Skaydal - Demon's Forever

Hunter Behind Glass

✦Dolly✦

When we got to the town square, we could see that all the flowers were dead.

All of them.

The bright festival flowers around the fountain had curled in on themselves as if something had sucked the life straight through the stems. The petals were black. The soil beneath them was darker than it should have been, and even the air around the beds felt wrong.

Cold. Dark. Alive.

Those were the words I had given Blaise in Grayson’s office. I had said them because she asked me to help. Because Sierna had held my hands and told me they weren’t looking at me like I was guilty. They were looking at me because I was the only one who might understand it. That should have made me feel better.

It didn’t.

The crowd that had gathered understood that something was wrong. And that feeling still stayed with me even when we returned home. My parents and Elias left me alone. They didn’t push. They didn’t try to make me feel better. The next morning, when I walked into Project Future, I noticed that everyone was watching me. Again, they might not blame me, but they certainly felt like I was somehow connected to all of it.

Was I?

Mila met me outside the shed with coffee.

“Emotional support,” she said, and I rolled my eyes. I accepted the coffee regardless. “Amani is in a foul mood,”

“My mother is always in a mood,”

“True, but this is a special type of mood,” she said. I looked around and spotted my mother near the water tanks with Gavin, Blaise, and Ronnie. There were soil containers lined up on a fold-out table, each one labeled in my mother’s neat handwriting.

Tomato greenhouse.

Herb greenhouse.

Town square flowers.

My skin tightened when I saw that last one. Blaise looked up as we approached.

“How do you feel?” she asked with a soft smile. I understood what she wanted from me. It wouldn’t help if I hid from it.

“Cold,” I admitted. My mother’s face softened.

“Still?”

“Worse near the samples,” I said. Ronnie leaned closer to the containers but didn’t touch them.

“That means whatever this is, it’s connected,” she said.

“Or spreading,” Gavin muttered, and my mother shot him a look. Like father and daughter. He immediately held up both hands. “I’m being realistic,”

“You aren’t being unhelpful,” my mother snapped.

“I can be both,” he argued. For half a second, I almost smiled. Then Riven walked into the yard. He came through the gate with his dark jacket, dark hair, and quiet steps. The black ring on his right hand caught the morning light. Mila noticed him at the same time I did.

“Why is he still employed?” she whispered.

“Because apparently being suspicious isn’t illegal,” I answered.

“It should be,” she said, and I agreed. Riven looked toward the sample table, then toward me. He didn’t smile. He didn’t pretend not to notice the tension either. It was like in that single moment, I understood everything. That annoyed me. Everything about him annoyed me. Especially the way the darkness inside me went silent the moment he came close enough. My mother turned to him.

“The compost pallets near the western shed need to be moved. After that, Gavin has irrigation connectors by the water tanks,” Riven nodded.

“Understood,” he was here to do a job. Period. End of story.

“That’s it?” Mila whispered. “No interrogation? No background check? No throwing him into one of Grayson’s cells for vibes?”

“Mila,” I hissed.

“What? Vibes are important,” she said. Riven passed us with a faint glance in her direction.

“I heard that,”

“Good,” she shot back. His gaze moved to me next.

“Dolly,” and there it was again. The way he said my name. I tightened my hand around the coffee cup. I didn’t want to talk to him. I didn’t want to acknowledge him. But we weren’t alone.

“Riven,” Mila made a small choking sound beside me. I ignored her. The morning dragged after that. My mother didn’t let me near the dead soil, but she didn’t send me away either. Instead, Blaise asked me to stand at different points around the yard and tell her what I felt.

It was humiliating.

It was also terrifying.

Near the healthy seedlings, I felt almost normal. Near the sample containers, the cold grew stronger. Near the tomato greenhouse, the darkness under my skin pulled toward the door like something inside me recognized something inside the soil. I hated that most of all. Around midday, my mother sent Mila to help Gavin, and Ronnie went with Blaise to check the ward stones near the greenhouse. I carried a small box of valves toward the water tanks because I needed to do something with my hands. Riven appeared beside the tanks as if he had been waiting.

“Need help?” he asked.

“No,”

“The box is tilting,” he pointed out. I rolled my eyes.

“I like it tilted,” I snapped. One of the valves shifted. He reached out and steadied the side of the box before it fell. His fingers brushed mine. The darkness inside me went quiet so suddenly that I nearly dropped the whole box. I jerked back. “Don’t touch me,” he immediately lowered his hand.

“I didn’t mean to,”

“That’s what people say when they do,”

“Not always,” he argued. I set the box down on a crate and decided to give in to my curiosity.

“What’s with the ring?” I asked. Riven didn’t answer right away. He brushed his thumb over the black metal, and I frowned as I watched him closely.

“It belonged to my family,” he finally answered. If you could call that an answer.

“That’s vague,”

“Vague, but true,”

“Does your family know you are in Skaydal?” I asked, and his expression changed. It was like a wall had come down. I was taken aback by it.

“They know enough,”

“You know something, don’t you?” I accused as I stepped closer to him.

“About what?”

“The soil. The flowers. Me,” his gaze sharpened.

“You?”

“Admit it, Riven. You know something,”

“I don’t,” of course, I didn’t believe him.

“My mother insists that you are human…I’m not so convinced. What are you, Riven?”

“Human,” he answered without missing a beat.

“Human doesn’t mean harmless,” I stated. Something flickered in his eyes. I knew he recognized the words. Maybe because my father had said them. Maybe because they were true.

“You should be careful,” he murmured.

“Of you?” his gaze dropped to my hands.

“Of what wakes when you are afraid,” he said, and I paused.

“What did you just say?” I whispered. Another wall. It was like he shut down. It was like he realized he had said too much. But yet, it wasn’t enough. Before I could push him, Mila called for me from across the yard. Riven stepped back, and the moment between us snapped. As I turned to leave, a glint of something caught my eye. I retrieved the box, but I checked him out. Riven didn’t appear bothered, as he stood tall. But as my eyes roamed over his form, I spotted something I was probably not meant to see. I hurriedly left before he could realize what I had seen. Tucked into his side was a blade. Not a gun. Not a gardening tool. A blade. It was small, and he figured no one would see it. But I had.

The fact is, Riven Crowe had come to Skaydal armed.

The bigger question is, why?

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