by Sarra Cannon
I recognized this person. Her amber-colored pixie haircut. Her dark green eyes.
She snarled up at me, then shifted into an orange and black tiger, her fur matted and dirty, not at all like the sleek and beautiful animal I'd faced all those months ago when we'd first come to the shadow world. This tiger's eyes were filled with a hatred so deep and ugly it took my breath away.
I shifted and headed for the entrance to the city. This whole thing had been a setup. How could I have been so stupid? I needed to get back to the safety of the dome.
Before I could slip back through, a solid black barrier formed over the only entrance to the city like a door with no key. The king's guards ran up just as the wall formed, locking them in.
And locking me out.
Lost Without Her
I turned, prepared to fight.
A trio of witches emerged from the trees to join the tiger. I didn't recognize them, but I had a good feeling I knew who had sent them.
The orange tiger shifted back to her human form and the four of them surrounded me. My back pressed hard against the solid black barrier. I swallowed and tried to remember to breathe.
"We have some unfinished business, you and I," the tiger witch said. Her amber hair stood straight up, wild as the look in her eyes.
"I'm not going back to Peachville with you," I said. I touched the blood-stained white scrap of fabric tied around my wrist. A piece of the dress the Order had forced me to wear when they tried to kill me. I would never be their prisoner again. I'd rather die fighting.
"Who said we were here to take you back?" she asked, circling me.
"I know Priestess Winter doesn't want you to kill me," I said. "We've been through this before, remember?"
Her eyes widened and filled with a level of anger and madness I'd never seen before. "How dare you bring that up to me now," she said through clenched teeth. "My sister died by your hand that day. Do you really think I care what Priestess Winter wants? I'll just tell her you died while we were trying to capture you. What can she do? Kill me?"
The tiger witch laughed, but there was no joy in the sound. Its emptiness chilled me to the bone.
In that instant, I knew she wouldn't stop until one of us was dead.
I quickly sized up my enemies. The three witches she'd brought with her looked ragged. They wore stained clothes with rips in the knees and cuffs, as if they hadn't changed their clothes in weeks. Their matted hair and dirtied faces betrayed their state of mind. These were not witches who cared about their lives. They looked as if they had nothing at all to lose.
I had no doubt they would kill me if they got the chance. I widened my stance and lifted my hands.
The witch moved closer. So close I could smell the rancid meat on her breath. "I've been watching you for days, trying to figure out a way to lure you out here." She threw a glance over toward where the children stood, their faces pressed against the dome, fear in their eyes. "Always the same routine with these little ones. You're so predictable with your affection."
She shifted into a tiger so fast I barely knew what was happening. She extended her razor-sharp claws and swiped at my leg. I attempted to change forms, but I wasn't fast enough. Her claws sliced through my skin like knives. Warm blood flowed from my calf down into the dirt.
Her mouth opened and she lunged toward me. Just before she reached me, I managed to shift into demon form, reappearing behind her. From my fingertips, I shot out ropes of white smoke that curled around her body and lifted her up from the ground. I struggled to hold on, but one of the three witches who had come with her lashed out with a fireball so hot it burned my arm as it flew past.
I lost my concentration and cried out, grabbing my arm. One of the other witches lifted a large rock from the ground nearby, hurling it at me with a flick of her wrist. Disoriented, I tried to shift and failed. I couldn't focus. The rock slammed into my shoulder, knocking me to the ground.
Panic filled my chest. I was outnumbered, and I was losing.
What had I been doing all these weeks? Training so I could lose to a group of completely insane witches?
I wasn't about to let that happen.
But in order to win, I had to let go. I had to forget the pain and distractions of my human body in order to shift faster.
I pulled in a steady breath, then became the air around me, weightless and quick. I flew high, surveying the area. The woods were my best chance for cover. I still wasn't great at holding on to my demon form for very long, but I held it just long enough to get to the edge of the forest before I became human again.
The witches couldn't react fast enough. By the time they realized where I'd gone, I'd already lifted a fallen branch and hurled it toward them, my magical aim right on target. The trio fell to the ground, but the tiger witch shifted back to her feral form and managed to dart under the large branch.
She pounced on me, knocking me to the ground. I didn't have the focus to change again. My back hit the forest floor at high speed. I lost my breath. My head smacked against a boulder, and I nearly lost consciousness.
My eyes closed, but I fought against the darkness. I pried them open and glanced toward the dome. In the distance, Jackson pounded against the invisible barrier. His face wore the worry of a thousand days. His eyes urged me to get up and fight, but I struggled to stay alert.
The tiger's fangs pierced the skin on my neck, ripping a scream from my throat.
I wasn't going to die like this. Not because of some stupid glamour trick. I remembered my father's words. Shifting into a shadow is like forgetting yourself. Stop trying so hard. Just let go.
So I did.
My body disappeared. The tiger's jaw slammed into the ground where I had been, but I was now behind her. Dizziness threatened to wash over me, so this time instead of trying to fight it, I gave in. I let it take me under and twist my insides. I forgot my human body and embraced this other me that had been hiding inside all these years.
