Natalie moves her arms like a dance, creating a vortex. With her hair loose and billowing in the wind, she’s a formidable sight as she works to trap the bird.
And I’m stumbling clumsily over the beach, untangling the net as I go.
Overhead, the vortex tightens into an upside-down tornado. I run underneath it with the net held in front of me, feeling like a cartoon character trying to catch everything that’s falling at once. “It’s still out of reach!” I stop running and thrust the net toward her. “Here. Use magic to throw it.”
“If I do that,” Natalie says, her voice strained with the effort, “I’m going to drop half these rocks.”
I growl in frustration. “This would be easier if you’d let me have magic!”
Natalie’s face goes blank with surprise, and I bite my tongue. The words slipped out before I could filter them. I know it’s not up to her whether I’m allowed to be a witch, and the coven has a lot of laws, but she can’t deny it’d be a game-changer. I wouldn’t be stumbling around like a klutz while Natalie does all the work. I could launch the net at the chimera with magic instead of weakly throwing it.
Out of nowhere, a piece of driftwood rockets toward me and slams into my hip. I hit the ground hard, pain shooting through my wrist as I catch myself.
Before I can get up, a rock hurtles at my head, and I barely raise the gauntlet in time. The stone ricochets with aclang!
“Katie!” Natalie’s concentration breaks, debris raining down as she rushes to my side.
“I’m fine!” I scramble to my feet, my hip screaming in protest, and look around for my attacker. My skin prickles uncomfortably, and I rub my arm. “It’s coming from…”
A lithe figure stands on the boardwalk in a crimson trench coat, her hands raised as she manipulates rocks and wood with earth magic. Power radiates from her like heat waves.
My stomach drops as I recognize that white-blonde braid and nasty sneer.
Sophia Madsen has joined the party. And suddenly, catching this chimera got a lot more complicated.
From the Journal of Hazel Okada
OHMYGOD OHMYGOD.
Freaking out for two reasons.
First, I lost sight of Katie behind a train, and I am NOT confident about her chances against a magical creature. Was that an actual elephant I saw before the train whipped past, or is my brain making stuff up? The way it transformed… No wonder Katie’s been so stressed about catching these things.
Second, um… I talked to that girl.
“Not interested in going closer to see what the fuss is about?” I asked.
“If I wanted to see a pig, I’d go to a petting zoo,” she replied, deadpan.
Yeah, she definitely knew something. What else would explain why she was ignoring utter chaos so casually?
“Sounds like you’ve seen this sort of thing before,” I said.
Her gaze swept over my body in a way that made heat bloom in my belly. “The things I’ve seen would shock you, sweetheart.”
“How about I get your number and you can tell me about it over drinks?” …would have been a smooth line. Instead, I blushed and giggled awkwardly because she called me sweetheart, and I apparently have a thing for punk girls who give me sass.
Did I mention how hot she is? Muscular under an open leather jacket and ripped jeans, black hair in a shag cut, black lipstick and eyeshadow over snow-white skin, septum piercing, razor lines in her eyebrows… Yeah, this works for me. Are bad girls my type?
“Anyway, why aren’t you out there?” she asked. Her little smirk told me she definitely noticed me checking her out.
I scrambled for a witty response that didn’t reveal I know witches exist. “Meh, I haven’t been fond of pigs since one trampled my dad at the pumpkin patch.”
This…might have been a weird reply. But it’s true, and it’s the first thing that came to mind. And she apparently liked the weirdness because she laughed.
God, she had a nice smile. Like, stunning pearly whites, dimples, the works. I couldn’t stop drinking in the contrast between her dark aesthetic and her bright, mesmerizing eyes and teeth.
She stepped closer, and I could smell her leather jacket and caramel latte as I looked up into her ice-blue eyes.
