Bad Moon:Book One in the "I Am Chaos" series.

Chapter 10: "I See Trouble on the Way."

Chapter 10: "I See Trouble on the Way."

The wind tears my hair from its barrettes and whips it into my eyes. I grip the branches of the tree hard enough for the bark to cut into my skin. "Come on," my mother demands, her voice pitched below the screaming wind. "One branch at a time. There's a girl."

I'm not afraid of heights. I'm afraid of why we're out here.

"Come on, Terrible One." My mother's hand descends in front of my face. I take it and she pulls me up to straddle a fat limb. I can see the rest of the forest from here.

"Look down there," my mother says, and I follow her finger to where an owl glides beneath the canopy of leaves.

"Are you ready?" Her hands come up suddenly, gripping my under my armpits "One...two..."



"Didn't sleep well?" asked Wynn as I stumbled into the kitchen the next morning. I shook my head and headed straight for the coffee pot. Apparently, six hours of sleep wasn't nearly enough to recover from the magic I'd expended last night. If my alarm was designed to get louder the longer I left it alone, I might still be asleep. I felt terrible.

"Was Robin here last night?" I asked, dumping the rest of the pot into my largest mug – a big burgundy thing with our college's motto on the side. Wynn never makes coffee unless Robin stays over. She doesn't get as much sleep when Robin stays over.

"Yah. We got in after you went to bed. Oh..." Wynn let out a startled curse as I stepped into the light.

"What?" I asked.

"Um..." Wynn stared at me, mouth agape. "I don't know, Eva. There's a bruise the size of Texas on your left cheek, and it's turned a really attractive shade of plum."

I reached up, tapping my cheek. It hurt. I hadn't noticed it last night. I barely felt it now. If she thought the bruise on my face was bad, she should see the ones around my thighs, or the nasty gash beneath my hairline. I couldn't believe I didn't have concussion symptoms. My skull must be made of iron. "I had a rough day yesterday."

Wynn's expression grew serious. "Eva, did Cal do that..."

"Of course not!"

Wynn waited for an explanation, but I wasn't awake enough to give one. She shrugged after a moment. "Robin told me about Ralph. I'm sorry, babe. Are you okay?"

Oh god. Ralph. I shook my head. "Gruesome. Absolutely gruesome. I don't want to think about it. I hope they catch whoever did it."

Wynn sighed and sat down at the table. It was 7:30, so neither of us was in a particular rush to get dressed. Wynn seemed unusually quiet, and I wished she'd speak up. I needed a distraction from all the confused and terrible thoughts swirling around in my head.

I'd gotten home last night, showered, and headed straight to bed. This morning, I kept reviewing last night's incident and the conversation with Sin in his office. The anger and subsequent confident bluster I'd displayed last night was gone. In its place was doubt, and about a dozen questions.

"So you going to tell me what happened to your face?" said Wynn.

"No. Too embarrassing." I took a sip of the coffee, wincing. Wynn liked hers a lot weaker than I liked mine.

Had I been wrong to refuse Sin's offer? I didn't want to be controlled by anyone, but maybe I'd been a bit impetuous in my refusal. There was a demon out there killing people, and I had a hurricane inside of me (not to mention something darker – if Schiennan was to be believed). If I could figure out how to use my power, I might be able to stop the demon myself. But since I'd refused Sin's offer, who was going to show me how to use my magic now?