It was going to be an amazingly awful day.
You want to know why? I had homework. HOMEWORK. I hadn’t been to school since 1954, and for Leandra to give me homework on a beautiful, sunny summer day had to be a crime against humanity.

‘WHAT’, I said around a mouthful of breakfast as Leandra dumped an armload of books on the table in front of me.

‘You need to learn English, Rava’, she grunted.

‘WHY’, I said, a piece of egg still dangling from the corner of my mouth.

‘Because most people in America speak it.’

‘I know that, but I don’t need to speak it’, I said, spraying crumbs everywhere. I swallowed and continued, ‘Gift of tongues, remember?’

Leandra gave me a withering look. ‘You need to learn how to read it.’

It was less than a week since we’d moved to the United States. Up until then, I’d lived my entire life in Japan, and I hadn’t even begun to process my culture shock. So far I’d spent all of my time in America unpacking our boxes from the move and helping Leandra assemble our new furniture. We’d finally finished last night, and the last thing I wanted to do on my first free day in a new place was learn a foreign language.

‘Leandra’, I said, ‘you know that I love you and would die for you— no, wait, probably not die. That’s a bit too extreme. You know that I would get moderately injured for you, but what you’re asking is illegal. …Somewhere in the world. Pretty sure. I mean there’s a lot of things that are illegal somewhere, so I think it’s safe to assume this is one of them. Anyway, the point is — uh, I can’t remember the point. What were we talking about? Right! Studying. Yeah, I really don’t want to do that, so I’m not going to.’

She picked up one of the books, flipped it to a page near the beginning, and slammed it on top of my plate of half-eaten eggs.

Imposing isn’t usually a word one would associate with a woman who stood only 60 centimetres tall and dressed in tatty flannel shirts and torn jeans she’d salvaged from thrift store bargain bins, but that’s exactly what Leandra was. She had a bird’s nest of straw-coloured hair and a steely-grey eye that could stare into your soul. The other was covered by an eyepatch, and the black tendrils of a truly wicked scar snaked out from its edges, twisting over her cheek and crawling halfway down her neck. One look at her, and you knew this was a person you never wanted to cross.

‘I’m going to be working on my computer all morning. When I get back, I expect to you be able to conjugate in the present tense.’ She turned and left.

‘I’m way too stupid to be doing this’, I muttered.

‘You’re not stupid’, Leandra called over the sound of her computer booting up. ‘Just lazy.’

‘You think everyone’s lazy, you damn workaholic’, I muttered more softly.

‘I heard that.’

Our new house wasn’t exactly spacious. It was only one floor, and the kitchen, which was the biggest room, sat in the back of the house. It opened into a hallway that had a niche just big enough to squeeze in Leandra’s computer setup. If she leant back in her chair, she could see me sitting at the kitchen table. Behind her was the door to the bathroom, and past that, two more doorways for our bedrooms. In the front of the house was the living room, only just big enough for a small couch, a recliner, and a TV. Apart from a broom closet and a coat closet, that was the entirety of our living space. It was less than half the size of our previous home in Japan, and I was already claustrophobic.

I let out a deep sigh of resignation and pulled out a notebook that was sandwiched in the big stack of English books. There was a mechanical pencil slotted into its spiral — because Leandra never forgets any detail — so I took it out, opened the notebook, and started reading the volume still sitting on my eggs.

I hadn’t even gotten through the introductory paragraph when my eyes glazed over. I reread the same sentence a dozen times, but the words slid right out of my brain. The air outside was balmy with a pleasant sea breeze, and I could hear the gentle rustle of leaves and pine needles. I suddenly realised ten minutes had passed and all I’d done was stare dreamily out the window.

I surreptitiously scooted my chair over a few inches until I could see Leandra through the doorway. It looked like she was either sorting out the transfer of her bank account or hacking into the local bank’s network. Probably the latter. It didn’t matter which, so long as she was too absorbed in what she was doing to notice what I was doing.

I slowly crept over to the window. The tantalising scent of fresh foliage, warm earth, and ocean spray drifted through the rusty screen that was my only barrier to freedom. I carefully squeezed the release mechanism and pulled it up an inch. It made a loud scraping noise and I froze, waiting for Leandra to swoop in and catch me. But several long moments later she hadn’t moved, so I dared to hike it up another two inches. It protested loudly again, and again I stopped and waited. Leandra must have been completely engrossed because usually, her hearing was razor-sharp. I slid the window up a little bit more and let go of the trigger. The gap was now just wide enough for me to slip through in my crow form.

Normally when a daemon uses their powers, it gives off a pulse of energy that other daemons can feel. But Leandra, bless her paranoid heart, had made special bracelets for us that were enchanted to cloak our energies. As long as we were wearing them, no other daemons could sense our auras or feel the energy we emit. And we always wore them.

