would tell him the one thing that would hurt him even more. So, they both sat in silence, watching the forsaken forest. Watching the one thing that could save them both.

She tried to calm her head, tried to stop the curious buzz that rang in her ears, but she couldn't. She glanced back down at the sketch, at the woman with brown hair and an inhuman grace that Lucius somehow seemed to capture, and wondered why the weaponsmith had snuck into the barn where Selene slept.