Once Upon a Haunted Moon (The Keeper Saga) Read Free Page B

secret, so that none could find her or set her free,” the old man looked thoughtful, then said slowly, “The only one who would know was the one who came after her. The one who spoke of peace and did not have as black a heart as her sister. You must find her.”
    “Wynter.” Nikki whispered in a hushed voice.
    The old man nodded gravely.
    “They are Spriteblood.”

Chapter Four

Ella
    Round Mountain Forest, Virginia
    October 8, 1765
     
     
    Ella ran until she was so tired she stumbled, and then she walked. She walked all day, watching the sun peek through the tree branches. She didn’t stop until she came to a creek, where a giant sycamore tree stood, branches spread toward her in welcome.
    She knelt, drinking the water faster than her little, cupped hands could gather it. Her thirst finally quenched, she jumped at the reflection that sparkled in the clear water below her. Hair as white as snow caught at the edges of eyes that she recognized as her own. She stared in wonder at the face that was hers, but not the face she remembered. So engrossed she was in her new reflection, she never heard the pack of wolves approach on the opposite bank, mere feet from where she sat.
    A low growl rippled across the water, and startled, Ella looked up.
    She sat unmoving, staring straight into a muzzle of bared, sharp teeth. Although she didn’t look, she sensed there were other wolves circling anxiously behind the one whose breath blew hot against her face.
    Strangely, Ella wasn’t afraid. Instead, she looked defiantly into the clear brown eyes behind the fangs. She tilted her chin up, stubbornly, and continued her unwavering stare. After all, hadn’t she survived worse things than this?
    The wolf’s eyes narrowed, as it stared back at the small thing that smelled of blood, smoke, death…and courage.
    It snorted, shook its massive head as if to clear it, then promptly plopped back to its haunches, and whined at the little girl.
    Taking it that she had won the test of wills, Ella looked past the gray wolf to the others. She counted five, and they, like the first, all stared back at her solemnly as if she weren’t a threat, or food.
    Slowly, Ella got up. The wolf rose just as slowly in an effort not to startle her. With rather exaggerated patience, it came across the creek, its head bowed low until it stopped inches from her, and then raised its head to bump under her hand. The silky fur tickled her palm, and a soft laugh escaped before she could stop it.
    The tense moment broken, the wolf licked her hand, wagged his tail, then snagged the hem of her dress gingerly between his teeth, and tugged her across the creek where the others waited.
    “I suppose I can go with you, I haven’t anyone else,” Ella murmured, more to herself than to her furry companions, who had seemed, all of a sudden, to have adopted her. Tears sprang to her eyes as she remembered she was indeed orphaned, without another soul in the world she could call her own.
    Gentle head butts on her shoulders, and small licks to the tears that ran down her cheeks held proof that the wolves had picked up on the sorrow of the tiny, white-haired creature whose bravery they admired as they herded her slowly through the darkening forest, deeper into the safety of the trees, and farther from the world she had known.
    She awoke the next morning in a mountain of warm fur. They had circled her, and piled upon one another like a pack of puppies. She had never felt so warm. She patted the top of the gray head that lay near her, and one brown eye slit open to peek at her. The wolf did a strange sort of snuffle, and then yawned, stretched, and stood up, waking the others as it leapt over them and out of the pile.
    Ella’s stomach growled and she stood up and carefully made her way around the furry bodies to a patch of wild strawberries. There she ate until the gray wolf came once again to tug the hem of her dress while the others followed behind them.
    The day seemed to stretch