They were very useful for avoiding unwanted attention.

Or for skipping homework on a gorgeous summer day.

I shifted into my crow form and finally, I was free.

Our new house sat on a steep cliffside, the vast Atlantic Ocean stretching as far as the eye could see with nothing but a single-lane road and a guardrail between our front driveway and a straight drop down into the water.

The former owner of the property had been a junk collector, and he’d left most of his junk. Scrap metal and old tires were piled high in our overgrown, weed-infested yard. The whole place was shabby, run-down, and in the middle of nowhere.

The perfect place for two outlaws to hide, I guess.

I missed Japan already.

I shook myself. The weather was too nice to wallow in homesickness. I was in a whole new place in an exotic land and it needed to be explored. It was going to be an adventure and I was going to have fun. I repeated this in my head several times as I swallowed down the lump that kept rising in my throat.

I didn’t soar up into the sky but landed and shifted back to human as soon as I reached the road. I wanted to walk to town on foot to take in the scenery, and I set off at a leisurely pace. The town was over two miles away, but I didn’t mind. Stretching my legs felt good.

As I neared the outskirts, the cliffs and towering pines receded, giving way to streets bordered by sidewalks and lined with quaint and charming houses, their bright green lawns separated by shrubs that had been trimmed with mathematical precision. Everything felt so open and far apart compared to the narrow streets and high-stacked buildings I was used to. In Japan, no space was wasted. Here, it seemed they didn’t know what to do with it all.

I wasn’t the only one enjoying a stroll. I came across a portly, middle-aged man who was walking in the same direction. I tried not to stare; I hadn’t seen many gaijin before apart from Leandra.

To complete the picturesque scenery, I could hear songbirds twittering.

‘You trying to start something with me you ass-faced twat?’

‘Shove it up your big fat beak, Beryl. No one cares what you think.’

‘OH YEAH, WELL SAY THAT TO MY BUTT FEATHERS YOU SAD SACK OF REGURGITATED WORMS.’

I wondered what it was like, not being able to understand what animals were saying. People go about their day thinking birdsong is sweet and charming, completely oblivious to the fact that most of them spew profanities nonstop.

They have such fowl mouths.

I dissolved into a hysterical fit of laughter.

‘Fowl mouths’, I said out loud, ‘Get it? Oh my god, I’m a comedy GENIUS.’

Without looking at me, the portly man crossed to the opposite side of the street and started walking faster.

The sun suddenly dimmed as clouds rolled over the sky, and by the time I neared the downtown area, it was steely grey. And then the absolute worst thing imaginable happened.

It started to rain.

* * *

To be clear, I don’t hate the rain.

I deeply, passionately loathe it.

I despise how it soaks into my clothes until they chafe against me, how the damp chill clings to my skin, how it makes everything smell earthy and fusty, and most especially how it smothers the fire that lives under my skin, making me feel weak and suffocated. I abhor everything about being wet, and Leandra and I have epic battles every few days over getting me to take a shower. The only reason she eventually wins is because I also don’t like being smelly and greasy.

This rain didn’t start gradually. It was like the sky suddenly upended a giant bucket of water. It slammed into me, soaking me to the bone in seconds. I made a mad dash for cover and ducked into the nearest shop I saw, shaking myself like a dog the moment I was over the threshold.

I looked around at my shelter. Rows of shelves were crammed into the small space, all overflowing with books. The only other person there was the cashier: an exceptionally bored-looking teenager — probably about seventeen or so — with a slightly spaced-out expression.

‘Hi, welcome to The Book Nook’, he said in a monotone drawl, not looking up from the magazine in his lap. ‘If you’re looking for anything in particular, we don’t have it. If you need help reaching something on the top shelf, please grow taller.’

‘Thanks, I’m just getting out of the rain.’

‘Weird accent’, he said, rousing himself from his stupor and looking up. ‘You’re not from around here.’

‘I’m new. Just moved in.’

He stared at me. And stared and stared, a constipated look creasing his face.

‘Are those real?’ he asked.

‘Um, what?’

‘Those really your ears?’ he said, tugging on one of his own for emphasis. ‘Or are they like, rubber or whatever?’

Shit.

The only physical difference that sets us daemons apart from normal humans is our long, pointed ears. People usually think it’s a costume piece or some eccentric plastic surgery. But the staring and nosy questions get exhausting, and I wanted to kick myself for forgetting to cover them up. I’d been so eager to get away, I hadn’t thought to grab a hat or hoodie.

Without warning, he reached over the counter to touch one of them and I quickly stepped back.

‘Please don’t,’ I said. ‘These are my emotional support ears. They’re very important to me.’

His constipated look intensified.

‘Oh wow’, a squeaky voice piped up behind me. ‘That’s awesome. You look just like Legolas.’

