by Nicole Hall
But the police had found Evie’s body outside her house on the front walk. Pretty close to where she and Ryan had been standing earlier. Sera’d been trying not to think about her grandmother dying alone in her front yard. They’d said it was an aneurysm, that she’d gone quickly and with no pain. Per Evie’s will, they’d cremated her body and scattered the ashes, all before Sera could make it out to Texas.
“Her doctor identified the body. The dead body. There was definitely someone dead who looked exactly like my grandmother.”
Zee’s face softened. “I’m sorry to bring you this news so abruptly, but your grandmother is alive.”
Jake wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and Sera leaned into him without thinking. “I’m living in her house. They gave me her house. I couldn’t find her coffee this morning, but her creamer was still in the fridge.” She shook her head. “Who died?”
“No one.”
“But—”
“It was a bit of Fae magic. Not a small bit, mind you. Golems have always been complicated, but we… I… felt it was necessary. Torix was trapped in a tree in this forest many generations ago by my ancestors. Our barriers prevent him or his magic from escaping, but we need to renew them periodically for them to maintain their strength. Once something passes those barriers, there’s no way to retrieve it.”
“What does that have to do with my grandmother?”
Zee winced. “The renewal was a little delayed, and Torix was able to get her to go through the barriers.”
“What was she even doing out here? How do you know her?”
“The same way we know Ryan and Jake. We needed something, so we asked nicely.” Ryan snorted and Zee glared at him before continuing. “As for why she was in the way? Only she can answer that in full, but I suspect she was attempting to curb Torix on her own.”
Sera’s anger surged to life. “You mean you guys screwed up, my grandmother tried to fix it, and instead of helping her, you let her get trapped with a dangerous, magic-wielding dark fairy.”
Zee looked a little chagrined. “That’s mostly accurate, except also some of Torix’s magic escaped while the protections were weakened, and he’s infected someone.”
“Infected someone? What is wrong with you people?”
Zee ignored her interruption. “Someone, a human, is sharing his magic and doing his bidding. We thought we’d replenished the barriers in time at first, but it’s become increasingly obvious that it wasn’t fast enough.”
“The car accidents?” Jake asked.
“Yes, also the vandalism, and the thefts. We think it’s the beginning of something much darker. Torix feeds off of negative emotions. The more his minion can produce and capture for him, the stronger he becomes. We need you to find whomever it is and bring them here so we can break the bond.”
Jake nodded, but Sera didn’t get it, and Ryan was stubbornly silent.
“Why can’t you do it? Summon this person the way you summoned me?”
Zee gestured at the trees around her. “The Wood is an elemental forest, ancient and powerful in its own right. It protects us, but we’re forbidden from leaving. It was the pact we made for fleeing our homeland and creating the barriers here.”
Sera must have looked confused because Ryan chose that moment to jump in. “And they needed me to touch you to activate the summons.”
Sera glared at him. “I’m still not clear on how you’re involved.”
He shrugged. “It’s not relevant or your business.”
She pointed at him about to argue, but her hand was glowing. “What in the actual hell.” Sera shook her hand like she was trying to put out a match.
Zee sighed again. “I’ll teach you some basics before you go so you don’t injure others… or yourself. But remember that you’ll need Jake to help anchor your magic if you want to do anything beyond the basics.”
“How am I supposed to learn anything beyond the basics?”
“You’re welcome to ask for help, but it will require further payment. You are, of course, free to test your abilities at your own risk.”
Sera pushed herself away from Jake, eager for the first time since she’d driven away from her mom’s house. “Fine. Practice with Jake and you teach me some basics. Got it. To be clear before we start, this is a freebie. I won’t owe you anything extra after this.”
Zee smiled slowly. “You’re learning already. Good, and agreed. This is a freebie. I’ll teach you two things: how to sense magic, and how to sense people. You may close your eyes if you wish.”
Zee waited a moment, but Sera left her eyes open.
