"What are you doing here?" Xanthe asked uncomfortably.

"Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer?" Armod replied.

She took a step back.

"What do you mean?"

'What did I tell you about asking questions?'

Xanthe jumped. She didn't hear his voice with her ears. His voice was in her head.

"What is happening to me?" she cried.

'Think back to the prophecy.'

"The Sense?"

'Yes."

"I've never heard of it."

'That's because you are the only one who has it.'

"Wait. I can read minds, see things in my dreams, become aware of everything around me...."

'Every day you grow stronger. Pretty soon you will be able to manipulate minds. Make people think, say, do what you will. Imprison people in their own thoughts. In time you could be the most powerful person in the world.'

"How do you know all this?" she asked, horrified.

"Because," he said aloud, "I am the only one whom you can trust."

Xanthe's mind flashed back to prophecy.

~Awaken only by a kiss of love and a kiss of lust~

~Whom is the wolf for the One to trust~

She was the One. Two people had kissed her. (Aynsley had kissed her more than once.) After Armod had kissed her she passed out and had a vision. Again the haunting words of the prophecy flooded into her thoughts.

~Blood, her blood, will end the war~

Her hands went to her side. It had hurt when she woke up after Armod's kiss. What could this all mean? War? What war? Whose side is she on? Which kiss from whom was the one of love and the one of lust? Why is she, as always, caught in the middle? Why were the stupid chambermaids downstairs talking about her?

She rubbed her head in confusion. She was so aware, so alert. All these feelings and sounds she hand never heard before poured into her mind making it nearly impossible to think. Her mind was racing.

"Will you help me?" She blurted out desperately.

"Will you trust me?" He asked extending his hand.

"Yes." she said as she stepped towards him and accepted his offer.

A tingly feeling crept up her spine as she touched his hand. A sharp pain, like the blade of a sward, tore through her side. She doubled over in pain.

"Are you alright?" Armod asked worried.

"Yes." She lied, straightening herself up, "Perfectly fine."

She fallowed him out the door.





A/N: I updated!! Wee! Let see if I can break 100 reviews. If I do, there will be much partying for every one! r/r!!