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Chapter Two
PHEONIX
10 Years Ago
I run until it feels like my lungs will burst, and only then do I stop, bending over and putting my hands on my knees. But even then, it’s not enough. The rage inside me is still too big. So I stand back up and, finally alone with nothing but forest around for miles, I scream at the top of my lungs.
Nope, still not enough. I scream again, brace my arms out in front of me, and run at top speed toward a towering oak tree. I batter into the tree with tremendous impact, knocking its roots from the ground and toppling it sideways. I leap up the trunk as it begins to really fall, stomping on the bark like a furious toddler in a tantrum as it tears through other trees in the forest, riding it on its way down.
I leap off right before it touches down with a thunderous crash on the forest floor, grabbing onto the branches of the nearest tree to break my fall.
I finally land, sweaty and breathing hard, my hair falling into my face and leaves and twigs caught in the strands. The rage inside me is just barely banked. It seems no matter how much I exert myself or scream, I can’t get rid of it.
I scream again anyway for good measure.
Back in my real life, I’m never allowed to lose control. Even talking back with a barely elevated tone could be interpreted as disrespectful.
I collapse onto the ground, head in between my arms.
Maybe it’s over now. He’s lost his leverage over you.
I can feel my own frown, though. Because I can’t imagine ever being truly free of my grandfather’s control.
But then I pop back to my feet and spin around. There’s another heartbeat out here with me in a place where I’m supposed to be all alone. And it’s far larger than that of any animal.
Dammit, how did I miss it? Usually, the human heartbeats are such a loud cacophony in the city that they all blur into a white noise that’s always there in the background. But right now, there’s just a single one besides my own. Even most of the forest creatures have been scared away by the tree I just knocked down.
It doesn’t even take much focus to zero in on exactly where it’s coming from. Far too close.
I swing around, at first not seeing anything. But then, eyes blink at me from the tree behind me. Immediately, I leap forward, tearing a man from a tree where he’s been completely camouflaged.
“Don’t touch me!” he calls weakly as he tumbles down face-first when I let go of him. He’s so covered in moss and mud I can barely tell what part is the man and what part is the disguise he’s covered himself in.
“Did Vlad send you to track me?” I yell furiously.
He just lays, bent at the waist, face down in the mud.
“Answer me!” I demand, using my foot to nudge him.
“Don’t,” he jerks back away from me, but he’s just like a flopping worm with barely any control over his limbs.
What the hell kind of trick is this? I back warily away from him.
“Hey,” I shout. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
He mumbles something. Frowning, I inch forward, finally able to make out what he says. “Leave me.”
Is this just a homeless man from one of the villages who came out into the forests and got lost?
I look around. “Are you with anyone? Someone I can get to help you?”
I start to reach down to help him sit back up again. I grab his shoulder, or what I think is his shoulder, considering how caked with mud and leaves he is, and heft him back to sitting leaned against the tree.
It’s shocking when the clear whites of his eyes flash up at me, stunning gray irises so alive. This time, he says, “Leave,” and his voice is still wan. I’m even more shocked when he half lifts an arm, and white-blue light sparks erupt from his hand. The ghost of strange shapes form in the air but then dissipate like smoke as the man slumps back against the tree, apparently passed out.
I blink once. Twice.
What the hell?
