Page 3 of Leif

“How did you live?” A newer member, a young man calling himself Hitch, stepped closer to me. The kid had asked me to take him under my wing, but I’d refused. He was so young and pure, so kind and good I didn’t want to be responsible for watching all of that slip away when the world pulled the rug from under him.

I wasn’t about to betray Draco and Luna. They’d saved my life and I owed them everything. Hell, Luna had almost traded her life—and their baby’s life—for mine.

I knew they’d had a beautiful little girl. I’d been there when they named her in the old way, lifting her toward the sunrise and demanding the old ones name her. I’d seen a single ray of sunshine part the clouds and warm her tiny, calm body.

The whole forest had lit up, and Draco, as her pureblood ancestor, pulled her close. “The ancestors have spoken. You are a flare in the darkness. The sunrise chasing away the darkness.Flara”.

I’d approached and placed my hand on her forehead while she blinked at me, her great silver-white eyes ringed in the deepest blue as she watched me in silence. “I owe you a debt I can never repay. I’ll protect you with my life, with my blood, with my being.”

Draco glanced up at me in shock. “There’s no need to—”

“I pledge my blood to you. I’ll care for you as my own.” Pain seared through me as the old ones whispered, their words lost as they echoed through the woods. Flara cried silent tears for me as my skin burned before the pain stopped, and everything was as it should have been.

I glanced at Draco. “I’ll protect her with everything I am. Your secret is safe with me.” It was a sacrifice I was willing to make. Without another word, I turned to leave, but Draco’s hand closed around my wrist.

“War is coming.”

I lifted my chin. I knew what side I’d be on. “So be it.”

“The person that poisoned you… it was an old poison.” He seemed to want to tell me without telling me. But I knew. Of course, I knew. My memory might have been wiped by death, but I knew that only one person would have cause to get me out of the way.

“I know.” Old poisons take old cures, hence the use of the gold dragon. A golden flower he’d been cultivating that was healing for us, but absolute poison to humans. When Luna had prepared it, she’d lost her life to it, saved only by the unborn Flara. I’d sworn to never speak to a soul about her healing and reviving power. And now I’d sealed that promise with my life.

I’d die before betraying them.

I glanced into Hitch’s eyes. The only reason they’d known I died was because Wrath knew it. Logic would dictate that he knew this because he knew I’d been poisoned, but he’d also correctly seen several other deaths before word reached us. The carefully guarded information of how his powers worked meant I didn’t have a way to really figure it out.

But what I’d gleaned was that he knew about lives and deaths, but with limitations. Because the look on his face when I stepped back in the door after my death told me he didn’t know I was alive again.

“I’m not sure. It’s all a blank.”

Hitch’s eyes widened. “So, there’s someone out there wiping minds?”

Sure, kid. Whatever lets you sleep at night. Of course, I knew that death wipes the mind. But I was done thinking about it. I glanced at Ruin. “So, what do you have for me?”

The suspicions swimming in his eyes ignited. “A cop in trouble not far from here.”

“In trouble?” This wasn’t our usual MO.

He nodded. “The whole system went dark. Like the cop just blinked out of existence.”

Intrigued, I nodded. “I’ll take it.” Without another word, I headed out. In my pocket, my phone chimed with the information I needed.

I noticed Hitch was nowhere to be seen, and I shook my head. Freaking kids.

This case would be a good escape from everything, and it would keep my focus where it belonged. On the task at hand rather than on who’d poisoned me. Because as much as I needed to find out, obsessing wouldn’t do anything other than bring my paranoia up and not reveal anything. I thought best when focused on something else.

I pushed open the door and headed out. Climbing into the Jeep, I pulled out and headed toward the last known ping of the cop’s car while prepping myself for what I might find.

“You know, not having doors seems dangerous.”

I glanced over as Hitch’s head popped up in the back. He gripped the roll bars and smiled at me in the rearview. “Sorry for the stowaway routine. But this is interesting! My dad was a cop.”

Bringing the Jeep to a halt, I glared at him. “Great. You can walk back.”

He climbed out, head hanging low. I watched him walk and shook my head. He’d be safe on the way back, I was sure of it. No wonder he called himself Hitch. The kid was a snag in the plan. But he was on his way, so it was good to get moving.

I pulled away and continued on to the point of the cop’s last known whereabouts. There was nothing at the last ping. Well, not nothing; there was no car, no sign of them, but there was plenty to see.

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