5. Be careful what you wish for.

"What now?" Connor demanded, as he slammed his door closed, "Spend the rest of our lives on the run hoping the squadies don't catch up with us?"

"Don't be stupid Con, everyone knows you can't outrun them. No, we have to find the real killers."

"How the hell do you propose to do that? Wave your little magic wand so they appear in front of us? We don't even know where to start looking for crying out loud."

Kayla thought for second, "We go to Master Ayden's house and look for clues."

"What! Are you insane? The place is going to be crawling with squadies."

"The human police will be there not the squadies, they won't go near it with the police there and the protection spell he put up last summer should hold them off for a bit too."

"Kayla the human police are going to be looking for us as well in case you've forgotten."

"Yeah, I know and I'm counting on them being there to keep the squadies away for a while longer. Unlike the squadies they won't see us if I make us invisible."

"I don't like this, but you're right. We have to clear our names and I don't see any other way."

Master Ayden's home was on the far side of the forest and in order to get there they would have to go back the way Kayla had just come. As they rounded the corner, Kayla gasped and stepped on the brakes just in time to avoid running over the top of the body lying half on the road.

"Shit," she swore, her hands shaking, "It's the human policeman I saw earlier. Do you think he's dead?"

Connor jumped from the car and went to check for a pulse, "He's alive but just barely." Looking around, he saw the tyre tracks and hoof prints in the mud, "Kayla, the squadies have been here. By the look of it they've run him over and left him to die."

"I told you what they were like. If I wish it, can you save him?"

"Possibly, but you'll have to be quick his pulse is getting weaker."

"Erm," she thought about how to word her wish. It couldn't be that it didn't happen because wishes can't affect time. "Em, I wish that the injured man I see on the ground would heal to good health."

Connor nodded and closed his eyes in concentration, "Granted."

Backing away from the stirring body, they turned and ran, "Are you sure he'll be okay?"

He tutted, "The magic is as good as the wish made. He'll live but I have a feeling he'll now heal exceptionally quickly anytime he's injured. How many times have I told you to be very specific with your wishes?"

"I was in a hurry, besides healing fast isn't a bad thing," she countered, getting into the driver's seat again.

"We'll see. Now let's get out of here before he wakes up."

Pulling up at the end of road where Master Ayden's cottage sat twenty minutes later, Kayla took a pinch of faerie dust from the pouch behind her seat and sprinkled it over both their heads.

"We have an hour to get in, find what we need, and get out before the dust wears off," she warned, "Whatever you do don't get wet or it will wash off."

"Right," he replied, "What exactly are we looking for?"

"Anything to do with trolls. I think that was what he whispered when the medics pulled me off him."