Under His Shadow

Chapter Three

The First Threat

Keiroa was lost in what to do. Her hands were still shaking with the shouting in the halls the previous night.

Her heart was racing in her chest, and her stomach was full of knots.

She had never been so scared in her life. Fear was racing through her veins, burning like fire, beginning in her chest and moving to her fingertips. Each sound she heard made her jump.

The creak of the floorboards, the rustle of curtains, the sigh of wind against the window, it all was threatening to come to her.

Elara stayed close.

"You have to keep your cool," Elara whispered, her voice firm despite the softness of her tone. "If they see you're panicking, they'll think you're weak. Weakness is dangerous in a place like this. They can't see your weakness."

Keiroa nodded, though panic was rushing through her like a river bursting its banks. She wanted to scream, to cry, to hide for the rest of eternity.

“But why me? Why are they looking for me?”

Elara shook her head, concerned, clouding her calm expression.

“I don’t know. Not yet. But you have to be ready. Always ready. Never let your guard down. If they sense any fear, it will embolden them. You understand?”

Keiroa swallowed hard. Her parched mouth was a shock to her system.

"Yes," she whispered, and the word rang empty in her ears. She didn't comprehend.

Who would want her?

She was only a small, helpless girl. She didn't have anything to offer.

The remaining hours dragged on.

Each move Keiroa made in her home was deliberate.

She abided strictly to the guidelines Roland provided.

Every opportunity she allowed her gaze to roam upward, Captain Kai's stare pinned her.

He lingered in every corner, in every shadow, as if he was a specter, hard and unyielding. It sent a chill through her veins.

She didn't have the liberty to make a single misstep.

She couldn't afford to look at anyone for too long.

Things stood out that she hadn’t seen before. The servants were moving noiselessly.

Their faces were as pale as ghosts. Guards were moving even where she could not see them.

They were high and still, weapons at the ready. The house was full of danger. It was also full of silence.

An unsettling silence. This was far worse than any beatings she’d ever suffered at the hands of Madam Gray.

At night, Keiroa sat by the window. She could see the gates from her room, locked and guarded, but she could not stop thinking about the shouting, the voices demanding her.

Whoever it was had come for her once, and they might come again.

Each shadow outside the glass made her heart skip a beat. Each gust of the wind made her think someone was trying to slip past the guards.

There was a soft knock on the door to her quarters.

"Elara?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes,” Elara said, entering the room cautiously. “We must talk.”

Keiroa nodded. She wanted to believe Elara, wanted to hold on to her calm composure, but she also remembered just how easily people had betrayed her in the past.

Trust had always been something she had never been able to indulge in.

“Elara, who were they? Who tried to get me?” she asked. Her voice shook.

Elara’s response was not immediate. She sat on the edge of the bed, hands clasped in front of her.

“I do not know,” she said at last. “But I know that it is not safe here. Not completely safe, at any rate. This house is rugged, yes, but it will not keep you protected from all threats. There are men out there who will not stop.”

Keiroa felt a shiver run down her spine. “So I’m still in danger?”

“Yes,” Elara said softly. “You are." And it will not stop unless… unless you are careful.

Unless you understand why people want you.

Keiroa’s mind was racing.

“What could I possibly have that someone would kill for? I am just a child.” She thought this to herself, not understanding what was going on, not understanding what was happening to her. She tried to catch her breath, remembering what Roland had told her earlier.

“If you try to run, you will regret it.”

And now, someone had already attempted to take her away. A chill constricted her heart, but something in her shifted. No, she would not be ambushed a second time. This time, she would observe, learn, and live.

The next morning, there was a tense atmosphere on the estate. The guards moved with speed, unlike on other days when they moved in their own sweet time. The servants whispered among themselves in the backstreets, while Captain Kai moved along corridors in silence, scanning everyone with his eyes, watching everyone all the while. Keiroa felt weighed down by his eyes, analyzing and measuring her every move, judging her.

A summons from Roland’s study meant Keiroa. She obeyed impeccably. The palms of her hands were sweaty, and walking was heavy, as if each step might betray her.