I flew to a branch midway up the nearest tree. Using the force of my demon strength, a strength I hadn't even realized I possessed, I ripped a dozen long branches from the tree and sent them down around the tiger, trapping her inside.
When I was sure the branches would hold her for a moment, I turned my attention to the three witches who rushed toward her. I fell from the tree and shifted effortlessly, flying through the air faster than the wind itself.
Before the witches knew I was even there, I became human again and reached deep within the earth, pulling a sheet of dirt and rock up in front of them like a wall. They slammed against it, pushing it in my direction. It fell toward me and I struggled to hold it.
My heart beat with wild panic, seeing a way to defeat them. I didn't want to be a killer, but what choice had they left me? When it was either me or them, I couldn't afford to hesitate or show mercy. I had to be strong. I had to live.
With one giant magical push, I toppled the earth wall over them, crushing them into the ground.
Behind me, the tiger's roar gave me enough warning to shift and move just as she pounced. A single claw cut through my leg as I disappeared. The pain broke my focus, my body plunging hard into the ground.
I scrambled backward, her teeth barely missing me. Frantic, I ripped a cluster of rocks from the ground, holding them over her head.
The tiger shifted to her witch form, cowering under the stones.
Why didn't she run?
I expected her to leap at me or growl or at least try to move out of the way of the crushing debris. Instead, she looked up at the stones above her.
"Do it," she said, her voice high-pitched and trembling. "If I'm going to die, I want it to be just like her. I want to feel what my sister felt in her final moments."
Guilt surged through me. I hadn't meant to kill her sister when we'd come into the shadow world, but I thought she'd killed Mary Anne. All I could think about at the time was revenge.
"I'm sorry," I said. The rocks hovered over her, and I didn't know whether to d
rop them or push them to the side. Was this another one of her tricks? "I know you don't believe me, but I never meant to kill your sister."
She turned to me then, her face softening for a moment. Her green eyes clear. "I'm lost without her," she whispered.
Then, something inside her cracked. Her eyes opened so wide, I thought they were going to pop out of her skull. Her mouth twisted up in a grotesque smile and she began to laugh.
I didn't know what to make of it. I half expected her to shift again and try to rip my throat out.
Instead, her insane laughter turned to sobs that shook her entire body. She threw herself against the ground, raking her nails furiously on the hard surface of the rocks. Blood trickled from her fingertips and she barely seemed to notice. Then, suddenly, the witch stopped moving, her eyes staring dead ahead. The rapid rise and fall of her chest the only indication she was even still alive.
Behind her, the black barrier that locked me out of the domed city dissipated into thin air.
Several guards rushed out to us. They seized the witch under her arms and dragged her inside the dome where her magic would be useless. I let the stones fall to the ground with a thud.
Jackson ran to me, falling onto his knees in the dirt. "Harper, are you okay?" He pulled me close. "Oh god, what were you thinking?"
I couldn't answer. All I could do was watch as the guards carried the broken witch through the streets of the domed city.
You Care Too Much
"Where is she?"
I expected to see the tiger witch here in the throne room, presented for some kind of sentencing. Instead, the room was bare. No guards or attendants. Only the king sitting on his throne. Waiting.
"I sent her to the dungeons," he said, no trace of a smile on his face.
"I don't want anyone to hurt her," I said, lifting my chin. "She's my prisoner, and I want to make sure she's being taken care of."
"She's my prisoner," my father said, his voice so loud it scared me. "I told you never to leave the boundaries of the domed city. You have expressly disobeyed me. You do not dare come into my throne room now and tell me what to do with a prisoner who attacked my city."
I stepped closer to the throne, refusing to back down. "You can't tell me what to do."
Even as the words left my mouth, I knew it was a childish thing to say. A daughter telling her father he had no authority over her. But I was still new to this whole having-a-parent thing.
"When you're here in the Southern Kingdom, you will do as I say." He stood. From his perch several steps up, he towered over me. His eyes darkened to a deep gray
"Or what?" I asked, crossing my arms. "You'll kick me out? You'll send me back to Peachville? Maybe I should go back there anyway. There's still a war going on whether you choose to fight or not."
My threat to leave seemed to curb his anger. The wrinkles on his forehead softened slightly. "Harper, you know I don't want you to leave," he said. "I just want you to understand that you have to be more careful. Once you're outside the domed city, you're vulnerable to whatever and whoever they want to send your way. They won't stop until you're captured or killed."
"I know," I said, not even sure why I was arguing with him. I guess I knew he was going to yell at me and wanted to beat him to the punch. "I made a mistake. This witch, she used a glamour to make herself look like my best friend, and I fell for it. It was stupid, but I have to be free to make my own mistakes without you yelling at me like I'm some ignorant child. I may technically be your daughter, but you've never once been a real father to me, so don't think you can just waltz into my life and start telling me what to do."
