by Meg Collett
The ’swang whimpered. It sounded like a plea. Yes, she was listening to every word. She understood.
But so did I.
“No,” I said, forcing myself to meet her eyes as I spoke. “Let’s take some blood. That’s all we need. She doesn’t deserve anything more.”
Hatter’s fingers tightened around mine. “You’re sure?”
He still looked at me and saw the girl from Barrow, the person I’d been before losing Ollie to Max and Hex and men like Dean and Luke and her mother and everyone who needed a warrior like Ollie to fight for them and die for them. Hatter looked at me and saw duck pajamas and fingerprint-stained glasses and frizzy hair and acne scars.
But I wasn’t that person anymore. I couldn’t be that girl.
I turned away from the ’swang and Hatter to start opening cabinets for the supplies we needed. “Come on,” I told him. “We don’t have long. Gran wants to try a few rounds tonight.”
* * *
If I hadn’t been in the cafeteria the next morning when A.J. returned with the news that Hex had agreed to meet with Ollie, she wouldn’t have told me. She would have left to meet her father without me.
She thought it would get dangerous, and if there was a fight, she wanted me far from it.
While everyone prepared to leave for the meeting, I went downstairs to the lab and pocketed a syringe of saliva—just in case. If it did come to a fight, then I would be ready, whether Ollie wanted me there or not.
Nyny barely stirred from her spot on the table, where she was fast asleep. Gran must have gone back to her room to rest. Early this morning, we’d made our first successful antidote. I’d tested it myself. I’d injected saliva followed by the antidote. I’d felt nauseous but not fearless. It was a success. We’d done it, with Gran’s help. We had a working antidote. I packed a batch of it into a small black case to take with me.
I made certain I was the first one standing by the blacked-out SUV. No one was slipping by me today.
“Ready?” Ollie asked me. She wore layers of warm clothes and a knit cap on her head. Her face shone with fresh bruises. Hatter had mentioned she’d trained with Luke last night. It didn’t look like it had gone well, except that hard edge in her eyes was missing. Even with her face beat to hell, and probably the rest of her body too, she looked refreshed, as if she’d recovered a piece of herself overnight.
Given that Luke had the same look on his face and offered Hatter a crooked smile as we gathered around the SUV, I didn’t ask. I really, really didn’t need the details of Ollie’s twisted love life. If beating the hell out of each other made them feel more human, then great. Different strokes for different folks, I guessed. Frankly, I would have just taken a hug, but I wasn’t Ollie.
Thank God.
“Ready,” I said, realizing everyone was waiting on me to respond.
Hatter took the driver’s seat with Luke beside him. A.J. and Squeak climbed into the cargo hold, and Ollie and I settled into the backseat, my black bag between us.
The car rumbled out of the garage and through the front gates. The guards watched us pass with solemn expressions. I imagined them staring after us as Hatter navigated the SUV down the school’s front drive.
We weren’t going far—just to the edge of the school’s property along the eastern side of Tick Tock Bay. A neutral meeting spot, A.J. had told Ollie over breakfast. Hex had insisted. But there were no rules against weapons or reinforcements. Ollie had taken that information with a loaded glance at Luke. I didn’t need to read her mind to know she was expecting a battle today.
She hadn’t spoken much since then, and as we drove, everyone fell silent. Ollie watched the trees slip by outside, her gaze unwavering even when Hatter hit a patch of black ice and Luke cursed and the ’swangs in the back laughed under their breath.
She was too busy preparing herself to kill her father.
We made it to the edge of the forest quicker than I’d expected, and Ollie finally stirred. She glanced back at her pack members and said, “You two stay in the woods. I want to know how many ’swangs Hex has out there and who, if you recognize their smell. If anything starts, wait until it gets bad, then come in.”
“It won’t get bad,” A.J. said.
Ollie only shrugged before she faced forward and told Hatter, “Keep the car running. Have your sniper rifle close by.”
