The bush stood silently, caught between burning homes, unable to escape, waiting to see if it would survive. Caught between fires, unable to escape, unable to change the course of its destiny…looking at that bush felt a bit like looking in a mirror.
And, just like myself, I couldn’t figure out a way to save it.
Chapter Two
We scrambled back to the school, careful not to be seen. I kept the shadows around us, especially as we crossed well-lit roads where cars still sped about. I had a thousand questions to ask Clay.
What had happened in that house? Why had we gone there? How had he gotten knocked out? Who was that person who’d leapt into the second house? Why was the girl all alone? Could the bush survive the flames?
I glanced at him, but he had slipped into a funk and I was too tired to even voice my questions coherently. It had been a long night, and it was well past midnight. Tomorrow was a big day for both of us, and we had to get what little sleep we could.
We exited suburbia, slipped into a busy neighborhood which lined a manufacturing district. The short houses drifted away and we were soon surrounded by tall buildings, shop fronts, neon lights and more life. I hooked my arm into Clay’s, to keep the shadows tight around both of us. Fatigue etched the edges of my mind, making it more difficult for me to concentrate on keeping the shadows folded.
He glanced my way, concern lining his own fatigued eyes. I gave him a nod and quick grin. We didn’t speak, for fear of being overheard. But he nodded back and focused on crossing the night crowd.
We knew of a nearby halfway house where Traded, aka people not of this world, aka people like us, could find safety for the night. But we were boarded Traded, and our school had strict rules of conduct. If we weren’t in bed by the time morning checks were done, it would be noticed. And noted. And they’d know how to find us.
They always did. We knew that from experience.
I wished I’d had more time to look at the people around us. Sometimes, when Clay was too exhausted from a day of fighting or practice, I’d slip out of the school by myself to just hide in the shadows and watch people go by on this street. All types travelled this stretch, comfortable with who they were, as they talked and laughed, or fought and cried…I loved watching it all.
Being on the outskirts, and yet still feeling a part of it.
Some wore amazing clothing. And the shoes! The shoes were fabulous. I’d only ever had practical boots myself, but I hearted most of those shoes. Especially shiny heels. I had no clue if I could even walk in them, but I hoped to one day learn.
If I were given the chance. Tomorrow, or later today now, I suppose, they would give us our assignments. They would give us two weeks to get there. They’d kick us out of the only home most of us had known for the past thirteen years. And then they’d shutter it.
The whole prospect terrified me, and my grip on Clay’s arm tightened. He felt the shift in my mood and placed his hand on mine, to comfort me.
What if Clay and I weren’t going to the same guild? What if we were about to be separated forever? He was the only friend I’d had since coming to this world, and I didn’t remember my other world. We’d met on the second day of school, after he’d saved me from some bullies, and we’d been fast friends ever since. I could count on Clay, and no one else. The very thought of losing him made my heart skip beats.
We crossed Beastwood Street and it was like stepping into a whole new world. The street lights vanished, the roads narrowed and became riddled with cracks, and a great expanse of forest rose all around, as though the city had given up.
But it hadn’t given up. It was just too afraid to get nearer to what loomed about two hours’ walk away. We stuck to the trees, near the main road, the world all in shadows as though light feared this path. We walked in silence until our eyes caught a few yellow lights up ahead, surrounding our destination.
Like a monster from my darkest dreams, the old Harlington Penitentiary loomed ahead. Renamed the Margrave Academy, it still looked exactly like what it had been: a jail. Which made sense, because it essentially still functioned as one.
“One last time,” Clay whispered. I nodded.
There was so much I wanted to say. About what his friendship had meant to me. How it had saved me so often from taking my own life, as so many others had. How he had been worth living for, and how the adventures and laughter had kept me going all these years.
I acutely feared that tomorrow would break us up, and that I might fold into shadows and never appear again. Because he’d not only made the light safe for a demon – he’d made it comfortable, even.
Best friends didn’t really come in better packaging than he did, despite the brooding and secrets. I’d miss those, too.
I didn’t say any of that. Instead, I followed him in silence as we climbed the outer wall, avoiding the lights. We separated just inside the jail, and he headed to his room (aka cell) while I headed to mine.
I wrapped the shadows more closely around myself as I watched him slip away and turn the corner.
Even though I was exhausted, sleep still proved elusive. Which is why I was still awake when the door (aka bars) to my room flew open. I sat up, wishing I had a weapon, ready to strike, but the tattoo on the side of my neck suddenly burned, and my energy drained out of me.
Damn it. I wished that thing didn’t exist. It was some bio compound ink triggered by some tech kept by the teachers, or so a few students whispered. Maybe nanites. Maybe magic.
Who the hell knew.
Either way, it worked just fine, my head lolling back and forth as they grabbed my arms and dragged me down the corridor. A few students looked through their bars to see what was happening.
Great. What the hell had we done now? Well, I mean, I knew what we’d done. We weren’t exactly supposed to sneak out of the school. But how had they found out? We’d done it often enough without being seen.
They dragged me downstairs, to a counselling room (aka interrogation room), and dropped me to the floor.
