Chapter 15

Freya

   I knew something bad was going to catch up with me, I just didn't think it would be that swift. I didn’t see them arrive, and that bothered me more than anything else.

If not for what came after, they would have remained just another absence in the trees, another shadow among shadows, and I would have continued believing that Thornfield was untouched, but it wasn’t.

I realized that the moment Caden found me after dinner. He didn’t sit this time and that was the first sign.

The second was the way his eyes moved. It wasn't reckless or anxious. Instead, it was precise, like he was still tracking something even while standing still in front of me.

“There are two of them,” he said without preamble.

“What?” I muttered. “Who?” 

“Spies.” The words slid past his lips immediately, and my hand stilled halfway to my cup.

“Where?” I almost didn't believe him, but I knew Caden wasn't the type to joke around, and especially not about things like this. 

“North tree line,” he replied. “They arrived yesterday morning.”

“Yesterday.” The words echoed deep in my mind. They had been there an entire day, and I hadn’t noticed. A part of me recoiled at that, while the rest of me leaned forward.

“What are they doing?”

“Watching,” he said simply. “And reporting.”

“How do you know?”

“One of them got careless.” His tone didn’t change, but something sharpened beneath it. “Second evening. He came too close to the fence and stayed too long.”

“And you saw him.”

“Yes.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing.” He held my gaze. “I kept working. I finished carrying wood and went inside.”

“Okay.” My fingers tightened slightly around the cup. “And then what?”

“I watched back.” His voice stayed level. “I saw them through the fence gaps, tracked their movement patterns and rotations.”

“How many?”

“Two,” he repeated. “One older, and one younger. The younger one is the problem.”

“Careless?” I nodded once. “Is that all?” 

“For now.”

I absorbed that. There were two keh out there, not attacking nor approaching, but waiting instead. 

The silence between us stretched for a moment, and I knew he was watching me, measuring my reaction.

Caden expected fear, maybe even panic. Instead, everything in me went very still and out of focus. 

“Take me around the perimeter,” I said.

“What?” His brow shifted slightly. “Now?”

“After dark.” I shot back. 

“And do what?”

“Show me everything.” I met his eyes fully. “Every gate, every weak point and every place someone could get in or out without being seen.”

A couple of seconds passed between us, and just when I thought he wouldn't listen. He just nodded once and didn't ask why. 

We left when the settlement quieted. The night had settled in fully by then, the kind of darkness that softened edges and turned shapes into suggestions. The air was cool too and carrying the faint scent of damp earth and smoke.

Caden walked slightly ahead of me at first, then adjusted his pace until we moved side by side.

“This is the north side,” he said quietly as we approached the fence line. “Closest to where they are.”

I slowed, studying the tree line beyond the fence. It looked the same, and that was the problem.

“Can they see us?” I asked.

“If we stand still long enough,” he said. “Yes.”

“Then we don’t stand still.” A flicker of something crossed his expression, but he said nothing. He just kept walking.

“This gate,” he continued, gesturing ahead, “is the main entry point. It is mostly used for supply runs.”

“How fast can it be opened?”

“From the inside? Seconds.”

“From the outside?”

“Longer.”

“Good.”

We moved on and I counted steps without thinking about it. Not consciously. Just registering distance, time, space and everything else I could think of. 

“This section,” he said, tapping lightly against a stretch of fence, “was repaired last winter. Strong, but newer.”

“Weaker than the rest?”

“Slightly.”

“How long would it take to break through?”

“With tools? Minutes. Without? Longer.”

“Noted.”

We circled further, and this time he showed me a narrow path half hidden behind brush.

“Leads out toward the eastern slope,” he said. “Less visible from the road.”

“Fastest route out?”

“No,” he said. “But the least obvious.”

I nodded, and again, we kept moving. At some point, I realized I was no longer reacting. I was mapping every turn, every opening and every place where someone could slip through unseen.

“Which path is fastest?” I asked.

“South ridge,” he said without hesitation. “Direct, but exposed.”

“And the slowest?”

“West side. Winding. Covered.”

I filed that away.

“And if someone was watching the north line?” I pressed.

“They wouldn’t see movement on the west until it was too late.”

I exhaled slowly.

Good.

We walked for what felt like hours, and maaybe it was. Right now, time didn’t matter, only clarity did.

By the time we completed the full circuit, the settlement lay quiet behind us, the fence no longer just a boundary, but something I understood, something I could use.

When we stepped back inside, the shift was immediate. It was warmer and safer, but now I knew better than to trust that word blindly.

Caden stopped a few feet from me, and for a moment, he didn’t speak. He just looked at me, his gaze steady in a way that felt different.

“You’re not the same person who arrived here three weeks ago,” he said.

It wasn’t a question and I considered that for longer than necessary, because it deserved a real answer.

“I think I might be exactly the same person,” I said finally and his brow lifted slightly. “I just didn’t know it yet.”

Something in his expression shifted, not surprise, not disbelief but recognition. He nodded once, then he turned and left without another word.

I counted to ten after he'd gone,before I went back to my room. I laid down on my cot, but I didn't sleep, it aldo didn't help that Eliza was awake. She wasn't restless or agitated, just alert and watching. 

“They’re here,” she murmured, her presence a steady weight in my chest.

“Yes.”

“They will come closer.”

“Yes.”

“What do we do?”

I stared up at the ceiling, my mind moving through everything I had just seen. The gates, the paths, the distance to the tree line and the way they watched instead of acted.

“They’re waiting,” I said softly.

“For what?”

“For me to make a mistake.”

“And will we?” Eliza’s response was immediate. A low, quiet sound that wasn’t quite a growl.

“No.” I let out a slow breath.

Outside, beyond the fence, and beyond the darkness, two men sat in the trees and believed they were unseen. They believed they had time, they believed I would stay exactly where they expected me to be, but they were wrong. 

I wasn’t going to wait to be found.