CHAPTER 36
1802 Words
The air smelled like smoke. Just a little. It was coming in from a small c***k in the window.
Elise sat outside, behind the healer’s place. Her back was resting on a big tree.
The sun wasn’t really out yet.
There was a little light in the sky, soft and slow, like it didn’t even want to rise.
Her cloak was on, but it wasn’t warm. She didn’t care.
She kept touching a loose thread on her sleeve. Just turning it in her fingers.
She’d been sitting there for over an hour.
She couldn’t sleep.
Not after what they saw.
Not after what the boy said.
Her eyes burned—not from tears, but from the weight of everything she didn’t understand.
The dreams.
The wolves.
The fear in everyone’s eyes.
And still, no one looked at her the same.
She was still the unstable one.
Still the outsider.
Powerless, yet somehow still dangerous in their eyes.
A door creaked open behind her.
Slow and firm footsteps were made across the wooden porch.
Elise didn’t turn until the person spoke.
“You always sit out here when you can’t sleep?”
She looked over her shoulder.
An old woman stood behind her, wrapped in a faded green shawl.
Her silver hair was tied back in a loose braid, and her face looked tired—like she’d lived through a lot.
“Elara,” Elise said quietly.
The woman gave a small nod and sat down beside her on the stone bench.
“Didn’t think you’d still remember my name.”
“You were the one who treated me when I first got here,” Elise said.
“You saved my life. I can’t forget that.”
“More so, you were the one who held my hand when I blacked out after the trial.”
“Ah.” The old woman chuckled.
“You remember that, but not the soup I brought you the day after.”
Elise blinked. “There was soup?”
“Terrible one,” Elara grinned.
“You barely ate it saying it smelled like wet leaves.”
For the first time in days, Elise smiled.
They sat quietly, but it wasn’t awkward.
It was the kind of silence that felt okay—like neither of them needed to say anything.
Elise leaned back again, staring at the clouds overhead.
They were grayish, like they hadn’t made up their mind yet.
“Bad night?” Elara finally asked.
Elise nodded. “They’re not just dreams anymore. I don’t think they ever were.”
“You saw them again?”
“Yes.”
Elara reached into the folds of her shawl and pulled out a small cloth bundle.
She unwrapped it carefully to reveal two warm pastries.
Elise raised an eyebrow. “Are those for bribery?”
“No. They’re for peace,” Elara said, handing her one.
“Eat something.”
“If we’re all going to lose our minds, might as well do it with a full stomach.” She added with a serious face.
Elise chuckled and took it. She bit into the pastry slowly, savoring the faint taste of cinnamon and honey. It was warm and comforting, like home.
They sat in silence again until Elara spoke, her voice quieter this time.
“You worry about him.”
Elise didn’t ask who.
She didn’t have to.
“Kai,” she said, almost like the word hurt.
Elara nodded. “I’ve known him since he was a kid, wild thing, always running off to climb the tallest trees like they couldn’t fall on him.”
“His mother used to bring him to me with scratches all over his legs, pine needles in his hair.”
Elise smiled faintly. “I can imagine.”
“He was different back then,” Elara continued.
“Not just because he was young. He was… open. Curious. Always asking questions, always trying to protect others, even the ones who didn’t like him.”
Elise looked down at her hands.
“What happened to him?”
Elara’s eyes softened. “His father.”
Silence.
“He didn’t talk about him much,” Elise said.
“He wouldn’t.”
“Alpha Ryven wasn’t the kind of man you spoke about fondly, and after Kai’s mother passed, things got worse. I think he blamed his father for everything—even for the things no one could’ve controlled. That pain… it changed him. Hardened him.”
Elise swallowed. Her fingers tightened slightly.
“He’s kind,” she whispered. “Even when he tries to hide it, evsn when he’s angry.”
Elara gave her a long, thoughtful look. “And you see that.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why he pushes you away sometimes,” Elara said.
“You remind him of everything he’s trying not to feel, of everything he’s afraid to lose.”
Elise looked at her, startled. “You think he’s afraid of me?”
“No, dear.” Elara reached over and gently touched her hand. “He’s afraid of loving you, even though he’s literally in love with you already.”
“He looks at you the exact way he used to look at his mother.”
“The fear in his eyes when he brought you here after the night of the silver moon ball told me everything I needed to know.”
