by Melle Amade
He squints at me as I walk up. “You sure you want to do this?” he asks half-heartedly.
I don’t even bother to answer.
“Where do you think he is?” Roman stands up.
I place my finger on my lips. He needs to be quiet. The twins might sleep deeply, but I’m pretty sure Hercules and Jacqueline don’t. The last thing we need is for them to stop us. I push myself off the ground transforming instantly into a raven, black as night. I lower myself to the ground as Roman shifts into a bright green frog with large orange eyes. He nestles between my wings lying low against the back of my neck. We don’t have any of those powers you find in books, where you can read each other’s minds when you’re an animal form we just have our intuition. It works pretty well. I know when he’s ready to go.
It’s a bit hard to see at night with the cloud coverage, but I know the route to Spotswood Ranch well enough by now.
We’re flying high over Main Street, a quarter-mile from the ranch, when I see lights on the property. Roman moves on my back. I know he sees them, too. As we get closer it’s clear the lights are not coming from the barn. They’re coming from a vehicle outside the barn.
It’s Hercules’s truck.
Crap.
The headlights shine directly into the open barn doors and Hercules is inside, I can only assume he’s going through it looking for Darko. I land quietly in a tree on the opposite side of the yard. I test the tree branch we’ve landed on jumping up and down as best I can. Sometimes I forget when I’m a bird what my human weight is. One time when we were training, I stopped to rest on a branch and the second I shifted into my human form it cracked and sent me sprawling to the ground twenty feet below. Fortunately, as a shifter, I wasn’t hurt for very long but it totally messed up a training day.
Apparently Roman has already figured out the branch will hold at least one of us. He squats as a human, head cocked watching the barn. I stay in raven form, unconvinced the branch can bear the weight of both of us as humans.
“He’s pretty ballsy to go after a Hunter on his own,” Roman says.
But Darko isn’t there. I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out where he might be. He planted the piece of metal and…he probably was sitting in the barn watching me take it. There’s a good chance he followed me to The Lodge. I frown. If he knew I was there, why did he ask Hercules for me? He must know Hercules is a shifter and won’t let him anyone near me.
He wants me to find him.
There’s no way he’s here, at the ranch. This place is just a decoy. He knew Hercules would come back and look for him tonight. Which means he must be waiting somewhere else for me to find him. I look up at Roman lifting my beak in the air and giving a swift flap of my wings.
Roman gets it. He shifts immediately and jumps back on my shoulder. I flap away towards Main Street. There are only two places Darko will be.
Or maybe three.
It’s going to be one of the places I’ve seen him in Potter Valley. The Lodge, which will be too close to Hercules, or the rodeo grounds where he was testing for the Thunder Being magic on his device after Jacqueline caused an earthquake when we first met.
But there’s also the last place I saw him before he attacked the Berzerken.
That has to be it.
I bank left, away from The Lodge and the rodeo grounds and head up the west side of the valley towards the hills. I don’t have a general idea of where the campfire was. It hadn’t even been clear to me on the night I found him there. But maybe, just maybe, if I fly along the tree line where it touches the valley I’ll remember.
We fly low and slow on the edge of the flourishing forest rolling over the mountains. The trees makedeep green, imposing shadows against the darkened slopes. I fly north along the tree line and finally there’s a tap on my shoulder. I feel Roman press the left side of my shoulder so I bank left and see it. A tiny spark in the woods. I don’t charge right in; I’m not crazy. This could easily be a trap. There’s a reason why he came specifically for me, and if Roman’s analysis of the equipment he picked up from the ruins of Spotswood is correct, this particular Hunter is looking for a Thunder Being.
Another tap on my shoulder tells me Roman is thinking the exact same thing. It only makes sense to try to flit in quietly and find out how many there are. I circle high, looking around the campfire, but it’s a very small site. There are no ATVs parked around and in the light of the fire there is only one shadow. He sits still and quiet, polishing the blade resting on his lap.
Darko.
This time I don’t land as a bird. I land in my human form, with Roman in frog form on my shoulder. He’s the most dangerous shifter in the world, with poison he secretes out of the glands in his palms. If the Hunter knows anything, he’ll know not to mess with Roman. And if he tries to mess with me he will definitely have to face Roman.
And me.
I am a Thunder Being.
I click my nails together, but keep the spark hidden from the Hunter.
Darko is not startled at all when I land and he doesn’t move other than to look up and stop polishing his blade. He smiles at me and I can tell he’s in his early twenties, with a slightly crooked nose and startling blue eyes. His gaze is direct and open. He doesn’t look at all like he wants to slit my throat.
In fact, he looks like he might be slightly in awe.
“I heard you know something about my father.” My tone is direct. I didn’t come here to roast marshmallows.
“Are you a Thunder Being?” he asks.
Romans presses against my neck, warning me not to say anything.
“What do you know about my father?”
Darko stands up and starts to walk towards me. I whip a blade out of my belt and point it at him. “Don’t take another step.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Darko says.
I raise my eyebrows but hold my tongue. There is no need to reveal my capabilities or Roman yet. It’s also pretty important I don’t underestimate him.