I turned around but didn’t see anyone.

‘Well, except Legolas is older. And taller. And blonde’, the voice squeaked somewhere below me. I looked down and saw a very short, mousy-looking boy with unkempt hair and clothes that were at least two sizes too big standing in front of me. He must have been hidden behind the bookshelves when I first came in. He was about the same age as me (well, my frozen age, anyway) and had big green eyes and a dense splash of freckles over the bridge of his nose. I immediately found him both fascinating and adorable, though I had no idea what he was talking about.

‘You’re still really tall though’, he said. ‘Maybe once you’ve grown up you’ll be as tall as Legolas.’

‘Who?’, I said, utterly baffled, and feeling a little stung by once you’ve grown up. If only I could.

The boy gasped as though I’d just committed some kind of taboo. Maybe I had. Was this Legolas someone important in America?

‘Legolas, the elf prince from Lord of the Rings?’ he said, his voice reaching the pitch of a dog whistle.

I gave him a blank look and he was aghast.

‘Don’t tell me you’ve never read Lord of the Rings? You’ve seen the movies at least, right? Everyone’s seen the movies.’

When I shook my head, I worried he was about to have an aneurysm.

‘Oh my God, Harvey’, barked the teenager behind the counter. ‘Mom told you not to bother the customers. Keep your nerd shit to yourself, no one cares.’

Undeterred, Harvey darted to one of the bookshelves and pulled out a thick volume, which he then pushed into my hands. ‘You HAVE to read it. You’ll love it.’

‘Oh’, I said, as I flipped it open to see rows and rows of indecipherable foreign text. ‘Sure, I’d love to.’

Harvey beamed at me, showing off buck teeth that made him look even more like a mouse. I felt my heart flutter.

‘Uh, you’re paying for that, right?’ said the cashier, whom I now assumed was Harvey’s older brother.

‘Er…’ I hadn’t brought any money with me.

‘Just have mom and dad take it out of my allowance, Devin’, said Harvey.

‘Dude, you can’t keep giving books to every guy you flirt with’, Devin snapped. ‘Mom is going to chew me out if I let you again.’

Harvey turned scarlet. ‘I’m… I’m not… it’s not giving, I’m using my allowance. And I’m not flirting with you’, he reassured me quickly. ‘I just like books. I like it when people like books. So I give people books.’ Devin scowled at him. ‘I PAY MONEY to give people books.’

‘You’re not flirting with me?’ I said with a teasing pout. ‘I was kinda hoping you were.’

Harvey turned about five shades redder and spluttered for a full half a minute before squeaking, ‘Really?’

I gave him my most winning smile. ‘Yeah, I think you’re cute.’

‘Thanks, me too,’ he said, flustered. ‘I mean, I think you’re cute too.’

‘GROSS.’ Devin rolled his eyes. ‘Get a room, you two.’

‘’You’re just bitter ‘cause your boyfriend dumped you’, Harvey snapped. He easily dodged the magazine Devin lobbed at him. ‘Uh, not that I’m calling you my boyfriend’, he added hastily. He held out his hand. ‘You’ve probably figured this out by now, but my name’s Harvey.’

‘Rava’, I said, taking it. It was dwarfed in mine and slightly sweaty.

I glanced outside and saw that it had stopped raining as abruptly as it had started. ‘You wanna go grab some tako- a burger?’ I had almost said ‘takoyaki’ before remembering they probably didn’t serve that here.

‘A burger sounds amazing’, Harvey said breathlessly.

* * *

There was only one place to get a burger in town; a little mom and pop diner right at the edge of an overgrown pine forest. Tucked away behind a screen of spruce trees, I don’t think I’d have ever spotted it without Harvey pulling me along.

This time of day hardly anyone was there, so we had our pick of seats. I listened to Harvey babble happily about the book he’d given me while we waited for the food to come. He jumped around so much in the story’s timeline and got on so many sidetracks that I couldn’t follow what he was saying. But talking about it made his whole face light up, so I didn’t mind.

My stomach was rumbling fiercely and our food was still nowhere to be seen. I wondered if waiting this long was normal for America. I was about to get up and ask the waiter how much longer when an unpleasant burning sensation crawled down my spine.

It was a sensation I knew all too well, but one I hadn’t felt in a long time. The aura of another daemon. No, several other daemons. And none of them Leandra.

I immediately broke into a cold sweat. As rogues, our lives were forfeit if we were ever spotted by others of our kind. My mind raced as I fought my panic. Had they somehow tracked us down? Did Leandra know they were here?

I leapt out of my seat and sprinted for the exit. Just as I was about to reach for the handle, it swung open with a jarringly cheerful jingle and I was slammed by the full force of the auras. There were four of them, and they were walking right through the door.

