by Melle Amade
“It is a real name in my country,” Darko’s voice is casually dismissive. “I’m looking for someone, and I think she might be around here.”
I don’t even dare breathe, my muscles tense as I squat on my haunches. My gaze bores into the weathered wooden floorboards as I try not to make a peep. Hercules stands up and steps carefully around me, making it look casual as he leads Darko away from the counter area. “There are many people around here,” Hercules says. “Can you describe her?”
“She’s a teenage girl,” the blond man says. “She has brown hair, about so long, and gray eyes. There can’t be too many teenagers around here with grey eyes. In fact, there can’t be many teenagers around here at all. I was checking out the school the other day-”
“Look, I can tell you’re not from around these parts,” Hercules interrupts. “You don’t look much older than high school yourself, but I can tell you’ve graduated. But I’m going to let you in on a little piece of advice to help you out; around here lurking by the school grounds looking for teenage girls is probably not such a good idea. People don’t really take kindly to it. And around here, well, a lot of people carry guns.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Darko says. “I consider the girl a friend. I have something for her. Something she’s going to want.”
My fingers grip the shelf in front of me. It helps to steady me and keep me down even though I want to know what this Hunter has to tell me.
“Well, why don’t you tell me,” Hercules says, “and if I see any girl matching your description, I’ll pass the message along for you.”
I bite my lip. He’s pretty much admitted he knows me.
“You know the girl?” Darko makes it sound like a question. “First time I saw her, she had a metal collar around her neck. Kind of strange.”
The energy in the room bristles as I feel Hercules stand to his full, towering height. “I might have seen someone around here sometime.” His words are cold and tight. “So, if you’ve got a message you want to get to her, you best tell me.”
I hear the front door opening. The little bells chime and I use the noise to shuffle my feet as shooting pains tingle up my legs with the blood flow.
“I’m afraid it can only be told to her,” Darko says. “But if you see her, tell her I have news of her father.”
My legs start to spring up.
News of my father!
I need to hear this. But by the time I stand up, Hercules has shut the door and is deftly pulling the blinds shut. I just glimpse Darko out on the street as Hercules locks the door.
“He knows where my father is,” I hiss.
“It’s a trap,” Hercules says sternly. “He’s a Hunter.”
“I know what he is,” I say. “He’s the guy I told to attack the Berzerken.”
“You can’t talk to him,” Hercules says, returning to the counter.
“You’re not the boss of me.” I whirl on him.
“Well, as you are a resident of the village, I am in charge,” Hercules shrugs. “And I prohibit you from speaking to him. You have no right to endanger my family and my people for the sake of finding information of one man.”
“He’s my father.” My fists clench and sparks fly near my fingertips.
“And Corrine was Jacqueline’s sister,” Hercules says. “While this Hunter is not old enough to be the one who killed her, she was definitely murdered by his people. No. We stay in here until Evie is out of school, and then we go home.”
“If you’re so worried about a Hunter being in town,” I ask. “Then how can you leave Evie at school?”.
Hercules breathes in deeply through his nose and holds the air in his chest as he looks down at me. “You require more watching than Evie. Because you are at greater risk.”
3
Hercules keeps me in the shop all day with the blinds drawn. We spend the time staring at the computer and trying to dig up information on the Hunters or the Berzerken, but it doesn’t seem to matter how far down the rabbit hole we go, we never find anything of merit.
“How was it Corrine found out so much about the Hunters?” I ask. “How did she know everything about how they looked and where they hid and why they hated shifters?”
“I don’t know,” Hercules says. “It could be because her sister’s a Thunder Being. But Corrine could always hear the truth in the wind. She would find a thread of the truth, she could hear it and then she would pull on it until it unraveled. When she came in here to search the internet, it was like she knew exactly what she was looking for. Now Jacqueline wants to go after them and I keep insisting she needs more information, but I don’t know how to get it for her.”
“Why don’t we talk to Darko?” I ask.
