# Chapter 17: Blind

Someone knocked on the bathroom door.

I jumped so hard that I knocked the soap bottle off the sink. It hit the floor and rolled under the stall.

"Sienna?" It was my mother's voice. "Sienna, honey, are you in there?"

I looked at the mirror again, fast. My eyes were hazel. Normal, boring, hazel. Just like always.

*Did I imagine it?*

"I'm here," I said. My voice was shaking.

The door opened, and Mom came in. She was wearing a pale green dress that Garrett had bought her, and her hair was pinned up with little pearls. She looked at my ruined blue dress, at the red wine soaked all down the front, and her face went soft and sad.

"Oh, baby," she said. "Oh, that girl. That horrible girl."

She came over and took the paper towels out of my hands. She started to dab at the dress, gently, the way she used to wash my face when I was little.

"Mom," I whispered.

"Shh. It's okay. We'll get it clean."

"Mom, something happened."

Her hands slowed down. "What do you mean?"

"Just now. In the mirror." My voice cracked. "My eyes. They turned silver. Just for a second. And I could hear things. Heartbeats. Everyone's heartbeats, through the walls. And there was a voice in my head, Mom. A voice that wasn't mine."

My mother's hands stopped completely.

She didn't look at me. She looked down at the dress. But I watched her face in the mirror, and I saw all the color drain out of it, the way it did at that first dinner when Garrett said the word *Moonborn*.

"You're tired," she said quietly. "The lights in here are bad. You've been through a lot tonight."

"Mom. I know what I saw."

She looked up and met my eyes in the mirror. Her eyes were full of something I had never seen there before. It wasn't just fear. It was terror.

"Did anyone see?" she whispered.

My heart stopped.

"What?"

"Your eyes. Did anyone else see them? Anyone at all?"

"No. I was alone. Mom, *why*? What does it mean?"

She didn't answer. She grabbed my hand, hard, and pulled me toward the door.

"We're going home," she said. "Right now. Through the back. Don't talk to anyone."

"But, Mom…"

"*Now*, Sienna."

---

We left through the kitchen door at the back of the Founders' Hall. Mom called a car. She didn't say a single word the whole ride up the hill. She just held my hand so tight that it hurt, and she stared out the window at the dark trees.

When we got to the big house, she walked me all the way to my bedroom door.

"Lock it," she said. "And don't open it for anyone tonight."

"Mom, please. Just tell me something. *Anything*."

She took my face in both her hands, like she did the night after the first dinner. Her fingers were cold.

"Soon," she whispered. "I promise. Soon."

*Soon.*

The same word. The same word the voice in my head had said.

She kissed my forehead and walked away down the dark hallway. I went into my room, locked the door, and sat on the floor in my ruined dress.

My phone buzzed.

It was Rhys.

**Photo deleted. Promise. You were amazing tonight, little sister. "Desperation doesn't." I'm going to say that line for the rest of my life.**

A second message came.

**Also, my cousin just punched a hole in the wall of the Founders' Hall. Thought you should know.**

I stared at the phone. Then I put it face down on the floor and closed my eyes.

---

Day six.

The knock on the bathroom door came at 4:55. It was one sharp knock.

"Barn," Kael said through the door. "Ten minutes."

That was all.

I got dressed. Leggings. Hoodie. My black hair tie, the one he gave back to me on the roof. I tied my hair up with it, and it felt heavy on my head, like it weighed a hundred pounds.

The training barn was empty and cold. The sun wasn't up yet. Only one light was on, a single yellow bulb hanging from the ceiling over the center mat.

Kael was standing under it.

He looked terrible. Like he hadn't slept at all. There were dark shadows under his eyes. His right hand was wrapped in a white bandage, all around the knuckles.

The wall. Rhys was right.

"Your hand," I said.

"It's fine."

"You punched a wall."

"It's *fine*." He didn't look at me. He held up something black. A long piece of black cloth. "Put this on."

"What is it?"

"A blindfold."

"Why?"

"Because a Guard can't always see what's coming." His voice was flat and cold, like on the first day. Like the roof never happened. Like the hot chocolate never happened. "Rogues hunt at night. In the dark. In the fog. You have to learn to fight without your eyes."

I took the blindfold from his hand. Our fingers didn't touch. He made sure of it.

I tied it around my eyes. Everything went black.

"Feet apart," he said. His voice moved, circling me slowly. "Knees soft. Hands up."

