After the fireworks ended, Ben took my hand and pulled me back toward the house. I had a feeling all of the couples would be headed to their rooms now, which would leave Brice on his own. I watched as he shifted and took off into the woods. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He was the only one who didn’t have a significant other, after all. Still, I got the impression that he was trying not to let it bother him. Maybe he had a lady wolf waiting for him in the woods. When Ben tugged me into the house, I forgot all about Brice.
In our room, with the door closed, only the moonlight filtering through the curtains to provide illumination, Ben walked me backward to the bed, his mouth back on my shoulder, where it had been when Raven interrupted us all of those hours ago. “Where were we?” he whispered, slipping the strap of my dress down off of my shoulder. “Oh, yeah. I was tak
I woke up on January 2nd wondering if this would be the day that Ben went to talk to Starla or if he’d wait until the next day. It was a Monday, and we were supposed to start school again on Wednesday. We’d gotten emails and phone calls from Principal Short that all of the damage caused before Christmas break had been repaired. None of those messages mentioned the crazy mage who had lit a bunch of students and a teacher on fire. They made it sound as if the damage had been caused by something accidental, like a Bunsen burner that was accidentally left on too long. I guess I couldn’t blame him if he was trying to help everyone forget about the horror fest that was our last day of school.I slept pretty late that day because I was still tired from New Year’s Eve and the fun we’d had the day before, celebrating New Year’s Day. When I woke up, Ben wasn’t there. I heade
As soon as Ben headed out the door, I flew up the chimney, switching forms into a bird that followed him home. He seemed to recognize me as soon as he saw me, slowing down on the porch and waiting for me to morph into my human form. “Well, hello there, Harlow,” he said, shaking his head. He sounded more like Sam now than I could handle. “Have fun eavesdropping?”“Did you know I was there?” I asked him, checking to make sure I didn’t have any soot on me.“No, I didn’t, but I’m not surprised you were. Did you hear the whole conversation?”“Not all of it,” I said, “but enough. Do you believe her?”Ben shrugged. “I have no idea. I didn’t
We had one more day before school was scheduled to start. After about a month of being home, it seemed like torture to have to go back, but I was also looking forward to starting my last semester in high school. I had applied to a few colleges online, and every day, I would wake up and check to see if I’d gotten any responses. I would’ve loved to be going off to college, like I’d always dreamt, but I knew now, wherever I went, at least for the next year, I’d have to do it online because I’d either be needed with my pack, or I’d be in Europe. I had no idea what Mage Jaye’s plans were since we’d had our tiff since I hadn’t heard from her since the phone call where we’d argued, but she’d promised me I’d be hearing from her soon. I was beginning to think perhaps she was bluffing.Until that day before we were to start school again. W
I had won. It was difficult to believe. Mage Jaye had come all the way to Montana from Europe, seething the whole time, ready to put me in my place, to take me down a notch, to teach me a lesson, and whatever other viscous thoughts she had had in her mind for that entire long, boring flight. But in the end, when she’d gotten here, I’d reminded her that she needs me a hell of a lot more than I need her, and now, here she was pretending like she had somehow settled things in her favor.I didn’t expect an apology, and quitting while I was ahead entailed me not asking for one. We just had an understanding now. I would do whatever I could to help the council, as I had been doing, and she would shut the hell up when it came to trying to “punish” me when she disagreed with what I determined was the right thing for me to do for myself and for my pack. I could’ve been bluffing a
We waited until dusk, and then, Mage Jaye, Mage Nuthatch and I changed ourselves into owls and took off toward the mountains. It wasn’t snowy or windy, and the sun was just starting to go down, so the trip wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as it had been the last time I made it all by myself. That being said, it was still dangerous enough to make my feather stand on end as we took off, up into the air, on our way toward the mountains.I didn’t see the light at first. We were flying blind, except for my pack, that was running through the forest beneath us. They have a much better sense of direction than I do, so I stayed where I could see them. All of them stuck together and used their noses and the description I had given them from my last trip to figure out which way to go. Sam was with them, but Starla had stayed home, which was just as well. I felt more comfortable knowing the largest wol
