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I shake my head. “We need to go to him. We need to go to him now,” I say, tears falling unbidden down my cheek.
“To who?”
“Jakub. He needs us.”
“What?”
“He needs us. We have to go. Now!”
* * *
“I can’t get any service,”Konrad says with frustration as he tucks his phone back into his pocket. “The forest is too dense and we’re too far from the castle.”
We’ve been walking for an hour, and every so often Konrad tries to call Leon but with no luck. Every minute it takes to get to them is another minute too long. I have this sense of impending doom that just won’t leave me. “How far into the forest is the cabin situated? Leon left a while ago,” I say, trying and failing to hide my increasing concern.
“I’m not certain. Malik only ever took Jakub to the cabin. What I do know is that it’s built on a meadow somewhere near the centre of the forest. If we keep walking in this direction we should get to it soon,” Konrad replies, taking my hand as he helps me over a fallen tree. But despite his assistance I still manage to stumble, my jumper snagging on a branch as I tip forward. Konrad steadies me, his large hands finding my hips as I slam into his chest, knocking the air from my lungs. I gasp, the world spinning for a moment. The side effects of the vision still linger like a bad smell and makes me want to throw up.
“Shit, sorry,” I mumble, placing a shaking hand against his broad chest.
“I got you.” He looks down at me, his blue eyes shrouded by dark hair, his face free from his mask that he removed and tucked into his backpack the moment we were deep enough into the forest. “Your cheeks are flushed. Should I be worrying?”
“No,” I say softly, easing myself out of his arms as I breathe in deeply. “This is normal after I experience a vision.”
Brushing a strand of hair off my face, his fingers trail over my cheeks as he stares into my eyes. “I knew from the moment I looked into your eyes that there was something special about you. You have an incredible gift.”
“More of a curse,” I mutter, a chill running down my spine at the memory of what I saw in my vision.
“What did you see exactly?” he asks, tucking my hand in his, as we continue to make our way through the forest.
“Jakub in the cabin as a child. Malik had him chained to the wall. He was naked, malnourished, beaten black and blue, covered in cuts and scrapes.” I blow out a steady breath, willing strength into my voice. Konrad remains eerily quiet as I speak, and when I glance up at him his features are tight, a muscle in his jaw jumping from how hard he grits his teeth. “Malik took a chisel to his elbow, slicing off the skin and some bone.”
“Fuck!” Konrad shouts, sending a squirrel that had been sitting on a low branch watching our approach scurrying up the tree.
“I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through,” I say, guilt climbing up my throat at the thought of what’s to come. “Konrad, Imusttell you something. I saw—”
He glances at me, then shakes his head. “Whatever it is, I don’t want to know. It was hard enough surviving the past, I don’t want to relive it again,” he admits.
“But this isn’t about your past,” I say, stopping and tugging on his hand. He chews on the inside of his cheek, flicking his gaze from my face to the dense forest beyond.
“Then it’s about our future?”
“Yes. Something happens—”
“Did your mother ever tell you what was coming in your future?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “At least not whilst she was alive.”
“You received a letter, too?”
“Yes.”And a visit from beyond the grave.
“What did it say?”
“Mostly what I already knew. She also reminded me of what I’d forgotten.”
“Forgotten?”
“About the fire, and Leon saving me…”
