The sight of her struggling and covered in mud reminds me that I’m not just doing this for myself. This is for us, and for the future we could have. A lump forms in my throat as Natalie pours every drop of energy into this fight.
We sprint to her car, our boots squelching with each step, while Sky plants her feet and raises her palms. The street buckles and cracks beneath the approaching vehicle, jolting it off-course.
The driver’s side doors of Natalie’s car fly open. I dive across the back seat, and Natalie gets behind the wheel, stuffing the trapped chimera in beside her. She turns the car on and slams her foot down, steering us over to Sky, who hurtles into the back seat and squashes me. Elbows bump faces as we disentangle our limbs, grunting apologies.
We peel away, and my heart pounds as we put distance between us and the pond.We did it.We caught one. So why do I feel like throwing up?
“Buckle up,” Natalie says, glancing at the rearview mirror. “They’re on our tail.”
I reach for the seatbelt with trembling hands, my gaze locking onto the deer in the passenger seat. It’s lying unconscious with the goldennet tangled around it. Its long eyelashes rest against its cheeks, and its ribcage rises and falls in shallow breaths. Its form flickers, like it’s starting to revert to the pure, formless state I saw back when I entered the room with all those cages.
Its desperate pleas echo in my mind, making me want to rip away the golden net and set it free. But the image of prison bars flashes across my mind’s eye, stopping me.Five years.Five years in a cell while Natalie faces the Madsens alone, while everyone I love continues life without me in it.
No. I made my choice.
I force my gaze out the window, where the outside world blurs in a mess of muted colors. I hate this. No matter what I do, I’m hurting someone or something.
I’m sorry,I think, though the apology only makes me feel worse.
“Hey, one down,” Natalie says, meeting my eye in the mirror. “We’re making progress.”
I nod and try to smile. I’m freezing, filthy, in pain…and a step closer to securing my freedom. I should be cheering.
But my chest aches. And I can’t help wondering who I’ll have to become if I want to save my own life.
From the Journal of Hazel Okada
Tonight, I’m going to Oaklyn’s with a plan:
1. Show her the chimera map.
2. Gauge her reaction.
3. Hopefully draw a witchy confession out of her.
And okay, let’s be real:
4. Climb her like a tree and strip her naked.
5. Finish exploring all the tattoos she unveiled when I finally got to see what’s beneath that leather jacket. She’s got the most gorgeous vines winding up her arms, dotted with flowers and butterflies. There’s a dagger on one forearm and a snake on the other—and that’s as far as I got before she distracted me with other activities.
6. Pillow talk: Find out more about her personal life. On our date, she asked me a lot of questions about myself—life back in Toronto, my favorite classes at U of T, how my new job is going—but she seemed uncomfortable whenever I turned the conversation back to her.
“How are you finding living here?” she asked while we shared a tapenade crostini appetizer. “Homesick yet?”
“It’s okay so far,” I said honestly, skipping over the fact that I haven’t had time to feel homesick with all the magical chaos going on. “My best friend is going to UBC, so at least I have her. My mom also calls every day whether I like it or not. She usually catches me right when I’m eating dinner.”
Oaklyn stared into her red wine, swirling it. “Nice she cares.”
“That’s a good way of looking at it,” I said with a little laugh. Though something in her expression made me wonder. “You close with your family?”
She hesitated. “My family isn’t a good first-date topic.”
“Sorry,” I said automatically, my face heating up.
“It’s fine,” she said with a half-smile. But her eyes were sad. “It’s just my mom and me. Sometimes it feels like life isn’t fair. But nights like this make up for it… Like maybe I do have luck on my side once in a while.”
The heat in my face intensified. Well, that was sweet. Hard to believe I could be important to a woman like her.