“You want me to shoot Hex first?” Hatter asked. He stopped the SUV and put it in park. The road led forward through the trees, and I could just make out a sliver of the bay farther away. A narrow field lined the road on either side, with patches of woods clustered along the edges.
“No,” Ollie said. “Leave him to me. Take out the big ones first.” She glanced at me. “You can—”
“Don’t tell me to wait in the car.”
Ollie shut her mouth and scowled. “Fine, but stay close to Luke.”
“I’ll watch her,” he said without looking up from the rifle he was checking.
“I don’t need him to watch me.”
They ignored me. I stuck my hand in my pocket and closed my fingers around the syringe’s cool glass. It calmed me. The voice in the back of my head prodded me to take it, to shove the needle straight through the material of my jacket and pants until it stabbed into my thigh. It taunted me.
I pulled my hand out of my pocket. My palms were slick with sweat, and my heart thumped too quickly against my chest.
“I don’t like that we’re the first ones here,” Luke muttered.
“I don’t like how close we are to the school.” Ollie’s hands were also in her jacket pockets, where she kept her knuckles and whip. Perhaps she needed the comfort too, though our forms of comfort were entirely different. “Does he stay this close?”
“He’s just trying to get under your skin,” Squeak said from the back. “Don’t let it bother you.”
“Too late. Let’s go.”
We climbed out of the car. A.J. and Squeak had vanished by the time I thought to look for them. I hadn’t even heard their footsteps in the sticky snow. I half expected not to see their footprints leading into the woods, but they were there. I walked around the hood of the car, Hatter’s gaze hot on the back of my neck.
The three of us stopped a few feet away from the car—close enough to run back, far enough to keep Hatter’s line of sight clear.
“This feels like a trap,” Luke said. He pivoted, his rifle slanted across his chest, his finger along the trigger guard. He already had the safety off.
Luke wasn’t exactly the “safety on until something happens” kind of guy.
“If he attacks, he’ll come from the front, where I can see him.”
The wind carried Ollie’s voice across the field. Banks of snow lined the woods. If Hex was driving, he’d arrive behind us, blocking us in. My eyes darted along the trees, dancing from one patch of darkness to another. At least it wasn’t nighttime. That would make this so much worse. To have Hex’s pack in ’swang form, their eyes glinting like a cat’s when light hit them.
“Maybe he’s not—”
I didn’t get to finish.
Hex came from the other end of the field. He slid through the trees on silent feet, his frame absolutely massive. Behind him, his pack fanned out, their human faces drawn and somber. None of them wore jackets, only long-sleeve shirts and worn jeans. Their boots sank in the snow, but they moved smooth as vapor toward us.
Luke tensed. Behind me, the car squeaked as Hatter shifted in the driver’s seat. A red laser line stretched across the snow and beamed straight over Hex’s heart.
Hex stopped, his focus dipping to the red dot on his chest. I glanced back. Hatter had his face pressed against the rifle, his eyes trained on the sight. Back with the aswangs, Hex laughed. “It’s always a pleasure, Olesya,” he called, voice ringing across the frozen field.
The snow-laden branches trembled beneath the breeze. I fought back a shiver.
Ollie’s voice was flat as she said, “I wish I could say the same.”
/>
Hex smiled. “Can I come closer? Or will your dog shoot me?”
“He’s not my dog.”
“Sorry. My mistake.”
The aswang pack advanced. When they were within fifteen feet, Ollie held up her hand. “That’s close enough.”
Hex stopped as commanded and rocked back on his heels, his hands on his hips. He cast his gaze toward the woods behind us. “Tell A.J. and Squeak I miss them. Pack ain’t the same without them.”
“They don’t miss you.”
Hex chuckled. “I imagine not. You know,” he said and held a finger in the air as though testing the wind. It wasn’t blowing in his favor. “You caused quite the stir in my pack when you left and split apart my ranks. That’s not normal, Olesya. That’s not how this is done. An aswang only gets to leave a pack when a new matriarch fights the previous one and wins.”
“You’re not a matriarch.”
