Page 6 of Fractured Fates

That was her name. Died a year ago.

Has the girl been alone all that time?

In the town, they said she was called Rhianna.

I test the name out on my tongue, my voice sounding loud over the noise of the pig chomping down its food.

Then I curse myself. What the fuck?

I tug my phone out of my pocket, and, drumming my fingers again on the tabletop, I call Phoenix. He’s more knowledgeable than I am. He always has been. He’s also going to love the fact that I am admitting it, and I’m going to have to endure months of his self-satisfied bullshit.

Tough shit. I need his help.

* * *

I sleep badlyon the couch in her house. I figure it’s as good a place as any to bed down and get some shuteye. She might change her mind and return, hand herself in. Or I might be an unpleasant surprise for any other scumbags breaking into her house.

However, my night’s uninterrupted. Not that I sleep one wink. I stare up at the ceiling, my arms folded across my chest, thoughts crashing through my head. Doesn’t help that the pig comes to sleep on the rug near my feet and snores the whole damn night.

When the rooster crows just before dawn, and the sky lightens, I’m still brooding. My conversation with Phoenix didn’t provide the clarity I’d hoped for. I don’t think he believes me about the girl. But he’s on his way to help nonetheless. He’ll be here later today.

In the meantime, I’m going out hunting for her.

Letting her go yesterday was a fucking mistake. A massively stupid one.

She’s young, and though clearly untrained, there are many who would pay handsomely for her. The gangs will be out there searching for her. There is too much money to be made to simply let her slip away.

Do I want her falling into the hands of those monsters? No.

The only place she is safe is with me – until I can get her away from this hellhole to safety anyway. Once she’s registered, once she’s in the authorities’ protection, she’ll be fine. Because surely, they won’t send her to the camps. She’s too young, too much of a potential resource.

I swing my feet to the floor, my soles hitting the floorboards with a thud and jolting the pig awake.

“I already fed you,” I tell him before he can start squealing, still mad he’s clearly been claiming the lion’s share of the food in this house. Maybe she was fattening him up. Then again, judging by the little bed he has in the corner of her bedroom, I doubt it.

I roll my eyes, shrug on my cloak, and stomp out into the forest on foot. The sensible thing to do would be to wait for Phoenix and go in search of the girl together. But I already threw sensible out of the window yesterday and I’m impatient to find her.

I know roughly in which direction she fled, and that sensation in my stomach tugs me a certain way, as if my subconscious believes it knows where she is. As I have nothing else to go on, I focus in on that feeling and follow it through the mature trees. It’s cold for an April morning and my breath hangs in a cloud before my face as the birdsong breaks out overhead and the sun’s rays gradually penetrate the canopy.

Twigs snap under my heavy boots and branches swipe at my cloak, but I keep walking, catching glimpses of her scent on the breeze.

This is fucking crazy, but until Phoenix arrives and we form a better plan, it’s all I have, stumbling through the forest with my mind a mess.

Stupid. It’s fucking stupid, because – as that feeling snags me right and I follow a path that dips down into the belly of the forest – a group of men emerges from the trees to surround me.

It was inevitable. The girl is a valuable commodity. A lot younger than most of the unregistered the gangs pick up.

They’re not going to let me swoop in and snatch her without a fight.

And yeah, if I’m truthful, I’m itching for a fight. A chance to swing at these bastards. These bastards who want to abduct her, keep her chained in some lowlife’s basement to do their fucking bidding. Even if I’m outnumbered, I’m still keening for this altercation.

They’re magicals armed with guns and they don’t bother with introductions or negotiations. I am the man in black, after all. A continual thorn in their side. Taking me out would be an even bigger prize than capturing the girl.

The first few shots narrowly miss my head before I react, roaring with rage as I deflect, dodge, and freeze their bullets with my magic, sending a volley of blasts their way.

I charge towards the two men nearest me, taking out their guns. They lunge towards me, synchronizing their blows, forcing me to spin and swerve, but they’re no real match for me.

Nevertheless, one catches me on the shoulder, and I hiss at the surge of pain. A lucky hit. I’m not about to be clobbered to death by these clowns. Instead, I hit back with more force, driving deadly magic into one man’s chest so that he collapses, lifeless, to the ground, and then lunging suddenly at the other, disarming him and searing his guts.