Vanish

The realization only infuriates me. My heart belongs to Will. I don’t need Cassian complicating things… making hard what should be easy. Why couldn’t he just want Tamra?

Thoughts of Will and Cassian have tangled together like strings hopelessly knotted. Only today that ends. Today I choose.

Corbin stops. I stop, too, and look him in the face with all the coldness I feel in my heart when I gaze upon him.

“Good to hear you don’t care about Cassian,” he announces. “That means there’s nothing in our way.”

I shake my head. “Look, Corbin, you and I aren’t going to happen. Ever.”

“We’ll see,” he murmurs with a sly smile, like he knows something I don’t. He flicks a glance over my shoulder, as though he sees something there. I follow his gaze but see nothing. “Tell Nidia hello for me.”

He leaves then and I continue toward Nidia’s house, more convinced than ever that I need to leave.

The guard on duty isn’t Levin this time. Unlucky for me, this one actually looks like he’s taking his job seriously — even stares hard at me as I knock on Nidia’s door, my mind feverishly working at a plan to get past him and meet Will.

I knock again. No answer. Feeling his gaze on me, I casually turn down the street like I’m heading back to the center of town. Once I’m far enough away that he can’t see me, I swing a hard left into some bushes. Heart hammering, I push through the thick foliage that backs up against several houses and loop around, coming up on the backside of Nidia’s cottage.

Looking around wildly, I reassure myself that no one’s nearby before quickly stripping off my clothes. With a deep breath, I let myself go.

The familiar pull begins in my chest, a tight, twisting heat. Moist air surrounds me, feeding my draki.

My human exterior fades away, buries itself as my face tightens, cheeks sharpening and stretching… transforming. My breathing changes, becomes deeper, hotter as ridges push out from the bridge of my nose. My muscles loosen, lengthen. I angle my face to the sky, relish the sensation of wet wind.

My wings grow. I sigh as they release themselves, unfurl with a gentle whisper on the air, enjoying the freedom. My draki skin glimmers, the fiery gold reflecting what little sunlight sifts through the afternoon mist.

Snatching my clothes, I stuff them into my backpack and stare accusingly at the ivy-tangled wall, sick of the sight of it. Tired of living in a cage. Looping the strap of my backpack around my arm, I ready myself.

In an easy move, I spring, launching myself over the perimeter wall.

Already manifested, I don’t even bother landing on my feet. I plunge into the woods, cutting through the air, weaving through trees. I don’t go too far. Just far enough to put the pride behind me.

With an exultant breath, I lower to the ground, luxuriating in the stretch of my wings, like two great sails behind me. Setting down on the balls of my feet, I tuck myself behind a large tree and demanifest. My wings fold together. I urge them down, draw them deep between my shoulder blades.

Heavy breath saws from my lips. Not from exhaustion. I’m built for much more exertion. This is all adrenaline. Fear and excitement course through me and simmer in my veins.

I dress quickly, stabbing my legs clumsily into my shorts, all the while listening for a distant alert… any indication that I’d been spotted leaving the township. Nothing.

After several moments my breathing eases. I did it. I slipped away undetected.

Hitching my backpack over one shoulder, I shove off from the tree and head for the glade. For Will.

Chapter 16

Too much time has passed. I stare up at the trees, peer through the branches, and soak up the sunlight filtering down between the breaks and gaps. The paltry light settles on my human skin and sits there, flat, not like when it catches on my draki skin and shimmers like flame.

Birds chirp, talk to each other in overlapping calls. The wind whistles slow and low through the towering trees.

Will, where are you?

I hug myself, chafe my hands up and down my arms. It’s been almost an hour, and still I wait, my heart sinking, despondency creeping into my heart. He isn’t coming.

I’ll be missed soon. If he’s not coming… if I’m not leaving, then I can’t stay much longer. Not unless I want to be caught.

Still, I linger, alternating between sitting, standing, and pacing the misty glade where I last saw him. Holding each other and whispering dreams and promises. Impossible dreams, but still I let myself hope.

I glance around, study the press of forest as if he’ll emerge from the shadows at any moment.

I don’t know quite when I notice it, but I fall still, utterly motionless. And listen.

Total silence. Unnatural.

I’m not alone. My skin ripples with awareness of this fact. Someone else has arrived. Excitement bubbles up in my chest, and I feel like I just downed one of the fizzy orange sodas Dad always bought me on our trips to town.

Will. My gaze scans the fringe of trees and brush surrounding me, hungry for the sight of him. And yet something stops me from saying his name. From calling out.

The silence hangs, swinging into this eerie, living thing, breathing menacingly all around me.

And then I realize whoever’s out there — isn’t Will. Will would have revealed himself by now. He wouldn’t do this to me.

A sound breaks the stillness. Something wrong for the setting. No bird call, no rustle of wind through the mist-shrouded trees.

A twig cracks. Just once. As if a body moved, tested its weight, and stopped. My gaze focuses on that spot, staring hard into the dense foliage.

“Who’s there?” I finally ask.

Nothing.

Countless possibilities race through my mind. Did someone follow me? Corbin? The guard? Or is it a hunter? One of Will’s family?

It occurs to me that waiting to find out is a bad idea. I push into the trees, slap at branches as I head away from the glade and away from the township. Just in case it’s a hunter… I can’t lead them back there.

And there it is again. Footsteps keeping a steady pace behind mine. Gratified that I’m not paranoid, I steer my thoughts into losing whoever it is trailing me. Definitely not a friend. A friend would announce himself.

Heat swims through my skin. I walk briskly, plunging deeper into the woods. My heart pounds with every step I take.

I tromp through high grass, wondering how a day that held such promise could twist so horribly into something else. I should be in Will’s arms, but instead I’m playing some sort of cat-and-mouse game. The snowcapped mountains peer down at me through the latticework of branches.

Tired of feeling like prey, I swing around abruptly. “Come out! I know you’re there.”

Silence.

I scour the trees, searching.

Then I see her. A figure steps out from behind a tree.

“Miram.” I breathe her name. I guess I should be glad she showed herself to me. She didn’t have to.

“I thought you were never going to stop. What are you doing out here?” she demands, propping a fist on her hip and looking around expectantly. “Meeting someone?”

“No,” I say quickly.

“Then why would you sneak off—”

“I just wanted some time alone.” I look her up and down. “I guess that’s not going to happen.”

She cocks her head, says lightly, blandly, “I don’t believe you.”

I try to look innocent. Hope it works. “Why not?”

She smiles widely and pulls something from her pocket. It takes me a moment to grasp what it is she holds. Paper. Two folded slips of paper.