The Aetherfae by Christopher Shields Page B

long. “Right here.”
    “Oh my gosh…” The garden journal was the most important thing to me. It signified everything about my family’s connection to the Weald, and was the one journal I didn’t leave hidden in the cottage. I brought it to Florida it to keep it safe, but after the hurricane I thought I’d lost it forever. She transformed it back to its original size and handed it to me. After thumbing through the first few pages, I slid it into my backpack.
    Mom wasn’t happy about moving the family so soon, but she agreed when Tse-xo-be explained that we were being “stalked” by Naji’s counterpart. In fact, she was paranoid. She climbed into the big white Lincoln and hollered at Mitch through the open door. “Move boys, we need to leave.”
    He and Justice walked with Doug and Ronnie, lugging their bags in no particular hurry. The rain didn’t seem to bother them. Candace helped my grandparents climb into the second row.
    “Mitch, please hurry,” Mom said, while scanning the woods surrounding the house.
    “Okay, okay, Mom.”
    “Now, Mitch!”
    I couldn’t read her mind, but I knew she was seeing images of Naji’s face and hearing his words when he said he’d come for all of us.
    Under a veil of Clóca, the Fae watched from the field as Ronnie loaded the bags and slipped behind Mitch into the third row. Doug climbed in next to me in the driver’s seat. He hadn’t said two words to me since we arrived. A few minutes before we left, Tse-xo-be let him, Ronnie, and Candace call their parents. Since we were leaving, he said there was no harm because the Fae tracking us would find our Vermont hide-away in the next twenty-four hours regardless of what we did. Doug had seemed happier during the call, but even more withdrawn when it ended. I couldn’t blame him.
    Justice stood at the open door and growled at something across the pasture. The hair stood up on the back of my neck. Justice’s snarls enhanced the nerves I was already feeling, and the sensation of being watched returned. I closed my eyes and let my mind float out of the car. I concentrated on Mara. Find Mara.
    My mind moved quickly, but not very far. Floating above the branch of the huge sugar maple at the edge of the woods where Mitch and I talked the day before, I abruptly stopped.
    “Justice, come on, boy,” Mitch called. I could hear him from across the grassy field some three hundred yards away.
    “Come on Justice, come on,” Candace joined in trying to cajole the big dog into the Navigator.
    I turned and looked. Justice stood fifteen feet from the open door of the white SUV, baring his teeth. I had seen him do that before. With Chalen, with Cassandra, and with Drevek—across the field my heart pounded like it was jumping out of my chest. She’s here. Without thinking, I snapped back into my body and sprang from the car, forcing the door shut behind me with my mind. With my invisible grip, I lifted Justice and pushed him into car.
    “What is it?” Mom wailed when I forced the door shut and wrapped the Navigator in my strongest Air barrier. Anger, rage, fear, they all mixed in my chest and I used them to pull up Quint. I lashed out at the tree in the space above the branch where I’d just been. The Ohanzee didn’t move from their hiding place a thousand feet away. I stood exposed for several seconds, expanding my Air barrier around the car and myself. She could be anywhere around me. I wish I knew her alignment. If she can make Clóca, she has to be either Water or Air, right?
    “Show yourself!” I snarled.
    Nothing happened.
    Are my nerves just getting the best of me? How could Justice sense what the Fae cannot? My nerves tingled—the sensation of being watched was stronger than ever. No, it’s not my nerves. She is here. Watching me. She’s close.
    I readied the raw elements of Fire and Earth, prepared to combine them into Quint, and quickly pushed my Air barrier out in all directions. I felt nothing as it doubled in size,