Wynter's End

by K. R. Thompson

  When I made it around one turn, the smell of smoke caught me off guard. It was faint but there nonetheless.

  The moonlight bathed a section of the forest to my right, illuminating it in an eerie light. For a second, I could have sworn I saw a cabin there, a curling wisp of smoke coming from its chimney.

  The longer I stared, the more real it became. Soon I could make out the candlelight in the window, and I could see the snow that had settled on the roof.

  Then, in a flurry of motion, Wynter’s vision replayed in front of me.

  But it wasn’t her vision. It belonged to someone else.

  I watched as the children gathered to go get the milk. I was the one leading them, my four sisters following me as I left our mother and the child to their doom.

  I was the one who brought them back to find our home burning and everything we loved gone.

  I was the one who had caught Grace when she fought to go back inside. I held her quivering body close against me as she sobbed and screamed.

  I was the one who saved them in the end. I was the one who took them to the fairy folk.

  They had given us new lives, the fairies. I watched my sisters transform into beautiful beings, impervious to the cold and the snow that had threatened to kill us only moments before. It didn’t take them long to decide to give themselves new names to match their new lives. I watched them for a short time and then I left.

  The fairies’ gift had not been the same for me. I hadn’t been given beauty.

  I’d been given a thirst for revenge.

  I made my way down the mountain and stopped just long enough to take in the horror of what was left of my former life. The flames that had consumed the cabin had gone, but the wood continued to smolder. The two charred bodies I saw only fueled my hatred.

  The ones responsible would pay dearly.

  And pay, they did.

  I was no longer human but a shadow spirit that could take the form of any human I wished. I used my gift to lure each one away, becoming stronger with each life I took.

  When there was no one left, I returned to the cabin and made a silent promise to the family I had lost.

  I would always remember what had been taken from me, and I would be feared always.

  For my name would be…

  “Wendigo,” I whispered as I awoke. My voice shattered the stillness, and I wondered if I might have wakened the ghosts that probably lived in this place.

  A chill went up my spine, and I felt like I was being watched. The moonlight shifted, casting shadows that crept around me like a monster from a nightmare, readying itself to attack.

  Heart racing, I shifted back to my wolf and took off, completely ignoring the pain radiating from my shoulder.

  I leapt over rocks, scrambled over roots, and dodged low branches as I ran away. Halfway up the mountain, I finally stopped, panting. My front leg was completely numb now, and my makeshift bandage was completely red. Blood oozed its way down, squishing into a puddle beneath my paw.

  I still had a nagging feeling I was being watched, but at least I didn’t feel as if whatever it was that watched me wanted to eat me alive.

  The sky was becoming lighter now as the sun began to rise.

  How long had I been stuck at the cabin? I wondered. How many hours had I been there, asleep, locked into what I’d thought to be a short vision?

  Too long, I decided. I shifted back to human, attempted to tighten the bandage on my arm, and continued onward.

  The sun rose quickly, and I kept walking for what felt like hours. I stopped once for a short break, leaning against a tree. That’s when I noticed flecks of blood in front of me, leading up a trail of freshly trampled leaves.

  Suspicious, I shifted back to my wolf only to find the scent of the blood was mine.

  I’d already been here. That’s why it felt like I’d been going for hours. I had, just in circles somehow.

  “That’s impossible,” I exclaimed, not caring a bit that I’d resorted to talking to myself. “I’ve been going uphill the entire time. How am I going in circles?”

  I started upward again, this time keeping my eyes on the tiny splats of red that painted the ground. I followed them like bread crumbs until they suddenly stopped. I saw the ground ahead had no blood whatsoever. I placed one foot there, only to find myself staring at the blood trail again, farther down the mountain on the path I’d travelled now at least twice.

  It’s spelled. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

  Something or someone had put magic there to keep me from going any farther.

  The mountain fey. Either I was getting too close, or they spelled it to keep people from going any farther.

  I shifted back to my wolf and ran as fast as I could back up again. When I made it to the spot where the blood stopped, I shifted back, sweaty and panting from my adrenaline-fueled run.

  “I’ve come…to ask…for your help,” I managed to say between gasping breaths.

  Nothing happened. I wasn’t really sure what I expected. Some sort of booming voice to ask me what help I required? Some sort of misty figure to appear out of thin air?

  No clue. So I just stood there, waiting.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the eerie feeling of being watched returned.

  Then an all-too-familiar voice spoke.

  “What are you doing here?” Adam asked.

  I spun around at the sound of his voice and landed right in his arms. “Adam! What are you doing here? How did you get here? Are you all right?”

  I held him tight, burying my face in his chest as I continued to pepper him with questions. There were so, so many questions spinning in my head, but I stopped talking and took a second to revel in the fact he was here. Right now. With me.

  He felt strange. Solid and hard, like a rock. And he wasn’t holding me back. Something wasn’t right, but I wasn’t willing to turn him loose for fear I was imagining him being there. I did raise to my tiptoes the slightest bit to peek over his shoulder. After all, surely he wouldn’t have come alone.