I put my hands up.

"I'm going to come at you. Block me."

"How? I can't see anything."

"Figure it out."

Something hit my shoulder. Not hard. Just a tap. But I didn't even see it coming. Of course I didn't. I was blind.

"Too slow," he said.

Another tap. This time on my arm.

"Too slow."

Another one. My other shoulder.

"You're not even trying."

"I can't *see* you!"

"Then stop trying to see."

Tap. Tap. Tap. Each one came from a different side. Left. Right. Behind me. I spun around and around, waving my hands at nothing, like a fool. I couldn't find him. He was moving too quietly, and too fast.

My face got hot. My eyes started to burn behind the blindfold.

"This is stupid," I said.

"Stop complaining."

"I'm not complaining. I'm telling you it's *stupid*."

"Then quit." His voice was right next to my ear, low and cold. "Say the word. Say *stop*, and you can go back to your room."

I clenched my fists.

*No.*

I took a deep breath. I stood still. And I tried to do what he said. I stopped trying to see.

And then I remembered last night. The bathroom. The heartbeats, all of them through the walls.

I closed my eyes behind the blindfold. I breathed slowly. In. Out. In. Out.

And I listened.

At first, there was nothing. Just the wind outside, moaning against the old wooden walls of the barn. The creak of the beams over my head. The buzz of the yellow light bulb.

Then, slowly, under all that, I heard it.

*Thump. Thump. Thump.*

A heartbeat.

*His* heartbeat.

It was slow and strong, and it was moving. It was to my left. Now it was behind me. Now it was coming closer, fast…

I spun around and threw up my arm.

His hand hit my forearm, and I blocked it.

Kael went very still.

Then his heartbeat moved again. To my right. I turned and blocked. Then low, so I dropped my hands and blocked. Then high, and I blocked again.

Every single time.

I didn't know how. I just knew. I could hear his heart. I could hear his breath, even the tiny sound of his feet on the mat. I could almost *feel* him, like a warm light moving around me in the dark.

He came faster. I blocked faster. He came from behind me, and this time, I didn't just block. I spun around and grabbed his wrist, and I held it.

For a long moment, neither of us moved.

I could hear his heart pounding now. Fast. Very fast.

"How are you doing that?" he whispered.

"Lucky," I lied.

"That's not luck."

"Then maybe you're just too loud."

"I'm not loud. Nobody in this whole pack can hear me move." His voice was very close now. "Not even my father."

I didn't know what to say. So I didn't say anything.

I was still holding his wrist. I could feel his pulse under my fingers, beating hard and fast.

"Can I tell you something?" he said quietly.

"You're going to tell me anyway."

"On the roof, you said it meant nothing."

My heart jumped.

"I did," I whispered.

"You said you felt nothing."

"I did."

"Then why," he said softly, "is your heart beating so fast right now?"

Oh God.

He could hear it too.

Of course he could. He was a wolf. An Alpha. He could hear a heartbeat from across a room. And mine was pounding so loud right now that probably the whole town could hear it.

I let go of his wrist fast, like it burned me.

"Because I'm tired," I said. "Because you've been hitting me for twenty minutes."

"I've been tapping you."

"Hard tapping."

He let out a breath. It was almost a laugh, but it was too sad to be a laugh.

I felt his fingers touch the back of my head. Very gently, he untied the blindfold. The black cloth slid down off my face.

I opened my eyes.

He was right there, one inch away. Under the yellow light, his face was close enough that I could see every tired line around his eyes. His lips were close enough that I could feel his breath on mine.

He looked at me for a long time. His gray eyes moved over my face, like he was trying to read something written there.

Then he stepped back.

"You passed day six," he said. His voice was cold again. Hard. The Alpha voice. "Tomorrow is the last day."

"What's tomorrow?"

He picked up his jacket from the floor and put it on. He walked to the barn door and stopped there, with his back to me.

"Tomorrow night, you go into the forest," he said. "Alone. No phone. No flashlight. No weapons."

My heart stopped.

"For how long?"

He turned and looked back at me over his shoulder.

"Until the sun comes up," he said quietly. "You survive the whole night in the forest by yourself. If you make it to sunrise, the Guard is yours."

"And the rogues?" I whispered. "The archer? The one who wants the silver girl?"

His face didn't change. But his eyes did.

"That's the test, Sienna," he said. "And this time, I won't be coming to save you."