Aspen Read Free

wrapped in cord, making a serviceable explosive. It wouldn’t kill anyone, but it would burn and blind them, which would give her more time.
    She stuck the knife and the remains of her salvaged gear into her pack then crept back into the store. Twice she had to crawl beneath the racks and over shelves to avoid being spotted, but in a few minutes she reached a central location with a clear view of the doors, which the Knights had left unguarded. There, she knelt on one knee and waited, letting the Knights come closer.
    “Enough of this, Aspen-Fyre! Surrender and you will rejoin your mother in the Eternal Night! Do not make this harder than it needs to be!”
    Aspen placed her device on the ground and waited. She could hear the Knights getting closer, their soft footsteps sounding out on the warm linoleum like snakes slithering across sand. When they were close enough, she kicked the device with the side of her foot. It skittered across the floor and she ran the other way. When she neared the safety of the counters she looked back and muttered a phrase of power. Across the room, the matches ignited and the device exploded in a shower of sparks and flame surprising the Knights stalking her. They screamed in anger and fear and fought to put out the flames.
    Aspen didn’t wait to see what happened next, she was out and running through the snow, ignoring how it stung her eyes and cheeks. There was a truck stop on the other side of the highway and that was her destination. She ran beneath an overpass and slid her way down a snow-covered hill where she tumbled into the truck-stop parking lot. She broke her fall with her hands and paused to catch her breath. She didn’t want to look out of sorts when she asked for a ride.
    The truck stop was busy, with more than a dozen trucks in line at the pumps and others parked in the wide-open lot behind the building, their idling engines clattering in the cold night air. Inside the red and yellow building were dozens of diners enjoying hearty road-food and coffee so strong she could smell it from here.
    Aspen knelt in the snow and drew a design with her finger, then sprinkled a small amount of her dwindling supply of faerie dust across the surface. It sparkled and glowed to life with a faint purple light. The design spun like a compass and an arrow of light appeared in the snow, pointing the way to one of the trucks. Aspen looked where it was pointing and saw an eighteen-wheel tractor-trailer with an older long-nose design and a trailer that reflected the lights like a mirror.
    Aspen kicked snow over the enchantment and hurried after the truck, which was pulling into the fueling station for diesel. When it stopped, Aspen stood nearby and huddled in her coat until the driver stepped out. He was an older man dressed in a beige shearling coat and jeans. The collar of his black and red flannel shirt stuck out around his neck and the stub of a cigar dangled from his lips. He glanced at Aspen in passing and began working with the pump.
    “You shouldn’t be out here, kid. If you don’t catch your death of cold, you’re going to get run over. Some of these boys haven’t slept in forty-eight,” he said.
    “I know, but I need help. I understand you’re heading as far as Wyoming?”
    The driver didn’t look at her. “Where did you hear that?”
    Aspen bit her lip. “A little bird told me? I was hoping you could give me a ride, I can pay my own way—”
    The driver straightened. “What is a kid like you doing trying to hitch a ride on a rig? Shouldn’t you be with your parents?”
    Aspen decided on a version of the truth. “My mother died recently and I am trying to get out to my father. He’s a cop in Jackson Hole. Can you help?”
    The driver chewed his cigar and stared at the fuel tank in front of him. “Why isn’t your daddy coming for you?”
    Aspen joined him in his study of the truck’s outboard tank. “My parents are…were… separated, they have been most of my life. I tried