I've never been very good at telling lies.
My brother, on the other hand, let's lies slip between his teeth so often, it's practically second nature to him — but not me. My lies always seem to get caught in the back of my throat.
"DID YOU FIND ANYTHING?"
I could hear Gavin from a mile away, his question echoing around the silent forest. I could feel his heartbeat quicken, the unfamiliar pattern pounding against my ears like a drum. He was too far away for me to feel anything else, but his heartbeat continued to slam against my chest, along with the faint tap of my father's, who was 3 miles west of where I stood.
As a healer, I felt the heartbeats of everyone around me — it was a tool designed by the witches treaty, a constant reminder of my families humanity, even if they chose to pretend they were as immortal as the monsters they hunted. The witches also let me wander into other peoples minds and communicate with them; if someone was wounded, I could slip through the gates of their mind and stroll about, finding their injury. My brother Gavin tended to use the link as a way to whisper insults about other people while we stood in front of them.
He would find me if I didn't answer, he would track my messy footsteps through the snow — it wasn't even a challenge. I was a foreign creature in the forest; like most healers of the town, I'd only ventured as far the garden at the edge of the village gates. The woods were a dangerous place, the little healing magic I knew would only annoy a monster, not protect me. Gavin hadn't even taken me into the woods, we were just on the outskirts — if I squinted, I could see the thin wisps of smoke from our village in the distance.
"EVA?" Gavin called again, his voice coming from a different direction than before, "DID YOU FIND ANYTHING?"
My hands were shaking as I stared at the scene in front of me, the snow around my boots was soaked in blood, staining the atmosphere. If Gavin appeared, there would be no hesitation in his actions, he was a killer. With an uneasy breath, I shook my head in a firm acknowledgment of what I was about to do.
"NO!" I called to him, willing myself to sound truthful, "NOTHING OVER HERE." My voice echoed around the forest, bouncing off the skeletons of the frozen trees — even in my strongest attempt, my voice sounded shaky and uneven. I let out a grumpy huff of hair; Gavin had this habit of placing me in situations where his talents greatly overshadowed mine. He knew no magic, each time he tried, the words would slur together — but even as his attempts burned around him, he managed to treat it as if it were a game. He always got his revenge by unknowingly testing my lack of lying abilities.
Liar.... The wind hissed to me, swirling around my ankles as I took uneven breathes, desperately trying to stay calm.... A pretty girl should not say such nasty, nasty lies.... Even at the edge of the woods, the forest was alive. As a child, I had enjoyed how the wind would whisper to me in the garden, how the leaves would sing their song whenever they fell — but I didn't enjoy it now.
Miraculously, Gavin's heartbeat began to grow fainter as he moved further away, his faith in my inability to tell lies outshining my poor acting performance. I let out a shaky breath, still aware that he could appear at my side at any time. The wind continued to blow in my ear, mummering words I had to strain to hear, but I had more important things to take care of.
Cautiously, I knelt to the ground, unable to look away from what lay before me.
I had been raised to hate the werewolves who roamed the forest; why shouldn't I? Wolves had killed my mother, they took the helpless from the village — the only reason I'd stomped into the forest after Gavin was because Alex had been part of the taken. On the first of every month, when the magic of our treaty was the weakest, creatures of the night would slip through our borders with ease — snatching people from their bedrooms and disappearing into the darkness. Into the woods.