The “old bird” next to me on the branch flew down to the ground, changing back into her human form as her shoes touched down on the snow. Nuthatch followed suit, standing behind her, and I decided I’d better do the same, even though I would’ve rather stayed in my current owl form in case I needed to fly away quickly. I still had no idea who this guy was, what he was capable of, or who was in the house behind him.“You’ve decided to show yourself at last, Dakota,” Mage Jaye said. I could tell without being able to see her face what expression she was wearing. Whoever this Dakota person was, he had disappointed her gravely.Laughing, he said, “You always insist on calling me that when you know I prefer Cody.”“I don’t give a damn what you prefer,”
After Mage Jaye gave Cody Buzzard her ultimatum, that he needed to pack up his mage friends and ride off into the sunset, or whatever the equivalent for evil people is, there wasn’t much else to say. Cody’s laughter basically told us all he wasn’t planning on going anywhere. So, Mage Jaye warned him that he had two weeks to get himself back into the shadows where he was no longer a threat to anyone, and then she shifted back into an owl and turned back toward my house.I wasn’t sure how having an enemy in the shadows was better than knowing where he was, but it wasn’t my place to ask her at the moment, in front of the threat himself. I was just about to shift into an owl and fly back, too, but just before I did so, Cody Buzzard said, “Come on, Harlow. You gonna keep answering to that crazy bitch your whole life?”I didn
“What are we going to do about this guy?” Brice asked for all of us as the pack gathered downstairs. According to Melanie, Mage Jaye had finished her tea and told her that she was going to retire to her quarters as Mel was walking by. She said she looked pale and like she was about ready to be sick to her stomach.“We are going to see what he wants,” I said with a simple shrug. “I mean, just because Jaye says he’s evil, that doesn’t mean anything, does it? She came all the way to Montana from Paris to punish me for not doing exactly what she said when she said to do it, so, really, I’m not sure I’m in a position to decide someone is evil just because she says so.”“Yeah, but he’s related to that other Buzzard I told you about in the woods the other day, right?” Brice asked.
There’s a comfy chair right next to the fireplace in the main living area of Brookstone. It has become my favorite place to sit. I can sit there for hours and do absolutely nothing but stare out the window at the beautiful forest and sparkling lake. It’s amazing to me to think how far I’ve come in just a year and a few months. I don’t just sit around and do nothing, though. I haven’t had to use my magic to fight off any other mages or shifters since we destroyed Grimly Grouse and his evil minions, but I do use my magic sometimes for other things, like producing presents for my friends or making mythical creatures to entertain us. Brookstone is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. Part of that is the fact that we modernized it and redecorated a lot of the rooms. We wanted all of the modern conveniences we were used to, but we didn’t ruin the amb
My plan had been pretty simple. I’d bust into Brookstone, make the other mages and any shifters that were there think that the house was on fire, and I’d run them out to where my pack mates were waiting to take them down.I had no idea one of my pack members had her own idea of what should happen then. I guess I should have. It isn’t as if she hasn’t shocked me enough times in the past for me to expect Fionna to do something… unexpected.The mages in Grimley’s pack came streaming out of the house. Most of them went out the front door because I’d started the alleged fire in the kitchen, which was in the back of the house, on the east side. Fionna, being the tricky mage that she is, had opened a portal right on the other side of the front door so that every single one of the mages who ran out that exit sprinted right int
I didn’t bother to get a ride back to Brookstone the next day. It was clear that no one wanted to drive out there anyway, and it wasn’t as if it was a necessity. We had other ways of getting there, after all.I volunteered to change my wolves into birds so they could fly with us, but all of them passed on that. They said they weren’t used to flying and were afraid they’d fall out of the sky or something. Like I’d let that happen. I’d rolled my eyes, but since most of the area around where we’d stayed the night before was woodsy and rural, we decided it would be okay for them to walk out into the woods and shift there. The rest of us would fly over.My wolves weren’t going to be entering the property until after I knew the situation in the house. Once I knew whether we were on the defensive or the offensive, I woul
