by Skyler Andra
Yesterday, I’d checked on my appeal to the warden. He’d told me it would take time to process, longer for it to be reviewed, and a decision to be delivered. Overall, he felt positive that it would be finished sooner than later. I held onto that hope. Hopefully, before long, I wouldn’t need to worry about Knoxe or his team any longer.
Tor lifted a hand, telling me to hold my ground, and I pressed against the brick school building. He peered around the corner and whispered, “Clear.”
I moved forward after him.
From his position on my shoulder, Obsidian squawked and pecked my ear.
“I know,” I told him, patting him. “I’m ready.”
Back in Bathurst, I’d encountered fire, earth and water elementals, an air djinn, and golems shorter than my calf…little shits. Each one scary in its own way and sometimes sneaky.
My textbooks said mothmen had projectile spit that opened portals and also burned anything they came into contact with. But encountering one, battling it, outsmarting it, catching it, that was a whole other ball game, and I couldn’t wait to add it to my gantii ass-kicking resume.
I tried to roll up my sleeves, but then remembered I wore the tight silk. God, this thing was hot. Why Tor thought it smart to wear head to toe leather suits in a tropical savanna climate, I couldn’t guess. I tugged the collar trying to let air inside to cool me down.
“How you doing, Supergirl?” Tor asked from beside me, his gaze alert, scanning our surroundings. Play equipment for the children to enjoy during their breaks. Jungle gyms, swings, slides and rocking horses on springs.
“You’re the only one in the team who cares.” I brushed aside a low branch in my way.
“I wouldn’t take it to heart.” He grinned. “Doesn’t have anything to do with you. Knoxe is going through a hard time. We all are.”
We negotiated a row of more modern looking classrooms compared to the older 1960’s style structures. “We’re all on the same team here, literally.”
“Raze doesn’t really like anybody,” Tor explained. “At least, he doesn’t let on. He keeps to himself. Pascal is a loner and doesn’t really fit in. Everyone’s pissed at me and blaming me for Jaz’s death, too. Right now, we’re functioning as well as an engine about to give up.”
They’d assigned me to a team on the brink of collapse.
“Let me ask again, Supergirl,” Tor said, this time with more insistence. “How you doing? You’re not going to flip out on me, are you?”
In all honesty, I was shitting my pants a little. But I wasn’t letting him in on that fact. No way. Not giving them any reason to kick me off the team.
I nudged his elbow. “I’ve fought Aquarians, Ignatia, Terrains, and Shaitan, you know.”
“Water, fire, and earth elementals,” he said, eyebrows raised. “Not bad. Tell me about the Shaitan djinn.”
“Maybe later,” I said. “When we’re celebrating over a beer.”
“Beer,” he said. “You said my magic word. I knew I liked you.”
Up ahead, I spotted Knoxe and Raze approaching from the opposite direction. Pascal loomed in the distance to our left, holding his tuning forks up like they would protect him from a monster.
Tor squeezed his stake tighter. “Just show us some more of your superpowers, and you’ll be all right.”
I wondered if he kept mentioning my “superpower” to size me up and see if my skills were better than his. Given his penchant for superheroes, I wouldn’t have been surprised. But I couldn’t afford to trust him. Not when I needed to know the identity of the weapon thief and the odds were just about even it was him.
“All in good time.” I smiled.
The air around me thickened and a strange noise buzzed nearby. I glanced from left to right, front to back. Something didn’t feel right. I looked into the baleful red eyes of the angry creature glaring at me, floating in midair. “Shit!”
Projectile spit hit the ground near my foot, and I jumped. The grass of the football field burst into flames that ran in a line across to the side and to each end.
My heart raced, and my feet seemed stuck to the ground. I engaged in a staring match with the tall, gaunt, and human-shaped being. Dark fur covered its body. Dusty, bony wings grew out from the unnaturally long arms. Long, thin antennae poked out from its head, and the only features on its thickly haired face were two huge, luminous red eyes, glowing with the lights of a traffic symbol.
