Bones of Faerie03 - Faerie After Read Free

length, along with tendrils of wild grape that stretched on ahead, warning of rises and falls and rocks in the trail. Karin wasn’t wholly blind. Her plant-speaking magic still saw the shadows within all plants. Before dawn, those shadows weren’t strongly bound within stem and leaf. When a length of kudzu sent its shadow snaking out onto the trail, Karin’s gaze focused on it.
“Day comes. Seek rest.”
At her quiet words, the shadow hastily retreated.
    As we left the town behind and the path wound deeper into the forest, I released Matthew’s hand and slipped in front of Allie and Karin, while Matthew remained behind them. We kept watch as we walked on.
    An elm shadow swiped at us from above.
“Go away!”
I said. The elm’s shadow obeyed me almost as swiftly as the kudzu had obeyed Karin. As a summoner, I could command the shadows in all living things, but with less subtlety than Karin’s deeper control of plants. There were only plant shadows in the forest today, though. We were not close enough to winter for shadows of the dead to roam these woods.
    The gray sky lightened, and the tree shadows settled more firmly within bark and leaf. Living vines and branches still grabbed at us, because no plant was wholly tame since the War, but so long as we kept to the center of the path, those were easy enough to avoid. Color seeped into the world, revealing a green forest broken by patches of fiery red and orange.
Autumn
. This year autumn was coming on its own, a slow change that needed no command from me. I only hoped spring would do the same.
    As the sun rose, Matthew and I switched places, because we had less need for my summoning to protect us by day and because even as a human, Matthew had something of his wolf’s sense of sight and smell. His ponytail flopped over the top of the pack Samuel had loaned him. Karin slowed a little as the path became more uneven, and for the first time in months, I heard her faint footsteps as she made her way along it.
    Allie reached for the sky, as if she could touch it. “I’m not stupid like a year ago, when I ran away to follow youguys. I know how dangerous things can get, but I don’t want to ever live only behind the Wall again. I love this world. I do.”
    Karin used her staff to push a stone from the path. “This world is a good thing to love,” she said soberly.
    I loved the world better when I could keep an eye on it. I continued watching and listening as we walked on.
    Karin slowed her steps. “Ahead of us.”
    Matthew came to an abrupt halt. “This one wasn’t there before.” His voice tightened around the words. A squirrel lay by the side of the path, its fluffy tail twitching, its head pillowed on a pile of gray dust.
    Just a dying squirrel
, I thought, and then I saw what was missing. Its front and back paws. The tip of its nose. Only the thing’s shadow was whole. As I moved to Matthew’s side, I smelled the same stale scent I had from the leaf, stronger now. My good hand reached for the hilt of the knife I wore, though I saw nothing to fight here.
    “It’s awful!” Allie’s voice rose. “It’s—it’s not dead. It should be, but it’s not!”
    Karin gripped her staff. “Tell me what you see.”
    “A squirrel.” I forced my voice to stay steadier than Allie’s as I described it to Karin. Matthew knelt beside the creature, carefully not touching it. There was no blood, just that stale gray dust.
    The squirrel’s tail kept twitching. All at once Alliedarted forward and pressed her hands to its side. There was a flash of silver light. The squirrel’s shadow flickered and went out, and its fluffy tail fell still.
    “Allie!” I grabbed the back of her shirt one-handed to pull her away. Matthew scrambled to his feet, reaching for Allie’s shoulders, looking her over.
    Tears streamed down her face. “I had to! It was hurting so much.”
    “Kaylen has surely taught you not to throw yourself into any healing without first determining you can do so