The tingling sensation around my neck stopped, and I could breathe easier. I pushed myself to a sitting position. The cold floor knocked me back to my senses. Two teachers (aka jailers) stood by the door, arms crossed. The door opened again, and Ms. Nadine stepped in. She wasn’t super tall, but something about the way she held herself made her seem a lot taller. Not to mention intimidating.
“Ms. Misu,” she said, the usual ice dripping from her voice. When I’d first arrived here, hoping to finally find a place where I was wanted, I’d really thought that Ms. Nadine’s role was to be our surrogate mother. She kind of looked like one. Short gray hair curling around her soft face, slightly droopy eyes seeming always concerned, snow white skin lined with what I once believed to be laugh lines.
I’d since learned better.
They were definitely frown lines.
“Ms. Nadine,” I said with as much politeness as I could muster as I forced myself to stand. Nadine did not take kindly to shows of disrespect. And whatever that thing on my neck was, she certainly had the ability to control it.
I stood well over a foot taller than her, but had no illusion that I could fight my way out of this. I stood with my arms at my side, as I’d been taught to do, and waited, biting the inside of my cheek.
She examined me for a moment. I was glad I’d taken the time to put on my blue cotton jumper (aka prison suit) before going to bed. It was against school rules to wear any fighting equipment outside of training.
And sneaking out of the school with Clay was definitely not training. Well, not official training, anyway.
“You were outside earlier this evening,” she finally said, her voice dripping with disappointment. I knew from experience that what she now expressed was much more dangerous than disappointment.
I wasn’t sure what to say. We’d never been caught sneaking out before, or I’m sure we’d have been stopped from doing it again. How had she found out this time? And did they know about Clay?
&n
bsp; And she hadn’t technically asked a question. Really, she’d just made a statement.
“I want to give you the benefit of the doubt,” she said, her voice softer than usual. I both wanted to flinch and ask for a hug. Any sign of gentleness from her and I was ready to forget years of torment to just find a soft place to land.
“Come with me,” she said gently. I followed without question, the two jailers following close behind. I could take them, in a fair fight. I was faster and could hit hard. But it would never be a fair fight, so I didn’t try, focusing on following Ms. Nadine instead.
We passed the other counselling rooms, and turned down a corridor. The barred doors were open, with guards on each side, each armed enough that it shattered the illusion that this was in fact a foster school for kids from another world.
I’d rarely been on this side of the school. I looked around in curiosity at the offices and supply rooms. It almost made it seem normal. Instead of kids sleeping in jail cells separated by old cubicle walls, this was just a spot for admins and teachers to do their work, getting ready to help the kids succeed in the next steps of their careers.
The thought made me want to laugh, but that desire left me the second we turned left and I saw the man holding a little girl. The girl clung to her pink unicorn like it would save her.
I sighed. Kids. Couldn’t she just accept that she’d been saved, instead of looking terrified and hiding in her dad’s arms?
So I made a piss poor unicorn angel. I’d saved her ass anyway, hadn’t I?
The father looked at me with poison in his eyes. I wanted to ask him where he’d been while his house burned down around his little girl. Had he been having an affair with a neighbor? Selling drugs? Not caring enough to protect the dreams of his child?
I took a step forward before I realized what I’d done, and a guard lurched towards me, his gun raised.
“Who did you see, child?” Ms. Nadine said, in that kind voice that I longed to hear used on me.
The little girl pointed at me and hid her face in her father’s arm. I didn’t know what those arms would do to her. I didn’t know if they were kind or rough, loving or hateful. In my experience, most parents’ arms hurt.
I didn’t want the little girl to be hurt because I’d screwed up. I didn’t want to lie, or even throw shade at the dad. I’d just wanted to be a unicorn angel for once.
“She’s telling the truth,” I whispered, keeping my voice low so as not to scare the child further. She’d already seen her house catch fire, knew demons now existed, would probably live in fear for the rest of her life. I didn’t want to pile any more fears on her.
Ms. Nadine nodded to the dad, and said something to the child, in that voice that I now understood would never be directed my way. I lowered my head, looked down at the floor, and waited for the pain to hit my neck.
Once it did, I waited for the numbness I craved.
Chapter Three
I stared at the door in front of me. It was locked, of course, and made of reflective metal that just amplified the bright lights, each bulb well protected and like a dagger in my skin.
There was no bed. No desk. No chair. Not even a pillow. The ground was also reflective, making even the smallest of shadows nearly impossible.
I sat against the back wall, wrapped my arms around my knees, lowered my head into whatever shadows I managed to create this way. But it wasn’t enough to make me feel safe.
There was no one here. I was alone, in a small cell, but I felt so exposed. Every bright light amplified the purple of my skin, the depth of my long dark hair, the horns sticking out of my scalp, and how foreign I was to this world. How I just didn’t fit in. How its light didn’t comfort me, but just scared me.
The door opened and I looked up, my tired mind not quite wrapping around what I saw. Clay stepped in, and the door closed behind him.
“Hey,” he said as he crossed the whole six feet of the cell and knelt in front of me.
“Hey,” I answered, squinting at him. “Did they catch you, too?”
