I raised my voice to drown out the sound of the storm. “Horace, Lark—you two get to the caves. Find a spot we’ll be safe in. Leo, you and I can go get Rissa.” Horace opened his mouth to protest, his beard soaked and dripping, but I held up a hand. “We’ll be fine. If we’re not to the caves in an hour, then come find us, alright?”
He glowered at me but relented. “You have your dagger?” he asked. I flashed it at him and he grunted. “Here, take this, too.” He handed Leo the broken piece of the antler mask.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
Horace and Lark retreated into the shadows of the mountain. “You come across an enemy, stick the pointy end in them,” he said.
Leo cursed under his breath. I wanted to laugh, but the numbness inside of me had spread, muffling any other emotion besides the dread and exhaustion that filled the void where my magic used to be.
“Come on,” I said, taking his free hand.
We sprinted through the deluge in a mad dash. Fallen branches, waterlogged bushes, sinkholes, and exposed roots reached from the earth to trip us. The rain was coming down so hard now that I could barely see five steps ahead of me, but still, we ran, looking for any sign of the red fox.
Wind rushed through the trees and made the rain fall sideways. I gasped and spluttered against the wall of water. My foot caught on something hard, and my sandal straps snapped as my body flew toward the ground.
Strong hands caught me before I landed on the muddy forest floor. Leo wiped my sodden hair from my face and helped me back to my feet. His thumb grazed along the inside of my wrist before he bolted back into the tempest with grim determination. Tearing off my broken shoes, I followed on his heels.
Another whine pierced the night.
She was close.
Veering to the left, we followed the sound as best we could, redirecting when we heard her again.
Something splashed ahead of us.
I glanced at Leo and we both rushed forward, practically running into a dark red, drenched, severely pissed ball of fur. Her tail swung wildly back and forth in alarm.
“Rissa!” Leo exclaimed, falling to his knees before her.
She opened her mouth and dropped a dead, wet pheasant at his feet.
“You justhadto bring something back, didn’t you?” he said, shaking his head as he rubbed her ears, checking for signs of injury. She nuzzled her nose against his forearm.
“Why isn’t she shifting back?” I asked.
“She needs magic to shift. She can’t do it if the water took her magic away.” Rissa whined softly in confirmation.
I wiped more rain from my eyes. We had to get back to Lark. Had to find out if this was permanent. What if Rissa was stuck like this forever? What if our magic never returned?
The idea of living without my magic, of being unable to ever use it again, rocked me to my core. It was unthinkable. Like a blow to the gut, it sucked the air out of me.
“Let’s go,” I gasped out, trying to ignore the tightening of my chest.
We ran through the rain. The trail inclined steeply as we neared the side of the mountain. The slope was slippery, with rocks crumbling and sliding on the mud at our feet, but we slowly ascended until we reached level ground that overlooked the forest and the tops of the trees we’d been beneath just a short time ago.
Rissa bounded ahead of us, the bird still in her maw. Her red tail disappeared around a corner. When Leo and I rounded the bend, we saw the opening of a small cave, almost indiscernible in the night and rain.
I reached for my borrowed tin of herbs as we entered the darkness, placing a crushed angelica leaf on my tongue and murmuring, “Incendar.”
My stomach sank when I realized my mistake.
My magic was gone.
The truth, the finality of it, hit me.
“We’ll have to follow her,” Leo said. “She can see better than us.”
I swallowed and nodded. When I held my hand in front of me, I could barely make out its outline, but a soft brush of Rissa’s tail against my leg helped me trail her through the cave.
