Wolf Interval (Senyaza Series Book 3)

by Chrysoula Tzavelas

  “It’s Tia,” I assured her. Brynn stared at me, then at the passage.

  A moment later, Tia emerged from the middle passage, the one that tended downward. She wore stylish running shoes and crisp new jeans under a button-down blouse. It was the most casual outfit I’d ever seen the demon wearing. And while her hair was rumpled and her scent disordered, she had the same calm expression she’d had the day she promised me that if I wanted to, I could be free.

  Even though she was wrong, I still loved her for trying. Even if she was angry at me, she was still the closest thing I had to a friend who would last. I was so very glad to see her.

  Crossing her arms, she said, “All present, I see.” She glanced up at the chimney shelf, as if she, too, could sense Nod and Amber closing in. “I mustn’t stay, but I’m pleased to see you all together.”

  “Tia,” I began, stopped, then started again. “Tia, it’s all going wrong. I didn’t even want to bring us here. I’m sorry.”

  Jen said quietly, “The children say they were chased by the Wild Hunt, but I’d thought the hunt was scattered until Halloween ended. Sen didn’t predict this. If the Horn has already pulled them together, I don’t know what we can do.”

  Tia looked between Jen and me. “The Hunt must be pulled together to manifest the true Horn. If you’re being chased by the Wild Hunt, you’re on the right path. What is it you think you’re doing wrong?”

  I shook my head. “This place is wrong. We met somebody who said he was distorting the Backworld and everything’s been wrong since then. This forest isn’t where we’re supposed to be. And if we pulled the Wild Hunt here somehow, that makes it even harder to get to where we’re supposed to be. Do you know who the guy with the violin is? Is he one of Alastor’s friends? Or yours?”

  She gazed at me a little too long, then said, “There is always some wildness in the Wild Hunt. The nature of their unique power lends an element that is not just unpredictable, but alien.”

  “That’s not an answer,” I said reproachfully.

  “Ms. Zelaya likes us to figure out answers for ourselves,” Brynn told me hurriedly.

  “If she’s been telling the truth, there’s an awful lot riding on this for riddles and guessing games,” I pointed out.

  “Once upon a time,” said Tia, sitting down on the ground, “Six celestials gathered to solve a problem. They had with them a shard of power beyond their ken, which they believed they could use to do the impossible. They thought it was a receptacle they could fill. And they were right. The shard took something from each of them. One gave her shadow, one gave his name. One gave his blood, one gave his will, one gave his body, and one gave her life. But the receptacle wasn’t empty to start with, and what was there merged with what they’d put in. The power of the Horn radiates out and when it bounces off objects it cannot pass through, echoes and reflections are created. The power passes through almost everything, but the stranger you met, it does not pass through. I don’t know why that is, and later I would very much like to find out.”

  “Ah!” said Jen, like she understood everything. “This forest is one of those reflections, then.”

  Tia nodded once. “And the true Horn is at the heart of their power, not in this forest. What Ion carries now is just another shadow, a link to the source of their strength.”

  “But who’s the stranger?” I demanded.

  “Somebody smart enough to know when he’s causing trouble and considerate enough to try to offset that.” Tia gave me a sweeping glance, then turned her hands palm up. “Otherwise, I do not know.”

  I frowned. “What about the monster spawn girl? What’s she doing here?”

  Tia clicked her tongue. “AT, I’m not going to be your window to the world. You’ll have to talk to people yourself eventually.”

  Jen said quietly, “Yejun, can you tell me more about the stranger? Sen was researching where the Horn came from when—when she realized the current threat.”

  I stopped paying attention to instead gnaw on my lip and think about what Tia had said. She clearly knew something about Amber, and just as clearly wanted me to find out for myself.

  I muttered, “Be right back,” and went to the stone chimney. It sloped very slightly. Most of the time I couldn’t walk up truly vertical walls like my dogs, but this wasn’t much of a challenge. I gauged the height of the shelf above, put a booted foot on the chimney wall, and pushed off into a jump. My fingertips just caught the lip above and I hung for a moment before hauling myself up.