‘Rava?’ Harvey came up behind me and I jumped about a foot in the air as I spun around to face him, my eyes wild with panic. ‘Are you okay?’ he said, his face creased in concern.

‘I’m fine’, I gasped. ‘I just remembered. A thing. That I need to do. I have to go.’

The other daemons were stepping inside, laughing and chatting amongst themselves, not looking in my direction. I don’t think they had realised yet that I was there, but one glance and they’d see my pointed ears and know.

I made a mad dash for the back of the restaurant, my hands clapped over my ears. I had often rolled my eyes when Leandra gave me shit for taking off my enchanted bracelet. The other daemons mostly stayed on Terra, I’d argued. The chances of running into one of them here on Earth were… Well, apparently a lot better than I had thought. I was now eternally grateful she’d forced me into the habit of wearing it all hours of the day.

‘Rava, what’s going on? What are you doing?’ Harvey yelped as I pushed through the employees-only door and hurtled into the kitchen, startling one of the chefs.

‘Hey, kid, you can’t be back here!’ she shouted at me as I darted past her. I dodged around several more staff, and accidentally knocked over a huge stack of plates that shattered everywhere. I didn’t pause, even as one staff member tried to tackle me. I ducked around her, turned the corner, and spotted the back door. I flung it open and threw myself outside, panting. There was no time to catch my breath, however; angry shouts were following me out.

The forest of towering evergreens loomed in front of me, and I raced for it. I needed somewhere away from any prying eyes to transform. I crashed through the thick undergrowth, not minding the scratches from nettles and branches. Once I was deep enough to be out of sight, I crouched down and shifted into my crow form, beating my arms before they’d even fully turned into wings. I needed to get back to Leandra. I needed to warn—

A scream scattered my thoughts. I lost my balance and tumbled back down to the forest floor. I landed on my back, winded. Harvey was standing over me, his face as white as a sheet and his mouth wide open like he was still screaming, though no sound came out. I hadn’t even heard him following me.

‘Well, shit’, I croaked.

I rolled onto my talons and shook out my wings to get my crumpled feathers back in order. Harvey was frozen in place, probably about ten seconds away from fainting.

‘Please don’t panic’, my crow-voice rasped from my beak. ‘I can explain, I promise.’

Harvey didn’t move or speak, just stared at me with his eyes bulging.

‘Oh, right’, I muttered, ‘you can’t understand me like this.’ The gift of tongues, like many of our daemon powers, didn’t work when we were in our beast forms. Only another animal or daemon would know what I was saying right now.

I hopped to the side and peered around statue-Harvey to see if anyone else had followed me into the woods. It looked like we were alone, so I shifted back to human. A high pitched squeak issued from Harvey’s still-gaping mouth, but at least he didn’t scream again.

‘I can explain’, I said and hoped that I could.

* * *

‘So’, said Harvey, still staving off a panic attack, ‘you’re an alien wizard from another world?’

I pinched the bridge of my nose, the beginnings of an intense headache blossoming between my eyes. I’d been trying to explain the concept of daemons to him for the last hour, and I’m pretty sure I’d broken his brain because it wasn’t sinking in. ‘Okay, you know what, close enough. Though for the record, I was born here on Earth, not on Terra like other daemons.’

‘So you’ve never been to your own homeworld?’

‘It’s not my home— Ugh. Yes, I’ve been there. I stayed there for a few years after I got my powers, but I’ve lived on Earth just about my whole life.’

We were sitting inside the town’s laundromat, the loud tumbling of the washers and dryers masking our conversation in case of eavesdroppers. I was probably being paranoid, but with four other daemons (hopefully, still) only a street away in the diner, I felt my caution was warranted. I was itching to get back to Leandra, but I was afraid if I didn’t calm Harvey down first, he might start running all over town screaming that the new boy was a werecrow.

His eyes were as big as saucers. ‘And you said humans aren’t the only sapient species there? They have elves and orcs and dwarves and hobbits?’

‘Um, I don’t think they have hobbits. But those other three, yes.’

He took a deep breath, and I could just feel the avalanche of questions that were about to come tumbling out.

‘No, I don’t know what they’re like, I never saw any elves or dwarves or orcs.’

Harvey deflated and gave me a look like his puppy had just died.

‘Er’, I said, scrambling to think of something to cheer him up because his trembling lip was making my heart squeeze painfully. ‘I did meet a kitsune. And there was one time I saw a komusō that I’m pretty sure was a tengu in disguise.’

Harvey opened his mouth and I could see even more questions building up in his throat.

‘Look’, I said, ‘I really, really need to get home. I’ll tell you whatever you want later, but right now I’m in a hurry. Just promise me you won’t tell anyone about this. Not a single soul, got it?’

‘Right’, he said, his brow furrowed in determination. ‘Because the world isn’t ready for the truth.’

