The Price Of Wishing

The stranger

She didn't answer. She just glared at him. Maybe if he had asked who instead of what she might have felt inclined to answer. He didn't try to move closer. He looked her up and down, taking in her t-shirt and her jeans. He looked at the earring that hung from her ear for a long time.

As he looked she remembered how cold she was but, to her surprise, felt a heat radiate from her ear and spread across her face, down her neck and through her chest. It smoothed the goosebumps on her arms and soothed her sore ribs. Pins and needles caught her palms and fingers as feeling returned. 

She didn't realise how cold her legs had been until the heat reached them and travelled down her thigh, her knee, her ankle and to the very tips of her bloody toes. She didn't feel hungry or thirsty anymore either, although she put that down to the fright she had just gotten.

Davis watched as the strange girl looked amazed. She wasn't amazed by him, that was for certain, but something was making her mouth open ever so slightly and those big eyes widen. 

He felt a bit silly for thinking she was a ghost and that he could just run through her. He had never seen clothes like the ones she wore. What use was a piece of clothing that didn't cover the arms? The pants were strange also. It reminded him of something he had seen worn at court a long time ago. The memory was unwelcome so he didn't allow his mind to think about it too much. Instead, he took in the girl.

Her hair was impractically long. He had managed to get a good hold on it to rip her teeth away from his arm. She had broken skin with that bite, but not deeply. She hadn't answered him. She wasn't like them. Or him. She looked just like a girl but if that was all she was, he wouldn't be sitting there watching her. She was something different. Something new. He didn't know if he was less frightened when he thought that she was a ghost.

His light hung from her ear but it was the only one he could see.

"Where's your light?" he asked, breaking her from her trance. 

She looked at him and judged the difference between them. He guessed she was trying to tell if he had crept any closer while she was distracted.

"Is it a tattoo? No, I think it would shine through those clothes. It's a living, then? Right?"

She shook her head. He didn't think she was answering him though. She didn't seem to have any idea what he was talking about.

"Okay, then. A real easy question for you. This one I'm going to need an answer for," he said. She was looking at him wearily. Good, he had her attention. "Why aren't I dead?"

She had no idea what he was talking about. That much was clear from her reaction. She opened her mouth, probably to make him do something when the roar sounded. Davis stood up as he spun around.

Prendre stood not far from them. Davis looked at the girl, whose mouth was fully open now.

Davis could get away alone, but he couldn't allow Prendre to get her while she had his light either. There were enough corners and dead-ends in the ruins for him to manage to shake Prendre for a small bit. He didn't know how he would manage to get her out of there. 

His light, his life, hung delicately from her ear. If he managed to get her out of there without him, Prendre could do him some damage but he would be able to heal. So long as that earring was safe, he would live. 

So long as he was alive, he could find Jace.

Davis stood up and went closer to her. She was so shocked by Prendre she didn't move even as he took her arm and put her behind him.

"I finally found you," said Prendre advancing. "When are we going to stop this game, little mouse?"

Prendre stopped. The girl put her hands to her mouth.

Davis regarded his old friend as a stranger might. He really was impressive to look at. His dark blue colouring would have been impeccable camouflage in the dark dessert and shadowy ruins if it hadn't been for the numerous lights he had strewn around him. His original light, a tattoo above his back leg was a patch of glowing fur. From his ears hung numerous lights of different colours and shapes, stolen from his victims. 

A trail of fairy lights wrapped around his neck. The lights of these shone out from between the thick fur of his large mane. Around his tail bracelets and necklaces were wrapped. A small floating lantern had been tied to him by some long strands from his mane. Each of these lights glowed on him and put his powerful muscles in sharp relief. If Davis hadn't been so scared of him, he might have looked at his old friend in wonder, as the girl did.

Didn't she realise what those lights stood for?

Davis wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that question but he was certain he was going to find out. He was bound to her for as long as it took for him to figure out how to get his earring back. That would be very unpleasant if she turned out to be a terrible person. If she even was a person.

"Where's your light? What have you done with it?" asked the blue lion in an angry booming voice. A small hand clutched at Davis's shoulder in disbelief.

Davis suddenly realised why he couldn't see her before and why he hadn't died when she stole his light. 

He turned to her, the one thing that really should not be there, even though it meant turning his back on the lion and his very sharp teeth. 

If he was right, she was much more dangerous than Prendre. More dangerous than any monster he had faced before or any atrocity he had heard in horror stories or terrible rumours. 

If he was right, if she was human, she could send the whole world tumbling into full-on war. And his life depended on her not wanting him dead.

"Keep quiet," he told her in a hushed, rushed whisper. "He can't hurt you if he can't see you. He can't see you if you keep quiet. Understand?"

Miriam thought he was clearly insane, but she was also looking at a talking blue lion, so she nodded.

"When I say run, you run. You don't look back. You just run. I'll keep him here. Just run."

Again, she nodded, although uncomfortable. He could see the discomfort, the hesitation, on her face.

"Stop mumbling!" the lion growled, "Are you ready, Davis?"

The lion charged.

"Run!" Davis yelled.