Page 17 of Malcolm

“Show me,” she commanded, in a hoarse whisper. The particles whirled up into a storm before taking the shape of a 3d figure who stood before her. The spell couldn’t show her who, but she could see what they’d done. “Move,” she commanded, and with a rush it began moving.

Racing to the closet, it reached up grabbing something before it began using its free hand to reach for invisible items. It dropped whatever was in its arms, and rushed to the drawers of the cabinet.

Soon, Lanias caught on to what she was seeing and felt her confusion grow. The specter was packing bags in a rush, moving around before suddenly disappearing. The green particles of light fell to the ground, dissipating.

“She came here,” Lanias said. In the stunned silence, her eyes looked around the room in confusion. “Why wouldn’t she?—”

A few things struck her then and there. Eliza was free and running around, but she was running from something. The first question was, how long had she been out, and the second was, where was she now?

Biting her lip, Lanias turned and walked into the arms of the dark tendrils that wrapped around right before she vanished.

“Lanias,” someone shrieked as a body hit the ground. Lanias barely spared a glance at the nude wizard, who was performing some weird wriggle-worm move as he attempted to cover his junk. Oye, who’d been mid-orgasm, looked at her in shock.

She waved off Castian, who stood and ran into the bathroom. “I’ve seen it before.” She pursed her lips as she watched his high bottom jiggle before he disappeared 0into the bathroom, only to feel the press of a blade against her throat. “Well, that’s not a good way to greet me, cousin.”

“Well, black teapot, tell me why I shouldn’t slit your throat,” Oye nearly hissed.

“Eliza is out,” she said, immediately the blade dropped from her throat. She turned to face her cousin, who had a metal dress covering her now. Her hair was still loose.

“What?” Oye said before adding. “If she’s out, shouldn’t she have come to us?”

“Exactly,” Lanias snapped. “Not only did she not come to us, but she went to her apartment and emptied it out before leaving. It looked like she was in a rush.”

Oye frowned. “Do you know anything about how she managed to escape?”

Lanias released a frustrated growl. “I don’t know anything beyond the fact she’s out, and she ransacked her apartment. I could try to scry for her, but everything in this damn city would interfere with my form of tracking.”

“Shit.” Oye brushed a frustrated hand through her hair, her silvery eyes narrowing. “Isn’t there that witch, Eiru? She’s good at tracking. We could get her to look to see if she could find a trail.”

Lanias pressed her lips together, she really didn’t want to advertise that Eliza was free. But she knew she didn’t have any choice but to use the help. “I’ll reach out to her, but be on call.”

With that, she snapped her fingers and returned to Shade.

No matter she had to be the first to find Eliza, because if the enemy was looking for the woman of prophecy she’d be the first one, they’d suspect.

A Hidden Power

Eliza

Eliza sat on the bench, her hood pulled low and her face mask high, watching people walk back and forth. Some were talking amongst themselves; others were on their phones. A little girl escaped her mom’s hand to grab a ball she’d thrown too far.

She’d been surprised when Malcolm suggested they fly to his pack's land from North Carolina. The chance of them being noticed using the Magic ways of travel from Veil City was higher. So, they’d had Alek move them from Malcolm’s apartment toRaliegh airport. Then, they’d use the human travel system to get to Nashville.

The airport was packed with travelers of all kinds. Coming back to the human world had been weird after so many years of being away from it. She’d occasionally contacted her friends to ensure no one thought she was missing, and she’d come over occasionally to renew her license; just sitting here and watching normal people live felt alien.

Sometimes, she was scared to close her eyes. She was terrified she’d open them and find herself still in that silver casket, watching people be killed over and over as they were tested on and tossed aside like sticks of lumber when they became ‘failures.’ She winced when something cut into her palm; she looked down to see herself bleeding; soon after, she watched her skin heal. The wound disappeared like it was nothing.

“We are close.”

She nodded, as she looked away from her hand to the counter where Malcolm was getting their tickets.

“The male, he is interested in you as a female.”

She frowned. “He shouldn’t be.”

“He has no choice, the one inside of him has chosen.”

“You’re wrong, he’s just doing the right thing.”

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