Page 12 of Anomalies

“Okay,” I tug on the silver chain around my neck and lift it out of my shirt. Her eyes follow it as it swings, then steadies itself in front of her face. “Look. Friendship necklaces. Do you have any idea what they mean?”

She frowns, dipping her chin and holding her silver pendant out to the light as if she’s just now seeing it for the first time. “No…I don’t.” She drops the charm, letting it fall back down her chest. “But I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.”

“You’re one of us.” She blinks up at me with a blank look on her face. “Over twenty years ago, Streatham was attacked, and my people were forced to flee. Those that escaped fled to where I’m offering to take you, and we’ve been living there ever since.” I grab onto her elbow. Just in case. “That necklace you’re wearing is the mark of a witch. Congratulations, Lucina, you’re Solian.”

5

LUCINA

It takes everything in me to hold on to my consciousness, but I’ll be damned if I faint again in front of a stranger. My skin feels…wrong. Out of place. Not…mine. Like I’m a stranger in my own body. The world is blurry and slurred for a moment, like my body is awake but my brain isn’t. Or maybe it’s the other way around. I can’t be sure.

I’m not fully convinced that this isn’t hell. I don’t know what the third planet looks like, but maybe it’s miles of rocky earth, a small grove of trees—magic trees? And men covered in blood that threaten to steal my memories and…catch me when I faint?

“Chiaros,” he curses—Callan. A witch. A Sol. Grey eyes bore into mine, the same shade as…well, actually, I have nothing to compare them to. They’re grey but they’re also silver, and his skin is filthy but…gilded? Glowing? Some sort of warmth there that certainly isn’t normal. Isn’t… human.

“Okay,” Callan bends at the waist, throwing one of my limp arms over his shoulder. “Now, I’m adult-napping you.”

“NO!” I shout, and the world tilts as I’m thrown over his shoulder, high enough in the air that it makes my stomach queasy. I fight back… to some degree…but there isn’t much fight left in me.

“Woah, woah, woah, wait!” I blurt when he carries me up to the trunk of the massive tree. I dig my elbows into his shoulder, pushing myself up when I feel a rush of warm and foreign air. My eyes widen when the bark splits and that pool of shimmering gold reappears. “Holy shit, wait!” I beg, my throat dry enough to start a fire. “Just wait a second. Please.”

Callan sets me down, and then I’m pinned beneath a silver-eyed stare. An impatient one. “Where did you come from?” he asks, moving towards me until I’m inches from the velvet gold archway.

My heels dig into the ground, but I don’t dare drop my gaze. “Draycott.”

“Draycott?” Callan almost laughs. “The commoner lands?”

“I-I guess so.”

He takes another step towards me, and I teeter backwards. “And what the fuck were you doing there?”

Dying. Suffering. Wasting my life away.

I choose not to answer.

Callan sighs, running a hand through his mess of dark hair. “Well, I can… take you back.”

I’m snapped back into my body with a jolt, as if I’m just now waking up. Go back? Of course, I need to go back. I mean, I have Ivy and Jude, and…

Well. That’s it.

Why does it feel like the wrong decision to go back? The two most important people in my life are there. But I…

“No,” I reply softly.

“No?”

My heart starts pounding, made even worse by the small step forward he takes. I take one backwards, close enough now that I can hear the groan of the velvet gold archway behind me.

“Then what are you waiting for?”

Great question.

I can’t bring myself to move. I want to go, and Fate is begging me to listen. She dragged me here kicking and screaming. But still, I’m frozen to the spot.

“Make a decision before I make it for you,” Callan advises.

“Okay,” I tell him. “Okay, okay, I’ll go.” I half-turn to the trunk of the tree, stalling just to give my body more time to prepare. “So, how does it wor⁠—”