scavengers. But from the beginning, I chose to be civilized.
I took one family, and just one, to haunt. Forever.
The Driscolls of Ticonderoga Falls.
So right now, I pretended to pay attention to the pointless chatter about the Hunt. It looked like I was listening, I was sure of it.
Because in truth, I was.
I was listening to the Legend as it whispered overhead and throughout the village. Somewhere, someone was telling the tale about my fall from grace, leaning over a back fence or pausing on a street corner, one neighbor was reminding another about what had happened right here, nearly a hundred years past. And as the words were spoken it was like they had ripped off yet another pound of flesh. Sparks glimmered and I held a hand against my old wound, covering it anew with a fresh Veil.
Just then I heard something else. I tilted my head.
Yes, there, a silver crackle, the sound made when a Darkling unfurls his wings, when he folds reality.
But the pitch was off.
I glanced around the table again. My daughter, Elspeth, had slipped away a few moments earlier, said her shoulders ached from the journey, had even shown me the bruised flesh where wing met bone on her back. But bruises can be faked.
I stood, inadvertently kicking my chair to the floor, an act that silenced all their conversation. Driscoll cowered as I swept past, the others merely stared at me with a curious expression. In a heartbeat, I was on the porch, head lifted, smelling dark sky, searching for my daughter’s scent.
My human flesh dissolved, blew away on the chill autumn wind. Wings spread, I hovered in the air, listening, searching.
“What is it?” Sage appeared on the porch behind me.
“Hush!” I ordered.
That was when I heard it. A scream. Coming from Madeline’s cottage.
Elspeth. Screaming.
I cast a Veil, strong and bright, one that would slow everything and everyone down. It froze a corner of Ticonderoga Falls like insects in bits of amber. Like my people, my powers come from human dreams. Anything they can dream, I can do.
Then I soared over field and forest, following the scream that wouldn’t end. In an instant I stood before an open window and saw Elspeth inside. A dog soared through the air toward her, teeth bared. The creature already had my daughter’s arm clamped in its jaws.
Foolish child!
I flew into the room and grabbed the dog, then pulled it away from Elspeth. “Sleep,” I whisper-sang in its ear, a song meant to calm a faithful beast that tried to protect someone it loved. I gently closed its jaws, wincing when I saw my daughter’s blood in its mouth, tried to wipe it away with my hand. Then I placed the animal on the floor, carefully, in a position that would look natural.
When I lifted my head I realized that she was watching me.
Maddie was awake.
All she would see was a blur. Still, she shouldn’t be seeing even this much. I glanced down at a sketchbook on her lap.
She had been drawing a picture of a Darkling in the forest. Me .
But I couldn’t stop to act on it. Life and limb, they were what mattered. Harm no human, no beast, during harvest . Rules had to be followed, or the harvest would turn bitter and foul in the mouth. Would bring famine. Pestilence. Plague.
I spun around, faced my child, grown now and lovely as the moon herself. Disobedient and foolish and bleeding—she was too much like her father. Because of her human blood, she too had been captured by my Veil. I ripped off my shirt, wrapped it around her wound and folded reality so that we could both fit through the open window.
Then I flew away, with Elspeth in my arms.
Chapter 19
Shimmering and Silver
Maddie:
One moment I crouched on the sofa, unable to move. My dog hung frozen in the air, biting a black-winged beast that filled the room. Then there were two beasts and an unbearable cold frosted my skin. For a brief flash of time, I recognized an unmistakable odor. But it didn’t make sense.
It was the forest, a fresh mash of green
I took one family, and just one, to haunt. Forever.
The Driscolls of Ticonderoga Falls.
So right now, I pretended to pay attention to the pointless chatter about the Hunt. It looked like I was listening, I was sure of it.
Because in truth, I was.
I was listening to the Legend as it whispered overhead and throughout the village. Somewhere, someone was telling the tale about my fall from grace, leaning over a back fence or pausing on a street corner, one neighbor was reminding another about what had happened right here, nearly a hundred years past. And as the words were spoken it was like they had ripped off yet another pound of flesh. Sparks glimmered and I held a hand against my old wound, covering it anew with a fresh Veil.
Just then I heard something else. I tilted my head.
Yes, there, a silver crackle, the sound made when a Darkling unfurls his wings, when he folds reality.
But the pitch was off.
I glanced around the table again. My daughter, Elspeth, had slipped away a few moments earlier, said her shoulders ached from the journey, had even shown me the bruised flesh where wing met bone on her back. But bruises can be faked.
I stood, inadvertently kicking my chair to the floor, an act that silenced all their conversation. Driscoll cowered as I swept past, the others merely stared at me with a curious expression. In a heartbeat, I was on the porch, head lifted, smelling dark sky, searching for my daughter’s scent.
My human flesh dissolved, blew away on the chill autumn wind. Wings spread, I hovered in the air, listening, searching.
“What is it?” Sage appeared on the porch behind me.
“Hush!” I ordered.
That was when I heard it. A scream. Coming from Madeline’s cottage.
Elspeth. Screaming.
I cast a Veil, strong and bright, one that would slow everything and everyone down. It froze a corner of Ticonderoga Falls like insects in bits of amber. Like my people, my powers come from human dreams. Anything they can dream, I can do.
Then I soared over field and forest, following the scream that wouldn’t end. In an instant I stood before an open window and saw Elspeth inside. A dog soared through the air toward her, teeth bared. The creature already had my daughter’s arm clamped in its jaws.
Foolish child!
I flew into the room and grabbed the dog, then pulled it away from Elspeth. “Sleep,” I whisper-sang in its ear, a song meant to calm a faithful beast that tried to protect someone it loved. I gently closed its jaws, wincing when I saw my daughter’s blood in its mouth, tried to wipe it away with my hand. Then I placed the animal on the floor, carefully, in a position that would look natural.
When I lifted my head I realized that she was watching me.
Maddie was awake.
All she would see was a blur. Still, she shouldn’t be seeing even this much. I glanced down at a sketchbook on her lap.
She had been drawing a picture of a Darkling in the forest. Me .
But I couldn’t stop to act on it. Life and limb, they were what mattered. Harm no human, no beast, during harvest . Rules had to be followed, or the harvest would turn bitter and foul in the mouth. Would bring famine. Pestilence. Plague.
I spun around, faced my child, grown now and lovely as the moon herself. Disobedient and foolish and bleeding—she was too much like her father. Because of her human blood, she too had been captured by my Veil. I ripped off my shirt, wrapped it around her wound and folded reality so that we could both fit through the open window.
Then I flew away, with Elspeth in my arms.
Chapter 19
Shimmering and Silver
Maddie:
One moment I crouched on the sofa, unable to move. My dog hung frozen in the air, biting a black-winged beast that filled the room. Then there were two beasts and an unbearable cold frosted my skin. For a brief flash of time, I recognized an unmistakable odor. But it didn’t make sense.
It was the forest, a fresh mash of green
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