Roland was already there. He was standing beside the window with his back erect and his hands behind him. It took a moment for him to turn to Keiroa, letting the silence pass between them. Keiroa felt the knot forming inside of her. She knew better than to be afraid of the words when the silence was more frightening.

Finally, he spoke.

“Someone came for you yesterday.”

Keiroa swallowed hard. “Yes,” she whispered.

“And they were not weak either,” he went on. “They knew what they were looking for. They were dangerous.”

Keiroa’s mouth went dry. “Why me?”

Roland's face remained unchanged.

"Because of who you are. Your past. The people who came for you know it, even if you do not."

Keiroa shivered. She just didn’t understand. She had never done anything important in her life. She had never been noticed by anyone. And yet. People risked so much to find her.

"You need to understand something," said Roland. "This house, this estate. It protects you, but it also holds you in its power. If you make a wrong move, if you disobey, you will experience consequences that will be far more dire than you've ever imagined."

Keiroa nodded. She could not talk. Her heart was beating so loudly that she was convinced he could hear it.

Captain Kai moved forward. “I will personally ensure no one gains entry,” he said, his words laced with conviction.

“Do you understand?” Roland looked at Keiroa then.

“Yes,” Keiroa responded.

The rest of the day, however, was spent by Keiroa in her own room. She followed the orders of Roland to the letter, moving stealthily and carrying out every command that crossed her mind. Yet she couldn’t disengage her mind from the thought of the intruder.

Why did she receive such an intrusion? Who sent that person? Was it Madam Grey or someone worse than her?

That night, she stayed awake, listening. Every shadow was alive. Every creak of the floorboard made her pulse quicken. She tried to distinguish between sounds that were potential dangers and sounds that weren't. Her mind would not quiet down. She imagines hands stretching towards her in the darkness, voices calling her name, and darkness closing in around her.

However, suddenly there was some noise outside her window, a branch rubbing against the wall. A figure appeared in the moonlight. Keiroa’s body locked up.

“Elara?” she whispered, a growing panic in her voice.

*No answer*

The shadow stopped, then seemed to melt away.

However, the presence of being watched lingered, creeping across her skin. Her hands trembled.

Thoughts raced through her head. She pushed herself back against the bed, attempting to cover herself.

But then she heard it. It was a soft voice, low, almost a whisper, outside her door.

“Keiroa Vale… you belong to us now.”

Her blood froze.

She wanted to run. She wanted to hide. But she knew it was not going to make any sense. She was stuck.

There was no one who could rescue her but herself.

And the danger… was already inside the house.

Keiroa pressed her palms against her face. Her thoughts were a storm. All the things she had suffered in Madam Gray’s house, all the times she had suffered in the darkness of the basement, being hit and hungry, none of it had been in vain. Because the thing she now understood was that she had not made it because she was tough, but because she had learned to survive.

Her mind was a storm.

Why me? Who are they? How do they know I’m here?

With every question that crossed her mind, her breath caught in her chest. She felt the crushing force of the hunt bearing down on her. Her heart pounded furiously in her chest, threatening to give her away to the stranger on the other side of the door.

She could hear her breathing. Sharp. Fast. Shallow.

She could hear the quiet ticking of the clock. It was a countdown, a warning. The minutes were crawling by. Every second was a year.

She hugged her knees, trying to shrink away, make herself insignificant, invisible. But she knew that she wasn’t. They knew that she was here. They sensed her fear, and smelled it too.

Elara crept back in silence. Her eyes were wide open.

“They are closer than you think,” she whispered. “You must not be alone.”

Keiroa’s mind would not settle. She wanted to scream.

She wanted to escape. But she couldn’t. The door vibrated ever so slightly.

The voice returned once more, a hiss on the edge of the darkness.

“Keiroa Vale… you can’t hide forever.”

Her stomach rolled. She shook her hands. She felt cold sweat trickle down her back.

Elara pushed her behind the bed. “Stay down! Stay quiet!” she whispered.

Keiroa’s heart pounded in her chest. She pushed herself back into the darkness, her body rigid with fear. The burglar was back.

And this time… they were not alone.