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She didn’t reach out for one. Unlike Baun, she didn’t want to hide in a fantasy, because without Dylan, no fantasy, no matter how lavish, was worth dreaming.

Against a Dark Sky

The sun peeks around the trees, barely lighting the area in front of the caves. I survey the area with a critical eye. So this is where Kera’s friends, those tainted by human blood, live in relative safety thanks to the spell that keeps the firsts from entering the area. I’d say it’s one step above camping…barely.

The kid tells us to wait. Bodog and I stand, cold and dead tired, waiting and waiting for someone to acknowledge we’re here. A few ticks past a quarter of an hour goes by before we hear footsteps echoing in the cave and a none-too-pleased female voice.

“No more playing about, Halim. If you don’t stop sneaking out, I will tie you to your bed.”

“Galt already tried that. Didn’t work. I got strong teeth,” he says, teeth bared as he reemerges from the cave, a girl in tow.

The girl stops. Her full blue skirt swirls around her legs for a split second, making the embroidery along the hem dance. The white blouse highlights the paleness of her skin and her freckles. With her red curls and tiny stature, she resembles a doll…a very serious, angry doll.

“I remember you.” She pushes back an unruly curl and glares.

Once again, I’m the unpopular one. Totally sucks. “You’re Lani’s sister.”

“Yes. Signe. And you’re Dylan.” She doesn’t move closer, only stares like she wishes I’d disappear. “Why is it every bad thing that has happened in Teag lately is connected to you?”

I can’t say I particularly like this girl.

I shrug. “I’m lucky that way.” My answer doesn’t please her. Watching her is like watching a thermometer rise. A red flush starts along her collarbone and slowly rises up her neck and into her face.

An elbow from Halim breaks her stare and she clears her throat. “Halim tells me you are searching for Kera?”

“She’s been taken. Halim thinks someone here might know where.”

“Does he?” Signe twirls a ring on her finger, and I can almost see her brain ticking through ideas. Is she actually weighing whether or not to tell me what she knows?

The sound of footsteps reaches us, and I see a guy move from the caves and stand alongside her. He looks familiar, though I’m positive I’ve never met him before. Signe whispers something to him I can’t hear.

“It’s not up to you,” I hear him say. A flash of familiarity happens again when he turns back to me and nods. “So you’re Dylan? Your grandpa said you were borrowing trouble, but I never thought it was connected to this place.”

I give him a hard stare and then the dots finally connect. The dark coloring. The same jawline. “You’re Wyatt’s brother, the one who’s been missing. Reece, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me.” The deep lines on his face don’t give him a user-friendly feel. There’s an edge of sadness about him that makes me not want to get too close.

“Everyone’s been looking for you. Your brother’s here, you know. In the village. It was attacked yesterday, and he’s helping out the firsts.”

“He would.” Reece doesn’t give an explanation about why or how he got here. His intense hazel eyes roam between Bodog and me, and eventually lock on to Bodog, who’s yawning and scratching parts that should only be scratched in private.

“This is Bodog.” I pause, wondering how I’m going to explain him. In the end I say, “He’s a friend.”

“He looks…friendly enough.”

Bodog steps toward Signe. His red-rimmed, googly eyes drop to the ring and then back up to her face. “You can find her, can’t you?”

“She can,” Reece says and pulls her forward.

She’s fighting him; I can see it in the ridged set of her jaw and the glint of steel in her eyes. Her gaze lands on me for a split second. Whatever she’s mad about, she blames me. She’s made that perfectly clear. With a quick yank, she pulls away from Reece. “I’m just supposed to trust him?”

“Yes.” The word rips from my throat. “Kera’s been gone too long. I know she’s alive, but I don’t know for how much longer. If you care about her at all, you’ll help me.”

Her cheeks pale, and her hands grip the cloth at the side of her gown into little coiled balls. “Never again say I care naught for her. She is the only family I have left.”

“Then show me. Find her.”

Signe stands rooted to the spot, glaring at me for so long, I begin to question whether or not she’s heard anything I’ve said. Reece finally whispers something in her ear and it’s like she’s snapped from some spell. She hikes up her skirts and drops to the ground, her knees digging into the soft earth, yet her back remains ramrod stiff. Gathering a handful of dirt, she glances up at us, and the first sign of hesitance peeks out. “I am not a first. I’ve never done this before. I have no control over what may happen.”

Halim moves close and puts his hand on her shoulder. “It’ll work. I know it will.”

She takes a deep breath and holds her hand out so that the dark-blue stone set within her ring faces up. As she mutters, the stone glows, casting a circle of blue light in a deep arc. She tosses first one handful and then another handful of dirt into the air. The dirt swirls within the blue glow and collects into a three-dimensional map where it hovers in midair, its detail amazingly accurate. A blue line cuts through the image, like a road that runs from us to Kera.

“It stops here, only a league west from us.” Signe follows the line’s path with her finger. “I don’t understand. Nothing is there but farmland and an old bridge people say is cursed. How can she be stuck there?”

I move closer and trace along the blue line as well. “Something has to be there that we can’t see. Right, Bodog?”

Bodog grunts and taps the bulbous end of his stick to his temple. “Magic fools the eyes.”

“Magic doesn’t fool me.” Halim’s dirt-smeared face scrunches with suspicion.

I cover Signe’s ring. The map disintegrates as the dirt falls to the ground. “If she’s there, I’ll tear through any magic to get to her.”

Signe stands; a determined gleam enters her eyes. “I’m going with you.”

“Whoever has her won’t let her go without a fight,” I warn.

And then Signe does the oddest thing. She recites a poem:

True Evil abounds

In spirit and thought

While good surrounds

Where death is wrought.

To the Unknown

Which none can see

Where flesh and bone

Take flight from thee.

It’s been my experience that most poetry avoids clarity, and I’m not sure why. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I haven’t recited that in years. It’s an old nursery rhyme. It fits, though, don’t you think?” Her lips quiver, and she faces Bodog. “She’s in the Unknown, isn’t she?”

Bodog’s ears flop against his head as he nods.

“If that’s true,” she says softly, “we are in serious trouble.”

I don’t like the sound of that. “We need to leave. Like now.”

Halim’s cheeks brighten with excitement. “I agree. Let’s go get her.”

Reece turns the boy around and shoves him toward the caves. “You’re not going.”

The boy twirls around, a frown shadowing his features. “Yes, I am.”

“No,” Reece repeats. “You’re not. And just so we’re clear, your face will meet the ground, hard, if I even see you come out of that cave before I leave.”