Page 97 of Lifebound

I took a step closer. “Property? That’s a living being, you jerk. Why don’t you pick on someone your own size, huh?” I spit.

“If you don’t walk away right now, youwillregret it. I swear it on both Reme and Emer. No matter what you are, youwillregret it.”

This fucker.

I pushed the sides of the cloak back and raised my fists. “Oh, I beg to differ. It’syouwho’s going to regret being a dick. C’mon, give me your best shot.”

I could handle him. Fuck this guy—I’d beaten bigger kids than me back in the day. A fist under the jaw was going to slam his tiny brain against his skull and he was going to pass out right away.

And I believed that. I kid you not—I actually believed that.

The man looked about to explode in anger. I waited for him to jump me, eyes wide open and ears sharp. I saw his slightly pointy chin and made my plan of action, and the man wasvibratingnow where he stood and watched me.

And finally, he stepped aside.

“I’ll show you,” I thought he muttered, and while I held my fists up still, he walkedall around meand toward the back of the buildings, toward the black forest that had scared me shitless just moments ago.

Holy fuck, I couldn’t believe my luck.

The guy was actually walking away.

I smiled, laughed a little. “See that, little guy?” I told the bird. “Yeah, that’s right! Walk away, you walking coat rack! And be careful—the wind might pick you up and blow you far away!”

Maybe I did feel slightly bad for calling him a coat rack, but he had it coming. And when he made it to the back of the buildings, he turned once and looked at me. His hatred transacted darkness and distance, and I felt it right there against my skin. Hot and alive.

Slowly, I moved backward until the light of the street fell on me, just to be on the safe side. But the man didn’t come back—he just went right ahead and toward the trees, and then he started to climb the first and tallest one near him. If my eyes hadn’t been on him, and if he hadn’t been wearing light grey clothes, I’d have never seen him.

“Holy shit—do you see that? He’s climbing the tree!” I said, a dumbfounded smile on my face, and I wasn’t even afraid to show it. Because apparently whatever Rune had done to me, people couldn’t see my face, and for the moment, I felt so free. I hadn’t realized just how much pressure I’d had on my shoulders until now.

People watched me, raised their brows at my face. I almost tripped and fell on the cloak—it was way too long for me—but nobody laughed or said a single thing to me. The road wasn’t paved like in most places in Cloakwood we’d passed because we were in the outskirts of this town, Rune said, very close to the borders. The dust and dirt had made a mess out of my sneakers, but my dress was clean, so I wasn’t complaining.

And the tall guy continued to climb that tree until he was at the very top.

“I can’t believe it,” I said to the bird, still flying right next to my head, and my smile fell a little.

Hold on a minute…

“I reallycan’tbelieve that a creature like that would run away from me and climb a tree just to get away, little guy. Do you?”

Shadows or no shadows, I wasn’t big or muscular. As much as I hated to admit it, I didn’t really invoke fear in anyone I ever spoke to. Not even a little bit.

Which made the entire situation feel extremely off all of a sudden, and I looked around, at the people who had noticed the man atop that tree, and they’d actually stopped to look up at him stretching out his hand somewhere to the west. I couldn’t see very well—the moon was barely there and the sky was pretty dark, but I could’ve sworn that he wastalking,too. He was talking to the damn sky.

“What the…”

“Nilah?”

I turned, heart in my throat, to find Rune turning the corner at the end of the road I was in with the reins of a black horse in his hand and a bag in the other.

Then the people started whispering. The people started pointing at the tree, at the man atop of it, and I wanted to scream my guts out at them—what? What is it? He was just afraid of me and he ran—go back to your lives!

Except that man had never been afraid of me. Quite the contrary.

And Rune saw him.

The next moment, everything moved in slow motion for me. Something fell over my shoulders—something invisible and incredibly heavy. Rune let go of the bag and the reins of the horse, and he started running toward me, eyes wide open and mouth moving—he was trying to say something. I couldn’t hear it, though. My ears were acting like I was underwater, and I looked up at the man on the tree again, trying to understand what was happening.

But the moment I saw him with both hands toward the sky, somethingwrappedaround my arms and crushed them to the sides of my torso.

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