“Very well. Let your eyes and mind relax and look inside yourself. Your power lies dormant, and it takes a nudge to wake it up.”
Sera had no idea how to nudge her new-found power. Less than five minutes ago it was trying to kill her, so she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to wake it up. Zee raised a brow at her but didn’t say anything. Sera narrowed her eyes. The mind-reading thing was getting really annoying.
She tried imagining an internal nudge, like poking herself in the chest, but from the inside. To her surprise, warmth unfurled from her middle and spread out along her limbs.
“Excellent. Now cast it out in the stone circle and see what you feel.”
Cast it out. Right. Sera pushed somewhere near her diaphragm and breathed out. Her senses landed on Jake and Zee, but Ryan had stepped back out of the circle. They were distinct presences in her power, and she could feel something else shifting under the surface. When she focused on Jake, heat pulsed in her and she started to blush. Better to focus on Zee.
Sera met her eyes, and Zee nodded. She shifted her focus there, and suddenly, Zee felt completely different. She was infused with a prickly sensation that felt green, as if she were made from fresh leaves in spring. While she was admiring how verdant Zee seemed, Sera let her power creep further past the stones and into the trees unchecked until it ran into something else. Something cold and angry.
Sera recoiled. Her power followed her lead, the feeling shut off abruptly, and her eyes snapped open. She hadn’t realized she’d closed them. Her power curled back inside of her, content to sleep some more.
“Well done. You have a natural affinity for searching. That’ll come in handy. What you sensed in Jake is between the two of you, but what you sensed in me was my magic.”
“It was green.” Sera felt weird saying it out loud.
“Magic manifests itself for many people in color. Humans can’t see it with their normal vision, but you can be trained to recognize it.”
“What if something felt angry with no color?”
“You felt something else?” Zee immediately zipped higher and scanned the trees surrounding them.
“It was an accident. I didn’t realize I needed to control where my magic net thing went, so it sort of oozed into the trees.”
Zee opened her mouth, hopefully to explain, but a long wolf howl cut her off. Granted, Sera hadn’t spent a lot of time in the east Texas woods, but she was pretty sure there weren’t supposed to be wolves around. Zee froze, and all the hair stood up on Sera’s arms. It felt like a lightning storm was coming in.
“Go,” Zee said, and a path appeared in front of them. One second it was trees and brambles, the next everything had shifted to reveal a dirt track extending into the forest.
Jake and Ryan shared a look, and both reached out for her. Jake was faster. He grabbed her wrist and jerked her toward the path. “Always a pleasure, Zee.”
Sera dug in her feet and tried to turn back to Zee, but the guys were pulling her forward. “Why summon me? And how do I turn off my freaky glowing arm?”
Zee ignored her questions. “The sprites will protect you in the trod. Don’t venture off the path.” And with that cryptic message, she disappeared from the circle in a shimmer of light.
The wolf howled closer, and over her shoulder, Sera watched it appear from the shadows on the far side of the clearing. At least waist high on all fours, it had mottl
ed grey fur that stuck up along its back. It skirted the stones, walking around the outside of the clearing along the edge of the trees in a low crouch. Sera could barely hear the growl, but she could see its lips curled back over yellowed fangs. It was the glowing eyes, golden in the sunlight, that finally got her to move on her own. Wolves didn’t have glowing eyes.
She shifted her weight and ran, pulling in front of the guys.
The path twisted ahead, and Sera ran through a group of fireflies that exploded into tiny sunbursts. She blinked, but didn’t slow her pace. Not fireflies, Zee had called them sprites. If she made it out, she’d have to Google what the hell a sprite was. Or ask Jake, as long as he didn’t get himself killed trying to wrestle the wolf into submission to help them escape. Stupid hero complex.
Both guys were pounding up the path behind her, but it was only wide enough for one person at a time. She wasn’t concerned that she’d hold them up, she’d been a cross-country runner in high school, but a glance back confirmed what she’d suspected. Jake had put himself between Ryan and the wolf. Insert eye roll here.