“He’s not your friend, Shae.” Hercules sighs. “Don’t be confused, he’s not your friend. He’s here to kill our kind. If he’s offering you anything you think you want, it’s just so he can lure more shifters to their deaths.”
“But he said he knows something about my father.”
“You can’t believe him.” Hercules presses his hand against the top of the counter. “You can’t fall into their trap.”
“Okay, fine.” I say. “But how does he know I have a father who disappeared with El Oso?” I can barely get the words out without choking.
My dad had volunteered to give himself up to El Oso, the tyrannical leader of the Berzerken who led the Order in dominating the shifter world with stringent laws. They controlled who we married, where we lived, and who even got to live. Unfortunately, because I’m a half-breed, a Nuverling, and can turn in to both a dove and a raven, I was meant to be exterminated. Especially because as a dove I was a Passief, one of the breeds of shifters who actually like and cooperate with humans. We were supposed to have gone the way of the vampires and werewolves and been exterminated.
By shifters.
But my friends dared to save me and we found a binding spell, which made it possible for me to continually shift into being a raven. Only I didn’t want to just be a raven. I am part dove too, and I had to keep the dove part of me. Like my father. After I was presented to the Order as a raven and watched them kill Zaragoza, who helped me discover I was a shifter in the first place, I thought it was a good idea to assassinate El Oso and change the fate of the shifter world.
Worst. Idea. Ever.
I failed.
Miserably.
I nearly got one of my best friends, Roman, killed and I had gotten us both banished with meteoritic iron necklaces which stopped us from shifting. But worst of all, in order to save my life, my father had volunteered his own.
When Roman and I attacked El Oso, we had no idea he had magic powers. Powers we now understand came from a man-made spell. Man-made magic isn’t inherent in shifters. But with it, El Oso easily defeated us and was about to execute me when Dad had stepped in and surrendered himself and offered El Oso some chalice.
After we escaped to the Spotswood Ranch, the safe house in Potter Valley where Zan’s coyote cousins and family lived, we discovered what the chalice might possibly be. Zan found a spell said to provide great mystical powers. But you needed five key relics: a cage, a chain, a sword, a crown, and a chalice. We could only assume El Oso had the first four and was missing the chalice. But in the couple of months since my dad has been missing, there’s been no word of El Oso wielding any new strength. And it’s just as well. Because the spell said it requires the blood of a dove.
My father.
What he had really sacrificed was not just his life, but he had agreed to give El Oso all the sorts of man-made magic and power just to save my life.
I checked-in daily with Zan, Aiden and Callum, who had returned to Topanga, but there was never any news of my father or even El Oso. It left me at a loss. All I could do was to improve my abilities as a Thunder Being, to manage my fire and control it. So maybe one day when I am able to face El Oso, we will be well-matched and I might finally defeat him and change our world.
The only p
roblem is after spending time with the Pomos in Potter Valley, I realize the Order exists for a reason. The Hunters are real and they’ve been hunting all of the shifters for a thousand years. The Alliance of Righteous Humanity believes we are evil, spawn of Hell. A medieval thought they’ve carried through to the modern age. And they seek to destroy us. It’s one of the reasons the Order created so many rules and regulations.
Regardless, it’s not right. I can only hope El Oso seeks the magic for all the shifters, but I seriously doubt it. Even if the Hunters didn’t exist, I would still be banished and cast aside, needing to hide my shifter nature from humans and my Nuverling nature from all shifters.
And now my brother is a Passief. We need my father back. And we need him to help us all live safely.
So if this Hunter, Darko, has information on my father, I want to know what it is. I need to know what it is.
Hercules sighs. “Are you even listening to me, Shae?”
I shake my head and look up. “No, sorry.”
“It’s time to go and get Evie. She’ll be waiting out front of the school in two minutes, just enough time to get down there.
I notice how carefully he opens the door. “Why don’t I just go out the back?”
