by Emily Walker
“Heed me, the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the East, powers of air and invention. I compel thee to obey. Grant my eyes the power of the crows, through the strength of sacrificed blood, through the wind and air’s might, the darkness from which my magic grows!”
The crow flew to him, settling on his shoulder. “Go and see what you can see, be my eyes while you fly.”
His familiar was a bit clumsy and sometimes disobedient. He eagerly watched as it flew into the air to go and look for the girl and her friend, but was distracted by a quarter and landed on the ground. It hopped toward it, tilting its head. "No, you dumb crow!" he yelled to the vision in his head. "Watch the people."
Although he could feel its resistance, it left the shiny quarter and took off again to fly over the nuthatch and her human companion. They stumbled into view and seemed to be lost. His mirror was working. Although they were right next to one another, they couldn’t see each other. The woods reflected more woods and although they could have touched, they couldn’t see.
“Man, I love magic,” he said out loud and threw a fist in the air. He watched as the girl turned in circles and finally sat down. He was surprised she’d given up so easily, but it had been about an hour now that the crow had watched them. The human stepped close to her a couple of times, but they’d never made contact. He tripped over her outstretched legs and fell on his face in front of her and the spell was broken. In the beginning he’d cast the spell so he could run away before the two of them saw him. Now it had just been for his amusement, watching them look silly as they tried to find one another, and the woods had doubled in size so they couldn’t figure out where to go. Now that the mirror was gone, his fun would be seeing the girl’s face when she found her best friend lying there.
The crow picked up a third person wandering in the woods, and his chest tightened. It was Zazie, that crazy old bitch. What the hell was she doing out in the woods? He realized she knew the boy when he heard her calling him. “Brent boy, this isn’t funny.” She stumbled over a rock and the forest shimmered in front of her. “What fresh hell is this?
“We’re over here, Aunt Z,” Brent said.
“What an interesting development,” the gentleman spoke to a squirrel that had hopped up beside him. “The boy has magic blood and doesn’t know it.” Zazie would tell him, she was always big on sharing the fact that she was magic when he was younger. His mother had used her as an example on how you shouldn’t act when you had the magic gift. He missed his mother. She would have loved to see Zazie worn down from years in the crazy house.
He briefly wondered if the squirrel he was talking to was a shifter. It was amazing how they could be anywhere at any time. He was beginning to realize that he didn’t want to just expose shifters to the world, he wanted to do what they did. Humans would study them. Humans were always studying shit.
“Brent,” the nuthatch screeched. “She’s here!” Chloe sounded completely gutted. Show time!
Chloe stared into the eyes of her lifeless best friend. It looked like she’d been shot in human form judging by the bullet hole in the shirt she was wearing. It had gone through the white shirt and blood spread all over her chest, running down the sides. It was too surreal. When she’d found her she thought she was just passed out from drugs and shook her until she realized her eyes were open.
“Something’s not right,” Zazie said as she walked around the body. “There’s magic here, in the woods around the girl.”
“Zazie, this is not the time for your magic crazy talk,” Brent said, earning him a glare.
Chloe heard them, but they were echoes in the background. Her best friend was dead and the person who killed her was more than likely the same person who tried to kill her. Someone was killing shifters. The sirens were getting louder, so the police were on their way. At least now they’d believe she was shot at. The proof was lying in front of her.
“Get away from the crime scene,” Rickman yelled at her as he walked toward her.
Zazie stepped in front of him. “Stop yelling at the girl, she just lost her best friend. Have some compassion, TJ, damn.”
The police chief looked at her and recognition was in his eyes. “Zazie, what the hell are you doing out of the nut house?”
“I’m not crazy, TJ, stop yelling at the kids and do your damn job.”
He looked like he was going to say something else, but bit his tongue. A nicer deputy walked up and put a hand gently on Chloe’s shoulder. “I need you to answer some question for me if you’re able to, ma’am.”
Chloe nodded and the others questioned Brent and Zazie separately. She went through everything that had happened the day before and that day, leaving out the part about turning into a bird and hiding in the woods. Once the police seemed satisfied with their stories, they let them go. They started putting things into bags and the coroner showed up.
“The scene is completely clean.” Chloe heard one of the deputies say. “This person knew what they were doing.” That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. They climbed back into the truck, promising not to leave town, and headed back to her house.
Her mind wouldn’t be still long enough for her to calm down. She wanted to talk to Brent but wasn’t sure what to say.
“How do you know the police chief, Z?” Brent asked. He must have been trying to take their minds off of it, but it wasn’t going to work. She’d see Layla’s eyes every time she blinked, her stiff body every time she lay down at night. It was burned into her brain.
“I’ve lived in the WC my whole life, son, I know everyone.”
They remained silent the rest of the way back to the house and when Chloe got out, Brent got out to walk her to the door. She was suddenly very tired and saw a future of lying in her bathtub crying.
When they got to the door she turned and hugged him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and inhaling his scent. He held her close for a few minutes and she was glad he wasn’t running away screaming. Pulling her face back, she leaned in to kiss him, but he pulled away. Hurt, she stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest, looking at the ground.
“I’m sorry, Chloe, I just think with everything that’s happened, we should take a step back.”
