Page 5 of Wings of Ebony
She’s okay. We’re okay.
My wristwatch buzzes. It’s Bri.
Bri: What did you do?! Patrol is coming. Run!
CHAPTER 2
WHEN I WAS LITTLE,I got caught stuffing some cookie bars in my pocket at the corner store. A man with an overgrown beard posted up outside the store had asked me if I had any change so he could get something to eat. I didn’t. And he looked hungry,real realhungry. So I slipped inside LuLu’s, giving my usual wave. Lu didn’t even look up from his paper as I stuffed some Fig Newtons, the little snack-size ones, in my pocket. Seconds from the door, Lu’s voice stopped me dead in my tracks. “I’m calling the cops if you don’t put that back.”
I cried, begging him not to say nothing. I put it back, but he called Moms anyway. She whooped my ass into next week.
I kept thinking,I was trying to help.
But it didn’t matter. The law is the law.
All that mattered is I bucked up against the rules. And for that, I had hell to pay.
Déjà vu.
My head swims. Everything’s hazed and cloudy. The eyes—so many eyes. They’re all staring from the sidewalk. Everyone’s whispering to each other, their phones out, mouths open.
What have I done?
They saw me.Shit.I gotta get the hell out of here.
Tasha’s leaning in to me and I hold on tighter. Someone pulls my arm and I jerk away. No one’s taking her from me. Not now that she knows I’m here, alive and okay. Not today. They pull harder and wailing sirens scratch my ears.
She lets go first, carried off by someone in a uniform.
“No,” I say, reaching. “Tash, come back.” The words are heavy on my tongue and jumbled in my head. “I can take you home. I gotta tak—” I stagger to my feet, an earthquake rattling inside my skull.
What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I so woozy? “T-Tash—”
“Ma’am?” A firm hand grabs my arm and I pull away. Hard.
“Don’t touch me.”
“I’m here to help, ma’am.” His pale cheeks crack a smile, spreading his oversize mustache. “Listen, ma’am. Could you step over here and tell us what you saw?”
Cops. My neck stiffens. He pulls harder and I come, staggering.
“Have you been drinking, miss?” he asks.
“No!” Flames erupt from my fingertips. I shove them in my pocket. My wrists flash, from searing hot to ice cold a second later and back again. What’s wrong with me? My magic is out of control!
“Miss. Cooperate.” The cop shakes my arm, harder this time. I try to pull away, to say something, but I can’t think. I can hardly speak. Tasha. Where’s Tasha? And the guy in the car? I glance at the wreck and the driver’s side of the car Tasha was just in is smashed to pieces—the driver, nowhere to be found. I grip the officer’s arms, more to hold myself up than anything else. I have to make him understand.
“There was a guy.” The words are like chalk on my tongue. “Fadedjeans. Tucked white button-up. H-he… knew somehow. Like he was trying to get her—” Sounds fade into a loud buzzing and everything’s black. My heaving breaths resound like a gong in my head.
Gong.
Gong.
Then a flood of color rushes at me as the world blinks back into focus. Something is wrong. I’ve done magic a hundred times since living in Ghizon. The only difference today was… I gape at my hands. Touching her did this? What else could explain it?
“You were saying?” The cop widens his stance, folding his arms.
“I—”Gong. Gong.
