Jimmy

Bambi

“Are you…Jimmy?” I asked softly.

The girl looked surprised that I knew her name, stopping under the light and not taking another step.

Realizing she couldn’t see me in the shadows, I took a step forward. She recoiled slightly, but I continued to speak softly.

“My name is Bambi, and I’m not going to hurt you. Can I come closer?”

She timidly nodded her head, and I took another step so that I was out of the shadows.

Jimmy’s mouth parted slightly, but she closed it again, staying silent.

Remembering what that witch, Devina, had done to me when I tried to scream, I wondered if she had cast a curse that took Jimmy’s voice, the way she took my mate’s sight.

“Are you mute?”

“N-no,” she stammered. “Sorry, I just haven’t talked for a few days.”

“Thank the Goddess,” I said, clutching my chest. “I thought that witch took your voice.”

“No, she hasn’t hurt me…yet,” Jimmy replied, her voice dry and raspy.

“Do you know where we are?” I asked.

“No clue, but we’re underground. I think these are tunnels, but I haven’t found an exit.”

“Did Devina take you too?” I said, taking hold of her hand. “I saw you on TV. You were reported missing.”

“Yes, she comes daily to bring food and water, but I’m not sure why she’s keeping me here. I think she knows Matthias, but I don’t think he knows I’m here.”

I jolted at the mention of his name. “You know Matthias?”

“Yes, he lived at the Northern Pack. That’s where I’m from originally.”

“He was living in the Northern Pack?” I asked, astounded.

“He was very sickly but very kind to me. When I decided to move away for school, he even paid for all my tuition,” she said quietly.

I was so confused. Were we talking about the same Matthias?

The murderer who’d massacred the entire Northern Pack?

“Jimmy, do you know who Matthias is? Who he really is?”

“I…I thought I did,” she said sadly. “I received a letter from Alpha Rudolph while I was in the city, warning me that if something happened to him, Matthias was to blame. I…I didn’t understand it, but then a few days ago, I heard news that the Northern…”

She choked back her words as she began crying. “The Northern Pack was dead. All of them.”

I pulled Jimmy into a tight embrace. “I know…I saw it with my own eyes. It was horrible.”

“I can’t believe Matthias would be behind something so unspeakable,” she said, sniffling.

We knew two very different versions of Matthias, but this wasn’t the time to burst her bubble. I needed her to keep talking.

“What else did the letter from Alpha Rudolph say?”

“It…it just said to find Alpha Ekon, but I don’t know who that is,” she said meekly.

I was amazed at how little this girl seemed to know. Had she been living in a damn cave her whole life?

“Is your family from the Northern Pack?” I asked.

“They were, but my parents died when I was very young, and Alpha Rudolph acted as an older brother to me,” she replied.

I suddenly felt awful as a realization hit me.

~This girl is me…~

~Or at least the version of me from four months ago.~

I was living in the country, sheltered by my brother, my parents dead since I was a child.

I didn’t know who Ekon was before I’d set eyes on him at the gala and realized we were mates.

I didn’t know ~anything~ about the Great War.

I didn’t have one clue who Matthias was or what terrible things he’d done in the past.

I was completely oblivious to anything outside myself.

It was amazing how much my perspective had changed in such a short time.

And this girl had yet to see or understand the world outside herself yet.

I couldn’t chastise this clueless girl for not knowing about the world, not when I saw so much of myself in her.

“And Matthias…did he ever…hurt you?” I asked carefully.

“No, he would never!” she said assuredly.

“Why was he paying for your tuition? What was he to you?”

I think her face flushed red, but it was hard to tell in the darkness.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I think he…he was in love with me.”

I lurched forward and grabbed Jimmy by the shoulders, startling her.

“Jimmy, please tell me that Matthias is not your mate,” I said, terrified.

“No, of course not,” she said, stunned. “I don’t think of him like that. He always said he felt drawn to me, but I think he only liked me because I helped take care of him when he was sick.”

“And he’s not sick anymore?” I swallowed hard.

“He was getting better the last time I saw him,” she replied.

His rise to power was already beginning. And it had been happening for years, right in plain sight.

It seemed that if Matthias was here, Jimmy would know, but if he wasn’t here, where was he?

“Do you have a mate?” Jimmy asked suddenly.

“I, uh…yes, I do,” I replied.

I missed him with every fiber of my being.

“Will he come for you?”

It was a simple question, but one I didn’t have the answer to.