“You mean since I’m a freak with wings you want to see other people.” Chloe was shaking as she backed toward the door. He should just say what he was really thinking.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I’m just overwhelmed.” She didn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence. Slamming the door in his face, she sank down in front of it and let sobs take over her body. She’d lost both her best friends in one day. It was hard to remember how happy she’d been before the gunshots the day before. She cried until her whole body hurt and she couldn’t breathe, finally pulling herself up off the floor and moving to her couch.
Every time a car drove by or she heard a noise she wondered if the killer was coming for her. Eventually she was so exhausted from crying she fell asleep. When she woke up it was past nine o’clock. She’d slept through dinner, but she wasn’t really hungry.
Taking a shower, she cried some more and tried to drink water before crawling under the covers and going to sleep. It wasn’t the best sleep, but when her alarm went off in the morning she got up and showered again. Rent would be due soon and she needed the money. Even though she was in mourning, she had to go to work.
* * *
“You’re an idiot,” Zazie had told him when he got back in the car. “She loves you. You’ve practically known her your whole life and you can’t handle that she has one tiny secret.”
“She’s a freaking bird, Z, that’s not a tiny secret.”
“Brent honey, she’s not just a bird, she’s a person too, and she loves you.”
“You don’t know that she loves me. We’ve only been dating for a couple weeks, really.”
Zazie gave him a look and he put his eyes back on the road, gripping the steering wheel hard. In two days his whole life had changed, but maybe she was right.
She’d been there for him his whole life. They’d known each other since they were too young to remember and now he’d ruined it.
He’d dropped Zazie off at her decrepit old home, feeling guilty and hoping that nothing that would eat her was living there—like a mountain lion, which he wasn’t sure lived in Woodland Creek—but it seemed anything was possible. He’d offered to come in his aunt’s house to make sure there weren’t any squatters, but she’d assured him she wasn’t an invalid, she could take care of herself. Stopping for a bite of dinner at a fast food place, he made it back to his apartment and once again just sat on the couch, staring at the wall.
He didn’t sleep. All night he saw Layla’s body lying there so still. He saw Chloe’s hurt eyes as he pulled away from her kiss. He saw her change into a bird and fly away from him. He pictured Zazie doing black magic and how she felt when his cousin was taken from her. There were too many things going through his head. Zazie had said magic was their legacy. Was he magic and didn’t know it? If so, who was he to judge Chloe? He loved her.
Holy shit! He loved her! He’d messed up so badly. It was time to stop being a complete idiot and tell her. It was three in the morning. He figured she’d had a hard enough night without him waking her up in the middle of the night. It would work out. He’d beg on his knees for her forgiveness. There was no way he would let her out of his life as his best friend or his girlfriend. He couldn’t believe how stupid he was. So what if she was a bird?
“She can fly, that’s pretty cool,” he said aloud. He spent the rest of the night trying to think of all the reasons having a bird girlfriend was cool. “She could dislodge a kite if I ever flew one.” Finally, it was nine o’clock and he could get up and get ready to go see her. As much as he hated to admit it, Zazie was right—he was an idiot.
His phone rang and he looked at it to see it was his dad. That was a conversation he wasn’t looking forward to, but it had to happen.
“Hey, Dad,” he said really cheerily. “How the hell are you?”
“Cut the shit, son, why did you let Zaziella out of the home? They were keeping her there for a reason. She’s crazy, or have you completely forgotten what I told you?”
“Dad, I haven’t forgotten, but I don’t think she’s crazy. She truly believes she’s magic. Why didn’t you tell me Grandma had magic in her?”
“Because she didn’t, she was crazy and she rubbed off on my sister. What do you expect when you have a mother who encourages you to practice magic and lives in a fantasy world?”
“Dad, I think you know more than you’re letting on. I’ve seen some things lately that made me question everything I’ve ever known.”
“Son, don’t get sucked into her delusions. I can’t control what you do. You’re twenty years old, but my sister isn’t right. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll take her back before something bad happens.”
“Okay, Dad, great chat. I love you and I’ll call you tomorrow.” Brent put the cheer back in his voice.
“Son.” His dad sounded serious. He hung up. Zazie wasn’t that crazy and it seemed like his dad was in denial. Maybe he’d come around, but right now he had to get ready to go and see Chloe. He needed her to know how he felt.
The gentleman watched through the window as Chloe showed up for work. She had no clue who had killed her friend and that’s how it needed to stay. At first he’d thought she would be no threat at all and that Brent would go and tell everyone what she was, starting the reveal. He soon realized that Brent wasn’t going to tell anyone and he had a wizard for an aunt, so he would be more accepting. He needed to expose them to humans who would be scared of them.
Now he worried that Chloe might actually be a threat, because the little nuthatch was curious. He’d have to keep a close eye on her for a little bit until his plan could really get underway. He’d picked out his next victim and he would make sure there was a much more public place when they shifted this time. There was an annual festival that a certain Rob Hamil liked to enter his weird statue creations in, and being that he was her father, she would be there to support him. The whole family could be scared into shifting if his plan went right and maybe, just maybe, there would be some more in the crowd.