‘Uh… okay. Sure. We’ll go with that.’

I sprang up from the table I’d been sitting on, knocking over a stack of someone’s folded laundry.

‘Wait!’ said Harvey and grabbed my arm. I bit my lip to keep from screaming with impatience as he rummaged through his bag.

‘Harvey—‘

He pulled out a pen and scribbled something on my forearm.

‘My phone number’, he grinned. ‘So we can talk more tomorrow.’

‘Great’, I said, my skeleton about to leap out of my body and run home without me.

‘I can’t believe magic is real’, he gushed.

I really wish it wasn’t, I thought as I finally raced out the door. I ran down the sidewalk for about a block and then stopped; I couldn’t remember which way home was. As I scanned the street to get my bearings, a sudden wave of vertigo washed over me. My stomach twisted into a sour knot and I became drenched in a cold sweat. My muscles locked up, rooting me in place, and I could scarcely breathe. I could feel a hungering. Sucking, bottomless, insatiable, desperate to devour and devour but never able to fill the infinite void inside it.

An ombra. It was an ombra.

And it was right here.

I forced my frozen limbs to move, trying to pinpoint where the sickening aura was coming from.

The laundromat. I knew it with absolute certainty, that it was exactly where I’d just been. I pivoted and sprinted back up the street, praying to a deity I didn’t believe in that Harvey had already left.

A high-pitched scream dashed that hope away.

* * *

I burst through the door and a wall of darkness filled my vision, drowning out everything else. Then the darkness shifted and revealed itself as an enormous, twisted creature. Scabby, reeking skin stretched over its skeletal frame, blackish-brown and covered with a sheen of foul, oily sweat. Malformed limbs stretched out in front of it, its hooked yellow claws reaching for Harvey, who was plastered against the wall of washing machines, pale and shaking. The ombra’s jaws hung open, revealing rows and rows of sharp, crooked teeth, reeking spittle dripping down its chin. A dead rat lay crumpled at its feet; no doubt its former host.

The fire inside me reacted before I could even think about what I was doing. Flames roiled in my belly, my blood boiled in my veins, my bones turned to molten lava. The air around me shimmered and crackled with the intense heat.

I leapt at the ombra, fire already pouring from my hands, but it twisted out of my way with preternatural agility and I stumbled over the strewn pile of laundry I’d knocked over earlier, instantly setting it alight.

The ombra lunged at me, its gaping maw stretched wide, showing me its slimy throat that was ready to swallow me whole. I only just scrambled out of its way and it crashed over the burning laundry, scattering it everywhere.

I’d never thought of a laundromat as particularly flammable, what with its tiled floors and brick walls. But my fires were intense and concentrated and spread easily. In a matter of seconds, the whole place was ablaze.

The ombra whipped about as it tried to escape, but only succeeded in setting itself alight. Its oily skin began to peel and crack as fire licked up its flanks, and soon its whole body was enveloped. It shrieked, its blank, dead eyes stretched wide in agony and it thrashed wildly, clawed limbs flailing. At any moment one of them could snag on Harvey and rip him open.

‘Harvey!’ I shouted. ‘Run!’

The sound of my voice snapped him out of his terrified stupor. He made a lunge for the door, but the flames flared up in front of him, blocking his escape.

I closed the distance between us, ducking as the ombra’s tail whipped past me. I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him towards safety, but he dug in his heels.

‘The fire’, he choked ‘I can’t—‘

‘The fire can’t hurt you while I’m touching you.’

He looked deeply sceptical, but the ombra gave another ear-piercing shriek and he decided to take his chances. With a vice-grip on my arm, he staggered alongside me through the roaring inferno and out into the street. He gulped at the fresh air.

There were already loud sirens clanging and a firetruck was speeding towards us. Townspeople poured out onto the street to gawp. In all the smoke and confusion, I don’t think they noticed us coming out, or the dying ombra still writhing inside. Most of them stood back, keeping well away from the fire, but four people were running right towards it.

The other daemons.

I turned and dove into the alleyway beside the laundromat, hiding behind some trash bins before they could spot me. They ran right past and plunged into the laundromat to deal with the dying ombra before the regular humans saw it. Some of the onlookers screamed.

‘Oh god, those kids just ran into the fire!’

‘What the hell are they doing?’

‘Someone help them!’

But no one moved any closer. I knew they would be fine, however. I had seen one of them throw up some kind of protective energy barrier to keep the flames from touching them.

My stomach gave a sudden lurch. A sensation like reality had just shifted and twisted washed over me. One of them had opened a Gateway to Terra.

Smart; it was a lot easier to throw the ombra’s carcass through than to try and cover it up or haul it out of sight. I suddenly pictured some poor farmer on Terra going about his day only to have space-time spontaneously rip open above him and drop a dead ombra into the middle of his field.

