“Ava? Caspian’s sister is there too then?”
“Yes,” I ground out, not bothering to correct him.
“Okay, that’s good Brandon. Her family is well off. I’ll contact them, we’ll find you. I’ll call the local PD—”
“I already did but I don’t trust them to take this seriously,” I said, my eyes darting around. I felt like I’d been in one place too long. I got off the ground and began to walk. The moon was a milky round sphere in the sky.
“Brandon, what the fuck is going on?” His voice cut off a little, a hiss of static on the line.
“I don’t know,” I ground out in anger, frustrated I couldn’t give better answers. The phone beeped and I saw a message from my sister.
“Where are you???”
Fuck. I closed my eyes and then realized Harry was still talking, his voice cutting off.
“Harry? Harry?” I asked but there was only silence. I tried walking back to where I had been but nothing. I hung up and tried calling again but there was no service anymore. I tried texting my sister that I was okay. A bold fucking lie but I didn’t want her worrying. The message wouldn’t send.
“Fuck,” I hissed, shoving the phone in my pocket after checking the battery—twenty-seven percent. It wouldn’t last that long while roaming for coverage but I had to leave it on just in case the police or Harry called back.
I took controlled, angry breaths as I stomped back and forth through brush. It tangled with my boots and I kicked around at it in anger.
Fuck, I was hungry.
Something scurried in the brush and I jerked my attention to it. Before I knew it I was running, saliva dripping from my jaw bone. My thighs burned but I ran fast, pressing off the ground in powerful strides, trees blurring around me as I saw my prey—a deer.
She raced away from me, her fear a thick stench trailing behind her and making me all the more hungry. My stomach rumbled as I caught up to her, going at an amazing speed. I leapt and my body crashed into hers, taking her down.
Bleating cried out from her mouth and then it all began to blur.
When I came to, the taste of offal was gamey in my mouth. I could feel a new sense of fullness in my belly as I scrambled off the ground, looking in shock at cooling blood dripping from my fingers as if I’d used my bare hands to dig into the body.
My fingers curled into fists as I saw the deer on the ground. Its glossy dead eyes were wide, its tongue lolled out from the open mouth… and it’s center had been torn into.
“Fuck,” I hissed.
* * *
Feet pressed into my ribs,sharp strikes of pain. Hands pulled at my body—my arms, my hair, my legs—until I was lifted high off the ground. I fought, spat, and hissed threats. I called to the spirits, commanding them to come.
The coffin box loomed into view. Then darkness. The acidic taste of fear coated my tongue and made my heart thump too fast in my chest.
“No!” I screamed but it wasn’t me. It was a male voice. It was Makwa. I was dreaming.
I startled awake, shooting up in bed. I was breathing heavily, trying to catch my breath as I came back to the present. I was momentarily happy all I was trapped in was a room, not a coffin where I’d die.
“I’m sorry,” I said to him, my cheeks were wet from the dream. I wiped at them. Makwa never made it out. He’d been captured and died. Who would do that to him—why?
“Because I was a witch, like you. Humans don’t like our kind. Don’t like those they fear, the ones who are friends with death.” A shuddered breath came from me.
I crawled off the bed and looked at the two men I left behind. They slept soundlessly. Caspian looked like a painting more than a real person, thick eyelashes resting on his cheeks, unwashed hair looking glossy and perfect. I went to the shelves and dragged my hands over them, eventually finding what I was after. I pulled the flashlight down and was relieved when it turned on when I clicked the button.
I went to my cage, avoiding the bucket I’d been forced to use as a toilet, and fetched Pollux’s journal before going to the chair in the corner and sitting down. I hadn’t read any since we were captured, too distracted with nerves and undeveloped plans of escape to be able to concentrate. Right now it would be a welcome distraction. I didn’t want to fall back asleep and slip into traumatic dreams again. Even as tired as I was.
I flipped through the pages, scanning here and there. Pollux had written a lot about when he first got to our world and when he first came to learn of humans. He talked about being worshiped as a god a little more but that talk went away without explanation. Then there were long stretches of time he wrote nothing and those empty parts grew longer as time went on.
There were drawings etched in the corners of pages—plants, animals, insects, and even things I’d never seen before. Strange creatures that had to have come from his land. My eyes scanned the drawing of a tiny mushroom-looking creature that seemed to have eyes like a rodent and a small line for a mouth.
On one page was a drawing of someone like him. Someone he used to know? A family member? A friend?
