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“Yes,” Luke said and was about to go on, but the man held up his hand. He wanted to talk.
“You were talking about the moon stone?”
“Yes.”
“What do you know about the moon stone?”
“We know it is here,” Luke said.
“Our map led us here,” I said.
“Your map. You do understand that if you continue to perpetuate this story, and I find out you are lying, you will not be given the opportunity to leave again. You will be killed. It is our tradition.”
“I understand,” Luke said and handed him the map. He was very confident in Bonne’s work. The man collected it and looked at the map.
“You’re from Nillport,” the man said.
“You know Nillport?” Luke asked.
“You can read?” I asked.
He just smiled at both questions and then returned his attention to the map. He gazed over it and handed it back to Luke. “Where did you get that?” he asked.
“A friend drew it.”
“How? How did he know to draw it?”
“From this,” I said, removing my half of the pendant from my neck and passing it to the man. Luke removed his, too, and passed it to the man. He took it, and he gasped a bit as he ran his hand over the pendant. When he looked up at us again, there was awe in his eyes, and the growling that had gone on since the wolves made themselves known stopped.
“What are your names?” he asked.
“Heline and Peline,” I said, knowing he was asking for our family name.
A big smile sprayed across his face, and he looked at me, moving closer until he was just a couple of inches from me. He looked me in the eyes and held my face in his palms.
“I see it,” he said. “It’s your eyes. It’s always in the eyes. You have the eyes. You have the Peline eyes shaded to ever haunt you and the people of your bloodline.”
My mother had always said I had beautiful eyes. She said I had eyes worthy of worship, and standing here, looking at this man stare into my eyes as though they were objects of awe, justified what she’d always said.
He moved away from me and then walked to Luke. “You are both broken. You’ve been broken for a long time, but now you’ve come to make each other whole. Come with me. There is so much I want to show you and so much you have to tell me.”
He turned around and started leading us toward the vine.
“Hmm,” I said, and he looked back at me. “We had werewolves on our heels before we got here. Hunters that wouldn’t be aspatient as we have been. They’ll come for us. They’ll tear down your tribe to get to us.”
The man smiled at me and held my hands, walking closer to the vine.
“How long do you think my people have been here, child? What devices have we not encountered before? They are not a threat to us. Come, a whole new world awaits you.”
Chapter twenty-three (Viper)
It was a cold night, and that was evidence that it had rained somewhere not far from where. The breeze blew in from the west, and it smelled of wet earth and smoke. I used to enjoy nights like this. People tend to be lax on cold nights, and they were the right nights to wreak havoc. People get drunk, get in fights, and all you have to do is walk through the city and pick up the spoils of the night. Wallets, chains, wristwatches, whatever.
I knew Hayley grew up that way, too, and she would have understood what I was saying better. I’ve heard people talk about her. Especially the quiet Ilad. He thinks the world of her, and we should have gotten along better, Hayley and I. We grew up on the same streets, survived the same way, and got rescued by the same person. But the glaring difference was that when we were in the street, I was the one doing the bullying, and Hayley was the one getting bullied. Our paths never crossed, but if they had, I was sure I would have bullied her.
I had assumed her weak the first time James pitted us together and had us fight. I thought it was just like back in the streets. She had that look of the street kids, and while I had washed mine off, she still stunk of it. I felt superior to her and was sure I was going to win by a big margin.
I didn’t win.