The daemons would get the job done quick, which meant I needed to get away from here before they came out. I’d already had too many close calls.

I turned on my heel and ran. I didn’t stop running until I hit the outskirts of town and collapsed on some cool grass to catch my breath. There was a thump and I looked over to see Harvey flopped on the ground nearby. Once again, I hadn’t even noticed he was behind me. The boy needed to make more noise when he moved.

‘Why do you keep following me?’, I panted.

‘Because’, he said, equally winded, ‘this is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me.’ His face split into a huge smile that was more than a little manic.

I made a sound that was more wheeze than laugh. ‘I think we’re gonna get along.’

‘My new friend is a superhero. I even got to be the damsel in distress.’

‘I’m not a— you know what? I’ll take it. I’m totally a superhero.’

We lay there for a few more minutes before I groaned and got to my feet.

‘Where are you going?’ Harvey said as he stood up beside me, clearly not recovered yet.

‘I need to get home. I need to tell my friend what’s going on.’

‘Does your friend have superpowers too?’

‘Yes.’

He sucked in a breath, ready to squeal with delight.

‘No, you can’t come meet her.’

He deflated.

‘She’s very scary and doesn’t like people.’

‘But she likes you, right? And I’m your friend now.’

I wrinkled my nose. ‘We’ve lived together for forty years and I’m still not positive she likes me. Trust me, if you come, you’ll leave in an ambulance. If you’re lucky.’

Harvey blinked. ‘Wait, did you say forty years?’

‘Slip of the tongue. I meant four years’, I amended quickly. ‘We’ve lived together for four years.’

Harvey nodded and I breathed a silent sigh of relief. I really didn’t want him to know that while I was mentally and physically fourteen, I had been alive for sixty years. Conversations like that tended to get awkward.

‘So I’ll see you later then?’

‘Yeah’, I grinned. ‘Definitely.’

I gave him one final wave goodbye and shifted into my crow form again. Even though he’d seen me do it before, he still jumped and yelped. I did a cheeky loop-the-loop and then pointed myself homeward.

The seemingly endless carpet of pine trees slid by beneath me. The sun was setting and throwing out long spiky shadows from the trees that looked like teeth trying to devour the land.

I spotted the long cliffside road that led to our new house and flew along it so I could catch some of the warm thermals rising from the asphalt. Crows are not gliding birds, so I couldn’t coast along effortlessly like some of the ravens I passed by, but it did help ease the amount of effort it took to keep flapping.

I started to zone out and stared at the horizon ahead of me, which was turning spectacular shades of pink and orange on one side while the stars began to wink into view on the other. I had lulled myself into a trance, so at first, I didn’t pay any notice to the voices that were drifting up from the road below. That is until I heard the word ombra.

I glanced down and there were the four daemons, walking down the side of the road that would take them right past our house.

I pumped my wings to fly faster, but as I was zipping over their heads, I caught some of their conversation and back-peddled. I fluttered down to land on the road close by them, doing my best to act as much like a normal crow as possible.

‘This is the third ombra we’ve come across in this area alone. They’re bleeding through the barrier between worlds faster than we thought’, said a tall daemon with short curly hair who spoke what I’m pretty sure was German.

I hopped about and pecked at the asphalt, listening hard.

‘You don’t think… there could be someone helping them through?’ A very short girl walked beside him, wearing a thick coat and shivering as the evening sea breeze rapidly swept the warmth of the day away. I think she might have been Kenyan, but I wasn’t positive.

I scratched at some stray leaves, cocking my head to hear better.

‘Who?’ grunted a Vietnamese boy. He scuffed his sneakers against the road every few steps, hands shoved deep in his pockets and face furrowed in a scowl.

The fourth daemon, a blonde girl who might have been Scandinavian, trailed behind the others, her hands locked together behind her back as she stared down at her feet, lost in thought.

‘I don’t know’, said the probably-German man. ‘But the ombri’s behaviour lately has been… odd. We’ve been fighting them for over a thousand years and they have always remained the same. But now they’re… I don’t know. Smarter? More… organised, somehow.’

The Vietnamese boy snorted incredulously.

‘Bellain is right’, said the maybe-Kenyan girl. ‘Every now and then an ombra would slip between Terra and Earth, but it was rare. Now they’re cropping up in the dozens. And then we find three of them, all in a ten-mile radius? It’s very strange.’

The Scandinavian girl roused herself from her silent musings and spoke up for the first time. ’Could there be something around here that’s attracting them?’

‘I haven’t felt anything out of place. No traces of Gateways. Or any other energies, for that matter.’

‘True’, said the Kenyan girl. ‘But we haven’t been very thorough. I think we should go over this area again more carefully.’

So they didn’t know Leandra and I were here.

