by D M Fike
“Something else?” I repeated with scorn. “I thought you didn’t believe in Bigfoot.”
“I still don’t, but I believe in that… that thing that attacked us. I may not have been able to see it, but I definitely heard that awful clicking noise it made before the car veered off the road.”
I sucked in my breath. Without a doubt, Vincent could sense things he shouldn’t, like dryant cries and vaettur noises. It wasn’t ken exactly, but a faint echo of it, a kind of sixth sense. I’d never heard of anything like it.
“But most importantly,” he continued. “I believe in this stuff that you do.” He gestured at the fallen cup. “I believe in you.”
I fought against the strange squeezing sensation in my chest as his intense gaze continued to penetrate mine. “In me?”
He nodded. “You could have left me for dead back in the forest, but you didn’t. You returned, even after I refused to give you the information you wanted.” He leaned a bit back in his bed, non-threatening and casual. “That’s what ultimately made me trust you. I know you’re protecting the forest, not harming it.”
My defenses wavered. Vincent must have read the hesitation on my face because he asked, “Did your mentor make it out okay?”
That clenched the deal, the jerk. My insides melted into goo. Without Vincent telling me about Thor’s Well, Guntram would have bled to death.
“Yeah, he’s good,” I said as nonchalantly as possible. “And he’d kill me if he knew I was here talking to you.”
And yet, I ended up sitting down for a chat. He told me I could leave at any time. This, of course, made me stay longer. We kept the conversation as light as possible, me mostly explaining that shepherds were good guys meant to keep the bad monsters out. I gave him a vague recap of the cockatrice fight. He looked very concerned there for a bit, the same expression Guntram wore when I jumped into something headfirst without thinking about the consequences. Thankfully, he didn’t list any flaws on my part and thanked me for clearing up the strange seal behavior around Cape Perpetua. He also promised to check up on them later.
On his end, Vincent divulged details about some poaching cases he could never solve. Some of them I had no answers for him, but I was able to verify at least one case where a vaettur had slaughtered a mother-cub pair of black bears before we could banish it.
As friendly and natural as the conversation seemed, I couldn’t stay for long. I got squirmy as our conversation lingered and finally stood up at the twenty-minute mark. Vincent understood and reached into one of the large pockets of his patient gown. To my surprise, he pulled out my old burner phone, the one I’d given him to call for help.
I gave him a sarcastic smile. “Shouldn’t you keep that as evidence?”
He didn’t join in my humor. “No, it’s yours.”
“I already bought a new one.”
“Then think of this as a way to contact me. I put my private phone number on it.”
“You’ll just use it to trace me,” I accused.
“Then copy the number into your new phone and ditch this one,” he shrugged. “Just as long as you have a way to reach me whenever you want, no questions asked.”
A lingering suspicion remained. “Why would you do that? Won’t that get you in trouble with your job?”
“Maybe,” he shrugged, “but I understand how lonely it is being out in the wilderness. Maybe we could help each other sometimes?”
My internal temperature rose in a way that had nothing to do with fire pith. “I’m not supposed to just hang out with people,” I told him.
He held back a grin. “And yet here you are, nature wizard.”
Here I was indeed. I stood, making sure the phone was completely powered down so it would not ping any nearby cell towers. Not sure of how to leave, and not really wanting to go, I said, “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Me too. I’m beyond relieved that you’re safe, Ina. Be careful out there.”
I nodded, then left, feeling his eyes on my back. I didn’t relax until I’d made it back out of the hospital, sneaking past a distracted Sharon talking with a nurse and not signing the visitor log.
As I trudged back into the woods to the wisp channel, I rubbed the surface of the old burner phone like a genie’s lamp. Maybe, just maybe, I’d made a friend today, someone outside the crazy world of Nasci. Someone I could really talk to.
Someone that would listen.
I suddenly didn’t regret blowing up that whale carcass after all. It had signaled the start of a whole new chapter of my life, one that would take off in ways that even I couldn’t imagine at the time.
WANT MORE INA?
If you enjoyed this Magic of Nasci book, read the next in the series:
BREATHING WATER
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DM Fike worked in the video game industry for over a decade, starting out as a project manager and eventually becoming a story writer for characters, plots, and missions. Born in Idaho’s Magic Valley (you can’t make this stuff up), DM Fike lived in Japan teaching English before calling Oregon home. She loves family, fantasy, and food (mostly in that order) and is on the constant look out for new co-op board games to play.
More places to keep in touch:
Email: [email protected]
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My Website: dmfike.com
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BookBub: bookbub.com/profile/dm-fike
Magic of Nasci
Ina is a rookie nature wizard, learning the ropes of elemental magic—fire, air, earth, and water. She can also wield lightning, setting her apart from the other shepherds of Nasci. This action-packed urban fantasy series takes you on Ina’s adventure to prove herself, deep within the heart of the Pacific Northwest forests, where true power still thrives.
Chasing Lightning
A vaettur with a Medusa gaze preys upon the Oregon coast. Will summoning lightning destroy it or will the storm consume Ina first?
Breathing Water
Something from Letum is hunting the dryants that protect the Pacific Northwest’s waterways. Can Ina stop it with her unstable elemental powers?
Acknowledgement
Writing a book is one thing, getting it out to the world is another. I'd like to thank those who read early versions of this story, including Jacob Fike, Jennifer Marshall, and Sandra Schiller. You helped shape Ina into the awesome shepherd she has become.
Many talented people gave this book the professional care it deserved. I found my editor Lori Diederich through the 20Booksto50K Facebook group, an invaluable resource for new writers. Sara Smestad, Danan Rolfe, and Amelia Reising all lent their artistic skills to the cover. Thanks for that grueling photo shoot!
One final shout-out to my first fan, Samantha Marshall. See, I finally published! Will you cut me some slack now?