Free Mistfall by Olivia Martinez Page A

do
you have as far as objects go?”
    “I only have weapons and clothes,” I said,
shaking my duffle bag.
    “That won’t do. Clothes are easily destroyed
and weapons can be lost or left behind.”
    “Hailz, I really don’t feel good about
this.”
    “Oh, I’m just ready to burst out and do
cartwheels.” I thought I could see the sarcasm dripping from her
fangs.
    I rubbed my hand against my forehead; needles
were beginning to penetrate my skull. This was so wrong. I couldn’t
figure a way out of it either. Maybe…just maybe I can wait until
she binds herself, call her to me, and then grant her
freedom.
    Her tail jabbed itself in my direction. “I
can read you like a book. We’re stuck with each other until The
Powers lay off you. So just get over whatever moral crisis you’re
having and suck it up.”
    I walked off a few feet away to collect my
thoughts and calm down. When I came back, Hailz was fiddling with a
small, golden device. She whispered something to it that I couldn’t
make out.
    The moment she quit speaking, a flurry of
gold and purple shimmered around her. The cloud slowly became
bigger, the magic building itself up. It towered over us, swirling
and undulating. Waves of color washed over each other like shifting
sands, blurring Hailz until she was invisible. Once the magic hit
its zenith, it came pouring down, funneling into Hailz and the
object like bees attacking an intruder.
    She was now bound to me. There wasn’t a power
great enough on Earth to remove it and now she was stuck in
servitude, because of me.
    “I’m sorry Hailz.” I didn’t know what else to
say to her. What could you say?
    “Don’t bother. Just figure out what you’re
doing so I can get my freedom back. As for this, just rub it and
call my name. I will appear.” She quit turning the object over in
her hands and tossed it to me. “You were going a little too far
east.”
    I looked down at the object in my hands. It
was a compass. Golden and small, it had an inscription written in
an obscure ancient language. I faced back up to thank Hailz. I
figured it was the least I could do, but she was already gone and
in her place was a black scorch mark.

 
7. Truth, Schmuth
     
    After Hailz left, I walked through the forest
for a few hours. It had been a quiet few hours too. The footsteps
of creatures were like whispers on the wind. Occasionally pixies
would dash between plants, weaving their magic into their very
cells. Between chatting with a few of the pixies and admiring the
scenery, straight out of Wonderland, I was able to clear my
head.
    With a fresh perspective of recent events, I
came to a few conclusions. I had been set up for David’s death.
Gauging Owen’s reaction, I was pretty sure he had something to do
with it.
    Werewolf law concerning fighting is pretty
simple: Don’t go into battle without being prepared to die.
    If I had killed David, it would have been
justifiable. His badly managed attempt at sexual assault would have
made it doubly so. If a pack leader had found out, in this case
Owen, and David was still alive, Owen would have killed him for it.
Instead, Owen had been on his way to my home to kill me. That
wasn’t exactly kosher werewolf behavior.
    At this point I was pretty sure David’s death
had been staged to force me out into the open. An Iblian jinn
accused of cold-blooded murder would cause enough outrage that The
Powers would reinforce their resources in finding me. Hailz’s
warning confirmed this.
    How someone figured out my supernatural
status in Harmony is beyond me. I never slipped up and forgot to
drink the brew . Melissa was the only one, aside from Luca,
who knew and she had sworn a blood oath to keep the secret. The
spell of a blood oath would have boiled her blood inside of her if
she had broken it. After Luca found out, he had stayed with me,
unable to have had the time to tell anyone.
    Unless…Was it possible one of the
participant’s in Willa’s crazy plan had turned traitor?