Kol grunted in agreement and stalked away. There was no use in being annoyed with her for sending him off, he knew, since the ruse didn’t need to be kept up when her family wasn’t around, but disappointment still twisted inside him, squirming around like the funny feeling that came with hearing her laugh and seeing her smile, and his annoyance only grew at all the foreign nonsense jumbling up his guts.
With the bags secured in the truck’s bed, Kol couldn’t just turn back around—she’d asked to be left alone, and since she was no longer in danger of passing out, he’d oblige. So Kol trudged away from the busy part of town to find someplace to be alone.
9
Seemingly Benign Bargains
Of course I can’t get a hold of him! Elves probably don’t evenhavecell phones.” Piper stuffed her own back into her bag and stomped up the road. She’d finished her shopping and delivered everything to the truck, but Kol was nowhere to be found. Maybe he would show up at The Henhouse, and maybe he would even be on time, but without her reminders? No one else ever managed that, and why Kol would be any different—
She came to a stop and raked fingers down her face.I shouldn’t be mad at him, she thought,it’s my fault he doesn’t know. And maybe…maybe Kol was a little different. He wasn’t entirely human, so at least he had that going for him.
Piper spotted Luis wrangling his toddler down the road and knew more family members would be following just behind, so she bolted into a narrow alley between two of the shops. If she was spotted on the street alone, she didn’t know how she’d explain away losing her boyfriend.Well, he’s not actually real, so if I don’t think about him, he just sort of…disappears?
No, that wouldn’t work, especially since shehadbeen thinking about Kol even when she’d sent him away which was almost as embarrassing as admitting she’d misplaced him. It was just that she didn’t know his favorite color or what kind of pattern he would prefer, so she had to guess as she perused the shop, and that took time. It took even more time when her mind wandered back to being pushed down onto a bench and force-fed a pastry. It was a lot of sugar for first thing in the morning, but Piper couldn’t fault the sweetness.
The alley spilled out onto a service way filled with dumpsters and back doors, significantly less charming than the cheerful decor of Hiberhaven’s main thoroughfare. She hurried away from the direction she’d seen her family and came out at an empty crossroads, a row of townhouses across the way and a quiet street snaking off between them toward the trees.
Yup, that’s almost definitely where he went. Or, it’s where I would go, at least.She squinted, and she could see the oversized bootprints in the light dusting of snow.
A sparse forest sloped gently downward at the dead-end street past the townhouses. She hadn’t realized how perpetual the holiday music had been until she stood alone in the new quiet of late afternoon. A brisk breeze nudged at her back like Kol had done so many times that day, guiding her out of harm’s way when she’d been queasy and distracted by hunger. She hadn’t meant to go so dumb when he’d ordered her to sit, but no one ever really told Piper what to do, and she was stumped to not have to make a decision. It was nice to have someone bring something to her for a change.
The wind picked up, and the bare trunks creaked. These trees weren’t magic, not like the one back home, but they still gave her a shiver. She could feel the spruce’s magic the moment they left the house, or the lack of it really, and she missed the calming vibration it gave off in the cabin. But now there was something else that prickled up the back of her neck in its place. Only this wasn’t as joyful, and it definitely wasn’t as soothing. In fact, it was sort of…angry?
Piper turned around because even if one isn’t explicitly told tolook out, sometimes one justknows. That’s Magic, it just doesn’t have a voice to speak, so it does other things like make the hair on the back of one’s neck raise or stab one’s mind with seemingly unfounded anxiety.
So Piper turned, anxiety completely founded, and while looking only gave her a brief head start, that was much better than no head start at all.
Teeth and wings andneckscharged from on high. Piper shrieked and bolted, boots taking her into the forest with abandon. She dodged trees with the expertise that only a woman eluding a gaggle of geese could muster. Well, they weren’t a gaggle, not when they were in the air—then geese were called a skein—but that knowledge was absolutely no help when being chased. Their ability to fly really only made things worse as she maneuvered between the trees and glanced back to see the damn things roll and twist to avoid the branches just as easily.
Geese! What the hell weregeesedoing chasing her? Grey feathered, the tips of their wings glistened white, but there was no way snow could hang on at their speeds. And while geese did have serrated bills that looked a bit like teeth, these were sporting elongated, sharpened fangs that she wouldn’t have believed she was seeing clearly if one wasn’t right behind her, chomping down on the tail of her scarf.
Piper surged forward with another scream. She knew she was supposed to stand her ground against geese, they were mostly hiss and very little hit, but never had one come at her so intensely, nor had she been so overwhelmed with the fear these ones inspired, so she just kept running over rocks, through brambles, and finally right over the edge of an embankment.
The only upside of Piper tumbling onto her backside was that the flock lost her, disappearing over the trees as she slid deeper into the forest. She clawed at the earth, but there was no stopping until she reached the bottom of the small gorge. Relief burst in her chest when she landed even with pain shooting up her back until there was a honk. It was distant, echoing out somewhere above the trees, and then there was a second in response, followed by a third, and if she thought she knew what angry honking sounded like before, she was profoundly corrected with the sound of a mounting attack.
Piper scrambled to her feet, the setting sun blinding through the leafless branches overhead, shadows swooping through the brightness. She turned and tried to climb, but her feet wouldn’t find purchase in the softness of the snow on the embankment. She grabbed onto the nearest root and hoisted herself upward, but it snapped, and she went careening flat onto her back.
Left with half a root in hand, she groaned.The trees have turned on me!
A mass of grey feathers descended, and Piper wrapped arms over her face, pulling her knees to her chest. Her jacket tore as bills—no,fangs—bit at her. Piper thrashed, but despite hearing a distressed honk, her fist didn’t connect with anything, and all the light was blotted out by shadow. “Oh, my god, fuckoff!”
“But I’m trying to save you!”
Piper sucked in a shocked breath and opened her eyes.
There Kol stood above her, a fallen branch wound back over his shoulder, feathers plastered to it, and horror painted on his face. “That’s going to piss them off,” he murmured then reached down and grabbed the front of her coat.
Piper was hoisted to her feet, and Kol gripped her hand, breaking into a sprint. Though he was significantly faster, she managed to keep up with only a quick look back at the rallying geese, beady eyes flashing red.
“What…is…happening?” she huffed through lost breath.
“I told you: birds!” Kol took a sharp turn and yanked her along.
“Birds don’t haveteeth,” she shrieked, dragged to the ground as Kol dropped to his knees behind a fallen tree.
He ripped off a glove, slapped his palm on the massive log, and the earth beneath them rumbled. The log cracked under his hand, and Piper threw herself against Kol at the sight of gnarled tendrils springing out of dead wood. There was heat and static as what Piper was coming to learn was magic filled the very air. The sounds of their pursuers still echoed in the wood, and the world around them darkened as branches thickened in every direction. She threw both arms around Kol’s middle and squeezed, shrieking in terror into his shoulder.
And then, everything stopped—the sounds of creaking limbs and beating wings, and the prickly feel of magic sizzling over her skin—but Piper remained clinging to Kol, face buried against him, holding her breath. He was the source of every terrible thing, she knew that, and yet the thought of being separated from him filled her with utter dread.
