*
Me and my father are sitting together. I hunted with him. He transformed and I copied him. I wasn’t sure how to choose what to become and I’m not sure I did. But the animal in me knew what to do and we did it. We copied my father the eagle and did what he did. We flew for the first time, clumsy to start with but quickly getting the hang of soaring and turning, swooping, diving. Hunting was too hard, though. My father caught a weasel and a fox. We weren’t accurate enough or fast enough to catch anything. It didn’t matter. We all ate together.
Now Marcus says, “Who is to judge if that me is better or worse than the human me?”
I know my father is talking about the other side of himself, the animal part.
“I’m still getting used to him, my animal. I sort of think of him as separate from me but we’re trying to work together.”
“It took me a while. I fought it.” He shakes his head. “I thought he was trying to take over my body. He isn’t. You’re just discovering another side of yourself. The more natural part. The old part. The part of you that belongs to the earth more than any other. He’s what you need to survive and without him it’s not worth surviving anyway. Trust him and he’ll trust you. Be as close to him as you can.”
I sit with my father and watch the river until it gets hot in the afternoon and then we hunt again. We soar higher and higher and hang there, waiting. A rabbit appears far below. My father lets the air take him higher. The animal me stays focused on the rabbit and we drop lower. We both want it.
*
That night, back as humans, my father and me watch the sun set. I ask him about his other Gifts, those he took from other witches by eating their hearts. “Can you use them?”
“Yes. It’s like using my own Gift. They’re mine now. But none are as strong as being an animal. Some are weak. Most I never use.”
I’m itching to ask what he does use but I daren’t. I feel shy sometimes with him.
He says, “The plants thing is useful.”
“Making plants grow or die: Sara Adams, Council member.”
“What?”
“Celia made me learn all the Gifts you took, all the people you killed.”
He’s quiet for a while, thinking about that. He says, “Well, it’s useful. At least when you live like me.”
“You grew the brambles for your den?”
He nods. “And invisibility is handy, especially when you’re hiding or tracking. As is doing the spell to stop time. Being able to make cuts is another useful skill. Few can do it.”
“Can you fly?”
He frowns. “No. Who was that supposed to be from?”
“Malcolm, a Black Witch from New York. That was always questionable. Can you make big leaps, though?”
“No bigger than you.” He’s quiet again, then says, “I can fly when I’m an eagle. I can make big leaps if I’m a leopard. Is that impressive enough for you?”
I think he knows I’m impressed enough anyway.
“Do you hear noises in your head, from mobile phones and things?”
He turns to me. “Yes. And you?”
I nod.
He goes into the den and I follow. He lights the fire and says, “I live like this most of the time now. It looks poor but it isn’t.”
I don’t say anything. I can see the pleasure of being in the wild but the loneliness would be too much for me.
He says, “It’s not what you imagined, I suppose.”
“We found Mercury’s bunker. I thought it would be more like that.”
“And did you find Mercury?”
I tell my father about Mercury and all that has happened since I last met him, about Van, Nesbitt, Annalise, and Mercury. About Celia and Gus and the Alliance. It’s dawn by the time I say bluntly, “They want you to join them.”
“The Alliance?” Marcus laughs. “They must be desperate.”
“Yes, I think that sums them up.”
“And are you determined to join them? Do you really want to risk your life for a cause?”
“It’s my cause. Bringing Black and White Witches together.”
“I don’t think that is the cause. I think the cause is getting rid of a lunatic White Witch leader and a bunch of power-mad Hunters. And, once that’s done, winning the peace, as they say, will be much more problematic than winning the war.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Marcus smiles at me. “Possibly not. But may I still worry a little about a war I’m likely to get killed in?”
“Will you join then?” I’m surprised. “I didn’t think you would.”
“I’m not interested in bringing Black and White Witches together. However, I am very much excited by the thought of getting rid of Soul and the Hunters. That definitely appeals. I’m not ready for retirement just yet. I’m not really a joining kind of person. But I’ll help you fight Soul and the Hunters. I’d like to meet Celia. I think I should see the woman who locked my son up every night for two years.” He shakes his head. “She’s offering me an amnesty but maybe she should be asking me for one.”