Two Hearts: The Hunt [Slowly Editing]

Chapter Twenty-Seven (Part I)

A/N- I'm so sorry this took so long, guys. I didn't want to split this chapter, but this has just been sitting here on my computer and I felt that it would have been a waste to not post it. The rest of this chapter is still in the process of being typed up; I'm having a really difficult time with it so bear with me :/

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Unknown POV

A bright flash of white light hit her face, clouding her entire field of view and causing her to cringe in order to keep her eyes from burning in response to its intensity. She instinctively brought her hand up, shielding her closed eyelids from the stubborn hue that still managed seep through their tenuity.

"Ugh," she groaned, turning her head away. "Alex, stop that."

The sound of his snicker bounced off the wrinkly stretches of oak around them, seeping into every crack and crevice and caressing every dry, wrinkly leaf that clung desperately to the branches looming overhead. A small gust of wind blew and the limp leaves began to fall from the sky like gentle snowflakes. Winter in mid-autumn.

Alex shifted the lens of the flashlight in away, and she followed it to address her Elders.

They stood with their bodies close that they seemed to be one person, their movements tied to each other's by the invisible threads of nature. All of them were furiously discussing over a matter, going back and forth with such an urgency that would make any observer uneasy yet curious to know just what words travelled back and forth between their fast lips.

After a moment, the shortest one of them all-the tiniest, boniest, frailest body in the entire congregation, turned and met her gaze.

"Priestess-" the girl started at the woman.

"Answer me this, Young One," the Priestess croaked, her soft voice hardly reaching her ears at all, even with it being carried to her by another gentle breeze. Yet the woman gazed into the girl's peculiar eyes with such intensity that, in that moment, she looked just as strong as her title implied. "This plan cannot fail. We have come too far to see it all end in devastation. Tell me: do they love each other?"

The girl hesitated at the Priestess' words, searching for a truthful, yet coercive answer in the pitch-black sky and her polished slippers. She went over every moment she had witnessed between them-good and miserable-flicking through each scene like someone looking at pictures in an old photo album.

"They... they feel for each other," she slowly stated, nodding as if self-assuring herself of the words spoken. "I cannot say that it is love but I do believe that it will be enough to withstand this test."

The girl understood what was at stake. At that moment, both sides were hanging so carefully in the balance; just the tiniest little blip of weight could unsettle their standing and undo everything she and her people had worked so tirelessly on accomplishing.

Especially her. Nobody knew how much work it had taken to mold their relationship into what it was now more than the girl did. Surely her people knew that. Surely they knew that she would not vainly risk her arduous efforts if she were not certain.

Besides, they were running out of time.

The Priestess hesitated, doubt clouding her grey eyes. The wind whipped her stringy hair across her face, plastering it with streaks of black and grey. She seemed to be in deep thought and meditation.

Meanwhile, the girl reached into the cut slot in her ridiculous costume. Her fingers met the hard surface of her cell phone and she pulled it out before checking its screen.