Ryan was huffing, but he was keeping up. An itchy feeling crawled up Sera’s spine, so she looked back again. The wolf was definitely chasing them, but it looked like it was keeping pace instead of gaining, and its eyes were locked on Sera. She slowed, and between rapid glances over her shoulder, the wolf slowed too. Sucking in a ragged breath, she shifted off the path and ran parallel through the trees. Ryan passed her, but before Jake could, the wolf shot up through the trees in a burst of speed.
Sera dodged back onto the path in front of Jake, and the wolf slowed back to his previous position. As long as they stayed on the path, it either couldn’t or wouldn’t get any closer. Hmm.
“Sera, stop playing dodge tree and move your ass,” Jake called.
He was on her heels, but Sera was eighty percent confident that they were safe. That twenty percent uncertainty kept her running. She wasn’t sure she could sprint the entire path out of the forest, and the back of Ryan’s neck was turning an unhealthy shade of violet. Maybe he was actually a sprinter and not an endurance athlete.
“Have to slow down.” Unlike Jake, who didn’t sound winded, Sera wanted to conserve her oxygen.
She’d intended to slow to a distance pace, but a pained yell from ahead on her left spiked her adrenaline. Ryan was still a few feet ahead of her, and he was panting too much to yell.
“Sera, help…” It was Evie’s voice, and Sera didn’t hesitate. She plunged into the woods to her left. After a few steps, the golden light from the path disappeared. To her surprise, she didn’t hear heavy footsteps or a wolf crashing through the underbrush after her.
It was a lot darker under the thick canopy without the sprites to light the way. Tall pines and scrub oak let in enough light for thick brambles to grow in whatever clear spaces they could find. Sera pushed through a bush bigger than herself and slid to a stop on loose pine needles.
She’d emerged into another clearing. This one with a giant gnarled oak in the center. The underbrush simply stopped in a circle around it. Sera listened for another call, but the lone sound was her labored breathing.
Why hadn’t the wolf chased her and where was her grandmother? The hair on her arms stood up as she noticed the runes carved into the tree. Zee had told her not to leave the path. Sera looked up, but despite there being no other trees nearby, no sunlight shone on the oak. Silence enveloped her. What mistake had she made this time?
Welcome, child.
A shiver skittered down her back. The voice slid into her mind like oil, definitely not Evie. She had a bad feeling she knew who it was. “Where is my grandmother?”
She is with me. We bide our time in small amusements. Did you enjoy my wolf? The glowing eyes were a nice touch I thought. It’s been so long since I’ve tasted fear this close.
“Release her,” Sera demanded. Stupid bravery had gotten her this far, she had to try.
Perhaps if I had a better offer. Say, a young divorcee with questionable sanity and trust issues?
“You’d trade my grandmother for me?”
Power begets power, as they say. I’d much rather have you and all your delicious emotions.
A phantom breath wafted across the crease between her shoulder and her neck, like an open-mouthed kiss but bitingly cold. Sera shivered and rubbed the spot warm again.
Your grandmother is resilient, offering me but a sip of fear, a soupçon of despair.
An image of Grandma Evie, dirty and slumped over in the dirt, flashed through her mind, then was gone. Sera’s fear urged her to run forward, to offer herself up as sacrifice to protect the only woman who’d accepted her whole. Tears pricked her eyes as she held her feet still.
Ahh, yes. Such lovely anguish. Does this help you choose?
Another feminine grunt of pain echoed in the clearing, and a tear trickled down Sera’s face. It would be such a small loss and Evie would be free.
All you need do is step forward to the tree.
His mention of the tree reminded Sera of Zee’s warning about the barriers. That once something has passed beyond them it couldn’t be brought back. How could he have the power to release her grandmother but not himself?
“You’re lying. She’s trapped exactly like you are.”