He looked embarrassed. “No, they should have though. If that little girl hadn’t seen you…”
“I’m glad she didn’t see you,” I whispered, and I lowered my head back into my arms, to hide the light. I could usually take more of it, especially when well rested. Some days it was just easier to face the light than others.
I glanced up again, regretting it as the light stabbed a migraine into my head. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “Came to make sure you were okay. Word travels pretty fast.”
“So they just let you in?” I asked incredulously.
This time, he grinned. “Jack’s on duty.”
I groaned. Jack and Clay had been tentative buddies, or at least allies, ever since Clay had caught Jack stealing some of the sedative supplies from the guard room, probably to sell on the streets. Clay had convinced Jack that he had evidence, even though he really didn’t, and I was pretty sure Jack knew that. But for some reason, he put up with Clay’s weird demands anyway.
No, maybe I understood why. Clay could be charming and funny. Hell, that’s why I followed him into a thousand misadventures.
“Scooch,” he said, and I squinted at him.
“Scooch?”
“Move over,” he insisted, and I moved as far as I could, but the cell was four feet max in width.
He shifted beside me, and used his bigger frame to gather me up, hiding the lights from up above. “I should have brought a blanket,” he mumbled.
“Your shadow helps,” he wrapped his arms more tightly around me, shifted so that I had the corner, and covered as much of the light as he could. The heat from his body and the shadows he created soothed my growing headache, and I felt exhausted. Like all I had left to run on were fumes, and very few of them, at that.
“What were we doing tonight?” I asked.
Clay tensed up a bit, then relaxed. I’d never really asked about our capers. If there were goods or money to be split, he would. He always had.
“You trust me, right, Tira?” there was such a need in his voice that I wanted to reach out and hold him back, but didn’t want to take my arms out from the safety of his shadow.
“I do,” I said. And I meant it. “But I also want to know what tonight was about. In case tomorrow we’re separated.” I was surprised I’d gotten the words out. I folded what shadows I could grab and pulled them more tightly around me, like a comfort blanket against the incoming harsh realities of this world.
Not of our world. Of this world.
The one we’d been stranded on. Traded with. Thousands of human babies switched up for monsters in their cradles, like fairy tales of old, nightmares made new. And so very real.
“I’m trying to keep us together,” he said. “That was a try-out for a guild. For you and me. So we can get in the same one, you know?”
“You should have told me,” I said, feeling a lump in my throat.
“I couldn’t,” he whispered. “Part of the deal. But, listen,” his voice grew in strength. “I don’t know that we failed. I don’t really know what we were supposed to do.”
I nodded, not convinced. Clay had been taken out. The house had burned down. The one inhabitant of that house had seen and identified me.
No, we’d failed. Tomorrow, after the graduation ceremony, we’d receive our invitations and be separated. Or worse, we’d receive no invitation and be cast as useless.
“I don’t want to go to a circus guild,” I said.
“You won’t,” Clay insisted. “I’ll make sure of that.”
I didn’t think he could stop it. I didn’t think he knew how, any more than I did, even though Clay actually spoke to people and made friends, and had contacts on the outside. Me? Not so much. People sucked and I preferred sticking with my own.
Clay was my own. That was it. And my world would be shrinking tomorrow. Until I found myself in a circus guild. Blake and the other bullies were right. What else could I rea
listically contribute to society, except to be a creature for people to fear in the night? To remind them that demons did exist and that you could be afraid of them for a reasonable entry fee?
My skin crawled with fear, my heart with fatigue.
“Thanks for trying,” I said, letting myself fall further into the shadows that Clay created for me.
“Not giving up yet,” he said, and I knew he meant it. But I also knew it probably wouldn’t make a difference.
“I just want to go home,” I said, not really knowing where home was. A home with others like me. Where the shadows were plentiful and full of comfort. Where I wasn’t locked in a small reflective room with no shadows to cling to. Where I could walk down the street without being pointed to or gasped at.
Where I could be a unicorn angel and save children without scaring them.
The home that I’d been stolen from, twenty years ago, presumably swapped out with a human baby who wanted to get back to their world just as badly as I wanted mine, even though they had no concept of their home. No more than I did.
Or that Clay did.
“I know,” he said. “I’ll get you there, someday.”
That, I was willing to believe. Because there really was nothing else left to believe in. Clay was worth believing in, and I knew that he would do all that he could to find my home. And he’d follow me there, too, and make friends and contacts there. Just, be Clay. And I could be Tira.
Resolve strengthened me even as sleep enveloped me. I wouldn’t be separated from Clay. I’d find a way to make sure we stayed together.
No matter what. Come hell or high water.
Oh, who was I kidding. Hell was already here.
Just not my hell.
Chapter Four
We all sat up perfectly in our chairs, making sure to stay in line lest Ms. Nadine decided to correct our behavior. I sat near the end of a row, my hands practically twitching with impatience. I’d gotten some sleep thanks to Clay, who’d slipped out just before they came to collect me. I didn’t know how rested he could be. He’d been awkwardly positioned to cover me with the shadows. But Clay’s abilities didn’t sap him like mine did. He mostly moved fast and punched damn hard.
Hell Born Page 2
