Lost in Mist and Shadow: A Between the Worlds Novel Read Free

herself back, balancing precariously on the sill, and flailing to grab the door frame. In her desperation not to step on the animal her cell phone fell out of her pocket, hit the concrete step – thankfully not the squirrel – and bounced in two pieces to the asphalt.
    With her heart in her throat she carefully stepped around the dead animal and picked up the pieces of her phone. To her relief it wasn’t broken; the back had come off and partially dislodged the battery. Jason had bought her the phone for emergencies and she didn’t want to tell him she’d broken it in less than a month because she was afraid of a dead squirrel. She’d never live that down. She quickly reassembled it and shoved it back into the pocket of her jeans. Turning back to the door she hesitated for a minute and then leaned over the animal to lock the door before pulling back to examine the situation.
    The squirrel was an adult and seemed to be in good health. Allie couldn’t see any obvious blood or injury, but she wasn’t sure that meant much – she’d seen plenty of road kill that didn’t look too bad either. Come to that her back door wasn’t impossibly far from the road I wonder if he was hit and dragged himself this far before dying? she thought. Or maybe he was sick. Oh crap what if he had rabies? She winced looking around helplessly, unsure what to do. Finally she pulled out her phone to call animal control deciding they at least would be able to tell her how to handle a possibly rabid dead animal. But when she opened her phone nothing happened. She pushed the on button several times in rising panic, sure now that she had broken it after all, before it occurred to her that dropping the phone and popping off the case had broken the spell that kept the device running in the semi-magical environment of the Bordertown.
    Gritting her teeth in annoyance she took the back of the phone off again and began tracing the necessary spell over the battery. Her eyes unfocused and she relaxed involuntarily as she directed the magic into the shape she needed it to take to protect the small but convenient bit of technology. Since touching the spell would disrupt it the cell phone protection was placed just above the battery where the back of the case would cover it and allow it to work without interference. Unless, of course, you dropped your phone and it popped apart. She felt the magic snap into place and the phone immediately hummed with power – magical and electrical – and she sighed. It was definitely not broken then.
    She dialed information to get the number for animal control, eyeing the sad lump of fur. I have absolutely got to do a cleansing. A major cleansing, she thought This is getting ridiculous and I don’t know if I can take much more….
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    He stood in the shadows of an empty lot, safely hidden behind a row of bushes whose spring leaves and flowers provided the perfect cover. The scent of Forsythia filled the air and made his head ache but he ignored it; he couldn’t afford the distraction. His eyes remained trained on the house across the street watching patiently as the hours crawled by and the party went from small to wild. He watched carefully, trying to take in every movement and occasionally was rewarded with a glimpse of her. She was impossible to miss; in this crowd of bland, interchangeable nobodies she glowed like a star. She had a presence that the others didn’t, that betrayed her heritage to anyone who wasn’t an oblivious idiot. She was magical, and he felt a terrible longing and hatred every time he saw her.
    Finally in the dark hours of the morning the party started to break up with people staggering off, alone and in groups. He stood still as cars drove away, headlights stabbing into the night, their drivers weaving all over the road, and he sneered. These stupid children, these sheep, had no idea they were wasting their lives, throwing it all away when there were important