Shanane's fingers tightened against her arms as she stared at Eoghan. The more she listened to him, the more she realized just how much power he had over the village, not in the way of the elders or Harlin, but in a way far more dangerous.
The huntsman was the one who decided who was a threat. He was the one who took care of it.
And she had spent the last week being told over and over again that her grandmother was dangerous. That she was a witch, a curse, a stain on the village.
The thought sent a cold shiver down her spine.
She inhaled slowly, her voice measured as she spoke.
__Shanane: "Was my grandmother a problem?"
The blonde man gaze flickered toward her, his expression unreadable.
The pause that followed made her stomach tighten. He didn't answer right away. And that alone made her heart start to pound.
__Eoghan: "If I saw her as a threat? Is that what you're asking?"
He finally said, tilting his head slightly. His tone was neutral, but there was something sharp beneath it, something that made her stomach twist.
The young woman held his gaze, even though every instinct told her to look away.
__Shanane: "I'm asking if you killed her."
There it was. The words she had been afraid to say out loud.
The moment they left her lips, she realized how reckless it was to ask such a thing to a man who had admitted, so casually, that he had killed before. A man who had made it clear that when he decided someone was a danger, he didn't hesitate.
For the first time since they started talking, Eoghan's expression shifted, not with anger, but something colder.
__Shanane: "If I had, Do you think I'd tell you?" he said evenly
Shanane's blood turned to ice.
She forced herself to hold his gaze, her jaw tightening.
__Shanane: "I think if you had, you wouldn't have brought me here."
He let out a quiet breath, shaking his head slightly.
__Eoghan: "You're right. I wouldn't have."
His eyes locked onto hers, unwavering, steady, dangerous.
__Eoghan: "But no, Shanane. I didn't kill your grandmother."
She didn't realize she had been holding her breath until she let it out, slow and unsteady.
The huntsman expression didn't soften.
__Eoghan: "You think I don't know how the village saw her? I know exactly what they said. I know the fear they tried to spread."
His gaze darkened slightly, his voice quieter now.
__Eoghan: "But I don't kill people because of superstition. I don't kill innocent people."
__Shanane: "Then what do you think happened to her?"**
__Eoghan: "I don't know."
It was the first time she had ever heard uncertainty in his voice.
And for some reason, that scared her more than anything else.
The young woman's pulse still hadn't settled, even after Eoghan denied having anything to do with her grandmother's death. She had watched his expression carefully, studied the way his green eyes had held hers without wavering. He hadn't flinched, hadn't looked away, hadn't tried to soften the truth.
The huntsman wasn't a liar. If he had killed her grandmother, he would have admitted it.
But the fact that even he didn't know what had happened, that he, the man who hunted every threat lurking in the shadows of this village, had no answers made her stomach twist uncomfortably.
If he didn't know, then who did?
She inhaled slowly, choosing her next words carefully.
__Shanane: "What about the people you do get rid of? Could one of them have done it?" she asked, her voice steady but quiet.
The green-eyed man expression didn't shift, but she saw the way his fingers flexed slightly against his knee, the way his jaw tensed for just a second before he responded.
__Eoghan: "I considered it" he admitted. "But the people I deal with, the ones who come with bad intentions, they don't linger. And they don't leave things behind."
__Shanane: "What does that mean?" she frowned
Eoghan exhaled, glancing toward the lake before answering.
__Eoghan: "It means they take what they want and leave nothing in their wake. The ones looking for easy victims are gone before morning. The ones looking to steal usually disappear before anyone realizes something is missing. And the ones who just like hurting others… well, they don't get the chance to try again."
The braided hair woman swallowed hard, his meaning settling over her like a cold weight.
He never left loose ends.
Eoghan's green eyes flickered back to her.
__Eoghan: "Whoever did this to your grandmother didn't try to hide it. They left her in that cavern. They made a spectacle of it."
__Shanane: "So you think it was personal." she felt her stomach tighten.
The huntsman was silent for a moment, then gave a slow nod.
__Eoghan: "Or it was meant to send a message."
A chill crawled up her spine.
A message to who? The village?
Her? She wasn't sure which thought unsettled her more.
She stared at the darkened trees, the peaceful lake, the quiet sky above them. None of it felt peaceful anymore. None of it felt safe.
The huntsman sat still, his sharp green eyes locked onto the treeline as if he was searching for something invisible between the shifting shadows. The fading light of dusk cast long silhouettes across his face, deepening the already sharp angles of his features. His expression was unreadable.
But there was something dangerous about the quiet way he held himself, something unshakable, as if his mind was already working, already tracing a path through the unknown, already setting its sights on whoever had done this.
Finally, he spoke, his voice calm but laced with something colder than before.
__Eoghan: "I'll find out who did this."
The young woman inhaled slowly, her fingers tightening in her sleeves as she watched him.
__Eoghan: "No matter how, I'll find them." he added, his gaze flickering back to hers, steady and unwavering.
A shiver crawled up Shanane's spine. Eoghan wasn't just saying it to reassure her. He wasn't offering empty comfort. He meant it. And she had the sinking feeling that when he found them, there would be no mercy.
________________________________________
∆☆ ATHERAMOND ☆∆
________________________________________
Silence settled between them, heavy yet strangely comfortable. The last traces of sunlight had disappeared beyond the horizon, leaving only the soft glow of the moon filtering through the trees. The lake before them remained still, its surface reflecting the sky above, creating the illusion of a second world beneath its depths.