Yet.

I took flight again and raced for home as fast as my wings could carry me.

* * *

I had expected Leandra to be furious with me, and I wasn’t disappointed. When I opened the front door she was standing right there on the other side of the threshold, hands akimbo, her single eye glaring at me with the force of a laser beam. I nearly had a heart attack.

Her mouth opened to start what was sure to be an epic tirade that minstrels would sing about for centuries to come as a cautionary tale for all teenagers playing hooky, but before she could get a word out, I blurted: ‘There are four daemons that are going to walk right past the house in about ten minutes.’

Her jaw fell open and her eye looked like it was going to sear a hole through me.

Leandra made sure there were at least a dozen wards layered over every place we stayed. Wards that would hide us from both ombri and daemons alike, but good ones took a long time to build. She had already started, but they were far from finished. And an unfinished ward is detectable.

I filled Leandra in on everything that had happened as quickly as I could.

She swore. ‘The ombri were probably attracted by the wards being woven. That’s never happened before.’

‘One of the daemons said that there are a lot more ombri on Earth now.’

Leandra’s grey eye turned the colour of a stormy sky. ‘We can deal with ombri. The council is far more dangerous.’

‘What do we do?’

‘Hide. Take our beast forms and go out into the woods and stay there until they’re gone.’ She swore again. ‘We’ve barely unpacked and we’re going to have to move again.’

My heart sank. I knew that if we moved, we’d be out of here practically overnight. I’d never see Harvey again. I know I’d only just met him a few hours ago but… I really liked him, and I wanted the chance to get to know him better.

We stepped out into our back yard, picking our way through the teetering hills of scrap and rust until we reached the tree line. I could feel the soft buzz of energy that distinctly felt of Leandra as her wards slowly braided themselves in a pattern so complex and precise I couldn’t even begin to understand its formula.

She shifted first. Her face elongated, her ears grew large and soft, her limbs slender and narrow until a small musk deer stood in front of me. I followed her lead, exhaustion dragging at my wings as we put some distance between us and the house. The Council knew what our beast forms were, and while a single crow hopping along the street wouldn’t raise suspicion, a crow and a musk deer together near a ward exuding daemon energy… Well, it wouldn’t take a genius to figure it out.

We picked our way through the dense undergrowth, nettles catching on fur and feathers until we heard human voices drifting toward us. We carefully approached the edge of the trees and saw the daemons strolling along, their pace still leisurely and relaxed. Leandra hung back, her brindled fur blending in perfectly with the dark tree trunks and twisted brambles. I was more daring and flew across the road to perch on the guardrail, the sea churning at my back, far, far below.

The group was still talking amongst themselves, arguing over whether they ought to do a thorough sweep of this area or move on to the next. They were nearly within range of the wards. Any second now, and they would notice. I started preening my feather to calm my nerves. The Kenyan girl looked up, her eyes staring directly at the house, even though you couldn’t see it yet for the trees. She opened her mouth to say something, but a sudden shout from down the road made all four of them turn around.

A familiar mousy figure came pelting up the street, one arm waving in greeting. ‘Hi, wow, more new people! We don’t usually get so many strangers in town. My name’s Harvey! Who are you? Where are you all from?’ He stuck out his hand, but none of them took it. They simply stared.

Harvey’s eyes took them in one by one and then stopped at the Vietnamese boy. While the other three had their ears hidden underneath hats, his head was bare. He quickly yanked up the hood of his jacket, but it was too late.

‘Your ears. They’re just like—’, Harvey said, and I frantically flapped my wings, letting out a loud, wordless caw. He looked over, and I vigorously shook my head, hoping he recognised that it was me and not an actual crow. The daemons’ backs were to me, and I tried to pantomime shooing them away. It wasn’t exactly easy to do with wings, so I had no idea if he got the message.

Without missing a beat, he continued, ‘They’re just like an elf’s!’

‘An elf?’ said the boy, sounding deeply offended, though I didn’t know why.

‘Yeah!’ said Harvey, holding up his book. I recognised it as the one he’d given me back at the bookshop. ‘Like Legolas.’

‘Lego-who?’ said the boy, frowning deeply.

Harvey gasped. ‘You mean you’ve never heard of Lord of the Rings?’ He immediately launched into the same long, rambling explanation I’d been treated to earlier. After a minute, he casually hooked his arm in the boy’s and started leading him down the road, back towards town. ‘Since you’re all new here you HAVE to come check out the bakery. It’s my treat! And then the bookshop. My parents own the bookshop, so I can give you any book you want. Devin yells at me when I do that, but he’s seventeen and in his ‘I’m too cool to be nice’ phase, so just ignore him…’

The boy looked back at his companions, silently pleading to be rescued, but they just smirked and shrugged.