For someone accustomed to unearthly things, the sight of a mothman disturbed me. I took two steps backward, my butt hit the chain-link fence, and I shrieked.
“You alright, Supergirl?” Tor snuck past me slowly.
“I think so,” I admitted.
“Keep its eyes on you while I circle around behind it.”
Wait. What? I was no mothman’s bait.
“No way.” I rounded on it, too.
Tor’s voice was taut. “Don’t get too close or you might end up with a burning hole through your chest.”
I flicked my wrists, calling upon the power of the veil, like Blaze had taught me. This summoned a shield of energy on my left hand.
“Impressive,” Tor admitted, scrunching his top lip.
I’d show him impressive once I reduced this gantii to its base chemical elements. I fired up my magic, and it flared in my other palm.
The mothman reared up and hissed.
“Hold on there, sunshine.” Tor held out a hand to his side. “Don’t go making it aggressive.”
Confronting it had set it off. My magic was just a bonus aggravation.
It spat out two more bursts, one hitting the paint line of the field in front of me, dissolving it, a second hitting the fence behind Tor.
“Too late.” I fired up my magic.
“Whoa,” Tor said with more insistence. “You want to know how to calm a mothman?”
“Sure,” I said, holding back.
“Whistle at it.” His body tensed. “A loud, hard, sharp kind, like a sailor’s whistle.”
“Really?”
“Sure.” Tor raised his hands confidently, his stake ready. “He’s just a harbinger of disaster, and we’ve got to catch him.”
I frowned and shook my head, a bit dubious. “I haven’t read anything about that in the textbooks.”
With a tsk, Tor said, “You scared, Supergirl?”
“No,” I said, determined to prove him wrong.
I wasn’t going to fail no matter how much Knoxe hated me, or how much Tor competed with me, or Raze glared at me and directed cleansing smoke my way, or how bad I looked in a bodysuit according to Pascal. These guys were going to accept me come hell or high water. I was going to catch this damn mothman and we were going to find Styx, earn the bounty on the contract, and I was going to lower my sentence and get out of here ASAP.
The mothman floated above us, a hissing, staring menace with glowing red eyes. I stood my ground, put my thumb and index finger in my mouth, and emitted a sharp whistle. The mothman reared back and shuddered violently, retreating. I glanced at Tor, who grinned his approval.
“See?” He nodded with encouragement. “What’d I tell you? Give him another one! Let him have it!”
Encouraged, I blasted the gantii with a second whistle. It shrank and levitated higher, smashing a tree branch in its wake. I emitted a third noise, and it curled into a ball and shuddered above us.
Excited, I called over my shoulder to Tor, “It worked!”
“Just like I said!” he laughed. “Now, hit it with a stake.”
As I lifted my aim, I issued another whistle, hoping to calm the mothman. But instead it uncurled itself and lunged at me. Startled and unprepared, I shrieked, flinching back. It hollered again, and my foot stubbed on the ground and I tripped. It rose again, howling like a banshee—a vile, bone-rattling sound—and flew at us. It grabbed me by the arm and dragged me along the ground. I yelped as I banged along the ground. Frightened, I attempted another whistle, only to make it drop me, spin on me, claws raised, mouth appendages clac
king with a menace that chilled me.
Shit. The whistling wasn’t working. It was only making things worse.
Alarmed, I lifted my hands, shielding myself with veil magic. “What the hell did I do?”
Tor laughed and hit the creature with a stake in the foot. “You might have pissed it off a little.”
Still laughing, he let off a blast of magic, and the mothman shook its head then flew into the fence.
“Don’t worry. I’ve just blinded the sucker.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet.
My horror turned to fury, and I thumped him on the arm. “You jerk. You tricked me.”
He smiled. “I might have been having a little fun at your expense. Consider it an initiation to the Guardians.”
Asshole had pretended to be nice all to play some immature college prank to welcome me to the group. I needed to focus on the gantii that got back to its feet and now swayed wildly in front of us, grabbing at his face.