  But there was no one there. “Where is everybody?” I asked, dread filling my belly.

  “What are you doing here?” he said again, answering my question with one of his own. It was Adam’s voice, but I noticed now it had a hard, stiff, almost formal edge—an edge I’d never heard from him before. “You should not be here. What do you want?”

  I took a reluctant step backward to look up into his face, still not willing to let him go. “I came to ask the mountain fey for help.”

  I waited for the reprimand I knew I would be getting. More than once he’d warned me to never ask a favor from the fey. He didn’t say anything, only glared at me with such an intensity, I found myself letting him go so I could cross my arms across my chest.

  “I came to save you.” I wasn’t sure why I thought telling him so would change anything. He was looking at me with such an expression of disgust that my eyes filled with tears. “What has happened to you?” I cried.

  “You should leave this place. You don’t belong here.”

  Something prickled at my subconscious. What a strange thing to say. Sure, I didn’t belong here, but neither did he. The Adam I knew and loved would have taken my hand and led me back down the mountain to safety. He most certainly would not have stood there and made demands, all the while looking like he could skewer me with those glaring eyes.

  “Your eyes…” I murmured.

  It wasn’t Adam. I knew it the second I looked into the dark voids that should have either held beautiful, golden eyes or shimmering silver ones. Whomever—or whatever—it was, it wasn’t him.

  Whatever it was didn’t want me to go any farther.

  I’d decided to try my luck and tell him I knew what he was when he spoke. “The fairy folk will not help you. They don’t help your kind anymore.”

  They, I noted. Not we.

  He wasn’t one of them.

  Then the image of Adam faltered for the barest of seconds,
like a light flickering. It was a twitch in magic I’d seen more than once when Wynter’s guise of Mrs. Graham would falter.

  He was the brother in the vision.

  The one who had named himself “wendigo.”

  The sun moved quickly over his head, as if it had decided to move from east to west in a matter of seconds. The image of Adam flickered once more, and I spotted the shapeless shadow beneath before it was hidden again.

  “I know who you are,” I whispered. “And you won’t stop me.”

  He bared his teeth. For some reason I couldn’t explain, I knew he either couldn’t or wouldn’t hurt me, though the fury unleashed in his eyes told me he’d love to. Then his eyes flicked to the rock just behind me, and I knew. I was close. So close.

  Against my better judgment I turned my back on him, ignoring the low snarl coming from his lips, to find I’d been right. There, right in the rock was the hole I’d seen the children go through. A bush had grown in front of it now, which is why I hadn’t seen it before.

  I spun back toward Adam, only to find the shadow was the only thing there now. He’d given up on maintaining appearances, it seemed. I gave him a bright smile and a little wave. “Thank you for your help!”

  As I turned away, a frustrated howl echoed along the breeze, and for the first time I found myself wondering why he’d wanted to stop me.

  Chapter Eleven

  The cave was dark, dank, and had a really foreboding feeling. No sooner had I made it inside, everything in my gut was telling me to run back out. I’d probably have much better luck with the angry wendigo.

  I put my head down and pushed through, surprised when the feeling subsided once I made it a few steps in.

  I’ve made it! I plopped onto the cold stone floor and took a deep breath. Now what do I do?

  The only light came from the opening of the cave. From where I was sitting, I could see the two walls on either side of me and a few feet of the tunnel in front, then it went to black. If anything was in the darkness, it would stay easily hidden.

  “Please,” I whispered. It echoed hauntingly, sounding like a thousand separate pleas. “I need your help.”

  Something moved in the darkness, and I stood, then took a hesitant step toward it.

  Common sense kicked in. What if there was a bear or something in here? Maybe fey magic didn’t bother animals. In that case, I’d be in big trouble.

  Just to be on the safe side, I shifted to my own bear and shuffled farther into the darkness, snuffling the ground as I went along to search for clues as to what was inside here with me.

  My ears caught the sound of falling water.

  That hadn’t been there before, had it? No, I was sure the only sounds I’d heard when I came in were just single droplets falling here and there to the floor, as if this was any ordinary cave in the world.

  Then I heard whispers mix with the sound of the water. I couldn’t make out any of the words, so I took another step forward. Then when nothing horrible happened, I took another…and another.

  The cave twisted deeper into the mountain, and the whispers became louder. I still couldn’t make out what they were saying, but I could discern two separate voices. From their tones, I knew one of them was not happy.

  I kept going, surprised I was being allowed so far inside.

  My shoulder bumped the wall when the cave made a sharp turn. Instinctively, I went to say “ow” and roared instead.

  The whispers stopped, so I froze, waiting.

  Then the water sounded different, like something had changed the direction it poured.

  Shoulder throbbing, I shifted back and took an uneasy step around the bend to find a glimmering waterfall covering the back of the cave. Its drops shimmered like diamonds as they fell.

  The light that caught the water was coming from behind it, and though I knew I was underground, what I saw just beyond the fall was breathtaking.

  There was a multitude of colors running behind it, like a rainbow of constantly changing shapes and colors.