“Tell me about my father, or I will leave.” I frown. My presence seems to be my only bargaining chip. My ears are tuned into the forest. I’m listening for any sound revealing other Hunters in the forest. An ambush, perhaps.
He holds his hands up, palms facing me and gently moves them in a subtle patting motion indicating I should relax. But it just makes ice crackle through me.
“I was born into the Alliance,” Darko says. “It’s the only life I’ve ever known. I was born in Montenegro, but they moved me to America when I was sixteen.”
“I didn’t ask for your life story,” I say, turning the blade slightly in the firelight. “You told Hercules you knew something about my father. What is it?”
“Please,” he says. “Hear me out. I want you to understand where I’m coming from. I am not your enemy.”
“You are a Hunter,” I say. “You are my enemy.”
“I told you I was born into this life. I didn’t choose it. I do not believe you are devil spawn. And I do everything I can to not kill shifters.”
“He’s lying,” Roman says as he jumps off my neck, shifts, and lands on his haunches in between Darko and me. “You led the charge against the Berzerken the second Shae told you where they were. We want to get rid of the Berzerken as much as you do, but don’t pretend you want to preserve shifter life.”
“I have never liked killing,” Darko says. “But I am very deeply interested in phenomena.”
I step up next to Roman, putting my hand on his shoulder to get him to calm down. Something about what Darko says rings true. The first time I saw him he was testing out the earthquake Jacqueline made at the rodeo grounds. Afterwards he was questioning Evie. I didn’t even see him fighting the Berzerken.
“How do you know who I am?”
“All the Hunters know about you,” Darko says.
Roman and I both glance at each other. That’s definitely not a good thing to hear. “How could all the Hunters know about her?” He asks.
�
��Both of you,” Darko clarifies. “We get reports. We know where certain places are and we hear stories. The fact somebody made an assassination attempt on El Oso didn’t go unnoticed. Especially when he disappeared. We heard rumors he vanished with the father of one of the two kids who attacked him. We understood your father’s sacrifice is how you survived. The minute I saw you,” he nods towards Roman, “with a collar on, I knew you were the one of the kids who’d been banished.”
“We’re not kids,” Roman insists. “Well, we’re not much younger than you.”
“This may or may not be true,” Darko looks him over with a shrug.
“Why did you come here?” I ask.
“I’ve developed this little device.” He pulls a black metal box out of his knapsack. It looks just like the one Roman found in the ruins. “It measures magic. Back at my headquarters in-” He raises a finger as if catching himself before he’s about to say too much. “I have an instrument to measure magic, wherever it’s used all over the world.”
“That’s impossible,” Roman says with a laugh.
“Okay, maybe not all over the world, but it can definitely do the continental United States.”
“I don’t believe it,” Roman says.
“I can do a thousand-mile radius,” Darko shrugs. “But the fact of the matter is whenever any type of magic is used there’s a disturbance in the ether surrounding the Earth. So, I developed this machine to measure certain wavelengths in the Earth’s atmosphere. If I can figure out where the disturbance happened, I can go there. Once there, I use these glasses to find residual traces of the magic.” His eyes light up as he speaks and I can tell magical phenomena is not something just touching his heart, it fills him with passion.
“Why are you so interested in magic?” I ask.
“Because nobody knows about it,” he says. “Shifters don’t know about it. Humans don’t know about it. Even the Hunters don’t know much. It was actually El Oso who raised the ancient magic and was able to induce it. But the magic I see here is something different. This magic has a vibrational quality different than the magic from El Oso.”
I take a step backwards. “You’ve been around El Oso?”
Darko shakes his head. “Definitely not. But I have been to a place where he had done magic before.”
I frown.
“I know he’s got magic. One of the Hunters witnessed him doing something unexplainable. They couldn’t get close but it helped us get intelligence on his capabilities. So, we started closing in on him and following him as best we could as I developed this machine to measure his power.”
“So anytime he uses magic,” I ask. “You can track him?”
Darko nods. “But he fell off the radar when he left with your father. Even the best Hunters couldn’t track him. They followed him all the way to Australia but then he basically disappeared. Which seems highly unlikely because he’s a bear, for a start, and he’s a big guy so it’s strange he could give the Hunters the slip. But the guys coming back from Australia said it had something to do with the Asian chick. The one who wears a necklace like you guys had.”
“It’s a collar,” I say. “Not a necklace. And the Asian chick you so rudely refer to, is actually Lady Heather, a princess of the Jaguar tribe of Java. She’s imprisoned by El Oso.”
Roman give me a delicate elbow in my side. I’m sure I’m saying too much. But I don’t know. Even though there is something odd about his story, I sense no malice from Darko. I know I shouldn’t feel safe around him. I know it’s dangerous, but I get the sense he’s genuinely wants to be allies.
“So why aren’t you going out there tracking El Oso if you’ve got a one-thousand-mile radius? Surely you would get close enough.”
Darko shakes his head. “Hunters won’t let me. They don’t really believe in my technology. It’s kind of crazy, but they think it was an anomaly. They’re a little more old-fashioned.”
“But it works? Right?” I ask.
