by Jasmine Walt
I would always remember the moment she realized I could use magic. The way the firelight had rippled over her, turning her golden hair to flames and her eyes to molten silver. Eyes that had widened in shock and disbelief…and then gratitude. The relief in her expression, the joyful smile she’d given the Dolans as she’d delivered the good news…it had warmed something inside me that I’d long thought cold and dead.
In the privacy of my bedroom, I stripped off my damp clothes and changed into a thick bathrobe. A quick wave of my hand lit the fire in my living room hearth, and I perched on the edge of the horrid floral couch, staring into the flames. No, I did not regret helping Mina tonight. But doing so had altered my plans, perhaps irrevocably. Now, there was someone in this town who knew I could use magic. And even though what Mina knew was only the tip of the iceberg, it was still enough to break me if she chose to divulge it.
She won’t, I told myself as my chilled hands began to warm. Her own position was precarious, and I could see, clear as day, that Mina was a good person. A gentle soul, but one with quiet steel in her spine, who spent her days easing the suffering of other creatures, and had somehow managed to deflect the town’s curiosity and keep her heritage under wraps.
At least until you came along.
I paced back and forth in front of the window, reliving our first encounter. It had been my fault that Roor’s mother had launched that silly inquisition into Mina’s past. From the way she’d spoken of it, it was obvious Mina was greatly distressed. But her eyes had been brimming with hope when she’d talked to me tonight, with so many questions written all over her face. She saw me as a kind of lifeline, someone who could finally fill in the blanks for her about how magic worked and help her gain control. To help save more of her animal patients.
And instead of helping her, I’d run like a coward at the first question.
It was only natural that she would be curious about your past, I told myself. Just as I was curious about hers. I should have deflected her question and turned the conversation back toward magic. Resinah knew I had plenty of experience at evading dangerous subjects. But as she’d sat across from me, the glow of the lamp highlighting the curve of her soft cheek and the rosy color of her lips, her gaze had roamed over my own body and I’d been struck by the insane urge to spill everything. To lean in and inhale that sweet scent of hers and confide my whole sordid history.
That was what had driven me from her cozy little house so soon after I’d arrived. And why I hadn’t immediately extended an offer to help her with her abilities.
My attitude was irrational. I shouldn’t let Mina’s allure distract me from doing the right thing. There was no reason why I couldn’t teach her a few things about magic and steer her away from trouble, while also keeping her ignorant of my past. As tempting as it would be to have a friend who really knew me, it would be selfish to put Mina at further risk. No, she would be far safer if she did not know the truth.
Tomorrow, I decided. I will go to her house tomorrow.
The prospect filled me with an absurd degree of excitement. In this state, I would never be able to settle down. Shrugging off my robe, I shifted into wolf form, exchanging bare skin for thick fur, blunt fingernails for claws. My sense of smell heightened as the glow faded from my vision, bringing me the charred scent of the logs still burning in the hearth, overlaying faint traces from the rich coffee I’d roasted this morning, the scent of horsehair, and the sweat that still clung to my skin.
I strove to ignore the perfume that lurked beneath, sweet lavender and warm golden sunrays, and slipped out into the night through the small swinging door I’d installed so I could come and go in beast form.
The scents of wind and rain, of churned soil and horse manure, quickly cleared my nose of elusive memories. I lifted my muzzle to see what else I could sense as I stood on the back porch. Sure enough, the scent of deer was still here…mostly washed away by the rain, but present nonetheless. A small group had passed close to my garden, and they would not have gotten very far, not in this weather.
My blood thrummed in my veins as I let my inner wolf run free, galloping through the tall grass toward the thick woods that encroached on my lands. The wind whistled in my ears, ruffling my thick fur, and I savored the cool air and the scents it brought me—all ammunition for the hunt. Leaves and twigs crunched underfoot as I passed beneath the dark canopy of the forest, and my sensitive ears picked up the sounds of hedgehogs and rabbits scurrying away. Slowing to a trot, I focused on tracking the deer. The storm had muddied the scent, washing it clean in many places, but by now, I saw the hoofprints imprinted in the mud that the rain had not quite managed to wash away.
It was not too long before I found myself trotting through the grass at the edge of a meadow that cut through the forest. The deer had come here to graze. The grass was still tall, up to my shoulders, but there were traces of deer hooves and teeth, not hard to follow—
An explosion of gunfire cut through the stillness of the night, and I jumped forward instinctively. But my reaction came too late—a bullet had hit my left flank, ripping a howl of pain from my jaws as burning agony burrowed into my muscle. Suppressing the pain and the accompanying jolt of bone-chilling fear, I bolted for the other side of the meadow, where the forest beckoned. More gunfire exploded through the clearing, and another bullet singed my fur just half an inch from my skull. I was a sitting duck out here—I needed to take cover, fast.
My pulse thundered in my veins as I finally reached the shelter of the thick forest canopy. I pushed myself for another half mile, despite my burning flank, until I was certain there were no other predators around, no humans wielding cowardly, illegal firearms. Fury burned hot and bright in my chest as I hunkered down behind a bush and took stock of the wound. To my relief, the bullet had gone clear through, but still…this should never have happened. Guns had been banned in the Federation. Farmers were supposed to use bow and arrow to chase off predators, not hunting rifles. And I had not threatened anybody’s livestock.