“You could’ve gotten me killed,” I screamed, ducking as the mothman almost hit me. Right then, I didn’t know who I hated more: Tor for playing me, or myself for listening to him.
The gantii crashed into a fence, and then to the ground.
In mid-crouch, Tor managed a little shrug. “It was just supposed to be a little sport, that’s all…no harm intended, I swear. Silver Strand honor.”
I shoved his chest, and he stumbled back. “I’m going to kick your ass.”
He grinned. “I like a dangerous woman.”
“Fuck you, Tor.” I scowled, fuming. “Superhero my ass! Super-idiot more like it! Super-irresponsible piece of shit! If you ever say another word to me…”
Burning mad, I stormed off, navigating the broken fence to catch the fleeing mothman.
“Wait up.” Tor jogged beside me. “Calm it down. Let’s get it together.”
Too late.
Ignoring him, I lifted my hand and began to move my finger quickly in the air as if I traced chemical equations on an invisible board. At my gesture, symbols of an equation that would “factor” the mothman into the particles and waves of its ethereal substance, flashed in my mind. But before I could finish, I remembered, I couldn’t make the gantii dissolve. We needed to capture it and bring it back to the Guardians.
Dammit. The symbols of my equation broke apart and vanished as I peered over my shoulder. I needed another way to subdue it. My hands flew to my belt. To my missing rune blaster. A weapon I really needed right now.
The mothman swung back at us. It shrieked, stretching out an arm and batting Tor away. He hit the side of a classroom, the impact knocking him out.
“Fuck.” I backed away.
The mothman swung forward. Crap. It was going to get away. I couldn’t do this alone. I needed help to stop it.
I lifted my bracelet and panted into it, “Help. I need backup.”
Heart racing, I flew at the gantii with hands outstretched, ready to dissolve something, anything to get it to stop. It knocked me over, and I hit the ground with a thud. Pain cracked along my left side, and I grunted. I rolled over to see the gantii floating away. My breaths came short and sharp. I lifted my hands to use my magic. The blast that expelled from me hit the side of a classroom and evaporated it. Disappointment sank in and I slammed a fist on the ground.
“What in hell have you two done?” A sharp masculine voice rang out from behind.
Knoxe stormed over, fury burning bright in his eyes. All the air in my lungs rushed out, and I couldn’t breathe.
“I’m sorry,” I stammered, twisting my hands, the anxiety rearing its head. “I screwed up.”
I’d wanted to show him how valuable I was, what I could do, only to have my moment ruined by fucking Tor. I glared at his unconscious body. I couldn’t believe I ever thought this wanker was cute. Not so bloody cute now, was he? Wrenching my hands, I pretended to squeeze his neck.
Raze bent to shake Tor, rousing him. “Where’s the Marra Wugal?”
“The what?” I asked.
“Star walker.” Knoxe’s words blistered my ears.
Tor sat up, rubbing his head. “It must have gotten away.”
Of all the no-good, childish stunts to pull when I’d barely settled into this place… Tor had to con me into doing something stupid that would get us both punished. I didn’t need this when I wanted my appeal to go through smoothly. I wanted to shove my boot up his ass. Some superhero he turned out to be. More like a trickster and troublemaker like Loki.
I let all my frustration pour out when he climbed to his feet, and I rushed at him, shoving him in the chest once, twice, three times. “You fucking tricked me into whistling at it!”
“You what?” Knoxe’s roar silenced me.
With a less than convincing innocence, Tor flashed another crooked smile. “I was just having a little fun with her…”
Pascal shook his head. “A little fun… like you have fun with me?”
Knoxe shot a furious look in Tor’s direction. “I might have known the usual fuck-up was behind this.”
Tor bent his head and fisted his hands. “How many times do I have to say I’m sorry, Knoxe?”
“Sorry isn’t good enough.” Knoxe fumed.
Pascal fidgeted next to me.
