Chapter 5

Glacial air chased icicle-tipped needles over my head. I tried not to move but couldn't help but shudder. My heart banged against my chest and into the forest floor. The nails' metallic tang mixed with my rising panic. Why wasn't the ghost leaving?

I screwed my eyes shut at a twig snapping next to my left arm. I'm not here. I'm not here. I'm not here. Something frigid brushed against my hand. You can't see me. You can't see me. You can't see me. A low, creaking groan sounded from my right.

Cracking open an eye, I turned my head a fraction. From under the chains draped over my face, wisps of dark smoke traced a retreating path through the trees. Relief swelled air into my lungs again, and I breathed deep. A full minute passed before I gathered the nerve to roll over and yank on my foot until it finally slid out from under the root.

I stumbled to my feet and limped away from the dead man, the pain in my ankle pulling a hiss through my teeth. Blood puddled away from him and stained the crevices in the snow where I'd laid like some kind of twisted snow angel, and somehow it reminded me of the time Ellison accidentally bloodied Pop's nose during a snowball fight when we were young. Badass that I was, I'd passed out because Pops weren't supposed to bleed. Apparently a glowing green-eyed dead man's blood didn't bother me as much, but the world tilted at a strange angle anyway because he was dead. Because I'd tricked him into running into the rapier fir.

What was I supposed to do about the body? Tell someone what happened and forget the part about the thieving? Say I was sorry because I really, really was? Yes, all of that. But first, I needed to escape these woods.

I turned and froze. A man, maybe in his early thirties, stood in front of me with a large red backpack strapped to his shoulders. His mouth hung open as his gaze slid from me to the dead man lying in a pool of his own blood. He took a step back and raised a hand as if he wanted to ward me off.

"Wait..." I started. Behind the fear in his eyes lay an accusation, like I was a cold-blooded murderer. But he had it all upside down and fucked. "It's not what it looks like."

Snow crunched under his feet when he took a few more steps back. "Right," he said, winking, and at the same time, something clicked like a photo had been taken. The same click a Mind-I camera embedded into some people's brains made when they snapped pictures. Then the man turned and ran.

I blinked after him. Oh no. What did he just do? Oh no. I bit back a surge of bile, and all I could think of was Pop and Ellison. How disappointed they'd be in me for getting kicked out of school, for losing my scholarship, for going to the prison planet for the rest of my life because I'd been caught in a lie of a picture. But I would take that any day just to have my sister back safe. I had to find her.

After stealing back my chains from the dead man's grip, I kicked snow over my warped and bloody angel, thinking it might help hide the splatters that were mine.

A mess of footprints led further into the forest; I followed the ones I thought belonged to the pseudo crime-stopper. If I could get him to delete the picture from his Mind-I somehow, no one would find out about the dead man and me until they'd heard my side of the story first. But the chances of him listening to the girl covered in metal and blood were slim to none. Murdering him was out of the question, so I'd just have to rely on my winning smile and killer social skills. I was doomed.

The going was slow since I could only hobble and had to take frequent stops to rub my sore ankle. I kept ticking my gaze around for the ghost, but didn't see any sign of it or the Mind-I guy. He might already be at police headquarters with my picture. The thought tightened my chest, and I limped faster. If he was already there, I was wasting my time wandering around out here. I needed to patch myself up before I decided what to do next.

My saliva began to shrink the ghost repellant nails in my mouth, so while tapping my pocket to make sure I still had more, I swallowed the iron before they vanished. Yes, my saliva could melt metal. It was the weirdest thing. Ellison said all the iron was changing my chemical make-up, which was fine with me. It was better than the alternative.

By the time I staggered into Demetri Hall, the electrical snow storm had slid away to the east. My ankle throbbed, but I hardly noticed since my mind spun over my next course of action.

The bra hanging over the doorknob of my dorm room indicated that I should keep walking, but just as I always did, I swept the strap off and marched right in. I'd seen everyone's bits and pieces, dangly or otherwise, since unbeknownst to Pop and Ellison, Demetri Hall was a nudist colony in disguise.

"The Saelis have my sister, and the police are probably on their way to question me about the dead guy in the woods, so you might want to put some pants on," I said into the darkness.

Moon Dragon gasped, and not the sexy kind either. "Get offa me."

Sheets rustled to the left and something banged against the wall. "Are you serious right now? Saelis?" asked a deep male voice, and I instantly recognized it as Franco's, the tawny-skinned hottie who lived down the hall.

I grasped blindly at the handle of my only suitcase in the closet and heaved it onto my bed, still not sure what exactly I planned to do. Or where to go. Deep space? Because what would I do when I got there?