The feeling of smug certainty dropped from around her, and the temperature plummeted. Cold anger pushed at her, sliding up her legs and arms to gather around the base of her neck.
The Fae don’t lie, and I won’t be trapped much longer. Come Samhain, I’ll find you myself.
Frigid pressure pushed against her throat and made it hard to breathe. Sera clenched up and tried to suck in air, wishing desperately for warmth, but expecting to eventually black out. Instead, golden glimmers appeared around her and settled against her skin. The sprites seemed to push the threat away, and she could take a full breath again.
From far away, she heard Jake’s voice calling her. “Sera, I can’t reach you.”
She silently thanked the sprites and took a step back, out of the clearing.
3
SERA
Reality snapped back into place like an elastic band. She could hear birds and wind in the trees, and Jake was standing right in front of her. He grabbed both her shoulders and pulled her against him.
“You run very fast,” he said as he gulped in air.
Sera wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his torn shirt, stupidly glad that he was there. “He’s torturing my grandmother.”
His arms tightened. “Torix?” She nodded into his chest. “We’ll get her out.”
“Yeah? Are you going to help by taking your shirt off, keeping secrets, and saying nothing?” She pushed away from him.
Jake sighed. “Sometimes you learn more by listening.”
Sera’s body lit up in a flash of anger. “And what did you learn while listening?”
“That the Fae asked you specifically to bring back the person working with Torix. That Ryan is way more connected than I thought he was. That Zee didn’t give you a straight answer about Evie. Really, I learned a lot.”
Sera dropped her shoulders in defeat. “Me too. My grandmother isn’t dead. Magic is real. Fairies are assholes, and everyone knew about it but me. Speaking of assholes, where’s Ryan?”
“I swear he’s not usually an asshole. He hightailed it out on the path. That wolf wasn’t joking around. As soon as I followed you off the path it lost interest in me, but it sped up after Ryan. He was probably making sure it left us alone.” Jake held up a hand. “Before you ask, no, I don’t know what that was about. I’ve never seen a wolf before, and I damn near had a heart attack when you disappeared. Ryan will be fine though. Zee said the path would be safe, and Ryan wouldn’t step foot off of it.”
“I heard Evie.”
“Of course you did.”
Her hackles rose, but the warm spot inside her insisted he believed her and wasn’t being sarcastic. Instead of snapping at him, she said,
“I’m not imagining things. I found Torix’s tree, and my grandmother was in there with him. He tried to trick me into joining them.”
“Looks like it didn’t work, but just in case, what’s my middle name?”
Sera thumped him on the shoulder. “Leslie, because your mom was obsessed with regency romances. Take this seriously.” She snickered.
Jake rolled his eyes, but slid his hand down her arm and linked their fingers. “I am, and I believe every word you’ve said. I could feel you in the woods, but I couldn’t find you. At some point, we’re going to have to talk about what Zee did to us.” He leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers.
Sera jolted back at how intimate that felt, but also at the words he used. They were so close to the ones in her head. “I don’t see why that’s necessary.”
“Well, I couldn’t sense you before Zee did her magic hands, but now there’s this internal GPS that won’t turn off. Also, your hand is glowing again.” He held up their joined hands, and sure enough, hers was giving off a faint golden light.
“Dammit,” she muttered.
“C’mon, I’ll walk you home and you can yell at me some more about it there.”
She wasn’t sure how much more of the weird stuff she could handle, and Jake seemed to sense that. He kept a firm grip on her hand, even though she tried to pull free, and started talking about some of the people she’d known before. Sera tried to hold onto her anger, but it faded as he walked with her through the woods. For a while at least, she could pretend that everything was normal and her biggest worry was keeping Jake at arm’s length. He chattered about his parents living their best life in Europe, his little sister blowing off college, his construction business. Nothing about the Fae or people-eating trees or magical paths through the forest. She could still see the sprites blinking at the edge of her sight, but there was no trail to speak of. Only pretty lights under the long shadows of the trees.