‘It’s been a long day’, said the Scandinavian girl as she set off after them. ‘I’d love a bakery and a bookshop.’ The young German man and the Kenyan girl both grinned and followed. Harvey turned his head and winked at me before the road curved and dipped and they disappeared out of sight.

Once their voices had faded into the distance, Leandra came out of the trees and stood next to my perch. ‘That the boy you mentioned before?’

‘Yeah’, I said, not even trying to mask the affection in my voice.

‘He seems… eccentric’, she grunted.

I smiled. For Leandra, that was high praise.

* * *

‘Do we really have to move again?’ I lay collapsed on the too-small couch in the living room, thinking wistfully of a nice cold soda to ease my parched throat, but I was too tired to get up and go to the fridge. Leandra was draped, boneless, in the armchair next to me.

The glow of the TV flickered on her face, highlighting the dark smudges beneath her eye. A cartoon neither of us was watching filled the small space with frenetic noise.

‘It would be safer if we did’, she said.

‘We’d have to pack everything up again.’

‘We would.’

‘Find a new house. Sell this one.’

‘Yeah.’

‘And restart the wards from scratch.’

‘Mmm.’

‘They didn’t see us. They don’t know we’re here. We could just… stay.’

Her eye slit open, gazing at the mountain of empty cardboard boxes stacked high and haphazard all around the entryway.

Her eye drifted closed again.

‘We could just stay.’

We sat there in silence for a while. The cartoon ended and a sitcom began. I didn’t understand American culture, so all the humour and references flew over my head.

I missed Japan.

But I was glad we were staying.

Just as I had worked up enough energy to lever myself off the couch and go get something to drink, the doorbell rang. Leandra, who had started snoring softly, woke with a jolt. She leapt to her feet and was about to run for the back door to escape, but I strolled right up to the front door.

‘Rava, no!’ she hissed, torn between hiding and grabbing me.

I opened the door but didn’t see anyone.

‘Hey! It’s me’, A voice squeaked below me.

I looked down and there was Harvey, beaming up at me from under his mop of unkempt hair.

‘Hi’, he said.

I blinked at him. ‘How did you know where I live?’

‘Dude, nobody’s moved here in years. I only had to ask like, two people before someone told me you bought old Jerry’s place.’

‘Oh’, I said, feeling somewhat sheepish. Of course, a one-eyed Italian woman and an ostentatiously gay Japanese boy showing up out of nowhere and buying a rundown lot would be the talk of a small, homogenous town like this.

He still had the same book tucked under his arm, and he held it out to me. ‘You left this in the diner, by the way.’

‘Oh’, I said, taking it. ‘Thank you.’ I smiled. ‘Really, I mean it. Today was crazy, and I can’t really explain why, but you saved our asses when you got those other daemons to leave.’

Harvey grinned from ear to ear, his freckles stretching into ovals. ‘They were actually very nice. They liked the bookshop.’

‘I’m sure they were. But…’

‘It would have been trouble if they saw you, right? You totally panicked every time you ran into them. At the diner and the laundromat, and…’

‘Yeah’, I said. ‘Really big trouble.’

‘I won’t ask why. Even though I’m absolutely DYING to know. But I understand that this all needs to be kept secret. I’m just happy I get to know that monsters and superheroes are real.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘I’m not a superhero.’

‘Okay, alien wizard then.’

I stuck my tongue out at him.

‘Are you two going to flirt with the door open all night, or what?’ Leandra snapped.

‘I’ve uh, got to head home anyway. It’s past my curfew’, Harvey sighed. ‘But I’ll see you around, yeah? And let me know what you think of the book.’

‘I have a confession to make’, I said. ‘I can’t read English.’

‘Really?! But you speak it perfectly!’

‘分かっているよ’, I replied, but of course, he heard it in English. As a daemon, I could tell if someone was speaking another language, but a normal human could only hear daemons speak in whatever language they knew best. ‘I want to learn, though’, I added. ‘And once I do, we can talk about the book all you want.’

‘It’s a date’, he said and winked at me before he headed down the front path, waving goodbye as he went.

I collapsed back down on the couch, hugging the book to me and blushing fiercely. I felt something cold and wet press against my forehead and looked up to see Leandra holding a can of orange soda for me. I took it gratefully.

‘You shouldn’t have answered the door. If it had been those daemons—‘

‘We would have sensed their auras.’

She let out a low growl. She hated those rare instances where I had a good point.

‘Hey, Leandra. I want to learn how to read English.’

‘Are you going to need to be bribed with cute boys every time you need to learn something?’ she grunted.

‘Probably’, I said as I popped the tab on my soda.

Leandra snarled something that contained an impressive variety of insults for a single sentence.

America was a strange place, and it was so different from Japan. But everything that really mattered had stayed the same.

And it had turned out to be an awfully amazing day.