“Yeah, it works. That’s how I found the Pomos and their magic up here. It’s how I figured out you are magic, too. The place still resonates with the remnants of the magic you used to burn the house down.”
I stare at the device in his hand. The metal box can track El Oso. Roman has had one this whole time. We have had the tool we need to find El Oso for a month and we’ve done nothing but sit up here in the Village.
“We’ve got to go,” I say abruptly. “Is this it?” I point at the metal box. “You have a way to track El Oso? I thought you knew something about my father.”
“He was last seen in Indonesia,” Darko says.
Roman nods at me, eyebrows raised. “We’re going to need passports.”
I grin at him. “You’re the best.”
“You’re stuck with me.”
Darko looks between us, a slight smile playing on his face. “I can help you,” he says. “Let me come with you. I will bring my technology and help you track him.”
“We don’t need your help,” I shake my head, jumping into the air to shift before ducking low so Roman can hop on my shoulders. I don’t bother to glance back as we take off into the night.
5
“When are we going?” Roman asks me across the fire.
I glance over my shoulder to where Henry is playing a game of chess with Evie at the picnic table. Mom is sitting with Lydia. Who knows what they’re talking about. Lately my mother has developed a great interest in cooking, which is kind of strange because she never did any back home. It was always my dad. But maybe it’s because Dad’s not here. Now Mom and Lydia always seem to be talking and testing out different recipes.
Hercules and Jacqueline are nowhere in sight. I’m kind of hoping they’re having some private time, in such a close community as the village privacy’s hard to get. And it looks like Jacqueline is softening to Hercules gentle advances. When he asked her to walk down by the river tonight, she had shrugged and gone along with him.
The coast is clear for me to unveil my plan to Roman.
“The way I figure it,” I say, “We got two options. We get your equipment to work or we take the Hunter with us.”
“The second one is not an option,” Roman says. “There’s no way shifters and Hunters can be allies. They’ll find out too much information about us.”
“What are they going to do?” I ask. “Ban us?”
“It’s just not about us being bannished,” Roman says leaning forward, his eyes glinting in the fire light. “Doesn’t matter whether we’re part of the official shifter world or not. We are still shifters. And they are still Hunters. No matter how friendly he seems, he was raised by the Alliance. It means all the people he knows and all the people who care for him, his entire network, is made up of people who want to see us dead. Bringing him into our fold will expose to a hunter things about the shifter world you don’t even know you know. And even if he doesn’t use it against you, other people will. It’s like the wife of the general accidentally sharing things with the store clerk and if the clerk is clever enough, they can bring down the entire army.”
I chew on my lower lip for a bit. My primary concern is finding my father, and it’s not like the Order has been good to me. But my friends--Zan, Aiden, Callum--they’re members of Muirderkring West and ultimately, the Order. I’ve already endangered their lives enough over the last couple of months.
My gaze settles on Roman. “Well, can you get the box you have working and use it?”
“I already did,” Roman says. Patting the satchel he’s been carrying around his shoulder since we left Spotswood ranch. “The only problem is. I don’t know exactly how to read it. I’m more familiar with things I can blow up or dissect.”
“I know someone who’s pretty good at figuring things out,” I say. “Maybe she can run diagnostics on it...”
Roman looks a little skeptical. “You want to bring Zan into this?”
I shake my head. “No, but we have to go back to Topanga to get our passports anyhow. We can’t just manifest
those things out of thin air out here in the forest.” We’d lost everything when Spotswood Ranch had burned, including the fake passports Zan had made for us when we’d been banished.
Roman tilts his head, gauging me. “Are you sure passports are all you want?”
“It’s not going to come as a surprise to you I want to see Callum.” I shrug my shoulders. “But you know I’m right. If this equipment can truly track El Oso and find my father, then we have to try it out. Besides don’t you think Muiderkring West would like to have this technology?”
Roman breathes in slowly through his nose as he leans back weighing up my words. “I don’t think Muirderkring West should find out about this technology,” he finally says. “It tracks all magic, Shae. And I don’t think it’s a good idea if everyone down south knows right off the bat your kind of magic exists. El Oso has kept his under wraps for quite a while. He’s not a dumb guy. He hides it for a reason. And, up until now, I don’t think too many people know about Thunder Beings. El Oso isn’t going to like them one bit, especially if the girl he banished is one.”
“But what do you think will happen if they find out?” I ask. “What does it matter?”
“I don’t know what they would do if they found out,” Roman says. “That’s part of the problem. But in my experience, when the Order discovers something new they immediately try to control it. You see how they regulate Lord Van Arend. Imagine what they’ll do if El Oso finds out you have natural magic and there are others. He will do everything in his power to break you, and he won’t hesitate to destroy this place to get to Jacqueline.” His eyes roam across the peaceful village settling in the dark.
“Who’s going to get to me?” someone asks. Roman whips his head around to see Jacqueline walking out of the shadows towards us.
“We were just talking about if the Order found out about Thunder Being magic, they would be attack,” Roman says cautiously.
“And how would they find out about us?” Jacqueline asks slowly. “The only one who saw you actually use the magic was the big black bear, right? And he’s dead.”
