Janni Simner - Faerie Winter

“Third time this month,” Johnny muttered. “And the farthest he’s managed to get yet.” He reached for Kyle’s hand, but Kyle stuck out his lower lip and shook his head. Could I use my magic to send him all the way home?

The crow cawed from its branch. “Look out!” Kyle yelled.

Johnny and I grabbed our knives as other crows answered from the trees all around us. Wing beats pounded the air as the birds attacked.

My blade grazed a black wing. A sharp claw scraped my cheek. “Go away!” I commanded.

“Go ’way, go ’way, go ’way!” Kyle echoed.

“Get down!” Johnny shouted at him.

My blade drew blood this time, and a crow dropped to the ground. The others whirled and took to the sky. I stepped back, panting, as the birds became black specks against gray clouds. How hungry did they have to be to attack us all at once?

“I told them. ” Kyle lifted his chin.

I sheathed my knife. Just then I didn’t care who Kyle thought had sent the birds away, as long as they were gone.

Johnny grabbed his brother’s hand. “Time to go, kid. I mean it.”

Kyle shook his head. I wiped blood from my cheek and looked around, scanning the trees. If more crows lurked there, they blended with bark and branch as well as before. Sunlight forced its way through the clouds, reflecting off something shiny at my feet. A child’s silver bracelet, with dangling charms: a heart, a key, a cat. I reached for it.

The bracelet shone brighter, too bright for the gray afternoon. Silver light filled my sight and I saw—

A girl my age with long clear hair standing on the trail, where charred flesh yet clung to the bones around her. She gazed at a woman with hair just as clear bound up in a glimmering net. “I passed your test,” the girl said, but the woman frowned, disapproval clear in her silver eyes. “Tell me whether any escaped this time,” the woman said, “before you speak of success—”

Karin, looking up at the same woman, speaking the same words: “I passed your test.” Only they stood in a deep green forest, and the woman smiled in response. Karin lifted her chin, pride plain enough in her bright eyes—

An elbow jabbed my side, and Johnny hissed under his breath. My fingers closed around the bracelet as the visions fled. A girl stood in front of me, the clear-haired girl I’d just seen—the same girl who’d watched a town burn with Ethan by her side.

I hadn’t heard her coming, any more than I’d ever heard Johnny.

The girl’s green dress and cloak were dusted with ash. So were her battered black boots. Her clear hair was pulled back by a silver butterfly, its bright legs twisted to form the clasp. She stared at us, stiff and straight-backed. I glanced at her silver eyes and knew she was no more human than Karin or Caleb.

Karin and Caleb had taught me not all faerie folk were monsters, but that didn’t mean they all could be trusted. I dropped the bracelet and waited, hand within reach of my knife, to see what this stranger would do. Johnny clutched Kyle’s hand, the older boy’s shoulders tensed.

Kyle frowned. “The butterfly doesn’t like it there.”

The girl reached around to touch the clasp, and the wings trembled beneath her hand. “It has been there many years, and butterflies are not accustomed to living so long. Would you have me kill it?” The girl spoke with idle curiosity.

What role had she played in the burning of the dead children around us—and why was she the only child from my visions untouched by Ethan’s fires? “Who are you?” I demanded.

Johnny rolled his eyes. “Charming as always.” The wariness didn’t leave him, but he held out his hand. “I’m Johnny. This is Kyle and Liza.”

I gave him a sidelong look. I would have kept our names from this stranger, at least until we knew why she was here. Names had power. I’d learned that laying shadows to rest.

“You may call me Elin.” The girl absently poked a bone with her boot. There were thorns woven into the hem of her dress and the edges of her sleeves. “Kyle. Johnny. Liza.” She turned the words on her tongue. “I think you should come with me.” Her voice took on a velvet softness. My skin tingled, as if her words were trying to take root there. Perhaps I’d only imagined it.

Perhaps not. I knew better than to ignore any instinct of danger. I turned toward Johnny, not letting Elin wholly out of my sight. “You should get Kyle home.”

“Yeah.” Johnny’s voice was strange, as if he weren’t quite awake. “Yeah, I think you’re right.” He stepped back, pulling Kyle with him. The younger boy jerked away and threw his arms around Elin’s legs.

“Stay with you!” he declared.

Elin looked down as if Kyle were a distasteful insect she’d found in her bedding. She turned to Johnny and me. “You’ll both come, too, of course.”

Johnny’s gaze softened. “Sure. Why not?”

Magic . Nothing else could make Johnny so agreeable. Gooseflesh prickled along my arms. Elin was calling him and Kyle, in some way I didn’t understand.

Kyle reached toward Elin’s hair. Elin smiled, removed her clasp, and put it into his hands. Her clear hair fell to her waist. The butterfly’s silver antennae quivered, and I felt something cold within the clasp reaching for me, begging to be set free.

Kyle smiled and patted the butterfly’s wings, as if he hadn’t wanted to free it himself moments before. The wings began to flap. “Pretty,” he said.

Glamour is like that . Mom’s words. It convinces you everything of theirs is so damned beautiful . Ice trickled down my spine, and I took a few steps back. “Johnny. Kyle. Come here.”

Kyle clutched the butterfly in one hand as he walked toward me, dragging his feet. I grabbed his other hand. Johnny slouched, as if he didn’t much care whether he listened to me or not, yet I felt the cold thread of my magic between us. “You always take everything so seriously,” he complained as he moved to my side.

I grabbed his hand, too. “Come on.” We’re getting out of here . I walked away from Elin, back toward my town. Kyle and Johnny followed; they had no choice. Once I got them safely away, I’d return to find Matthew.

“Kyle,” Elin called in her velvety voice.

Kyle kept holding my hand, but he pressed his lips into a pout. “Let me go , Liza.”

“Kyle, you seem like such a sweet child,” Elin crooned. “I would very much like to see the color of your blood. Will you show it to me? The butterfly’s pins are sharp enough.”

Kyle took the clasp and jabbed it into his arm. Blood trickled out. He lifted the clasp to stab himself again. I dropped Johnny’s hand, grabbed the butterfly from Kyle, and flung it into the forest.

Johnny bolted to Elin’s side before I could grasp his hand again. She stroked his hair, and he bent toward her, like a well-behaved cat.

“Johnny,” I called. “Come here.”

“Quit it, Liza.” His voice, at least, still sounded like his own.

“Johnny!”

He walked toward me, scowling. Even as he did, Kyle jerked free and inched away, a guilty look on his face.

“Kyle!”

Kyle stopped moving away, but Johnny turned back to Elin.

“So you’re a summoner, are you, Liza?” Elin placed a possessive hand on Johnny’s shoulder. “That’s almost as inconvenient as the fact that glamour doesn’t seem to touch you. Yet even a summoner only wields so much power, especially when other magics fight her. You cannot hold them both for long. Glamour grows stronger over time.”