Half Lost (The Half Bad Trilogy #3) - Sally Green Page 0,6
loves me—so that shows you how fucked up visions are. You start believing them instead of what you know.
I arrive back in camp and drop down by the fire. I’m not sure why I’ve come back. I was going to run to the south and set traps for rabbits, but it’s only now I’m back at camp I remember that.
“You’ve been gone a long time. Were you lost?” Gabriel says, coming over to me.
Him and his bloody passwords.
I say, “You’ve got it wrong. You’re supposed to say, ‘You’ve been away a long time,’ and I’ve only been away a few hours so the whole thing is stupid.”
“I’m trying to keep to the spirit of it rather than word for word.”
“If I was a Hunter you’d be dead now anyway.”
“And you’re doing your best to make that seem preferable.”
I swear at him.
He shuffles his feet, scuffing the dirt up a little. I get out the Fairborn and my sharpening stone and set to work.
Gabriel crouches beside me and says, “Are you doing that for a reason?”
“Thought I’d take a look around. Check on stuff.”
“I thought you were going to set rabbit traps today.”
I look at him. “I’m feeling lucky. Might find some Hunters too.”
I know I said I’d do rabbits today and check on the Hunters tomorrow but I’ve changed my mind. I want to get back to the Hunters and see if more have turned up.
“We need food. You said you’d do the traps.”
“I’ll do them too.”
“Yes? Really? Or will you go off for days and leave me not knowing if you’re alive or dead?”
I carry on with the knife.
Gabriel reaches out to touch my arm. “Talk to me, Nathan. Please.”
I stop sharpening the knife and turn to look him in the eyes. “I told you. I’ll do both.”
Gabriel shakes his head at me. “Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?”
“You know what’s going on, Gabriel. I’m trying to find the witch that killed my father. Though somehow she’s disappeared. The good thing is that, in my search for her, I’m finding Hunters. There’s a lot of them around. It’s a big country but I’m finding them and killing them.”
“Do you really think you can kill them all?”
It’s a genuine question, but I think it’s more to test my sanity rather than my ability.
I smile at him and try to look as mad as possible. “My father seemed to think I could.”
Gabriel shakes his head and turns away from me, saying, “Sometimes I think you’ve got a death wish.”
Sometimes I wonder that too, but it’s when I’m fighting that I’m absolutely sure I don’t. It’s then that I’m sure I’m desperate to stay alive.
Gabriel continues. “You risk your life with each attack. They can kill you, Nathan.”
“I go invisible. They don’t know I’m there until it’s too late.”
“You can still get hit. With bullets flying all over the place it’s a miracle that hasn’t happened. You nearly died from a Hunter bullet in Geneva. The poison nearly killed you. A wound—”
“I’m careful. And I’m better than them. Lots better.”
“They can become invisible too. They can still—”
“I told you I’m careful.”
Gabriel frowns. “It’s not just about you. Your attacks bring more Hunters our way, lead them closer to us and to Greatorex, bringing more danger for everyone.”
“Greatorex and her gang are training for that day, though as I recall the last two times we moved camp there was no confrontation and it’s just me who’s done any killing, just me who’s got blood on his hands. It’s as if that lot only want to train and hide away and—”
“You know that’s not true.”
“And it’s not true for me either.”
I run my finger along the Fairborn’s blade, drawing blood. I suck my finger and then heal the cut before I put the sharpening stone in my backpack and the Fairborn in its sheath.
“Nathan, another few Hunters dead won’t change the war. It won’t change anything.”
“Tell that to them as I slice their guts open.”
“You know as well as I do that most of them are kids. They’re manipulated into believing in Soul’s cause. The war isn’t against them; it’s against Soul. He runs the Council of White Witches; he employs Wallend to come up with his perverted magic. They are the people you should be fighting. They are the ones who started the war, and it’s only by killing them that it’ll end.”
“Well, I’ll get round to them soon enough. Think of these attacks as practice. When I’ve mastered all my