Hwari saved my life.

  She jumped out of the shadows and flicked her tail, splashing the beast's eyes with ink. At the same time, Mina spun me around with that same strength from before, using her body as a pivot. The Fae missed me by a hair and landed a few feet away to the increasing horror of the crowd.

  “L-Lion! It’s a fucking lion!”

  More screams resounded as the terror reached new levels.

  There are stages to these things, the mass panic I mean. There’s the build up, the trigger, and finally the contagion. The build up had been the fire and the attempt at a coordinated rescue. The trigger had been the mercenary and her Fae turning the place into a jungle. Now it was just spreading everywhere, the crowd of students continued spilling out from every entrance available.

  I’d had my hand in every single stage. The fire, the alarm, the mercenary, the spread of panic; nothing had happened without my involvement.

  People were getting hurt because of me.

  “Hey! Courage!” I yelled over the screams. I might as well have been talking inside a soundproof wall, the screams drowned out my words.

  But the Fae heard. He scratched the ink out of his eyes, leaving bloody gouges and looked in my direction. Hate filled his eyes.

  Mina still hadn’t let go of me. “What are you doing?!”

  I pushed her off me. “You said you want to help? Keep going down this hallway, check the clubrooms and make sure they’re all empty. Then you get out yourself, alright?”

  “Jain?” Wol scrambled to keep purpose as I kept getting jostled, leaving claw marks all over the expensive shirt Abigail bought me.

  I yelled out again. “Courage! Just like the television!” I had chosen the insults carefully; it had been the decisive blow to the Fae’s glamour the other day.

  He locked on me, disappearing into the illusionary bushes.

  The policewoman –mercenary in disguise– was close too.

  “Catch me if you can, mutt!” I yelled out and broke out at a dead run back the way I had come from.

  Everything happened in slow motion, then fast forward like time had started moving again. The rush of bodies surging against me disappeared just as fast as the panic had spread. The scent of sweat, heat from the masses, the screams, they all faded. I kept running and they had all disappeared before I could register the change in my surroundings.

  The only sounds were my feet pounding the floor of the hallways and my ragged breaths. Blood pounded in my ears, the leftover adrenaline fading as the exhilaration began to wear off.

  I was forced to stop, encountering the bubble wall that Mina had left behind.

  “D-did she–” I choked, spittle hanging from my mouth.

  “The girl did not follow us.” Wol’s weight disappeared from my shoulder. “Look up, Practitioner. They come.”

  Hwari slunk out of the shadow beneath me, floating up.

  They were coming.

  The mercenary had ditched the illusion. She had copperish skin and long curly brown hair. Jeans, T-shirt, and a leather jacket; she looked more like a detective from those crime dramas. If it weren’t for the little Fae boy walking on all fours next to her.

  Exanguin was skinny and raggedly so. He wore no clothes except for the brown loincloth around his waist, emphasizing his ribcage and collar bones. There were things I hadn’t noticed before. How his blonde hair dragged along the ground, the way his eyes were too large for his face, and the way his ears were a little bit too pointy to be normal.

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  “Caught up to you,” Exanguin spoke, his tongue rolling around like he was an actual dog. He reminded me of those documentaries about children abandoned in the woods and raised by wolves. “No where to go.”

  Wol stepped in front of me. “Back so soon?” He said languidly.

  Exanguin tucked his chin down into his chest and coughed violently. “Cat! Cat! Cat!”

  The woman stopped a few feet away from me. “Alright kid. Chase is over.”

  I was still catching my breath with my hands on my knees. But I took the effort to give her the finger. I even took the time to make sure she saw.

  Hwari swished by my head. ‘Practitioner, Wol is worried you will call the Cold Sickness.’

  I felt my face crumple into a grimace. I’d be lying if the thought hadn’t crossed my mind. But there were a few things I wanted to try first. If only I could catch my damned breath.

  But the woman still didn’t move. I had no idea what she was waiting for. She just stood there, looking around.

  ‘She fears you,’ Hwari whispered.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘The thorns. The fire yesterday. Her Fae.’ Hwari swung by the front of my face, ‘You have evaded her at every turn.’

  I swallowed hard. It made sense. Atleast, I think it did. From her perspective, I’d not only summoned a thorn to block her way in. But I’d dealt with her Fae, then did something to her partner and escaped. Then she came here looking for me and everything was on fire.

  Put it that way, it sounded like I knew what I was doing. If only reality was so kind.

  Her eyes were still darting all over the place, squinting like she was trying to get a better look. Then she took out the mirror from earlier. The same one that had been disguised as a gun. It was a trinket for sure, I just didn’t know what it did.

  Not knowing what else to do, I brought out my gravity knife and dropped it open in one smooth movement.

  She stopped opening the mirror halfway. Exanguin let out a frustrated groan.

  Hwari was right. This woman was scared. Scared, careful, wary, making sure that she had the upperhand before making her move –she was behaving exactly the same as a predator in those animal documentaries did. Stalking the prey until they were sure of the kill.

  Most hunts end in failure. In fact, less than ten percent of hunts succeed. However, there’s something people should know. When the predator fails, they live to hunt another day. When the prey fails, it’s game over.

  I had to be smart here. Real smart.

  “Did you sleep well, Exanguin?” Wol suddenly asked.

  “Don’t answer him,” She snapped.

  Just as Wol had said, Exanguin was young for a fae and he couldn’t help but respond, like an actor in the spotlight. “I dreamt of biting you. My teeth sinking into your neck.”

  I laughed, trying to imitate Wol’s tone. “Oh, did you? I dreamt of your rear-end as you escaped through that door.”

  “Exanguin, stop.” The woman practitioner hissed.

  I noticed something. “How come you don’t have a staff? Your partner had one.”

  “Not interested in chitchat, kid,” She licked her lips, eyes combing over the halls. “What did you do to this place?”

  “Because she’s a minor practitioner.” Wol answered for her.

  I’d never heard those terms. “What’s that?”

  “They go by many names. Hedge witches, dabblers, free-casters,” Wol said. “The question is how she managed to get a contract with a fae.”

  “And what does that have to do with not having a staff?” I asked.

  “A staff helps you be more of what you are,” Wol said. “There isn’t much more of her to be.”

  The woman’s expression crumpled into a sneer. “Stop talking about me as if I’m not here and tell your cat to shut up.”

  “Shut up,” Exanguin growled, his blonde hair swaying like a curtain. Whenever his limbs peeked out from behind the curtains, they were those belonging to different animals –a hoof, a clawed paw, eagle’s talons.

  He took a step forward and Sarah grabbed him by the shoulders, “No, Exanguin.”

  Whatever Wol had said, it bothered her. I’d been at the other end of people using words to try and push my buttons for as long as I could remember. I knew very well what it looked like when the right button was pressed.

  It meant she cared. Which meant she was vulnerable. That meant I could use it against her.