Chapter 10 .:Echoes:.

.:Echoes:.
Identity: Kestrel Falconer

I have spent countless nights with Evanthe in my arms.
Most nights she falls asleep in either I or Rook's grasp, her tiny, pale, marked hands unshakingly gripping to our shoulders as she slumps against our chest. Evi has an arcane third stage of consciousness that happens before she fades away into complete sleep. It happens in the evenings, when the light is dim, mostly when you're pacing around with her in your arms. She slowly becomes quieter, and gradually her movements slow down; the muscle tone in her body disappears, except for her persistent clinging hands. She goes limp in your arms. Her bright pink eyes are heavy-lidded, foggy and vacuous. She murmurs to herself, words you can't understand. And you can't talk to her, either. She doesn't respond to her name. But if you try to put her down, instantaneously she cries out, like some helpless animal or infant, and her grip becomes even tighter as her eyes become wide and glazed with tears. So you have to keep her. It goes on like this until she falls asleep, a completely limp little body in your arms.
Either that or I'm pacing up and down the halls with her in the middle of the night. Sometimes she wakes up screaming and doesn't stop until one of us--preferably me--comes in to comfort her. She is completely inconsolable unless you hold her. At that point, her crying or screaming descends into a soft, whimpering whine, complete with clinging hands and the vapid unfocused eyes of her inbetween-sleep stage.
I've spent so many hours awake with her at night. More than with Arrow.
Whenever Evanthe is in the dark--awake or half-limp, it's consistent--she makes a clicking noise with her tongue. The sound is continuous, with varying tones, echoing off the walls. And when awake, she can somehow move around perfectly in the absolute dark, to the point where she can locate a hidden object without any light at all.
Is this another part of them, like the eyes and the pentagrams? It could be. Almost definitely.
Just another thing to be cautious of.