He shakes his head. “No,” he says. “I think he had a pretty good idea I wasn’t alone here. Going out back on your own is the worst choice we can make. I’m just gonna look outside the door and then we’ll go straight to the truck.”
He seems satisfied with the exterior and a few minutes later we pull up outside Potter Valley school and Evie is running towards the truck with a big grin on her face. She’s bright and light and beautiful, the only other Nuverling I’ve ever met. She didn’t have the same problems shifting I did. I don’t know what it is about her blood, but it seems like from the very beginning she could shift into either animal and be just fine. Something I was never able to do. And something I’ve heard hasn’t been possible for hundreds of years. At least not in Europe. Zaragoza told us about his niece who died, unable to control the shifting between the two animals. There must be something in the way they do the firewalk here, similar to the way they do it in Australia. My father had said Nuverlings had no physical problem there, either.
“How was your day at school?” I ask Evie as she slides into the front seat.
“It was awesome, but I’m super happy to go home,” she smiles up at me. “I want to try out a new move I was thinking about today.”
I can’t help but laugh. Evie loves being a Nuverling, but she favors her coyote body in a similar way I favor my raven side. There’s something just a little darker about it, something more powerful I like. For her, I don’t think it’s so much power, yet. She likes the playful nature of being a coyote. And she’s always thinking of new maneuvers she can practice and make everybody laugh.
“There’s a Hunter in Potter Valley.”
Hercules drops the bomb the minute he walks up to the clearing where Jacqueline and Roman are working on the small black metal box he salvaged from Spotswood Ranch after the Hunters attacked the Berzerken. The weather’s been getting chilly, so they’re wearing sweaters and hats. Roman’s gold-rimmed sunglasses are still tucked into his woolen hat.
Jacqueline is on her feet in a second. “Where?”
Hercules places a hand on her wrist. “No,” he says. “Don’t go. I’m telling you this so we can stay alert. Not so you can hunt him.”
“I should never have let them go when they were attacking the Berzerken,” Jacqueline says. “I should’ve chased them down then.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Hercules says. “We need you here.”
I feel like he wants to say I need you here, but he doesn’t. Instead they just stare into each other’s eyes for a moment and finally Jacqueline’s shoulders relax and she turns away.
“I know,” she says.
She walks away from the picnic table towards the woods, shifting into a quail as she reaches the undergrowth and disappears into the shadows.
Hercules sighs as he moves off to where Evie is unpacking her school backpack. “I’m going to help Evie with her homework.”
“Where did you see him?” Roman asks me curiously.
I reach in my pocket and take out the piece of metal. “I found this outside of the barn at Spotswood Ranch. And later he came by The Lodge.”
“He came by The Lodge?” Roman asks, putting the pliers in his hand down on the table as he turns to me. “He spoke to you?”
“No,” I say. “He didn’t speak to me.”
“But?” Roman says and his gaze pierces me as he blinks and I know he’s reading all the things I’m not telling him. I look away to hide my eyes, but it doesn’t matter. He can tell what’s going on anyway.
“Roman,” I say quietly. “He says he knows something about…about my dad.”
Roman stands up from the bench and looks down at me seriously. “That doesn’t make any sense,” he says. “How can a Hunter know anything about your father when Aiden and Zan have not even been able to find out anything for themselves? We’ve been waiting weeks for information.”
I can’t help but smile at Roman. He’s the guy who’s always on my side, always backing me up, always willing to fight for whatever it is I want. He was the one who jumped in to help me assassinate, or at least attempt to assassinate, El Oso.
And he’s the one now who is standing with me, waiting for the moment we figure out where El Oso is so we can try to rescue my dad. He such a great guy. I really wish Zan would be interested in him but it seems like she’s accepted her family-preferred match in Cooper.
“I know,” I say. “It does sound weird, right? But I can’t help thinking, Roman, what if- what if he does know something about El Oso? Something other people don’t? I mean, he is a Hunter after all. Their job is to find Shifters. They found out where we were hiding long before the Order did.”