Those words struck something deep in Elise’s chest.
She didn’t respond.
Elise didn’t know what to say.
“He looks at you like you’re a storm he can’t stop,” Elara said.
“And Kai… he doesn’t trust anything he can’t control.”
Elise let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
Her chest moved slowly, like Elara’s words hit her and made her feel lighter at the same time.
She looked down at her pastry. It was half-eaten. The warmth was gone—just like the power she used to feel.
Everything was different now.
“I don’t know who I am without it,” she admitted quietly, still not looking up.
Elara didn’t respond right away.
She reached over and took Elise’s free hand in both of hers—warm, wrinkled, steady.
“You’ve mistaken your gift for your identity, child. You were never just power. You were always more than that.”
“But without it, they look at me like I’m broken,” Elise whispered, her voice cracking.
“Like I’m half of what I was.”
“And how do you see yourself?”
Elise flinched at the question.
No one had asked her that.
Not Kai.
Not the council.
Not even herself.
“I see someone who failed,” she said after a pause.
“Someone who keeps surviving by accident.”
“I am someone people are scared of when I have powers… and pity when I don’t.”
Elara held her hand gently.
“Maybe it’s time you saw yourself the way I see you,” she said. “You keep showing up, even when it hurts. You’re still here, even when everything’s falling apart.”
Elise’s throat felt tight. She looked up at the sky so the tears wouldn’t fall.
“I don’t want to be the reason people are scared,” she said. “Or hurt.”
“You won’t be,” Elara said, her voice steady.
“You’re learning to control what’s in here.” She tapped Elise’s chest. “That’s what really matters.”
Elise gave a small nod. Her lips shook a little—caught between wanting to cry and wanting to say thank you.
From the edge of the garden, a distant howl rose—long, strained, and unfamiliar.
Elise froze, heart skipping.
Elara’s head turned slightly, her expression hardening.
“That’s not one of ours,” she murmured.
Jace sat up straighter. “Want me to check it out?”
“No.” Elara stood, her back a little stiff. “There are warriors on patrol. They’ll report if anything’s wrong.”
But the silence that followed felt tense.
Elise stood slowly too, brushing crumbs from her lap.
“Should I go back inside?”
“No,” Elara said gently. “You should come with me.”
“To where?”
“To the old greenhouse, there’s someone I want you to meet.”
Elise blinked. “Now?”
The old woman smiled. “Now. Before fear talks you into staying hidden again.”
They left Jace behind and made their way through the quiet paths behind the healer’s quarters.
The walk was peaceful but alert, birds sang loudly in their nests and insects chirped.
Elise remembered passing this area weeks ago.
The trees here were older, their trunks had grown even thicker.
Eventually, they reached a gate of rusted iron that creaked when Elara pushed it open.
The greenhouse was more a ruin than anything else.
Vines wrapped around the frame.
But there was still life here—green, messy and beautiful.
Elise stepped in carefully, half-expecting the place to fall apart.
But it didn’t
“Elara…” she began, unsure.
“He lives back here,” Elara said, brushing aside a low branch.
“He?”
A voice drifted from behind a wall of ivy near the center.
“You’re early,” it said.
Elara grinned. “You always say that when I bring someone.”
Elise watched as a man stepped into view.
He was tall, with streaks of white in his dark hair and an he limped in his left leg.
But his eyes were sharp and curious.
“Elise, this is Healer Biran. He used to be one of the High Council’s dream readers before he went into seclusion.”
Elise frowned. “Dream reader?”
Biran’s gaze met hers. “So you’re the girl who sees what’s coming before it arrives.”
She froze.
“I’ve seen pieces,” he continued, stepping closer but slowly, gently.
“But not like you. They come to you raw, don’t they?”
“How do you know that?” she asked.
“Because it happened to me when I was your age. Before I learned to close the doors.”
Elise stared.
“You’re not cursed, Elise,” he said. “You’re just listening to what most of us try to drown out.”
She stepped back, overwhelmed, but Elara caught her gently.
“Let him show you,” she whispered.
Biran turned and began arranging a few small objects on a low stone shelf—bundles of herbs, a cracked bowl.
“I can teach you,” he said, not turning around. “Not to stop the dreams—but to survive them. To hear them without losing yourself.”
Elise stood in the middle of the wild greenhouse, heart pounding.
- Writer
