“Please… See what we are… Feel our fear…”
“This isn’t—I can’t—” I don’t know what I’m saying or who I’m saying it to. My head is foggy with too many thoughts and emotions.
The chimera transforms into a spotted deer with fuzzy antlers, only thigh-high, like the ones that bow to you in Japan. It trembles in the mud, looking at me with wide, terrified eyes that are far too intelligent—like it knows exactly how to break me.
Tears prickle my eyes as I gather the net, something inside me splintering.
They’re dangerous, I tell myself.They level cities.
“Think of your freedom, Katie!” Natalie barks.
The word hits me like a bucket of ice water. My freedom. Five years of my life are at stake—five years I’ll spend in prison instead of building a life with Natalie, laughing with Hazel, hugging my parents and sisters and Ethel, starting my career and my adult life…
Everything I want, everything I am, is on the other side of whatever doubts are holding me back.
I grit my teeth. This chimera is bio magic, which means it could be manipulating the cells in my brain, making me feel all these confusingemotions. I need to push past it. I refuse to let this chimera go free and spend years in prison for it.
Natalie holds my gaze, her brown eyes pleading. Mud and pond water soak her uniform, and sweat beads on her face as she uses all her strength to help me.
My heart cracks. Sometimes, survival means making impossible choices, and this is one of those times.
With a roar, I hurl the net, putting everything I have into the perfect throw.
It soars, fanning out like a golden web, the weak sun glinting off its threads.
It lands on the fleeing deer, whose knees buckle as if it weighs a ton. Magic pulses, raising the hairs on my arms as it cinches around the deer’s hooves.
A terrible sound fills the world—the wail of an animal caught in a trap. It pierces straight through me, making me gasp.
I cover my mouth, gulping down air, my throat too tight to function. Bitter grit coats my lips.
“Yes!” Sky cries, letting her hands drop.
“Y-you did it!” Natalie exclaims, breathing hard.
The net fastens shut like an invisible hand is stitching it, trapping the deer—and a vision of myself behind iron bars flashes through my mind’s eye. Both of us caught, both of us caged. By fighting to stay out, I’m forcing others in.
“Please…”the voice grows louder, begging me.
Nausea fills me, and I keep covering my mouth, frozen in place.
The deer thrashes, its hooves tangling in the golden threads that glow brighter with each desperate movement. After several long, horrible seconds, its struggle slows. Its eyelids droop as it loses consciousness, and then it goes limp.
Just like all the others will,I realize with a shiver that wracks my body.Fifty-five more times, I’ll have to make the same choice.
Natalie grabs my shoulders, a smile breaking across her face. “Nice work, Katie!”
I can’t respond. I don’t know what to say. A hollowness fills me like nothing I’ve ever felt.
There’s athumpdown the street, and the three of us turn.
“The barricades,” Sky says, raising her palms once more.
An engine roars. A silver FJ Cruiser tears toward us—the Madsens are here to steal what I’ve caught.
Natalie’s palm presses against my back. “Go!”
She picks up the net, grunting under the weight. Maybe she can’t use magic to levitate it with a chimera inside.
