We plodded north. Mountains towered ever closer, shadowed in dark blues and purples. The road rose and dipped in rocky curves. Vibrant flowers, oaks and maples gave way to drooping fir trees and blankets of soft, dark moss.

  It rained at midday, a cold drizzle that left puffs of iron-gray mist curling along the ground. We found shelter beneath some swaying trees and ate an assortment of dried meat, nuts, and seedcakes.

  Renner questioned me on everything I’d seen in the fog. He was thorough, wanting me to spare no details about the monsters. I gave a painstaking but accurate account.

  “It was horrible,” I finished, arms clutched around my middle. I gazed into the dark, dripping trees. Yearned for my beautiful silver grove. “This is all horrible. I never imagined life could be like this. Out here, I mean,” I gestured vaguely at the gray sky and damp trees. “Fellbrook is safe, or at least it was. There’s never been… do things like that just happen? One moment you’re asleep and suddenly there’s monsters everywhere, killing…” My throat constricted.

  Teela, tail drooping, brushed wet hair from her forehead. “Brin… look, I guess I can only speak for Respite, but up there it’s always been pretty peaceful. I’ve gone most of my life and only heard about a handful of dangers around the city. But lately?” She gave her head a slow shake, eyes downcast. “Dozens. Everywhere.”

  History is about to repeat itself. That’s what the Fae had said. Was it a warning? Not out of the nonexistent goodness of his black heart, of course; perhaps an attempt to boast, or simply to frighten me even further? I stared into the misty rain, mind roiling.

  “What about you?” My gaze drifted towards Renner.

  Lack of sleep had left shadows beneath his eyes. Rivulets of clear water slid down the planes of his face, disappearing into thick stubble. He frowned at me.

  I swallowed and looked back out to the rain, voice quavering. “I’d just like to know… I mean, doesn’t all of this frighten you, too? Fellbrook, that inn, and last night… that can’t be normal, can it?”

  He heaved an exhausted sigh. “Look, ladyship, I’m not one to offer comfort. Well. Not in the way you’re looking for.” One corner of his mouth curled up.

  Heat crept up my throat. I lowered my lashes.

  “But… no. People aren’t all getting terrorized and torn apart every night.”

  My breath pooled out in a swirl of grey fog. Rain pattered around us. “Were you frightened? Last night?”

  He snorted. “Not ‘til you ran off. Like a moron. The music, the mist, the people out there… nothing we could’ve done about all that. But they weren’t hunting any of us. At least, not until you ran out.”

  “Who were they hunting?” Teela’s eyes grew large and round. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. I don’t understand why there were people out there.”

  I thought of the glazed blue eyes and dirt smeared across the old man’s face and swayed, fingers twisting at my tunic.

  “Do you think they were from the inn?” I whispered.

  Renner turned his back to us. “Could be. Salt, they could’ve been from the other side of the continent and brought back. We’ll probably never know.”

  I mulled that over. “Brought… back? What do you mean?”

  His shoulders stiffened. When he spoke again, his voice had lowered to something ugly and dark. “Prey with no hope of escaping doesn’t make for much fun, does it? Guess it’s not as exciting chasing humans around in their world, so sometimes they bring people back here. Let them loose, let them think they have a chance of escaping, and then… well. You heard it all.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  My blood turned to ice. Ashes that couldn’t be true, could it?

  Teela’s red eyes were wary. “How do you know all that?”

  Renner turned back around, grimacing. His gaze flicked towards me. “Tell you what; if we get to Pinnacle and they say you’re not a monster, I’ll start answering more questions.”

  “And until then… we just follow you north? Trust you’ll get us there safely?” Contempt bled into my voice. “After how you acted at the inn? And last night? You keep talking about not believing me, but why should we trust you?”

  His lip curled. “Be as angry as you like about the inn. I don’t risk my neck out in the middle of nowhere to defend thieves.”

  Teela glowered at him. Rain drummed around us, wind hissing through the pines.

  “And last night? You ran out, ladyship. Tried to save people, if everything you said was true.” He took a step closer, leaning in. Pine and leather hit my nostrils. “How’d that work out? Think you’ll sleep easier tonight?”

  Bone-white eyes blinked from a dark corner of my mind. “At least I tried! But you just… you didn’t even think about helping them! And I heard you, earlier. You keep saying I might be a monster, but you’ve killed people.”

  “Pacted.”

