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Why do people always say that? As if the warning somehow makes it better. Truth is, I’d rather not have known what she was about to do. But I found myself nodding, and she changed back into a hawk before I could stop her talon from slicing my arm open from elbow to wrist.
The pain was terrible. Yellow ooze rushed out of me instead of blood, pooling on the ground, where it sizzled and smoked. And let me tell you, it smelled worse than ten-day-old fish and vomit combined. I gagged.
Brooks took her human form and said, “Squeeze it out,” while she demonstrated by kneading her own arm.
My eyes were half-closed and I shook my head. Had I been more coherent I might’ve screamed N to the NO!, but my hand must’ve ignored my brain, because it started to squeeze.
The burning was worse than anything I’d ever felt. A million whispers bounced off the cave walls, angry and tormented. The cave began to spin, and I thought I might pass out.
Then, gradually, everything came back into focus. The whispers disappeared, and bit by bit my pulse steadied until I felt like myself again. When I looked down at my arm, the wound closed up right before my eyes. “That’s freaking amazing!” I felt sup
ernatural and totally awesome. My skin had just healed itself!
“It’s a nawal thing.”
“Pretty sure it has to do with me being supernatural.”
Brooks gave a small shrug.
I shook out my arm. “How’d you find me?”
“I knew you’d be reckless enough to come back here alone. I was waiting, up top,” she said, pointing above. “But when I called to you, the wind swallowed my voice.” She inched closer. “So, the magic summoned you?”
“No, but I heard Rosie.”
“What do you mean?”
“Her cries. They were so loud I was sure she was here.”
Brooks’s face fell. “That… that wasn’t Rosie, Zane. Don’t you see? They’re tricking you.”
“I know what I heard!”
Taking my hand, she said, “The eclipse is coming, and we have to find the artifact before then. I can’t do it without you. You’re the one in the prophecy.”
“And then what?”
“I have to leave.”
“But you just got here!” I blurted out. I couldn’t help it. I’d only known her for a few days, but the idea of life without Brooks around seemed so…boring.
“Do you hear Rosie now?” she asked.
I shook my head and circled the cave. Careful to avoid toxic slime, I pressed my ear to the walls like maybe my dog was inside one of them.
Brooks followed closely, speaking in hushed tones. “You’re right, you know. Who am I to think I can stop the evilest god of all time? I’m doing it to…” Her voice trailed off. Then she added, “I’m only part nawal. It’s why I can’t shape-shift into anything except a hawk—no one wants to train a half-breed. But if I could accomplish something big, I wouldn’t be a nothing my whole life.”
I recalled what the alux had said to my mom. “Yeah, being a half-breed nothing would officially suck.” I kicked a rock across the ground.
“Ugh! I’m so stupid! That’s not what I meant. I mean—”
“It’s okay. I get what you mean.” I could identify with her need to be something bigger, a better version of herself. “So nobody sent you? You just, like, ran away?”
“You could say that.”
“From where?”
“A place I can’t go back to. But don’t worry, no one’s looking for me.”