  The chimney flattened out, rising gradually to the rocky hillside opening. Amber was curled on her side near the chimney’s exit. Nod rested nestled under a shrub nearby. He was only visible by the starlight reflected in his eyes.

  Amber’s eyes didn’t just glint, they glowed. Not brightly; I wouldn’t be using any Amber booklights anytime soon. But I felt strongly that you oughtn’t be able to tell somebody’s eye color on a dark night and yet I could see that Amber’s eyes were blue. And her teeth were white, and her face was... strange in the darkness. She had her head on her curled arm, and she didn’t move as I crawled out of the hole in the ground.

  Jennifer and Tia murmured below about horns and strangers and Machines and the sources of Wild magic. Brynn asked Yejun something and he responded in his low voice. Cat said something, his voice still beautiful, and Jen responded sharply. I looked back at the dim light radiating from the cave like it had swallowed the moon. With the meaning of their words blurred by stone, I could hear the emotion there and I wondered again what was between Cat and Jen.

  “Do you want your dog back?” Amber’s voice was soft. “He wouldn’t leave me alone after that bastard brought the sun back. I stopped minding after a while.”

  “It seemed ungrateful to just abandon you,” I said apologetically. “I hoped he’d help you get away.”

  “It figures,” she said, sighing. Then she sat up, stretched her back, and rubbed her hands over her face. “Ugh. I hate it when I get hungry. I know it isn’t real, but even if I sing myself into resisting, it shows up here.” Her fingers drifted over her mouth, and then she looked down and away from me.

  I looked away, too. “So what are you doing here? Why did you steal Brynn and then change your mind? I mean—” I snuck a glance at her. She was looking steadily at Nod as he regally surveyed the hillside. “I mean, um, I grew up around people like you. They don’t usually help me out.”

  “People like me?” she inquired, distantly. “Funny way of putting it.”

  “Well... people who were human once but who gave that humanity up for... I’ve never really understood why, to be honest. For a little bit of power? For a kind of immortality?”

  “For love,” Amber said, her voice still cool and calm and faraway.

  Cat and Brynn were talking over each other below us. In the far distance, I heard the sweet cry of the Horn’s shadow and a rumbling, enraged roar. The wind rustled the shrubbery around us. Amber leaned over and plucked a tiny blue flower that grew from under a stone.

  Blankly, I said, “For love? Who do you love?”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore.” She began to methodically destroy the flower. “I’m sorry I took your friend. You have her back again.”

  “She’s not my friend,” I said. “She’s just... a tagalong. A helper, she calls herself. But I’m responsible for her now.”

  Amber’s eyebrows went up but she didn’t look away from the tiny flower petals she was arranging on top of the rock. “What are you doing here? So many of you, and Tia Zelaya, too.”

  Even she knew Tia’s second name, dammit. I cleared my throat and answered her. “We’re trying to stop the Wild Hunt from getting free and wiping out all the unbound human souls.”

  “Hmm.” The petals and leaves and stem were all lined up, like an anatomical diagram without labels. “How will you do that?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “My job is just to find their home and get their Horn. Which isn’t the horn we just heard, as far as I
can tell,” I added grumpily. “Then other people will use it to reboot the Hunt somehow.”

  “This wasn’t always a forest,” Amber said. “When I came here, it was something else. Then, day by day, the forest grew up around me. What lived here adapted so quickly, maybe it’s happened before. The Hunt destroys ghosts? I think that’s a little hypocritical of them, given that they’re all ghosts themselves.” She began disassembling another flower.

  I shrugged. “People are hypocrites, news at eleven.” I paused, thinking about what she’d said. “How long have you been here?”

  “I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like years. But it doesn’t look like fashions have changed much since I came here, if so. So maybe a month? I talked to the Fiddler once, before you arrived. He was looking for you.”

  I had been planning on asking about her master again because I didn’t know how to stop worrying about him, but that did the job of distracting me just fine.

  “What? He had no idea who we were.” I frowned at her. “You’re just making things up. I don’t trust you at all.”