Eoghan didn't speak, and for a while, Shanane didn't either.
She sat there, arms wrapped around her knees, staring at the water as memories pressed against her mind, memories she had long buried, ones she had avoided thinking about since returning to this place.
But tonight, with only the wilderness around them, with the weight of Eoghan's promise still lingering in the air, she found herself speaking before she could stop herself.
__Shanane: "I didn't know my parents."
Eoghan turned his gaze toward her, but he didn't interrupt.
She took a slow breath, watching as the wind rippled faintly across the lake's surface.
__Shanane: My mother died giving birth to me. That's all I know about her. And my father? I don't even know his name."
Her voice was steady, but there was something hollow beneath it.
__Shanane: "My grandmother never talked about him. Not once. And whenever I asked, she would just change the subject or say that some things were better left in the past."
She let out a quiet, humorless chuckle.
__Shanane: "Eventually, I stopped asking."
She didn't realize how tightly she was gripping her sleeves until her knuckles ached.
__Shanane: "So it was always just the two of us. My grandmother raised me. She was caring and loving. She did everything she could to give me a good life. But as I got older, I started noticing things."
Her gaze drifted toward the trees, the shadows shifting with the wind.
__Shanane: "I noticed how the other kids weren't allowed to play with me. How adults would go quiet whenever my grandmother and I passed by in the village. How people avoided us, how their eyes followed us with unease."
Her fingers clenched against the fabric of her sleeves.
__Shanane: "And then, one day, I heard them say it out loud."
Her throat felt tight, but she forced the words out.
__Shanane: "They called her a witch."
Eoghan didn't react, not visibly, but she could tell he was listening, absorbing every word with quiet intensity.
__Shanane: "I didn't understand what it meant at first. I was just a child. But when I saw the fear in their eyes, the disgust, I realized that it didn't matter who she really was. It didn't matter that she was just an old woman who made medicine, who helped people when they were sick. They had already made up their minds about her."
She exhaled, shaking her head.
__Shanane: "She knew what was happening. She knew how people saw her. And so, when I was old enough, she sent me away."
Her voice wavered slightly.
__Shanane: "She said she wanted me to have a better life. That I deserved to grow up somewhere I wouldn't be judged for who I was. She never said it outright, but I knew she was protecting me."
She swallowed, staring at the reflection of the moon in the water.
__Shanane: "And she was right. I got to live a normal life. I went to school, made friends, studied something I loved. I didn't have to hear the whispers anymore. I didn't have to see the way people looked at her like she was something unnatural."
She paused, her breath unsteady.
__Shanane: "But she stayed."
The words were quieter now.
__Shanane: "She stayed in this place where no one wanted her. She kept suffering alone while I was living a life that she gave up for me."
Her throat felt tight, guilt clawing at her ribs.
__Shanane: "I should have come back sooner."
The confession hung in the air, swallowed by the vastness of the forest.
She had spent so long running from this place, from its memories, from its ghosts. And now that she was back, it was too late. Her grandmother was gone. And she still didn't know why.
The forest remained quiet, save for the faint rustling of the leaves in the wind. The lake stretched before them, calm and undisturbed, reflecting the moonlight in soft silver ripples. It felt like the world had shrunk to just this moment, just Shanane and Eoghan, just the weight of words she had never spoken aloud before.
She hadn't expected to say so much. She hadn't expected to tell him everything.
But now that the words were out, sitting between them like something heavy and unmoving, she wasn't sure what she expected in return.
The huntsman didn't speak right away. He just watched her, his sharp green eyes unreadable, his expression still and quiet. But he wasn't dismissing her. He wasn't looking away.
He was listening. Finally, after a long moment, he exhaled.
__Eoghan: "You blame yourself."
She let out a soft, bitter chuckle, shaking her head as she pulled her knees closer.
__Shanane: "Of course, I do. She spent years protecting me, and when I finally had the chance to do the same for her, I wasn't here."
The green-eyed man shifted slightly, resting his forearms on his knees. His voice remained calm, steady.
__Eoghan: "She didn't want you here."
Shanane's fingers curled into the fabric of her sleeves.
__Shanane: "That doesn't change the fact that I should have come back. I could have written more. I could have visited more. I could have..."
__Eoghan: "And then what?" he interrupted, his tone still even. "Stayed? Watched her suffer? Watched the village treat you both like ghosts? Do you really think that would have changed anything?"
Shanane stiffened. She turned her head, meeting his gaze, anger flickering beneath the surface of her grief.
__Shanane: "Maybe it wouldn't have changed anything for them. But it would have changed something for her."
__Eoghan: "Would it?" he held her stare
Her jaw clenched, her breath unsteady. She didn't know. She wanted to believe that her presence would have mattered. That her grandmother wouldn't have been as lonely, that she wouldn't have spent her final days in a place that had never accepted her.
But the truth was, her grandmother had chosen to stay. She had sent Shanane away to give her a chance at something better.
And Shanane had taken it. But now, sitting in the middle of a darkened forest, she wasn't sure if that choice had been the right one.
She looked away, staring at the lake again.
__Shanane: "It doesn't matter now."
__Eoghan: "It does to you." he exhaled softly, shaking his head
The young woman closed her eyes for a second, feeling exhaustion settle in her bones.
__Shanane: "It doesn't change the fact that she died alone."
__Eoghan: "Even if you were there, you couldn't help her. Stop doing this to yourself. You're not responsible and there's nothing you could do. I know it's hard but guilt won't bring her back."
She knew he was right but she couldn't help it.