“The Order wasn’t looking for us,” Roman says. “And I think the Hunters were really looking for Thunder Beings. They’re looking for the ones like you and Jacqueline. That’s what this scanner is.” He holds up the black box. “I’m sure of it. It scans for abnormal environmental energy. It scans a frequency I’ve never seen before. I’ve been working on it with Jacqueline. They’re absolutely looking for Thunder Beings.”
“There’s no way the Hunters could know I’m a Thunder Being,” I say.
“You’re kidding me, right?” Roman says. “You flew like a phoenix out of a burning building with your wings on fire. I’m sure every Hunter and their dog is looking for the flaming raven.”
I chew my lip again because, well, because I don’t want to know if they are looking for me or Jacqueline or Lydia or any other Thunder Being. I just want information on my dad.
“What if they’re not all looking for Thunder Beings? What if it’s just this one Hunter, Darko?”
“He has a name now?” Roman asks.
“Yeah.”
“And it’s the same guy you turned towards Spotswood Ranch, telling him he could capture the Berzerken there? That he could directly hit the Order?” He asks.
“Yeah,” I say.
“And you don’t think this guy would be trying to use you for some experiments?” He asks. “This is the same group of people who discovered meteorite iron was the thing to stop us from being able to shift. I’m pretty sure they’re interested in harnessing the Thunder Beings’ power for their own devices, Shae.”
I sit heavily on the bench at the picnic table tilting my head back and stare up at the treetops reaching up into the cloudy, darkening sky. My fingers rub the back of my neck, remembering the oppressive collar. “I just can’t sit here forever,” I say softly.
Roman sits down next to me, placing his hands on my shoulders and massaging the sore spot at the back of my neck. “I know,” he whispers. “But you promised Callum you wouldn’t leave here until it’s safe.”
“What does ”safe” even mean?” I ask. “What is safe? Don’t you get it,
Roman? We are never going to be safe. We can get rid of the Order. We can wipe out the Hunters. But how are we ever going to be safe around humans?”
“You know humans is not what he meant,” Roman says. “Shae, you and I have been banished by the Order. Banished. We’re not allowed to go back and hang out with other shifters, we’re not allowed to be around the Order, and we’re stuck on the outskirts trying to figure out what we’re going to do next.”
“I know when I’m going to do next.” I stare down at my lap, my fingernails scratching against my jeans.
“You can’t,” Roman says.
“I have to.”
Roman closes his eyes, his hands dropping from my neck as he takes a deep breath and rolls his head on his shoulders. “Okay. Okay,” he says. “I hope you’ve been working those shoulder muscles out. Because if you’re planning to fly, you’re going to have a passenger. There’s no way I’m letting you sneak out to meet Hunters alone.”
4
The night is dark and breathless, the forest in deep silence. The cool winter air lays like a heavy down quilt over the village. Mom, Henry, and I have a cabin to ourselves. It only has one bedroom, so Mom and Henry sleep in the bedroom and I sleep on the couch. It’s almost too easy to get out. It’s like when we used to live in Topanga and I’d sneak out the window. But here I just have to walk out the front door. The porch and stairs are a little creaky as I make my way out. Roman and I tested it earlier, so I know just where to step to avoid the loudest noises. Shifters are known for their acute hearing and judging by the way Hercules was looking at me over our dinner of beans and fry bread, it seemed like he had a sneaking suspicion we were going to try to get out of the village.
Roman meets me in the common area where picnic benches are scattered and where the villagers hang out by the fire in the evenings when it’s not raining. There’s no rain tonight. But the sky is cloudy, dark and moonless.
Roman stays with the twins. Apparently, they have a two-bedroom cabin and Roman sleeps on their couch. He’s already out and sitting quietly in the shadows out on a stump near the base of the tall trees creating the perimeter.