  She shrugged again and swept the dissected flowers off the rock. The breeze picked up the petals and spun them around her. “That’s probably a good idea. You just came to take your dog back, after all.” She paused. “I’m Amber, by the way. What’s your name?”

  “AT. I never—” I stopped, flustered. She hadn’t really told me anything since I’d climbed up here. She’d evaded all my questions and told me untrue things instead. But she seemed so lonely. “What are you going to do now?”

  “Probably follow you and your friends around until I find another way to get what I’m looking for.”

  “They’re not my friends,” I corrected automatically.

  She looked at me through her long, silvery lashes, the moon-like light from the hole below catching the pale curve of her cheek. “I’ll trade you, then.”

  “What?” I blinked at her, bewildered.

  “I’ll trade you. I’ll take the surprisingly heavy little girl and the sarcastic moon-stealing bastard, and you can follow along behind in the shadows.” She paused, waiting as I groped for words. “No?” Standing up, she added, “I wonder what they have to do for you to consider them friends.”

  “You’re right,” I muttered, staring into the darkness beyond her, seeing nothing. “I should trade. I should.”

  She leaned forward, peering at me. Her blue eyes were hypnotic. “What’s that? No, don’t be silly.” And she smiled lightly as she added, “You didn’t choose this life, after all.”

  Now I knew she didn’t know nearly as much as she thought. But I didn’t want to talk to her anymore. I didn’t want to talk to anybody, and I thought longingly of just leaving them all behind in their cozy cave and setting out on my own... to where? Maybe I could pick up Ion’s new trail and follow it back to where he came from? But the whole “reflection” thing confused me. Technical magic wasn’t my specialty and I’d probably just make things worse if I tried to find the Horn by myself.

  Then again, I hadn’t done so well with the others, either.

  “AT?” called Brynn from below, as if she knew what I was thinking. “Tell me you’re still up there?”

  Besides, Heart and Grim were still below. If they left, everybody would realize. Tia probably wouldn’t approve, and I’d disappointed her enough.

  “I’m here. I’ll come back down.” Without looking at Amber, I clicked my tongue at Nod and sent him down ahead of me. Then I wriggled into the hole and slid down to the cave, leaving Amber alone in the darkness on the hillside.

  -thirteen-

  I landed on my feet in the cave and brushed myself off before looking around. Everybody was looking at me as if they’d been talking about me. I shifted uncomfortably. “What?”

  “You owe me five bucks,” said Yejun to Brynn, turning away to hold his hand out to her.

  But Brynn was grinning at me as she waved him away. “I thought maybe you ditched us.”

  “Naw,” said Yejun. “Amber’s awful company. Like some Idol wannabe who never got over her missed audition.”

  “Is that who you were talking to up there?” Brynn asked me, coming over and patting Nod.

  I said shortly, “Yes. So what are we doing now? Does Tia have a new trail for us?” I glanced at Tia, who regarded me liquidly. “Something other than our own scent to follow would be great.”

  Brynn shuddered. “What does she want? That girl up there, I mean. Why did she grab me? Is her singing magic?”

  “I don’t know. Her name’s Amber. I don’t know and probably. Was that everything? It wasn’t exactly a productive conversation.” I glanced at Brynn’s worried expression and softened. “I don’t think she’s going to grab you again if she can help it. She’s weird, but I don’t think she wants to be bad.”

  “She’ll fit right in, then,” muttered Yejun, rubbing his forehead with the palm of his hand.

  Cat cleared his throat loudly and pushed his glasses up his nose. For a moment, he looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out where I might have seen him before. Then he said, “Jen and I have put together a spell for Yejun that will let him find his way back to the camera bag he left on the original trail. I think you need to be very careful of this Fiddler, though. We don’t have time for mischief.”

  Jen glanced at Cat, then looked away again, as if she wanted to argue with him, while Yejun looked between them with a furrowed brow.

  Amber’s voice drifted down from above. “Hey, get out of here! Shoo!” I caught a snatch of humming and then there was a piercing cry, like the scream of an eagle. A moment later, Amber tumbled out of the chimney.

  Brynn darted behind me and Yejun rolled his eyes. “Uh, hi,” I said, as Amber stood up and brushed herself off.