***

Holly

Girls, meet me at the pack library

Holly

It’s time

Victoria

I’m ready.

Ela

me too

Ela

my car is coming straight from the airport

Holly

Good

Holly

Because we’re going to find Bambi

Holly

And bring her back home

Holly

We were back in the old storage room that used to double as our investigation headquarters but now just held mops and brooms.

We’d all found out about Bambi’s kidnapping from Max, when he’d first started looking a couple days ago.

He swore us to secrecy. He didn’t want the Council to make it public, fearing for her safety.

It was for the best anyway. The Council wouldn’t get anything done.

But we sure as hell would.

I started drawing a circle on the floor with chalk made from a moon rock, and then I drew a pentagram in the middle.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Victoria asked nervously. “This is a really advanced spell.”

I’d been training day and night, and I’d really started to improve.

It felt so good what we had done, exposing Matthias, and I wanted to grow more powerful as a witch, not for my own benefit but to help others—to protect them from Matthias, Devina, and her dark magic.

Ever since I’d made that decision, I felt like something had unlocked inside me.

“I’m ready,” I said, focusing on perfecting the pentagram. “But we don’t exactly have a choice. We have to act now.”

A faint siren began to wail in the distance, and we all looked at each other.

“What is that?” Victoria cringed.

“Nothing good,” I replied.

The door suddenly swung open, and Kalindi walked in, spear in one hand and the other hand on her hip.

“Sis, what are you doing here?” Ela asked in surprise.

“Making sure ~you~ don’t get into trouble,” she said sternly. “And it looks like that’s exactly what you’re doing. What is all this?”

“Holly is performing a locator spell so that we can find Bambi,” Ela responded. “Please, Kalindi, don’t try to stop us. We have to do this.”

We all looked at her, expecting a lashing of words and an eviction from the pack house, but instead, she smiled.

“I’m not going to stop you; I’m going to stand guard for you! But you need to hurry up. We’re on high alert.”

“High alert?” Victoria looked startled. “You mean…”

“Rogues. They’ve been sighted in the area. A pack of them.”

“A pack of rogues…what a fucking contradiction,” Ela spat.

“Maybe so, but they’re feeling confident. News of Matthias has traveled fast, no matter how hard the Council has tried to suppress it. So, you need to do this ~quick~.” Kalindi tapped her spear on the ground rapidly to prove her point.

“Understood.” I nodded.

~No pressure or anything.~

“I’ll be outside,” she said, closing the door behind her.

“Okay, let’s fucking do this,” Ela said as Victoria pulled a small velvet bag from her purse. “Did you bring everything?”

“Yes, Ryland got it all from her bedroom, things she left behind,” Victoria said, handing the bag to me.

I examined the contents—a hairbrush with strands of her hair, a framed photo of Bambi with Max, and a necklace that Ekon had given to her as a gift.

I dumped the items into the middle of the pentagram. “Everyone gather around. This next part isn’t going to be pretty, but it’s necessary.”

I pulled a towel off a small cage sitting next to me, where a tiny bluebird chirped happily.

~I really hope I trained enough for this.~

I grasped the bluebird in my hand and held it over the items in the pentagram.

In one swift movement, I snapped its neck and it stopped chirping, causing Victoria to shut her eyes tightly.

I sliced the bird’s belly and let its blood drip onto Bambi’s possessions.

“May the sacrifice of this creature give me the sight I need to find my friend, wherever she may be. Its death will not be in vain and may prevent the death of one who still lives,” I chanted. “Let me see through the eyes of another!”

The room began spinning, and I felt as though I was leaving my own body.

***

~What’s that below me? It’s…~

~Holy shit, I’m hundreds of feet off the ground!~

~I’m…I’m flying!~

~Did it work?~

~I thought I passed out.~

~Oh my Goddess, I’m not in my own body.~

~I’m in the body of a bird.~

~This is so, so weird.~

~The things I do for my friends…~

~Okay, where am I? This looks familiar.~

~I recognize that dirt road.~

~And that patch of forest.~

~Are those…ruins?~

~Oh…Goddess…~

***

“HOLLY!” Ela was screaming right in my face, and Victoria was standing next to her, looking concerned.

I must’ve been gone for only thirty seconds.

“You scared us!” Victoria huffed. “Your eyes glazed over, and you fell backwards.”

“Guys,” I said, starting to get excited, “I know where she is!”

Before we had a chance to celebrate, Kalindi burst through the door.

“We have to go NOW!” she shouted, her eyes urgent. “They’re here!”