  “People,” I snapped, curling my hands into fists. “Look, making deals with Fae sounds awful, but you… you can’t just pass judgement without knowing the circumstances!” My voice rose several octaves. Panic loomed. Crimson pooled around my feet. Seeped up through the moss. Threatened to swallow me. “What if they had a good reason? What if they were trying to save someone? What if they were afraid and alone and-” I snapped my mouth shut and whirled away. My heart thrummed erratically.

  What if their best friend was lying in a pool of blood? What if he was going to die?

  Frosty raindrops pelted my face. I let out a slow breath. Watched the fog curl out, trying to steady myself.

  I didn’t do anything wrong.

  Teela and Renner were deathly quiet. I didn’t dare turn and see what their expressions might be like after that sudden, and possibly damning, little outburst.

  I didn’t do anything wrong.

  Twigs snapped from behind. I glanced over one shoulder. Renner stalked away, back towards the road.

  Rainwater dripped onto my eyelashes. I blinked, wondering at his reaction.

  “I’ve thought all that, too.” Teela sounded despondent. “I’ve never met someone who’s pacted. Everyone says they’re just as bloodthirsty as the Fae, and I’ve seen the aftermath of some of the horrible things they’ve done. But what if they were just… normal people who messed up?”

  Messed up, indeed. But from how my companions had described them, it seemed like they were all violent and dangerous. Had they been that way before they dealt with Fae, or had their wicked bargains somehow… changed them?

  I trudged through the curling mist and rustling pines, wondering.

  Our dreary midday turned into an even drearier afternoon. The air grew cold. The unending drizzle sporadically turned into rushed downpours, during which the three of us would duck beneath pine copses and huddle in tentative proximity.

  Renner often spent this time glaring at me.

  By the late afternoon my mood, tempered by a heady mixture of exhaustion and anxiety, turned foul. I routinely glared back at him.

  It was during our final pause, shivering beneath a small rocky outcrop and waiting out another deluge, that Teela chirped, “So when did you start using runes?”

  Some of the tension eased from my shoulders. My scowl melted.

  “On my twelfth birthday. I found a letter from my mother telling me that I was a runekeeper. Or rather, that I would be one. She left this, too.” I shifted my dripping cloak, revealing the leather-bound tome beneath. The cover was thick and warm beneath my fingertips. “They’re in here. The runes. Actual magic, just… written down. It’s incredible. And then that night, I… well, truth be told, it didn’t go so well. I tried one and fainted. That’s, uh,” I ducked my head sheepishly, “What happens, sometimes.”

  She let out a long, low whistle. “Wow. I mean, sorry about the fainting, that couldn’t have been fun, but wow.”

  “I don’t usually have very good results at first. Half the time I look at one and can barely stand up afterwards. Sometimes there’s, um, vomiting.” Heat flooded my face. “Our town cleric always said something about, ah, ‘mortal bodies not being made to hold divine power.’ I get better at them, though. With practice.” Feeling emboldened by the conversation, I lifted one hand. My fingers twisted. “Vir.” Warm golden light curled around my fingertips and settled in my palm.

  Renner flinched away. His expression became somehow even more displeased.

  Teela’s own hand rose. Her fingers trembled and she tentatively wiggled them into the glow. “That’s beautiful.”

  “It’s nothing,” I said, feeling almost shy. She began to protest and I quickly amended, “I mean, it’s not, it’s magic. I just meant… in comparison, you know?”

  Light danced across my fingertips, then flitted up to hang like a tiny sun between us. “There have been runekeepers who could do really incredible things. Brother Clem told me all about the Saints of history. Belpheron Dane made the entire Grace shift, once; that’s how there’s that channel running down through the Hallow Wood. And Daeva the Red called down a star. There’s a crater in the north where it fell, and it’s all just a sea of black glass now. Daeva the star-caller; that’s how they talk about her up in Lighthold. At least, according to Clem.” I smiled, giving my head a little shake. “I just meant, compared to all that… this isn’t much.”

  “Brin of Fellbrook, the… hm, the fire-caller.” Teela shot me a coy grin. “I dunno, sounds pretty impressive to me.”

  Warmth flooded through me. I opened and closed my mouth several times, probably looking quite like a fish, and fell into embarrassed silence.

  She laughed. The happy sound, and her tan face aglow with warm light, stood in stark contrast to our dreary surroundings. After a moment the light in my hand faded, dwindling into an echo of something beautiful. The patter of rainwater on moss around us softened.

  And when we emerged from the outcrop, my heart was just a bit lighter.