Snarling, I shifted back into human form to heal the wound, then immediately back into a wolf. The burning in my flank vanished instantly, the wound reduced to nothing but a memory. But it was not a memory I would soon forget, and with anger still raging in my chest, I circled back around to find the hunter’s hiding place. It was downwind, so I didn’t catch the human’s scent until I was nearly back at the meadow. My hackles rose at the familiar odor, and I slowed my pace as I slunk through the tall grass, headed straight for the cluster of bushes where the hunter had lurked.
Before I even reached them, I knew Roor had left, taking his illegal rifle with him. Thank Resinah the bastard had only shot me with lead bullets. I would have been in a world of trouble if he’d loaded silver instead.
But perhaps he wasn’t hunting for me, specifically. I prowled around the area, trying to pick up any other scent clues. It was possible he’d just been shooting at random. But if so, why would he come out here alone on such a dark and rainy night?
Of course, he might not know that normal bullets did not usually kill shifters. And even if he did, it was unlikely that he could afford silver bullets. Few people in this town could.
Since Roor’s scent was still fresh, barely a minute old, I decided to follow him back to his home and see what I could learn. I wanted to believe it had been a mistake, but it would be foolish to dismiss a potential threat. It didn’t take me very long to catch up to the young farmer. He was indeed walking through the forest with a rifle strapped across his back, making far too much noise for a man alone in the forest at night. It would be all too easy for me to attack him from behind, to pin him to the ground and snap his neck between my powerful jaws—
And that would make you no better than him, I thought as I reined in my vengeful instincts. My wolf side wanted blood for blood, wanted him on the ground screaming for mercy, but that would accomplish nothing, and very likely make things worse. If Roor was found dead in the woods with wolf bites all over him,
his mother would be the first to point her finger in my direction.
Besides, judging from the slump of his shoulders and the sullen tinge to his scent, Roor knew he’d failed to kill me. This was not the march of a triumphant hunter. I could take satisfaction in that, if nothing else.
We reached the edge of the forest that bordered Roor’s lands, and I stopped just inside the tree line, watching as Roor silently trudged toward his house. I waited until he’d stomped his boots on the mat outside and gone inside before slipping through the grass, close enough to the window that I could eavesdrop comfortably.
“Did you get him, then?” a stringent female voice asked—Roor’s busybody mother, I could only assume. I spotted her through the window—a tall, spindly woman with brown hair knotted back into a severe bun.
“No, Ma.” Roor’s voice was surly. “I wounded him, but he got away.”
“Wounded him?” She slapped her hand on the table. “Shifters heal from wounds faster than you can blink! You were supposed to shoot him in the head. You weren’t trying hard enough, were you?”
“I’d like to see you try and shoot a wolf in the middle of the night with almost no moonlight to see by,” Roor growled, ripping the rifle from the holster on his back. He shoved it toward his mother. “Would you like to try, Ma, and see if you’re a better shot than I am?”
“Don’t you talk to me like that, Ilain Roor,” she said in a voice of steel. Even though they were discussing my impending murder, I had to admire the way she faced down her son, who was a good foot taller and at least a hundred pounds heavier, without a trace of fear in her pinched face. “We cannot suffer a shifter to live among us as if he were our own. He might just be one, but if he stays here too long, it will attract others. Soon, they will overrun the whole community! We must put a stop to it right away.”
“I’m trying, Ma.” Roor gulped beer straight from the bottle, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “He won’t be able to touch any girls again when I’m through with him. I’m disgusted they allow it, but I guess they can’t see that he’s a filthy beast.”
“Just make sure you get him next time,” Mrs. Roor snapped. “I’ve ordered silver bullets for you, haven’t I? I was simply hoping we didn’t have to use them, since they are so expensive. But if that’s what it comes down to…”
“The full moon is coming up soon,” Roor said, sounding eager now. “He won’t be able to avoid shifting then, and I’ll have the proper bullets by that time. Don’t worry, Ma. I’ll take him out.”
Having heard enough, I crept away quietly, my heart full of disgust. So they thought to take me down on the full moon, did they? Silver bullets were fatal to a shifter regardless of the form we were in, but I imagined they were waiting until I shifted again so they could pass it off as an accident and pretend they had mistaken me for a wild animal. Well, they were going to be sorely disappointed. I would find some excuse to be out of town, or perhaps I just wouldn’t leave my house that night. They couldn’t very well pass it off as an accident if they came onto my property and killed me in cold blood.
I will definitely need to do something about them, I thought grimly as I returned home. Both hated shifters in general, and in the young man’s case, that hatred was compounded with jealousy over Mina. I would not cower quietly while my neighbors plotted my demise.
13
Mina
The next morning dawned bright and sunny, the sky so clear and blue it was hard to believe it had unleashed a torrent of rain upon us yesterday. Even better, for once there were no urgent appointments waiting for me, so I lounged by the kitchen table in an old t-shirt and faded jeans, a cup of tea in one hand and a novel in the other.
