I grabbed the collar of Avery’s shirt and dragged him backwards. The front paws of the tiger slammed into the wood where we had been. Powerful muscles moved under black and orange stripes, readying to pounce again. Predator eyes watched me carefully as its tail thrashed side to side, knocking against the walls of the hallway.
My mind was racing. What do I do? Running will make it chase and the kids are behind me.
Avery was crying, delirious in pain from Jenson’s malignant Shaping. Nell’s indignant anger burned alongside my own.
Jenson sighed. “There was really no need for all of this. My part in Organ’s plans is so minor it could be forgotten. Kids go missing every day. I’m only to blame for a handful.”
Using my hand that was unaffected by Jenson’s power over aging, I slowly pulled Avery backwards until he was behind me, the tiger watching every movement with great interest.
“Keep trying to best me, you won’t win,” Jenson was speaking to Nell, who was just out of sight in the kitchen. “You look around twenty, so that means you’ve been a Witch for at most, what, twelve years? Fifteen if we’re being generous? I have triple your experience. Thrice the time to amass my power. You are currently protecting them from my Shaping, but I am barely even trying. The only reason everyone in my range isn’t a withered husk is because I am reticent to lose my income and security. Try me.”
Antlers emerged and coiled around my body, cracking like branches in a storm. The tiger’s ears flattened and it bared its teeth at the unknown threat it faced. It didn’t hold back for long, deciding now was the time to launch itself at me.
I shoved Avery further back and tried twisting out of the way. Claws like heavy iron hooks clamped down on me and its crushing weight drove me to the ground. The tiger’s mouth sought my throat and I just barely managed to raise my arm in time for it to take that instead, biting down hard.
I reinforced the arm with layers upon layers of bone, weaving them into each other, creating as strong a lattice of protection as I could. It may as well have been made of paper mache for the good it did.
The tiger’s powerful jaws cracked through a layer at a time with ease, teeth sinking inch by inch towards my flesh. Its hot breath washed over me, stinking of meat.
“Do you realize how gifted I am?” Jenson asked. “Accelerating the body’s natural growth is a tricky balance, but even that is child’s play in comparison to controlling the growth of the brain. How can such a complex organ grow without the proper time and stimuli? You can see the result of moving things along too quickly. Sylas is a failure of mine that I keep around just to help with the chores. His brain didn’t develop like it should have. I’ve developed solutions, playing with the brain’s perception of time to accelerate maturation without major side effects. I’ve even found ways to regress development. There are still issues to work out, there is cellular damage I can’t reverse, but regardless, I am a genius, and yet I want nothing but to be left alone to my hobbies.”
I formed a spear of antler points, twisted together, and readied it close to the tiger’s eye. But then I froze. Such a beautiful animal. It was just scared. Like the kids, it was forcibly grown up, thrust into a terrible new reality. I didn’t want to add to that suffering.
Crack.
Another layer broke. Just a few more and then the sound would become the bones within my arm instead of the ones outside of it.
A large hand reached down and gently touched the tiger’s nose. The tiger reacted, pulling away slightly and huffing.
I didn’t move.
Sylas took great care not to make any sudden movements. Slowly, the tiger relaxed its jaw and instead took to sniffing Sylas’ hand. Then finally it butted up against it, demanding affection, chuffing its hot breath into my face.
Sylas obliged, stroking the tiger’s head and scratching behind its ears.
Nell was slowly positioning herself in the open area of the kitchen and Jenson was all too happy to keep monologuing at her, not noticing that I wasn’t being devoured.
“Where are the Cathrow kids?” Nell asked him.
“I don’t know who that is, nor do I care. The kids are shipped off to be subjects of Organ’s tests and I never see them again. In exchange, I receive time. Time to live a normal life, with protections from any who would limit my freedom.”
Jenson watched Nell adjust her footing, spreading her feet and bending her knees as she settled into a stance. His hands curled into fists as he made an amused noise. “I’m twice your weight, girl. Are you so desperate that you’ve abandoned what makes us Witches special? Without your Shaping powers, you are just a frail, underweight-”
My heart lurched as Nell darted in close and Jenson reacted, grabbing her collar with his longer reach. He swung a fist like a hammer at her head. She ducked and the blow glanced off her. Then she seized the extended arm and pivoted, putting her full body weight into the move with a fluidity that suggested hours of repetition. With his arm as leverage and her own shoulder as the fulcrum point, Nell tossed Jenson bodily over herself. His back cracked against the kitchen counter before he slumped to the floor.
