Nada's Escape

48- Eyes.

I imagine forging a steel pillar in the centre of myself, letting it form straight from the heels of my feet all the way up to my eyes. I centre all my determination into them and open them on Finley, who still gazes at me.

"What is this?" I ask, gesturing between us. On queue a tingle of warmth runs down my spine but I stamp my foot down on to force myself to concentrate.

Finley's eyes are those of the boy that I'd met in Seven years ago. A little more subtle and wary, and maybe that's why I can't bring myself to think of them as my soul mate's, unlike when I was a child. Or perhaps all my time fighting has jaded me. Finley's face seems to smooth, calming in understanding at my words, sending golden tingles though my belly and down my legs. I sink my fingers into my thighs, reminding myself to concentrate, to get answers.

Finley starts to open his mouth to reply, slowly as if wrapped in honey, but his mouth only hangs open, slack. And then he stumbles, falling towards me and my arms slide about him. Holding him against me, half stumbling towards the couch. I am half horrified at his weakness and half holding onto my steely resolve to try and figure out what has happened.

I slump against the couch, Finley reeling away from me. I can't help the hand that reaches after him, forlornly, as I slide down the back of the couch, bringing the dusty cover sheet with me. I scramble out of its embrace, ripping it off the couch completely to reveal garish green and orange patterning.

"What was that?" I echo, anchoring my elbows over the back of the two-seater. Finley stands, leaning one hand on the back of the couch opposite me, smudging the dust in a line.

"You... You..." Finley blinks, a flutter of eyelids, thoughts shifting beneath his skin. "It's impossible." He clears his throat and turns his face to me but his eyes fumble along the ground for something. Analysing these symptoms, the first rays of realisation make their way to my brain.

"I enthralled you." I feel the words fall from my mouth in shock. "But I can't."

"You can. But not another Huntsmen. That's ridiculous." A better thought crosses his features in a wave. "It's only fair, though really. Some brand of poetic justice dished up for all the times I've accidentally..." His jovial tone dries up.

I shuffle on my knees, uneasy. "So when I became a Huntswoman I got the power to enthral people?"

"Mm..." Finley replies but his focus is obviously caught in the machinations of his own thoughts. "This could be your metier. You might be able to enthral anyone."

I swallow hard, struggling to comprehend how this could be real. I feel no different since finding the symbol. So how can it be possible that I have developed Huntsmen powers? A worse thought surfaces from my subconscious: I can't be human and if I have these powers. I punch my open hand into the top of the couch, pressing the Warrior Mage's symbol as far away from me as possible. I shake my head and gather my wits.

"There's something else going on here. Lately, with you, the enthralment has been different. Less icy."

Finley nods to a slow beat, "Could it be possible you were taking on Huntsmen traits even before the Warrior Mage marked you?"

That would explain why Finley's father couldn't enthral me. The thought settles in my mind like a dark web. I fight against it with another type of logic.

"I was not marked!" I explode in frustration. "There was no Warrior Mage, no choice, no swearing an oath to be evil or anything. I don't know what happened. Ever since I left Seven everything has just been crazy." I suck in a breath and let my frustration go.

"But I thought..." Finley's confusion brings his gaze closer to me, "No, wait. That was a dream. But why couldn't the Warrior Mage have come to you in a dream?" The question brings his eyes like headlights to my face. I freeze for the barest second in fear before my gaze escapes to wander across the brown curtains framing the window behind him. It takes me a moment to grasp Finley's words.

"A dream... you didn't have the same dream as me, did you?" I ask, with a premonition of certainty. "The one with the strange cloaked woman who talked about tethers and other gibberish."

"I did." Finley replies hesitatingly. I blink, so the dream was real.

"Right. She implied that there was some Huntsmen magic binding us together," I remember, reeling the hazy memory back into my conscious mind. "An oath you swore, right? Before we met that day in Seven."

"Sure."

"And that could be why the enthralment is different. Or it could have something to do with my 'gaining Huntsmen powers'." I continue my train of thought, bringing some order to the chaotic events around me.

"But then she 'tethered' us together as well." Finley adds. "Does that mean something or is that part just dream gibberish?" I realise we're playing ping pong with our eyes, one looking towards, one looking away. It's exhausting but I can't bring myself to stop.

"Magic is gibberish regardless," I reply. "I'm going to guess what's going on has a little bit to do with all of it. Under normal circumstances neither of us should be able to be enthralled." I start picking at some grape patterns on the couch material before me. In my periphery Finley sits on the dust cover of the opposite couch and lightens the mood with a chuckle.

"Look at us, avoiding the other's eyes like we'll catch something but when we do we can barely look away."

I cough rather than reply, flicking my eyes up and they catch as if on velcro. Laughing eyes of many hues. He chuckles again and I start. Yeah there's some crazy magic going on here.

"Sorry, I know I shouldn't laugh, but don't you think it's silly?" Finley asks. "We're both as trapped as each other. I know you won't believe me but I've felt out of control more often than not when it comes to enthralling you. Sometimes nothing happens at all. Other times I feel like I've barely glanced to you and I get pulled into your head. It's dizzying."

I sigh. Finley always sounds so reasonable, even when discussing his early attempts to brainwash me.

"We are going to have to figure this out-" my words are interrupted by a yawn. Checking my watch I notice that its late. "But tomorrow." Finley is already pulling himself upright to leave and I smile a silent thanks that we're on the same side now.