Hex smiled. “No, but you are. You took some of my pack on a technicality, because we’re a bachelor pack. But you didn’t earn them. You know nothing about fighting for pack control and what that leadership means.”
“I don’t care to.”
“Fine.” Hex dropped his hand. “Then why are we here?”
Ollie merely crossed her arms over her chest, her voice perfectly even as she said, “I’m going to ask you a question, and if I think you’re lying, I’ll kill you.”
Everyone must have been growing accustomed to Ollie, and to Hex’s credit—and I was loath to give the turd any—he looked proud of her. Though behind him, his pack stirred, their restless feet shifting in the snow that was leaking into all our boots the longer we stood out here.
We all waited to see what Hex would say, and maybe I was growing used to him too, because what he said didn’t surprise me that much either.
“No answers come for free. You know that from our time in Anchorage. I’ll ask you a question first, and if I think you’re lying to me, I’ll kill you. How about that?”
Luke lifted his rifle. “That’s not happening.”
Hatter’s red dot on Hex’s chest shifted to the massive aswang standing behind Hex’s right shoulder. It didn’t go unnoticed.
“That’s cute,” Hex said to Ollie. “But we both know I have five times more soldiers here than you do. Do the math, dear. You might be willing to bet on your life like any good matriarch worth her salt, but are you willing to condemn your friends?”
“We’re here of our own free will,” I said, “unlike your soldiers.”
For the first time since we’d arrived, Hex noticed me. If he remembered me, he didn’t show it. But he was looking at me now, seeing me. His brows rose.
“Nothing comes for free, Olesya.”
Ollie gritted her teeth. “What do you mean?” she asked, biting off the words as if they were acid in her mouth.
“Why were you in Anchorage two days ago? What was in that store? And why did you leave looking ready to kill anything that moved? Which,” he added, smiling, “you got from your mother. She also had an awful violent streak.”
“You’re following me?”
“I’m watching you. There’s a difference.”
“Could have fooled me, because they sound the exact same.”
Hex didn’t bite at her attempt to change the subject. “What’s in that building?”
Ollie looked around, her eyes settling on me for a second. She was calculating her next move, cataloging her strengths and weaknesses. The way she shifted over to block me from an attack suggested which category she placed me in.
I shoved my hands back into my pockets. My fingers curled around the syringe. Like he could smell it, Hex’s eyes fell to my coat before he focused back on Ollie. Did he know? Had he guessed? I pulled my hands out of my pockets.
“If I don’t tell you?”
For all his strangeness, Hex’s smile was that of an indulgent father. “Then you’ll get the fight you prepared for. Hopefully it goes in your favor this time. I would hate for you to lose someone else you cared about.”
Again, his eyes found me. Their black depths drifted to my pocket and back to my face. He was considering me, calculating as Ollie had, except he placed me in a different category. He knew I was one to fight and to be cautious of.
“Did your pack question how easy it was for you to kill Tully?” Ollie asked, but instead of directing the question to her father, she spoke to the men and women at his back. “Does it bother them that their leader is so quick to kill them if they don’t agree? Doesn’t sound like much of a leader.”
Hex laughed. Behind him, his pack didn’t move an inch, their faces blank as slabs of marble. “If you think you’d be so much better, you’re welcome to skip this question-and-answer section and go straight to challenging my role as leader of this pack. If you win, they’ll be yours to command.”
“I don’t command. I ask.”
“And it’ll get you killed. Trust me.” His face darkened, his expression cooling. “That same sentiment got your mother killed.”
“Enough.” Ollie’s voice cracked, her first show of emotion. Together, Luke and I shifted closer to her, closing in around her. The motion didn’t go unnoticed by Hex’s pack, though they merely looked confused, not combative. “You asked about my trip to Anchorage. I’ll answer if you tell me what you know about a human who can move through shadows. One of Dean’s experiments.”
The lines around Hex’s mouth smoothed. Just like that, his thoughts of Ollie’s mother—his love—vanished. “Deal.”