It had taken me a while to fall asleep last night, with Fenris’s yellow gaze haunting me, full of pain and secrets, and a tornado of questions whirling around in my mind. It had been obvious my questions about his past had pushed him away. Considering how skittish I was about my own secrets, I could hardly blame him. I had told him the bare minimum about my history, and I suspected he had done the same. I couldn’t expect him to divulge more, especially since we hardly knew each other.
Still…the rejection had stung. As he’d walked to the door, I’d been afraid that was the last I’d see of the intriguing shifter. But his parting words had been kind, and he’d said he had questions, too. Perhaps he was just as curious about me as I was about him, and that curiosity would bring us back together again.
I had to believe that, because he was my only source of information about magic, and I couldn’t bear to think that I had screwed up our budding friendship so early on.
The sound of the mailman opening the mailbox outside my door pulled me from my thoughts. Peering through the window, I was startled to see him drop a thick, cream-colored envelope into the box and then walk away. It didn’t look anything like the flimsy envelopes containing bills I usually received… In fact, I thought, my heart sinking, it looked very official.
And I’d already received the letter from the tax collector this year.
Rising, I wiped my suddenly clammy palms on my pants before going to retrieve the letter. My stomach turned to lead as I pulled the thick envelope from the mailbox and stared at the Watawis Mages Guild seal imprinted on the back. On the front, the envelope was addressed to Mina Hollin, and on the return address, the words “Legal Secretary” stared at me, a silent but deadly threat.
I quickly retreated into the house, to the privacy of my bedroom, where busybody neighbors could not peer in through the windows. My hands shook as I tore open the envelope, and as I read the few but ominous lines, my chest tightened with every word.
Ms. Hollin,
As part of an official investigation into the possibility of illegal use of magic in Abbsville, I hereby summon you to the Watawis Mages Guild at your earliest convenience for an interview. Please respond within the next three working days.
Signed,
Janis Karadin
Watawis Legal Secretary
By the Lady. I scanned the brief letter over and over, until my vision blurred and I could no longer bear to look at it. I had always known I was at risk, had always known there was a possibility that someone might see too much and report me, but now that the day had actually come… I couldn’t think straight. My mind was spinning, my chest constricted so tightly I could barely squeeze in a breath. The walls of my bedroom were far too close—I was trapped, a mouse in a cage, and it was only a matter of time before the cat’s paw dropped down and grabbed me by the tail—
“Out,” I gasped, lurching for the door. I had to get out before the panic suffocated me.
Shaking, I stumbled out the back door to my house, where my horse was tethered in the modest backyard, grazing at the new spring grass. She snorted, her ears flicking up as she noticed my obvious agitation, and I hurtled past her toward the small stable where I kept the tack. I knew my neighbors would notice my hasty retreat, but I didn’t care. I quickly saddled and bridled her, then launched myself atop her back and urged her to take me far, far away.
As I clung tight to my horse, my body pressed so low that her mane whipped into my face, I barely saw the neighbors who pulled back their curtains to watch me canter down the street, or the ones who hastily dodged out of the way as I careened out of town, heading toward the empty dirt roads and the towering trees. My mind’s eye was filled with the crumpled body of my cousin Vanley as he lay on the bottom of the long staircase, immobile, perhaps dead at my hands… and nobody to take my side, to believe me.
I can’t go back. No matter what it took, no matter what laws I broke, I could not go back to that house. To relatives who had left me to fend for myself against constant abuse, who might still want to mete out punishment for fighting back in the only way I could.
At first, I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that I had to get out of the house, away from that blasted letter. But somehow, I found myself outside Ackleberry Farm’s gates, left wide open for any visi
tors to come trotting down the road.
Or should it be Shelton Farm now? I wondered as I urged my mare to pass beneath the gate. The Ackleberry name was still there, wrought into the iron arch, but Fenris had only just bought the property. Lifting my head, I stared at the ranch house, wondering if he could see me coming through the windows.
Lady help me, I hope he’s here. His stable was behind the house, and he didn’t own a vehicle, so there was no way to know whether he was inside. My hands grew clammy again, and I had to wipe them on my pants lest the reins slip from my hands. I desperately needed someone to talk to right now, and Fenris was the only one who might understand and not toss me to the wolves.
I’m sure he’d appreciate that pun.
My lips twitched, and my anxiety lessened a little. Dismounting, I tied my horse to one of the posts near the front of the house, then climbed the porch stairs. I lifted my hand to knock on the door, but before my knuckles could connect with the wood, it opened.
Fenris took one look at me with that enigmatic yellow gaze and said, “What’s wrong?”
I loosened a harsh laugh. “Is my distress that obvious?”
“I could smell your anxiety from a mile away.”
My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Of course he could. Suddenly I felt too exposed, too vulnerable in front of this shifter who saw so much more than he should. Heart hammering in my throat, I stepped back. “Maybe I’d better come back another time—”
“Mina.” Lightning quick, Fenris grabbed my wrist before I could retreat. I jerked in surprise, my first instinct to pull my hand away, but his grip was gentle. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” His expression softened. “Please, come in and have a cup of tea. It’s obvious something is troubling you.”