Walking into the Barcade, he kept his eye on her. She was a pretty girl. Such a shame she was a dirty shifter bitch who needed to be exposed. He sat at the bar and waited for her to see him and then smiled when she looked up.
Zazie walked in and over to the bar where Chloe was standing. He wondered why she was coming in without her nephew. He’d need to pay attention to the conversation and make sure Zazie’s dumbass didn’t stick her nose where it didn’t belong.
“Hi, Mrs. Perry,” Chloe said, smiling that sweet smile she had despite the bags beneath her eyes and redness of her face from crying.
“How are you holding up, sweetheart? Call me Aunt Z.”
“I’m doing okay, holding it together. I still think I’m in denial about the whole thing.”
“Don’t you worry about that idiot nephew of mine, he’ll come around.”
“Oh, I meant denial about Layla, but yeah, I’m not sure about that.”
“Listen, Chloe, I’m going to figure out who killed her for you.” That got the gentleman’s interest as his ears perked up and he tried nonchalantly to lean in and listen harder. “I’m going to use my magic and I’ll get to the bottom of things.”
That wouldn’t do. He was going to have to get rid of Zazie sooner than later. First, he needed Chloe to forget all about the conversation. He’d wait until the nosey bitch left to do the spell, though, because Zazie would feel it and know he was near. She had looked in his direction a couple times since she’d been there, like she could feel magic around but couldn’t put her finger on it. He didn’t want her to see him.
“You really are a wizard.” Chloe smiled at her. “I wasn’t sure you were serious when you said Brent was.”
“I think he is, but his father’s against magic, he’d never admit it to him. Good thing he has me.” She thumped her chest and finished the whiskey Chloe had sat in front of her.
“Yes,” Chloe said, “good thing. I do want to know who killed her and who shot at us.”
“Bye, dear, we’ll know soon enough,” Zazie said and left her money on the bar as she walked away. Once she was gone, he waited until Chloe went back to doing her side work to start his memory hazing magic.
He called the dark around him and felt it move through his veins. Concentrating, he whispered as he stared at her, “Memories are fleeting, memories are gone, make this day a dream, and hazy till dawn.”
He’d have to watch her, making sure she did the job without looking strange and that she went straight home after her shift so her little boyfriend and his auntie didn’t realize she was spelled upon.
It wouldn’t be too difficult. He’d just walk her home and then make sure she went to bed. He wouldn’t be able to move on Zazie yet. He’d need to be smart about it, but the crazy wiz had to go before she ruined all his carefully laid out plans.
Like a gnat that kept trying to fly in your eye, he watched as Brent Perry walked in the bar and made his way over to her.
“Damn it,” he hissed. She was angry with him, so maybe if she was aloof he’d just think she was still mad. Chloe wouldn’t remember anything someone said to her until the next day, so it didn’t matter what he said. It was kind of funny. He wasn’t close enough to hear what he was saying, but he wished he were. It wasn’t possible for Zazie to find out who he was yet and where he was hiding. She wouldn’t have enough time to get her full magic back. He’d take her out before she ever had a chance. He would just watch for now and plot. He loved plotting.
* * *
Brent walked into the Barcade with a bounce in his step. He wasn’t sure she would forgive him, but he had to try. There weren’t that many people in the bar. There were the two regulars, Mr. Lail and Mr. Agnes. There was a man sitting in a corner booth with a long black coat he didn’t recognize. The g
uy grinned at him in a creepy way, so he didn’t look at him again. Ash was wiping down the bar and whistling to himself.
“Hey, Ash, where’s Chloe?”
“She’s filling up the ice buckets. You can’t go back there,” Ash said, smiling at him.
“Okay, I’ll just wait.”
He waited a long time before Chloe finally came out of the back with ice buckets in hand and dumped them into the ice chest behind the bar.
“Chloe,” Brent said, “can we talk for a minute?”
“I don’t know, Brent, I’m really busy. I have a lot of customers. Need another beer, Mr. Lail?” she called over his head.
Mr. Lail looked at his full beer and back up in confusion. “I’m good, dear, but you might want to get this bag of bones another one. The pussy is drinking slow today.” He pointed at Mr. Agnes.
“You shut your mouth, you pansy, you can’t see well enough to know how many beers I’ve had,” Mr. Agnes yelled back at him.
“See,” Chloe said, “really busy today, not a lot of time to talk.” Ash chuckled and they both glared at him.
“Whoa, sorry.”
“It will only take a minute, Chloe, please.” She seemed off to him, her eyes focused on him, but it was still kind of like she wasn’t really seeing him. He may have screwed up worse than he thought.
They walked out the back and next to the trash cans where the other wait staff and Ash smoked.
“Listen, I’m sorry, Chloe. I acted like a complete asshole. I don’t know why I couldn’t handle it. So you have the ability to turn into a bird, so what? I love you. I’ve loved you since we were in middle school and it was stupid of me not to tell you then. I love you whether you’re a cat or a bat or a cow, whatever you turn into I love you. I’m so glad we’re finally being honest with one another and I want to be with you if you want to be with me.” He breathed heavily, not stopping through the whole speech until it was all out.
