Deep within Midre Forest, the ghosts waited. Renard clutched a box of croissants to his chest. “Food is the way to the heart,” he muttered. Hopefully the saying applied to vengeful ghosts.
Because bringing food into the Flickers’ domain, especially after how they’d died… He shuddered. If the Flickers caught him before daylight, he’d be dead.
Jane’s stomach tightened as she neared the door. She paused to adjust her glasses. “Sal, are you sure a human is okay at a xaether’s party? I don’t want to mess anything up.”
Sal pulled her through the entryway. “Don’t worry. You’re hardly one to cause a stir. Plus, xaethers are a couple millennia old.
Nine o’clock sharp. Come alone, at the church.
Don’t forget the forgery.
-Antonio
The bumpy road grated beneath my tires as I pulled off the interstate. The cold of the AC raised goosebumps along my bare arms and penetrated my leather gloves. My car, a modified Model-S Tesla with hidden compartments
I set down my dog, Claw, so he could run freely toward the gathered crowd. The next instant, Bryson shouted to me. “Brooke!”
The world exploded. Orange and red surrounded me, lifting my feet off the floor, and smoke enveloped me while I flew through the air.
Then, I crashed to the hard ground
I never wanted to leave the luxurious south for the frigid north, but my parents’ decision was firm. I still despised the cold and the frozen landscape. I huddled on my window seat, watching the lone star that illuminated the snow.
“If,” I whispered, “the first star truly grants a wish…”
But I couldn’t voice it.
After the long cold of winter, the sun’s warmth felt glorious. I knelt by the river to refill my pot, the water chilled by mountain snowmelt. Nearby, the other village women were washing clothes, their children playing beside them.
“Siv!” Fulla smiled at me from the knot of women. “Good to see you up and about
Toby toddles from his spot at the foot of my bed and starts licking my three-day old stubble. His sloppy kisses don’t tickle my skin. They’re are not cold, wet, or grainy. I can smell his minty breath—must’ve stolen a mint out of one of my pockets again—but, I can’t feel the warmth
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We have been in the shelter for an hour, but it feels like a lifetime.
My tongue is thick, cotton-dry from disuse. Though my eyes have adjusted, the light is too dim to see my family’s expressions––just the faint outline of Mum’s slender nose, Finn’s trembling lips. My hair has unraveled from its braid,
David crouched underneath a twisted rock formation at the base of the Temporal Cliffs. His trusty radiance revolver, the oldest of its kind, fit snugly in his hand. Overhead, storm clouds gathered, made darker by the wraiths’ smoky black trails.
Thunder rolled across the sky.
I steadied myself against the dash as the car leaned into the cliff. “You really need to go so fast?”
The rusty green Yugo that Aba had rented shifted down. “Sam, I told you to stay home.” He plunged the accelerator into the floor. “But you say that you’re family now and must come with.
Lora, my youngest, grinned as she lifted our dinner plates with a wispy sapphire spell. “Clean up time!” Her arms wobbled. “Ooh, heavy.”
“Papa!” Thorn, my oldest, leapt from his chair, his eyes on me. “Make her stop!”
“Lora, you know the rules.” I spoke gently, not wanting to shame my daughter for her newfound abilities.
The bounty hunter turned to stone, hatred etched permanently on his features. Veyja stumbled away as the reptilian mass that passed for hair among her kind hissed in satisfaction. Her hand went to her throat and came back stained with a tiny drop of blood drawn by the tip of the hunter’s dagger.
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