Free Of Noble Chains (The Ventori Fables) by D.L. Miles

nodded his head from the grass below and the fake Malachi left.  “And you, you better tell me you’re the real Malachi because I don’t like being lied to, boy.”
    Zia pointed at him as she had the fake Malachi and the man stood.  He was taller than her, so again she had to look up at him, but he wasn’t nearly as burly as his friend.  His blond hair was buzzed short at the sides, to just above his ears where it was kept long and fell forward, almost into his eyes.  It was a recent trend in New Havilan that Zia didn’t approve of.  He brushed off his jeans and long-sleeved shirt before stepping back from Zia.  She wasn’t sure why he did that.
    After a long sigh he admitted, “I am Mal.”
    “You better be or so help you—“
    “So help me what?” he held his arms around him.  “You cannot do anything to me because I am not STRAY.  So, I am sorry that we lied to you, but I needed to know what you wanted first.  My uncle—“
    “Damn it, it isn’t you,” Zia cut him off and began to walk away when he caught her wrist.  She recoiled as if he had burned her, clutching at the part of her he touched.  Mal grimaced behind his sunglasses and held up his hands to show he meant her no harm.  She didn’t believe it.
    “What is not me?” he asked.
    “You’re not who I’m looking for.”
    “Who are you looking for?” Mal lowered his hands to his sides, looking awkward under the trees.
    “I’m looking for a murderer,” Zia said, crossing her arms so that she didn’t feel like a victim, “one of you things threw a girl from a bridge the other night and I’m trying to find out who.”  She tried not to widen her eyes but only barely stopped herself.  She really should not have told him that.
    “Things?” Mal didn’t appear to care about the murder.  “We are not things.  We are people too.  You are Ventori, you should know that since you have to face some of the same challenges as we do when dealing with humans.”
    “Hah!” Zia spun on her heel and began to stalk out of the woods; she could already see the light at the end of the trees. 
    “Wait!” Mal was suddenly in front of her, a dark blue dust falling to the earth around him.  Zia jumped back, not expecting him to teleport into her pathway.  She had just barely avoided running into him.  “How did you know of my power?”
    “What do you care?” Zia’s voice held the resonance of a shake, almost risking becoming a scream.  She tried to step around him but he sidestepped back into her path.
    “Because only one person in the world is supposed to know,” Mal admitted, his brow furrowing, “nobody else knows.  So how do you?”
    Zia eyed the man in front of her.  There was no way he was past the age of twenty, but he still held such a powerful title.  It scared her, knowing what he was capable of, but it scared her even more that he wasn’t using any of that power.  Why wasn’t he using a spell to make her keep her mouth shut?
    “I’m Ventori,” she finally said, “I know lots of things.”  Even though she didn’t want to, she shoved a hand against his shoulder to push him out of the way.  She made it out of the forest and snapped her fingers at Iscah who jumped after her.
    “You know it is people like you that are keeping us from our rights,” Mal came out of the forest and Zia didn’t even look over her shoulder.  “Someone should show you that Specter’s deserve to be citizens just as much as you do!”
    His words sparked cheering from the other protesters but Zia didn’t do anything.  She just continued forward towards town, trying to think of every single way that that could have gone better.  It had started so perfectly and then turned around on her somehow.
    “I-is it not him?” Iscah puffed out after she caught up.
    “No, it’s not.”
    “How did you know?” They passed by a Specter coming down the walk and she grabbed onto Zia’s arm.
    “Because he apologized to me,” Zia sighed,