Heartless

❆ Twenty-Eight ❆

Twenty-Eight

"Are we here?" I asked tiredly, shooting upright from my cramped spot in the halted carriage. Sprawled on my lap, Kenji snored loudly, his nose and cheeks bright red and a steady stream of drool pooling from from his mouth onto my leg. Rubbing my puffy eyes, I lowered the window hatch and stared at the land bathed in glittering white. Trees stood erect all around us, the air so still and quiet— the exact opposite of what a city should sound like. "Hendric?"

The cart shook and rattled as he climbed down. Gusts of cold wind blew into the carriage when he opened the door, a plain smile on his tired face. "Yeah," he said hoarsely, his voice raspy from the wind, "we're here." Reaching over me, he prodded Kenji's shoulders and jolted him awake, draping a blanket over him as he first helped me out. The trees leaned, so familiar, yet so strange to me at the same time. It wasn't until I turned my back that I realized where we were.

Kinnot's tall wooden gate towered over the three of us, its logs dark and intimidating as we gazed at it. I kept Kenji's hand in mine and whirled toward Hendric. "Why did you bring us back here?" I snapped. "We're supposed to be in the city by now."

He went about pulling the horses through the gate that was, surprisingly, already open. Hendric shrugged and turned away. "I thought you'd want to pick up a few things, say goodbye to some people."

Kenji tugged at my arm. "Ada," he yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Where is everyone?"

Good question. Kinnot, though small and very, very isolated, bustled during the day with people running to and fro looking for new pelts or bartering a trade. Now, not a single soul haunted the village. The town was empty. The usual fires we had eternally burning were nonexistent, the shacks and huts left unlocked and wide open. I peered up the hill toward the tavern, but even Bromm and Sazi's door was shut. What the hell?

"Did you really spook everyone the last time you came down?" Hendric asked, his brow darkening as he glanced at each abandoned home. He shut the gate and tied the horses to one of the docking poles.

"Not this badly," I replied numbly, squinting for any signs of life in the small town.

"And where the hell is Glen? He always watches the gate and it's wide open."

Movement up the hill caught my attention, a flicker of the smallest curtain waving, but I latched onto it and pulled Kenji with me, walking toward the bar. My nerves hollowed the closer we got. The last time I had seen Sazi, she had looked at me as if I were a traitor for bringing Lumea here. And Bromm. God, my last words to him hadn't exactly been completely endearing. I'd spat and cursed at him for accepting Hendric's nomination. I couldn't begin to imagine how they would look at me now: a girl who fell for a monster, was thrown out into the cold by her own people, and all but rejected by a beast. What would I say to them?

Hendric pounded his fist on their door. It opened with an eerie creak to a room of complete darkness. Tables and chairs had been flipped over by the wind, some broken with legs missing, curtains had been shredded to pieces. I gasped at the broken glass on the floor.

"What the hell happened here?" Kenji sputtered. I didn't have the words to scold him for cursing; I was too stunned over the tavern.

Hendric suddenly whipped out his arm to halt us from moving. Lifting his boot, he nudged several shards of glass out of the way, his body tensing. Blood spattered across the wood and led a trail toward their back bedroom. My heart pounded in my ears. "Do you smell that?" he whispered, glancing at me over his shoulder. I nodded. It smelled like death, a stench everyone in Kinnot was all too familiar.