Chapter 5 The Face In The Dark

• I woke up gasping, my sheets tangled around my legs, Silas Calloway's face burned into the back of my eyes.
• I didn't know his name yet. Not then. All I knew was the dream, sharp and clear in a way none of my visions had ever been before, not even with the amulet cracked. A boy with Rhett's same dark eyes, laughing at something, walking alone down a path lined with trees I didn't recognize. Then the ground turned red beneath him. Then nothing.
• My hand flew to my chest, and my stomach dropped.
• The amulet was gone.
• I threw the blankets back, heart slamming, and found it tangled in the sheets near my pillow, the wire clasp Kian had fixed hanging open like it had never been closed at all. I grabbed it and pressed it hard against my palm, like that alone could undo what had already happened.
• "No," I whispered into the dark room. "No, no, no."
• Dahlia's bed sat empty across the room, untouched, still made from that morning. She hadn't come back once since our first conversation, which usually would have been a relief, but right now the empty room just felt like one more thing pressing in on me.
• I fastened the amulet back around my neck with hands that wouldn't stop shaking and sat on the edge of my bed until my breathing slowed. The vision was already fading at the edges, the way they always did once the amulet was back on, but the important parts stayed. The trees. The blood. The face.
• I didn't know him. But I knew the shape of his jaw, the exact same stubborn set to it that I'd seen on Rhett twice now.
• Family. It had to be family.
• By the time morning came, I hadn't slept again, and I found myself standing outside the training hall before classes even started, scanning the small crowd of early risers for anyone who might know what I needed to know without me having to explain why I was asking.
• Kian found me first.
• "You look terrible," he said, which wasn't exactly the greeting I wanted, but it was honest.
• "Thanks."
• "I mean it. Did you sleep at all?" He fell into step beside me as I walked, still scanning faces, still hoping I was wrong about what I'd seen.
• "Does Rhett have a brother?" I asked, before I could talk myself out of it.
• Kian's steps slowed. "Where's this coming from?"
• "Just answer the question."
• "Yeah, actually. Older brother, Silas. He was supposed to be next in line before he got hurt in a border skirmish a couple years back, messing up his leg pretty badly. Rhett moved up after that." Kian studied me carefully. "Why?"
• My stomach twisted. Older. Same jaw. Same dark eyes.
• "What does he look like?" I asked.
• "Wren, you're kind of freaking me out."
• "Please."
• Kian exhaled, clearly debating whether to keep pushing back or just answer me. "Tall. Dark hair, a little longer than Rhett's. Walks with a limp now, from the injury. Why does it matter?"
• The trees. The path. The blood spread across the ground.
• "I need to find him," I said, already moving.
• "Wren, wait—" Kian grabbed my arm, gentle but firm enough to stop me. "You can't just go find Alpha Calloway's oldest son and tell him something's wrong. People don't just walk up to that family with warnings. What is going on with you?"
• I looked at him, and for one long second, I almost told him everything. The amulet. The visions. Ten years of nightmares that always came true exactly the way I saw them. But the words caught in my throat, because saying it out loud made it real in a way I wasn't ready for, not even to someone who'd already seen more than he should have.
• "I think something bad is going to happen to him," I said instead, which wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth.
• Kian's expression shifted, concern replacing confusion. "What kind of bad?"
• "I don't know exactly. I just know I saw it." My voice cracked on the last word, and I hated how weak it sounded.
• "Saw it how?"
• "I can't explain right now. Please, just tell me where to find him."
• Kian studied me for a long moment, clearly weighing something in his head, and I could see the exact second he decided to trust me even though he had every reason not to.
• "He usually trains near the east courtyard before breakfast," he said slowly. "By himself, since the leg makes it hard for him to keep up in group drills. But Wren, if you're about to do something reckless, at least let me come with you."
• "I can't ask you to do that."
• "You're not asking. I'm offering." He fell into step beside me again, determined now instead of confused. "Whatever this is, you clearly believe it. That's enough for me."
• We moved fast across the courtyard, my pulse climbing with every step, the image from my dream flashing behind my eyes again, trees and blood and a face I hadn't known yesterday but couldn't stop seeing now.
• We rounded the corner near the east courtyard, and my breath caught.
• There he was. Silas Calloway, exactly like Kian described, walking alone along a tree-lined path with a slight limp in his step, completely unaware that somewhere behind those trees, according to everything I'd seen in the dark hours of the night, something was waiting for him.
• I opened my mouth to call out his name.
• That was when I saw the shape moving through the trees behind him, quiet and deliberate, closing the distance fast.