It was difficult to get rooms with enough beds for all of us, but my wolves decided they could always shift into their wolf forms and sleep on the floor, and since most of them didn’t sleep much anyway, we went with that. I was definitely going to be sleeping that night, though. I was so tired, I could barely keep my eyes open to discuss the plan for the next day. Fighting mages is hard work--apparently.“So what is our plan for tomorrow?” Kaylee asked. We were gathered in the room she and I were sharing, all of us sitting on the beds, the floor, and the small sitting area. “I take it we’re going right back there since you wanted to stay so close, Harlow.”“Yeah, we need to go right back over there and take care of things once and for all,” I said. “We just need a plan that will get rid of Grimly Grouse as s
With the ground shaking beneath our feet, the mages lifted themselves up into the air. I pulled up my wolves, too, but that didn’t help save my house. The thought of Grimly Grouse destroying my family home was enough to make me want to set his hair on fire.The ground was cracking beneath us now, some of them were at least a foot across. The idea of one of my people dropping inside of one of them was enough to make me want to fly everyone out of there and back to our rental right away.“Kaylee,” I shouted, wanting to try to fix the problem beneath us and keep my wolves out of danger. “Can you take over for me?”“You mean… float them?” she asked. “All of them?”“We can all help,” Liam said from the o
Looking around at my mages, I tried to determine who I needed to help and who was okay on their own. Liam was taking on a large male mage with a nose ring and the appearance of horns coming out of his bald head. I assumed those were placed there by magic, and he didn’t really have horns growing out of his head, but it was difficult to know for sure. “Give it up, Harlow!” I heard Grimly shout from far behind the line of advance. “I have more reserves. You cannot win.” It was difficult for me to keep my eye on this brute that was about to knock Liam out and respond to the maniac in the back. I decided to ignore Grouse and concentrate on Liam’s predicament. I was fairly far away from the fight, and there were other engagements going on between me and Liam, but I couldn’t let that stop me. The devil guy with the horn
The mages from Brookstone were slowly walking toward us, their long cloaks in a rainbow of colors not even moving from the wind they made, their steps were so even and slow. I stared at them for a long moment, trying to determine what the best thing to do was. A quick estimate told me that there were probably about thirty of them, which meant my team was outnumbered about five to one as mages went. The wolves would be able to help a little, but not much. They were mostly there to fight off any wolves that came our way, and Grimly Grouse had stopped using those, pulling out the big guns instead.We really only had two choices. We could stand there and fight and probably get annihilated because we were outnumbered so badly, or we could run away, regroup, and figure out when and how we should come back. I was really starting to lean toward Plan B, but when I looked at the faces of my packmates, I could tell t
I took advantage of the fearful flicker I’d seen in Grimley Grouse’s eyes and hit him with a bolt of power before he had much time to expect it. He got his hands up, but it wasn’t enough to completely deflect it. I ended up hitting him hard enough to knock him backward almost to the edge of the stream. The other mages around him took a few seconds to stare in shock before they remembered they had powers and could possibly do something to help him.They weren’t going to be able to help him, though. My mages were all ready, so before any of the red cloaked mages could hit me with their powers, mine had their hands up, shooting rays of light to counteract the ones directed at me. I watched the magic around me bend and shift, redirecting back the way it was coming. A few of the red mages were knocked off balance, but none of them went flying the way that Grouse did, probably because mos
I heard the first sounds of battle coming from my left, to the southwest of the house, but I couldn’t tell who it was that was caught up first by the wolves coming from Brookstone. I thought that Raven and Tony had been the furthest to the south, but I wasn’t certain. I decided I should fly over there and have a look. Of course, by the time I got over there, there was a good chance the rest of my wolves would be under attack as well since we’d seen the wolves shooting through the forest at an incredible rate spread out in a line. As I landed, I heard the sounds of battle echoing across the forest as Grimly Grouse’s wolves collided with mine. This wasn’t going to be pretty. I changed back into my mage form as soon as my feet touched the ground and immediately fired a