  “Hi,” she said breathlessly, her eyes still glowing faintly. There was a distant thump and the walls around us quivered. “Um, there’s a giant bird out there. I think maybe he’s looking for one of you? He seems kind of intense.”

  “Ah, yes,” said Tia. “I did say I didn’t have much time. Go carefully, children. And try not to fight too much amongst yourselves.” And before anybody could respond, she blurred out the passage we’d arrived by.

  Yejun said, “Demons. So helpful. So secretive, too.”

  “She tries,” I told him sharply. “Just because we don’t know everything she’s doing doesn’t mean she isn’t being helpful.”

  There was another quiver of the walls and then a long hoot, like the deepest note on an oboe. Then... silence.

  Yejun gave me a dark look, his eyebrows pulled together. “Of course you’d say that. What have you lost to them? You practically are them.” And that was such a horrible thought that all my words fled and I stood there, fists clenched behind my back, as my dogs pressed up against me. Distantly, I heard them continue talking.

  “Yejun,” said Cat, with a tone of gentle reproof. “Don’t—”

  “You know what, Cat? Shut up.” And Yejun flicked one hand and the image of Cat vanished.

  Jen’s image remained. She took a quick step toward Yejun, her hand outstretched. Quietly, he told her, “I’m sorry you’re stuck with him. You should have sent him along here instead of me.”

  Her face clouding, Jen dropped her hand and looked down. “It’s not his fault.”

  “You hate him,” pointed out Yejun.

  But Jen shook her head. “I don’t. I didn’t.” She glanced up, and there was a painful half-smile on her face. “That’s the problem, really.” Then she moved her hand, and her image vanished, too.

  A pool of silence spread out. Yejun stared off into the shadows while I tried to bring myself back from where his accusation had sent me. It was like my mind had gone numb. Every time I tried to get on with things, I thought, How could he think that? And froze up again.

  Then, at the same time, Brynn said brightly, “So we’re off, then?” and Amber said, “Well, that was awkward.” They glanced at each other.

  “Sorry, kid,�
� said Amber. “I thought maybe I could trade you in. Sort of a ‘get in with the cool kids’ voucher. I was dumb.” She sighed and flipped blond hair away from her face. “That happens a lot.”

  “Uh, okay. Apology accepted, I guess.” Brynn shifted her weight. “Hey, Yejun? You ought to apologize to AT, too. You’ve got no idea what she has or hasn’t lost.”

  “Hush, brat. This isn’t kindergarten,” Yejun said, still staring at the shadows. “Or go back to making small talk with Blondie. I’m trying to find your camera bag.”

  The idea of Brynn defending me broke my paralysis. “It’s fine,” I said. My voice was so rusty I didn’t recognize it, and I cleared my throat. “It’s fine.”

  Despite his supposed distraction, Yejun shot me a look under his lowered brows and I had the sudden, dizzying idea that he’d wanted me to say something different. He’d wanted me to argue. But what would that accomplish, other depressing anybody who cared and boring anybody who didn’t?

  Better to move forward. “Anyhow, I’ll send Nod out to scout around the front of the hill. Make sure nobody’s around.”

  “No point,” said Yejun. “We’re going that way.” He waved his hand at the passage that Tia hadn’t passed through arriving or leaving.

  I frowned. “That’s totally the wrong way. How do you know?”

  He waggled his fingers. “Magic. A wizard did it.”

  “I didn’t feel anything,” I said suspiciously.

  “That’s probably because Cat designed it. It doesn’t have my precocious flair. Do you doubt?”

  I gave him a disgusted look and went with Grim to investigate the narrowing of the cave where he indicated. “It smells like dry leaves and bones. Like nobody’s walked this way in ages.”

  “Maybe it’s a shortcut. But I miss my flashlight,” said Brynn, taking hold of my arm.

  Amber said diffidently, “Probably nobody ever has walked that way. Not in a way that would leave a scent.”

  Yejun picked up his glowing stone from the old firepit and shouldered his way past me. “And yet, this is the way we go to get to the camera bag and the crazy Fiddler’s magic trail.”