Anxious, mortified, I clasped my fingers together. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have listened to him…”
I’d just given him even more ammo to hate me and punish me in training. I wanted to run and hide. Monsters I could deal with, but Knoxe’s rancor made my guts ache. It was like being condemned by an Army drill sergeant. I’d wanted to catch this gantii so bad. To get a lead on Styx. Catch the vampire coven. Get on the good side of the warden and hopefully he’d approve my appeal.
Knoxe sent another hostile look in Tor’s direction. “We’re going to talk later. Until then you’re cellbound.”
“What’s cellbound?“ I’d read it but I couldn’t remember. I glanced at Tor, who picked himself off the ground.
“Disciplinary action.” Knoxe marched ahead of us. Separate. Alone. Disconnected from his team.
Oh crap. Then why had Tor been so dumb to goad me into pissing off the mothman?
Chapter 20
Tor
Fuck. I hated being caged. Forty-eight hours in solitary for my little stunt. Twice in a matter of weeks. Think I beat my own record. Just another fuck up to add to my long list.
I tossed the ball against the wall, caught it, threw it, anything to count down the hours until my release.
I deserved this punishment. I’d been an asshole to the new girl, but I didn’t intend to get her tossed into the doghouse on her first mission. Now, she hated me, and I felt like a maggot for it.
Things had been really shit the last few weeks. With the second anniversary of Jaz’s death coming, the team had been on edge, and Knoxe was a moody prick. We tried to stay out of his way as much as we could, spent long hours in the watchtower, hunting for signs of Styx, trained for longer hours, polished our weapons, sharpened our stakes. Anything to avoid him. But nothing we did, especially me, was enough.
Then there was all my personal crap. My nan and dad passed within weeks of each other. My mom lost her house because she couldn’t make mortgage repayments, and I wasn’t there to support them. I’d wanted to give Supergirl a fun initiation into the team, and I thought the gang would get a kick out of it.
Knoxe was supposed to be my mate and have my back. Not rat me out to Vartros for every little thing. But since we lost Jaz, Knoxe developed a hard-on for me and turned me in every chance he got.
Footsteps thudded outside my cell. Someone stopped, and their keys jangled. The lock clunked open.
I threw my ball one last time, caught it, then sat up.
Ben, one of the sentries assigned to this block, entered. Middle aged, medium height, and a little bit on the pudgy side. “You’re free to go, mate.”
I leaped off the bed, grabbed the sides of his head and kissed him on the bald spot. “Fucking
A, Ben! You’re my hero.”
Ben chuckled and pushed me away. “All right. Enough of that. Don’t want to start no rumors.”
No. No, we didn’t. I chuckled and gave him a fist bump.
I got along with most of the guards, which made my life ten times easier, and also helped me with my extracurricular businesses. A few who didn’t like me always tried to catch me with my contraband. Lucky, I had a few guards on the payroll to cover my ass. I also utilized the art of blackmail when it served my purposes and an occasional bit of sabotage. Things I would never normally do, but in prison with my liberties stripped away, I had to survive. And all this was necessary to help my family.
I stepped into the corridor outside my cell and inhaled the stale air that smelled like metal and stone. A few inmates wandered past.
“Hey, Tor.” Shian gave me a fist bump as he passed. Then he slipped me a small bubble wrap bag.
Fucking A. More contraband. I needed this since Knoxe confiscated my last loot. That bastard had cost me a couple of grand. And I needed that cash. I didn’t dare check what it was out in the open. I’d leave that for my cell or someplace private.
“Shian, my man.” I slapped him on the ass as he moved past, then tucked the package down the chest of my uniform.
In the middle of the corridor, I stretched, pressing my hands behind my head, watching Shian move back to the stairs with his crew.
Ben clomped up behind me, keys jangling as he moved. “Tor, the warden wants to see you.”
“What for?” I twisted ,working the cramp from my back.
Ben put his hands on his belt, a strap of leather weighed down by a baton, pepper spray, keys, cuffs and a walkie-talkie (back up if the power went out). “Post disciplinary action.”
I stretched my left hamstring, pulling my foot back to my backside. “You make it sound so sexy.”
Ben chuckled. “Come on. Move your ass. I told him I’d bring you to his office.”