  Without thinking, I walked to the fall and put out my hand to feel the magic behind it.

  I jerked it back when the pain in my fingers registered. I lifted it to see several perfect, diamond-shaped shards of water stuck in my skin.

  As I watched, they melted and dripped to the floor. No doubt my intrusion was not welcome.

  And here I thought the hard part was over, I thought sarcastically as I shook my bleeding hand in an attempt to get rid of the sting.

  Getting through the waterfall would be impossible unless I was invited in. Obviously, I hadn’t gotten that invitation yet.

  “I’ve come to ask a favor of the mountain fey,” I told the waterfall. “I need the power of the Spriteblood to save the one I love.”

  The two voices that had been whispering before returned, and I could tell they were just on the other side of the water. I still couldn’t make out what they were saying, but the one still sounded angry. For whatever reason, it wasn’t happy with me being here or, perhaps, with my request.

  But the other voice sounded insistent, like it was on my side and was trying to coerce the other into being more hospitable.

  Whatever it said must have worked, because the waterfall opened as if there had been a doorway hidden. The droplets ran around it, safely away from me.

  A single word was spoken, and from the resignation in its tone, I knew it was from the one who hadn’t wanted me here.

  “Enter.”

  Chapter Twelve

  I was more than nervous when I stepped through the waterfall. After all, who knew what could be waiting for me on the other side in that mysterious rainbow of swirling colors.

  The instant I walked through, I felt completely calm, like I was meant to be there.

  I was standing in a meadow filled with beautiful flowers in every color imaginable.

  Then I felt something brush past me, invisible. The flowers swayed as whatever it was ran through.

  Then I spotted a little boy gazing at me where there hadn’t been a soul earlier. He gave me an impish smile. “You look thirsty. Want something to drink?”

  He gestured at a table that suddenly appeared beside me filled with everything from bottles of water to soda, to some sort of bubbly blue stuff in a tapered glass. Whatever it was, it smelled divine, and my stomach chose that unfortunate moment to remind me I hadn’t eaten in forever.

  Just like that, another table appeared, filled with food.

  “Take anything you want,” the little boy said. “You look hungry too.”

  Something far away in the back of my mind tried to remind me of something. There was something important I was supposed to be doing.

  Everything in front of me looked so irresistible.

  “When you get full, you could lie down and rest,” he added, gesturing at the flowers. “They’re really soft. They make a good bed.”

  “I am tired,” I said in agreement, a sudden feeling of sleepiness washing over me, making my eyelids heavy.

  “Stop that,” a different voice muttered angrily.

  The feeling left at the sound of his voice, and my head snapped up to see the little boy had left. He was replaced with a creature who looked somewhat human but not entirely. The first thing that caught my attention was her clothing. It looked like it had been made of different parts of the earth, vines and roots wrapped around her in a long dress, leaves covering her arms and legs from view. As I watched, the dress moved, vines twisting this way and that. The only creatures I’d ever met with clothing like this had been Spriteblood. I was definitely in the right place.

  My eyes traveled from her dress up to her face. Half of it looked young, as if she was in her late teens, not much older than me. One eye was bright above a high cheekbone, and one side of her lips was full. Long, silky black hair hung over her shoulder. If I had only seen that much of her, I would have said she was beautiful.

  Unfortunately, I was looking at much more.

  The other side of her
was ancient and drawn. Her skin was so wrinkled that it made her eye droop, and I could only see a small slit where it should be. Her hair was sparse, only a few frizzing white strands here and there.

  One thing I did know was neither side of her face was happy to see me. If looks could have killed, I’d easily have been dead.

  That thought brought me back to my senses fast, and I remembered exactly why I was there. I was more than thankful to whoever had spoken and broken me out of my trance.

  My dad had told us fairy tales of what happened to those who ate or drank something belonging to the fairies.

  While I knew I was willing to barter anything in exchange to save Adam, I wasn’t precisely willing to be indentured for all time to them for a quick drink and a bite to eat.

  I glanced at the tables. They’d both disappeared.

  Another fairy appeared beside the one who had attempted to trick me. He didn’t look quite as annoyed as the woman, but he wasn’t exactly happy either. Still, I got the impression he was the one who had let me through the waterfall. It was because of him I’d made it this far.

  I took a deep breath and nodded my head at him, a quick gesture of appreciation.

  He returned it, and I waited.

  “You passed the tests to enter, and so you’ve won our audience,” he said finally, inclining his head just the slightest in a regal gesture that reminded me of a king granting a peasant’s wish.

  “Umm…what tests?” It was a weird thing to start with, but it was the first thing to fly out of my mouth.

  “You made it up our mountain, several times.” He stopped, and an amused smile curled at the young side of his mouth. “And your bravery brought you past the wendigo.”

  “That…wasn’t really the wendigo out there, was it.” It wasn’t a question now. I knew it had been him posing as a wendigo, posing as Adam. “It was you.”

  He grinned now, and I caught the gleam of pointed, sharp teeth, not at all unlike those I’d seen of Wynter and her sisters.