He wheezed out a surprised, winded utterance.
“Unlike you, my Shaping isn’t a crutch,” Nell spat.
Sylas managed to get the tiger off of me and I moved over to Nell’s side. Jenson flailed pathetically at nothing, waving his limbs in the air like a fly flipped onto its back. Nell rubbed her cheek where Jenson had struck her.
“Fuck. Come!” Jenson yelled. “Where are you? Why do I even keep you idiots around if you won’t come when I tell you to?!”
“About that.”
Everyone looked to see Daria at the far end of the kitchen, leaning up against the door frame. She had a few bruises across her arms and legs and her lip was swelling up, but she was grinning through it.
I whistled in appreciation. “Four Wolves, just like that?”
“I’ve had tougher. H.E.S.P. took them into custody once I’d roughed them up enough.”
Jenson’s face turned bright red in rage. “Incompetents! I will not allow everything I’ve built to fall to pieces just because some half-wits spoke to a demented old woman!”
His rant died in his throat once I pressed the point of an antler against it.
Nell squatted down low to look him in the eyes. “Is this it? I’m ashamed to call us both Witches. You took one look at the hardships we face and decided to steal the lives of others instead? What have you built? A business in child exploitation? A nice little house with blood at its foundation? A fancy old car? It’s time you faced the music. You’re a coward who can’t stomach the fact that he’s a thief and nothing more.”
Operatives in black began to filter into the house, beginning the process of combing the house for connections to Organ while ushering the grown children outside. Sylas clung fiercely to the tiger, who swatted at the nearby agents.
“He’s been here the longest,” I told the nearest operative. “I would go looking at cold cases if you can’t find his parents.”
The other kids began to cry as it sunk in that the nightmare was over. Mac entered the kitchen, observing the proceedings with a watchful eye.
Jenson pressed his neck against my antler, threatening to draw his own blood. “You think you can contain me? I am a being with powers beyond mortal-kind. What could you possibly do to me?”
“We have our methods,” Mac said coldly.
I didn’t meet Mac’s eyes, but I could tell he was upset with me for going against his orders and entering the house. Nell gave me her sympathy. I didn’t regret it, so I’d just have to live with his disapproval.
A H.E.S.P. agent leaned down to administer a drug-filled syringe into Jenson. He bared his teeth at us. “I’ll never tell you where they went! You’ll die without knowing what they look like now. Hah! You can try for a hundred years, I’ll never tell!”
I relaxed as Jenson passed out from the sedative.
Outside the house, Sylas was still refusing to enter the vehicle without his feline friend. I realized that Jenson would probably never agree to turn them back to children, and even if he did, if his Wolves were any indication, their brains would remain the same.
Sylas met my eyes and shouted loudly, “Ahh!”
I came over and the tiger flattened its ears distrustfully. Still, it allowed me to get closer than the operatives.
“Can we ride in the back?” I asked one of the soldiers. “Just me with Sylas and the cat?”
They reluctantly agreed.
I faced Sylas. I could see it now, the youth behind his eyes, despite his appearance.
He pulled me into a hug. He smelled like wood smoke. I patted his back. “It’s going to be tough. Life out there is scary too, but you’re gonna do great,” I told him. “There’s always still time to try something new.”
—
A few days later, the Director came to us while Nell was demonstrating to Neve the shoulder throw she had learned from the combat operatives at H.E.S.P. It had come in handy and now Neve was interested in picking up some close quarter combat techniques as well.
Nell stopped as the Director approached.
“Good work on the missing kids case,” they said, clasping their slender fingers in front of them. “We’ve found the families of Avery and Penny. We have a few leads on Sylas’ family and in the meantime he seems happy with his feline sibling. I can’t say the same for the operatives who are caretaking, but at least they’ve retained all their fingers so far.”
“That’s a relief,” Nell said, wiping the sweat from her brow. “Any leads on the others?”
“Jenson folded almost immediately and told us the location he sends his completed ‘projects’ to,” the Director replied. “We’re already deploying squads to investigate and see if we can turn up where these grown-up kids have gone.”
“Can we be a part of that?” I asked. “We still haven’t found the Cathrow kids.”
“We have capable teams on the case,” the Director assured. “In the meantime, I have another task for you and more importantly, I have to make good on my promises.”
My heartbeat quickened as the Director raised a finger to the heavens.
“Let me tell you what we know about our invisible friends in the sky.”