The House Of Gaian

wildflowers. And yet, she could feel a lingering something when she was close to the spot, something she recognized as Kernos even though the Gatherer had taken his spirit to the Shadowed Veil so that he could go on to the Summerland.
    What needs to be said and done today... it’s fitting that it’s done here , Ashk thought. I miss you, Kernos. I miss your laughter and your wisdom.... And I hope with all that’s in me that I have the strength and courage you believed me to have .
    She walked to the center of the meadow before she set her bow, canteen, and quiver of arrows on the ground. Her woodland eyes, a brown-flecked green, scanned the trees as she ruffled her ash-brown hair with her fingers. The cropped hair felt strange after letting it flow down her back for so many years, but she couldn’t afford to have anything interfere with the smooth, swift movement of drawing an arrow from the quiver and nocking it to the bow. Not where she was going. Not with the enemy she was heading out to meet. It would be better to die a swift death than to fall into the Inquisitors’ hands.
    Neall set his things beside hers as he, too, scanned the trees. “I don’t see any sign of the nighthunters.”
    “There are a few left, but not many,” Ashk replied. “There’s still a feeling of wrongness in the woods, but it’s fainter now.” She looked at Neall, who was still crouched beside their weapons. “You feel it, too.”
    “Yes.”
    Ashk nodded. He didn’t understand yet what his being so attuned to the subtleties of the woods meant, but soon he would.
    “Ashk.” Neall rose to his feet. He took a deep breath, puffing his cheeks as he exhaled. “With everything that needs to be done, do you really think we should take the time for a lesson?”
    For this one , Ashk thought, stepping away from the weapons. Because of what needs to be done, it’s time for this one .
    Neall followed a few steps behind her, his eyes and attention still on the trees. The nighthunters didn’t like sunlight, and she and Neall were in the center of the large, sunlit meadow; but even during the daylight hours, the creatures the Inquisitors had created by twisting magic were a threat in the shadows of the woods.
    He wasn’t paying attention to her because he trusted her.
    She turned, said, “Change,” immediately shifted into her other form, and sprang at him, her fangs bared.
    Even a month ago, he would have hesitated for that fatal moment that would have given her the advantage. Now he shifted in an instant, and the young stag leaped aside, pivoting as soon as he touched the ground, his head lowered, the tines of his antlers a weapon against her fangs.
    She charged him again and again—and he met her, again and again, never giving her the opening to leap in and nip him in a place that, in a real attack, could disable him. He thought like a man, but he’d learned how to use that stag body that was his other form. Because he thought like a man, he didn’t do the one thing a real stag would have done—he didn’t run. There were times when she’d chased him around the meadow to build his endurance, to help him learn the stag body, but this lesson was a battle to confirm something for herself and to prove something to him.
    Panting from the effort, she finally leaped away, putting some distance between them. Then she changed back to her human form.
    “Enough,” she said, walking slowly toward their gear.
    He remained in stag form, pivoting to watch her.
    She bent to pick up her canteen, winced a little as her muscles protested. It had been awhile since she’d worked that hard in her shadow hound form. She glanced at him, could feel his confusion and anger pulsing over the meadow. “Enough, Neall.”
    He hesitated a moment longer, then changed back to human form and strode toward her, his hands curled into fists.
    “Mother’s tits, Ashk! What was that about?”
    “A lesson,” she replied quietly. She opened the canteen and filled her mouth with water, savoring the cool wetness before she swallowed. “Kernos did it differently with me, but the lesson was the same.”
    He stared at her. As understanding filled his blue eyes, he shook his head in denial. “I’m not.”
    “You are.”
    “I can’t become the Lord of the Woods. I’m not pure Fae. They would never accept it. Besides,” he added, sounding a bit desperate, “ you’re the Hunter now, and I’m not about to challenge you .”
    Ashk took another sip of water