The cold night air was heavy with the cave, the crackling fire casting long shadows against stone walls. Black Heart lay in the furs beside his mother, his dark eyes intent upon the dancing flames.
He always watched them, ever since memory served. The fire was familiar, comforting in some ways. But tonight, something else was there-something different. He could sense its presence out there beyond the trees, lurking in the shadows.
A soft sigh whispered out of his lips, but no one heard him. Not his mother, Aria, who lay sleeping serenely beside him, nor Darken, who sat at the mouth of the cave, his back to cold stone while he watched.
Black Heart turned his face toward the trees, his small body tight with an awareness he couldn't understand. Someone, or something, was out there. Watching. Waiting. But for what?
He didn't know-which frustrated him.
He shifted slightly, his small fists clenching in the frustration of his own inept body.
He was only a baby-at least, that's what they all thought. But inside, he knew more. He understood more than anyone realized it seemed. As if the mind had aged well beyond his physical form, trapped in the body of a helpless infant. And it irritated him to no end.
Black Heart's gaze found its way back to his mother. She slept serenely, her hair of long-darkness flowing across her face, her chest gently rising and falling with every breath.
He loved her, more than another thing. However, he also knew the truth: she was weak, too weak to protect him from what was to come.
He could feel it, even now, as the night wore on and the forest around them quieted.
There was something out there, something that had been stalking them for days. He wanted to tell her, to warn her, but the words wouldn't come.
His mouth couldn't form them. His voice, though it was present in his mind, refused to work. And that too frustrated him. He hated being helpless.
With a soft grunt, Black Heart rolled onto his side, inched closer to his mother until he could lay his small head against hers.
Her heat comforted him but did little for the tension coiling in his tiny body. His eyes flipped toward the mouth of the cave where Darken sat, his broad form silhouetted against the fading firelight.
"Black Heart," Darken's deep voice cut through the quiet, low but firm.
Black Heart raised his head, and his eyes locked with Darken's. The man's expression wasn't readable, though the dark eyes gleamed with something akin to understanding.
"You feel it too, don't you?" Darken said, his gaze shifting toward the trees. "Your father's enemies are near. Closer than you think."
Black Heart stared right through him, unblinking. Of course he felt it. Hed known day before yesterday. Something out there in the night had been following them, something dark and dogged, its malevolent presence palpable to sensitive tuned-in teeth. But he couldn't tell him about it. Not in words.
Darken's eyes gentled as his gaze returned to Aria, still lost to the peacefulness of slumber. "Your mother can't fight them," he whispered, almost to himself. "She's strong in spirit, but physically. she's too weak. Too fragile for what's coming."
The small fists of Black Heart began to curl once more, a tide of frustration washing over him. He knew Darken likes his mother-her strengths and fortitude.
But the man was right. She couldn't protect him. Not from the dangers out there, just lying in wait.
And Darken. he was a servant, bound to a code that forbade him from being anything more. Despite how much he may care for Aria, he couldn't do a thing to change her fate.
He soon turned his gaze to the woods again, dark and extending into the night with no end.
He knew there were eyes glued on him, glowing red from inside the forest, but he didn't let whatever that was settle him low; nor could it. He had never learned the emotion of fear. There was only the certainty of danger, the awareness of a threat strengthened by every passing moment.
Darken rose, his massive form drifting silently as he moved toward the fire, kicking dirt over the flames to douse them. A great blackness fell on the cave, save the pale light of the moon filtering through the opening in the cliffs overhead.
"Tomorrow we leave," Darken said, his voice very low and commanding.
"We can't stay here any longer. Your father's dogs are close. They likely have been tracking us for days."
Black Heart watched him, his eyes drawing narrower. He knew what Darken spoke of-his father's enemies, the ones which had hunted him even before he was born. But he wasn't afraid of them. He wasn't afraid of anything.
Darken turned back to him, his face inscrutable. "You don't care, do you?" he growled, to himself as much as to Black Heart. "I can see it in your eyes. You're not like the others. You're. different."
Black Heart didn't answer couldn't answer. Instead, he turned his gaze back to the trees where the red eyes still glowed from the darkness. The creature-or creatures-hadn't moved, hadn't uttered a sound. Yet they were there. Waiting.
Darken followed his stare, his jaw clenching. "I know you can sense them, too," he said in a quiet tone. "But your mother can't. She's blind to the danger, and it's up to us to protect her."
Black Heart's gaze flicked back to Darken, his small body still as stone. He didn't need protection. He knew that much. But his mother. she was another story.
The night pulled on until the sleep began to weigh heavily upon Black Heart's eyes. But even as he fell asleep, his body slackening and leaning against the warmth of his mother, his mind remained aware, thinking of the watching eyes somewhere out there in the dark.
He slept, yet very lightly and fitfully, till at length, in the dead stillness of the night, the creature began to stir.
It was a subtle shift in the air, a ripple of energy that seemed to go totally unnoticed by anyone else. In a moment his eyes snapped open and he lifted his head high, peering towards the entrance of the cave. There, just beyond the tree line, he saw it.
A glowing pair of eyes stared at him with an intensity that sent a shiver down his spine.
But he wasn't scared, couldn't be. Instead, he stared back- tiny body rigid with defiance. Whatever it was, It couldn't hurt him. Not yet.
The creature shifted again, the outline of its form growing still more distinct under the pale moon. Large it was, far larger than any animal Black Heart had ever seen, its dark fur seeming to blend right into the shadows. Its eyes gleamed red, unblinking as they bored into his.
Black Heart didn't budge, didn't make a peep. What he did, was stare: steely, unflinching, unwaveringly unafraid. He had felt the continued presence of the creature, silent for what seemed like ages, as though it weighed him up, before it finally turned and disappeared amongst the trees, melting back into the shadows as if it had never been there.
Black Heart exhaled softly, in sanguine against his mother's side. He didn't know what the creature was, but he knew one thing for certain-it wasn't the last time he'd see it.
As the night wore on and a chill, mournful wind began to keen through the treetops, Black Heart fell into the arms of sleep-no, not sleep, properly, but those sorts of fits of restlessness-and with them came the vision of glowing red eyes, seared into his perceptions.
They'd be leaving tomorrow, but whatever was following them just wouldn't stop.
Not until it got what it had come for. And in his bones, Black Heart knew it was only a question of time before the real peril appeared.