Otherkin Read Online Free PDF

hungry?”
    “Ravenous.” The lift in his voice picked up my spirits.
    “Two more miles and then it’s lukewarm hot dogs and Pop-Tarts for everyone. After that I know a safe place we can go, north of here.”
    “Now?” I said. “I’m going home.”
    “The Tribunal knows where you live,” he said.
    I’d forgotten that. Remembering how Lazar stomped through the vegetable garden outside my bedroom made me queasy. “I could tell my mom what happened,” I said. “She’s pretty cool and believes some stuff that’s kind of out there. She’s a Wiccan, in touch with nature, believes in astrology, stuff like that. She could call the cops, tell them I was kidnapped by these weirdos. Get them on the case.”
    “No cop’s going to believe you,” he said, his tone dismissive. “I’ve had my run-ins with them, so trust me. If anything, they’ll send you off to a therapist, and no head shrinker’s going to protect you from the Tribunal.”
    “Well, I am going home,” I said. He shook his head at me, but I ignored him and pressed on, still wanting more information. “So tell me, Lazar and his dad. They do what you do?”
    “With a few differences.” He ran a hand through his hair and seemed to relax. “Over the years, the Tribunal has trained its members to focus on certain areas of expertise. Mostly they excel at forcing shadow back to Othersphere.”
    I frowned, trying to work this out. “So instead of calling things out, they push them back in.”
    He let out a half laugh. “That’s basically it, yeah. They’re also good with technology and chemistry, guns with silver bullets, silver-based tranquilizers, stuff like that. They experiment with their drugs and machines to see if they can permanently erase the shadow from otherkin and from the places connected to Othersphere.”
    Experiment. I didn’t like the sound of that. “Is that what they were going to do with me?”
    Sympathy glinted in his eyes. “Probably.”
    “And if their experiments didn’t work?” I almost didn’t want to hear the answer.
    He shrugged and remained silent. That was answer enough. I took a deep breath. “And you?”
    “Same thing,” he said.
    “So they could push back that ridge of stone you called out of the desert,” I said.
    His dark brows drew together. “Lazar might manage it,” he said. “His father’s an expert. If Lazar can’t figure it out, Ximon could objure what I called forth without breaking a sweat.”
    “Let’s say Ximon never came and Lazar couldn’t do it. Would that ridge of stone just stay there forever?”
    He shook his head. “No. Objects called forth like that shrink back to their normal form within a few hours, depending on the conditions. With the moon full, it may last until moonset, assuming they don’t get rid of it first.”
    “What about, you know, shifters?” The word still felt strange in my mouth.
    “You mean people like you?” His eyes raked over me. “Five types have survived—cats, wolves, bears, birds of prey, and rats.”
    “Rats?” I said, staring at him. “Bears?”
    “There used to be thousands of different kinds of shifters,” he said. “Back before the Tribunal, the sea lion–shifters and dolphin-shifters were mistaken for mermaids, the swans and bulls helped create the legends of the god Zeus, and the spider-shifters. . . well, I’ve heard they were as big as dogs. The five remaining tribes don’t get along, but each has a seat on the council for their area.”
    “Wow.” The world was getting stranger by the minute. “The Tribunal killed all the rest of them off?”
    He nodded sadly. “Those that survived were mostly the top predators—wolves, large cats, bears, and birds of prey.”
    “And the rats?” I said.
    “Guess they can survive anything. If there had been cockroach-shifters, they probably would’ve made it too.”
    “That is amazing!” I tried to picture a full-grown person shifting into a rat. “Do they all have trouble shifting when