Chapter 7
1554 Words
As the sun peeks over the mountain tops, Circe makes her way to the royal city. The children should be in the garden, and she can’t help but feel excited to see them. If only she could hold them, and Tabatha…
She never realized the importance of having your family with you. Interacting with them on a daily basis. Seeing their smiles and spending meals together. She sighs as she makes her way through the city backstreets.
Every time she comes here, it always feels as if someone is watching her! She is getting paranoid now that she is a fugitive of sorts. Will she ever be able to have some semblance of a normal life again, or is it her fate to always lurk in the shadows and keep watch over the children?
Her thoughts break her concentration, and she has to jump before the palace guards see her. Reprimanding herself, she remembers that she can’t afford the luxury of wondering about a future anymore. She either has to stick to her vow of protecting the children and living in the shadows, or she has to leave this place for good.
***
Harro’s breath catches in the back of his throat when she finally appears again. He was starting to think she’s just a figment of his own imagination. A wisp in his own dreams of a woman who needs saving, but not a specific person.
Her dreams have been less violent lately, yet she still carries so much pain in them. He has tried to find a way to ease it, but as with the mystery of why he is drawn to her dreams, a new mystery has appeared.
He can’t seem to influence them either. As if she is protected against dream walking! His eyes grow wide! Is there someone out there that suspects there to be a dream walker? If so, the palace guards will probably soon be searching the homes of the people! There are dark things in this city that even the precious royals don’t know about. Harro is convinced of it.
The raids they have in the name of the royals… He can’t think that it could be an order from them. They are kind-hearted!
He has to find a way to get out of here, but the guards might find her. Harro wonders if she knows about the raids. If she doesn’t… What if she does? What if she has been baiting him all this time.
Luring him out, so he will reveal himself! Surely, after all this time they wouldn’t still be looking, would they? He disappears behind a pillar as he follows the beautiful young woman. Trying to figure out if he should keep following her or run. He could be putting his own life at risk, but, then, she turns her head and the morning sunlight catches her face.
Her eyes sparkle in the sunlight for a moment before she turns her head and disappears behind the next building. He knows where she’s going, but he has to keep his eyes out. He has to be more careful.
She takes her seat where she always hides, and it reminds him that he still knows nothing about her. A beautiful woman like her couldn’t just go completely unnoticed by the nobles. Unless she is someone’s mistress… He shakes his head.
“Making up stories about mystery woman! You are going to get yourself killed! Or worse!” He mumbles to himself and his foot slips on the roof tile, making the tile drop two stories down to the street below.
He falls flat on his butt and stops his fall just in time before going over the edge, leaning his back straight against the roof in the hopes that it’s still early and nobody saw him.
“That will teach you to skulk around the city!” He swears at himself through gritted teeth as he closes his eyes and tries to calm his racing heart.
Every day for the past couple of years, he has walked over that tile, always missing it because he knows it’s loose. Today of all days he has to step on the damn thing and nearly break his neck.
“Well, at least then I won’t have to wait for someone to come and kill me. Right? Why? Because I will be dead.” He fights with himself as he walks back over the roof and slides down the pillar onto the balcony.
This side of town is still quiet at this time of the morning, and it seems as if nobody noticed his little mishap, but they will notice the missing tile once the rainy season starts.
He jumps down the balcony onto the cart with grass feed for the horses that never seems to move but always seems to have fresh grass in it.
“WHY are you following me?!” Her eyes flare in anger as she grabs hold of his collar. She is a lot stronger than he thought, and faster too!
“Excuse me?” He is so shocked by her sudden appearance that he doesn’t know what else to say.
***
Circe heard the tile hit the floor and immediately looked up, noticing the hooded figure on the roof before he disappeared. Her wolf hearing followed his footsteps as he moved, and she was waiting for him when he came flying down from the balcony!
Why would someone be following her? Is it possible that he knows who she is, or did her family find someone outside the pack to track her?
The total look of fear in his eyes when she confronts him tells her that he can’t know that much. She studies his eyes for any sign that he could know something, but there is none. His face isn’t familiar, why else would he be following her?
“Who are you?!” She demands, not letting go of his shirt, but he stammers not making sense when she finally lets him go. As it is, she has spent too much time hanging around here! Anyone can come out and find her at any time, and if they do…
She can’t think! His eyes look into the deepest parts of her soul! Turning around, she rushes down one of the side streets, hearing his footsteps following close behind her. She takes a quick left turn and immediately a right, giving her enough time to shift, grab her cloak in her mouth and run.
The lower leaves of the trees hit her in the face as soon as she makes it to the forest. Damn! How could she have been so careless! Then it hits her… The man! The one in her dreams!
He has been there this entire time. He had to have been, why else would she be dreaming about him? Storming into the house, she shifts and starts to pace the floor. Ariel stops her to try and find out what is going on, but her mind is running a mile a minute as she tries to figure out how many times he has been there in the background, just staring at her?
When she finally throws her hands in the air in frustration, Ariel demands an answer, and Circe tells her of the meeting.
“You saw him?” Ariel’s eyes grow wide. “Did you actually see him?” Circe can’t understand why Ariel would suddenly be so interested.
“Yes.”
“Did you see his face? Would you be able to recognize him?”
Circe starts to pace the room again, holding her palm against her forehead as if she’s trying to think.
“I don’t know, it happened so fast, and I was so scared at that point.” She stops and looks at Ariel before pacing again.
“Here, you can’t keep prancing around in your birthday suit.” Ariel throws the cloak over Circe’s shoulders, making her sit down. She makes Circe some tea and when she hands it to her, Circe feels as if she might faint from the stress.
It takes a moment for the calming effects of the herbs to work before Circe’s mind clears a little. She can’t go back to the city! What does she have left?
***
Harro walks into his house and kicks at the chair in the dining room. His carelessness will cost him the little of a life he created for himself here. Now she knows that he is there! If he is pulled into her dreams, and she sees him…
What is he going to do if she recognizes him? If she attacks him in her dreams, things can go seriously wrong. It takes all of twenty minutes before he feels the familiar pull of her dreams.
If he were to see her one last time and then leave the city, he might still be able to save himself. He could give Mia’s mother the recipe for the herbs to calm her sleep.
Pacing the kitchen, he pulls his fingers through his hair. He can’t leave Mia, she needs him.
“DAMN!”
Her sleep pulls stronger at his consciousness, and he takes a seat, but it doesn’t take long before his head leans back, and he gives in to her dreams.
- Writer