My outburst was probably the most honest I'd been with him since I first arrived in the Southern Kingdom, but there was still a huge wall up between us that I had no idea how to pull down.
"You can't expect that I'm going to be able to sit back and watch you get hurt," he said. "Not when I could do something to prevent it." He walked over to me and placed his hand on the bloody teethmarks at my neck. In an instant, the wounds healed over, leaving only dried blood and dirt behind.
"Tell me why you care about this prisoner so much anyway."
"I have a history with this tiger," I said. "I just want to know what you're planning to do with her."
"Tiger?" He cocked his head to the side, then nodded. "That's her spirit animal? A tiger?"
"Yes," I said. "I feel like I kind of owe her something."
"How so?"
I bit my lip. "I killed her twin sister," I said. "When we first came to the shadow world, the Order sent them after me. I got angry and lost control. I didn't mean to kill her, but my power was stronger than I expected it to be."
"And you think you owe her something because of it?" he asked. "Wasn't she trying to kill you?"
"It's not that cut and dry. I took away the one thing that was more precious to her than anything else," I said. "I do owe her."
My father put his arm around me. I stiffened at this first sign of affection in weeks.
"You have such a kind heart," he said. "But you have to realize that she and her sister put themselves at the service of the Order of Shadows. They were well aware of the danger that presented."
"So you think they deserved what happened to them?"
"They made a conscious choice to serve evil," he said. "They put themselves in that position."
"Well, I put myself in a terrible position today," I said. "I killed three witches to save myself. I don't even know their names or where they came from, but at some point, they were all probably just girls like me or Lark or Brooke. Girls who joined the cheerleading squad at their school because they wanted to know more about how their powers worked. Girls who had no idea what they were getting themselves into until it was too late."
"How can you have such sympathy for those who choose to fight against you?"
"I know what the Order does to the recruits. I watched them pull my friend Brooke into a ritual room kicking and screaming and begging them not to go through with it. She was forced there against her will, no different from the demons who are pulled from this world to be slaves."
"It's very different," the king said. He turned away from me and began to pace in front of the steps up to the throne. "Maybe she didn't have a choice when she was being brought to her initiation, but what about afterward? Why doesn't anyone stand up against what's happening to the recruits? Why didn't your friend Brooke come to all of the recruits after her ceremony and warn you against what happened to her?"
I stood there, staring dumbly forward. I had no answer for him. I didn't understand it myself. Something changed about Brooke the night she was initiated. I didn't know if it had more to do with her loyalty to her family or her actual initiation, but she was never the same.
"I'll tell you why," he continued. "Power. Once a human witch feels a demon's strength inside of her and realizes just how much more powerful she has become, she's completely unwilling to let go. It's an addiction. Maybe she knows it's wrong, but she just can't seem to do anything to stop it."
His reasoning made sense, but I believed there was more to it than that.
"It's not that simple," I said. "Brooke's family has been a part of the Order of Shadows for generations. Speaking out would be a complete betrayal of everyone she loves. If she had come to us and told us to leave the cheerleading team or had explained even a little bit of what happened to her in that ritual room, who knows what the Order would have done to punish her? They might have killed her or turned her into a hunter for all we know. And it all would have been for nothing because they have the power to erase our memories."
"Just because it's dangerous doesn't mean she shouldn't fight against something that's wrong," he said.
"I agree with you," I said. "But I don't see you going into the human world to fight the Order. You said you refused to go there, because it's too dangerous. What's the difference?"
The room grew quiet except for the sound of my father's boots on the marble fl
oor.
I had no idea what was going through his mind, but I hoped he heard what I was saying. If we ever planned to defeat the Order, we were going to have to be able to talk through our beliefs about them.
In my heart, I knew Brooke wasn't evil. But I also knew she wasn't strong enough to fight against everything and everyone she's ever loved.
Who would be?
He turned back to me, a sad smile on his face. "You want to know what the funny thing is?"
I stared ahead. "There's a funny thing?"
"I used to have this same argument with my own father, except I was the one arguing for human rights back then."
This bit of personal information took me by surprise. I wanted to ask him more about his father. About what had changed his mind about fighting in the human world, but he changed the subject before I had the chance.
"What would you have me do with this prisoner?" he asked.
I straightened. "Let me question her," I said. "She might be able to give us important information about Priestess Winter."
"Absolutely not," he said, slicing his hand through the air as if that added some kind of finality to his words.
"Why even ask me what you should do with her if you aren't even going to listen to me?" I said.
"I thought you might suggest something reasonable."
"Wanting to question her is perfectly reasonable." I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "She was very close to Priestess Winter."
"Harper, you just told me you killed this girl's twin sister. Do you not understand that everything she does is to get revenge on you? Do you honestly think she would tell you the truth? That you could trust her?"
I clenched my jaw. "Her spirit is broken," I explained. "She's vulnerable right now in a way she may not be in a week or more. If I go down there and talk to her, she might tell me something important while she still can. We don't have much time before she completely loses her mind, if she hasn't already."