“It was a lab,” Ollie said. Luke tensed beside her. I might have too. I wondered about her reasons for telling Hex this information. Nothing good could come of it. “Dean sold his fear switch research to the government. They’re testing it on foster kids there. We saw nothing that suggested they were even close to replicating the results.” Good, I thought, a lie. The lab had been very close. “But they’re testing kids. That won’t be going on much longer. That’s all it was.”
“Just another one of Dean’s attempts to kill us off.”
Ollie lifted a shoulder. “Basically.”
“Nothing else?”
“Not that I know of.”
Hex sensed the lie, and for a horrible moment, I thought he might act on his promise. But the moment passed, and he smiled at Ollie. It was weird and it bothered me, but for all his talk of killing her, I didn’t see him capable of doing it. He’d loved Irena too much, even though she’d left him.
“I’ve heard of a new halfling on the island. Not a human.” At this, he leveled a long glance at Ollie, but she didn’t comment. “She is more powerful than anything we’ve ever seen. Some of the lone ’swangs are gathering around her in preparation to fight the university. They believe she’s the best chance they have at freedom.”
Hex’s expression had cooled again. What did he think of not being the one the aswangs were gathering around as their leader? He’d gone to Irena’s side when she loved him, but after her death, he’d returned to his less-than-moral ways, and he still couldn’t find the support he needed. To be such a legend, he looked weak standing in front of Ollie.
“Have you heard of a Commander with her?”
“No, but I’ve only heard whispers. And I don’t listen that closely to idle musings about a better future from useless soldiers who won’t fight today.”
Ollie chuckled, matching her father’s earlier dark laughter. “Maybe you should.”
She glanced back at Luke and nodded. She turned her back on her father and started toward the SUV.
“Ollie?”
She paused beside me. “What?”
“I heard she’s killing Original families. Better watch out. You’re on that list.”
Ollie smiled at him. “We all have lists, Daddy dearest. Better watch out. You might be on one too.”
T W E N T Y
Zero
A red sun bathed the house in oranges and deep purples.
Atop blazing white snow, the house sat in a little v
alley between a small range of mountains. Behind the house, an evergreen forest marched straight to the ocean beyond. Somewhere between the trees, a path with skittering rocks and steep drops not safe for little girls wound to the water. A memory of bouncing on my father’s shoulders as he hiked alongside my mother spiked through my memory.
Smoke curled into the colorful sky from the house’s chimney. Its stone was dark and weathered, and wrought-iron bars barricaded the windows.
It waited for me. If a house could have a face, then this one’s would be grim and expectant. No life stirred within it. No lights. Below the dipping sun, the house taunted me.
At the edge of the tree line, I waited. The shadows curled around me, hiding me, and I wrapped them tighter around my mind, wrapping and wrapping until the shadows spilled out of me and my vision turned black and I remembered nothing but the darkness from which I’d come. I pulled it back enough to see the house again, but not enough to see anything else.
I couldn’t see this time. Or feel. Or hear. Not again. Not like last time.
A tendril of shadow, transparent as smoke, curled around my ankles. I sent it slithering across the snow, straight to the house, through the bars and beneath the windowsill. Not tight enough to keep me out. But then, nothing ever was. The tendril splintered into quarters and swept through the house. It moved independently from me. Other than. Different than. I merely had to close my eyes and hum as the tendrils found the bodies in the house.
Three guards. Big hunters. Their minds tasted strong. I dropped them with half a thought.
Up, up, up to the top level as if he could hide from me, the last tendril found him.
I pulled the shadow back before it could snake into his mind.
My father was for me.
I stepped into the tree’s shadow and disappeared.
In here, in the deep, deep black, thoughts of shoulder rides and giggles and fathers and mothers vanished. In here, I was mere shadow. Shadows felt nothing. Had no memories. Had no stray thoughts about mothers and where she was and why she wasn’t here and if she was still alive and if she was, if she stayed awake at night and blinked into the darkness, wondering about the little girl whose hand she’d held as they walked her into the university.
