Wynter's End Read online

“That was nice of her,” I said, spearing a forkful of lettuce. I’d opted for a salad instead of the hamburger and was becoming more and more happy with my choice as I watched William’s face scrunch up even further while he stared at his tray.

  “You haven’t been around her much lately, have you?” Tommy asked. “The least thing anyone does is setting her off. I accidentally bumped into one of the bookcases yesterday, and you would have thought I’d murdered someone. She chewed me out for a solid five minutes without taking so much as a breath.”

  “Yeah, and the day before, she found Ed and Hannah in the hallway by the lockers. She wasn’t exactly nice about that either,” Michael said. Even though he hadn’t said what exactly the two of them had been doing, Eats Dirt Young Eagle’s face flushed crimson, and he ducked his head under the pretense of shoveling more food into his mouth.

  “I’ve heard stories of her losing her temper all week with everyone. Davy Britton was telling me he saw her go into Principal Giles’s office, and it sounded like the walls were being torn down in there.” Erik shook his head. “At least she picked a Woodsburl to tangle with. If anyone could take on a Spriteblood, I’d place my money on him.”

  “Maybe she just needs a vacation,” I said, trying to lighten the situation with humor. In reality, my stomach was in knots as I listened to their stories of Wynter.

  “Yeah, if only she could go on it now and leave us be in the library. That would be wonderful,” Tommy said sorrowfully. “I don’t think we’ll get that lucky though.”

  “Any idea what time you guys will be done?” Adam asked. “I’ll take everyone else home and then come back and get you if you have an idea of when you’ll be finished harassing Mrs. Graham.”

  “No clue.” Michael groaned.

  “I can stay after and wait on them,” I said. “I don’t have anything pressing going on after school.”

  “Are you sure?” Adam asked.

  “Positive. Mom is taking Emily for some last-minute shopping since they’re leaving early in the morning, and there won’t be anyone home anyway. The least I can do is run interference for them. Besides, maybe they’ll get done faster if I keep Wynter occupied.”

  The cousins gave me their identical wide, happy grins.

  “Oh! Completely unrelated,” William said, cutting in. “I talked to Logan. He and Claire are planning on coming in this weekend to…help out.” His gaze was on my shoulder, as if he knew about the bandage beneath the fabric.

  “Thanks,” I replied. “That was fast. I didn’t expect them to come in so soon.”

  He shrugged. “They didn’t have any plans. I called them up, and he said they’d be down.”

  “Oh…okay.” I didn’t know what else to say.

  How is your shoulder? Adam’s voice bounced in my head. I looked at him and noticed him waiting for an answer.

  I still didn’t think it was fair that he could talk to me so easily without speaking a word, and I couldn’t do the same. So I did the closest I could manage and gave him a smile and a small nod, sending my own version of it’s okay to him.

  He reached under the table and squeezed my hand, and the conversation turned to the spring dance.

  “I think it’s nuts they’re having the dance at the end of spring break. Who’d want to go to that?” Erik asked, disgusted.

  “I want to go to that, and you’re going to take me.” Penny glowered at him, immediately squelching any chance that he might say otherwise.

  “Okay,” he said meekly as everyone at the table burst into laughter.

  As everyone began talking about different things, my mind wandered back to Wynter, and I found myself curious as to what was happening with her.

  The cousins hadn’t been joking. I could tell something was off the instant I stepped through the library’s giant wooden doors. The atmosphere had always held magic before. Even when it was carefully cloaked to keep the human students’ eyes from seeing the books that fluttered through the air—as they rearranged themselves in order—or the bookcases that occasionally scooted to different locations, there was still magic in the air. I didn’t know if it was something only I felt, or if everyone else could too, but it was always there. Now, it was completely different.

  While it had seemed enchanted and magical before, now it felt foreboding, and I hadn’t even spotted the librarian in charge yet.

  Michael and Tommy sneaked off in the direction of the history books they were after with a quick promise to hurry as fast as they could. I sat in one of the chairs a safe distance from the tall bookcases near a short, squatting one holding magazines. At least here, I’d have a chance of not being squashed should one them decide to topple over.

  Being here now reminded me of the one other time I had felt magic change in this room. That time, it had been spelled to keep the library safe from intruders when Mrs. Graham was away. I glanced at the gigantic metal staircase spiraling up to the top floor. It had acted like an accordion, trapping the cousins inside.

  No, with the way everything felt in here right now, I’d just stay where I was and take my chances with the magazine stand.

  I heard the cousins whispering a few aisles over as they plundered through the books. Other than the three of us, the library seemed empty.

  Where was Mrs. Graham?

  Then I spotted her.

  She stood at the window, a look of such profound sadness on her face like I had never seen before. I knew then why the library had taken on a foreboding atmosphere. It was protecting the one staring out the window.

  I wanted to go to her and offer comfort of some kind, despite the fact I knew she could kill me in an instant, should the mood suit her. I’d been around enough Spriteblood to know I was the least powerful where that was concerned.

  The cousins came around the bend then, their arms full of books, and the moment was lost. Wynter left her place at the window and came to the desk to check them out, her guise as the no-nonsense Mrs. Graham firmly in place.

  “You have one week to bring them back.” She scanned the books and put them in a pile.

  “Just one week?” Michael whined. “When did that policy take effect? It was always two weeks before.”

  “It’s one week because in precisely one week you have the exam to prove you actually read them,” she said in a cold reply.

  Neither cousin could argue with that, so they thanked her quietly, grabbed their books, and scooted out of the library.

  As I left to follow, my eyes met Wynter’s, and I saw a hint of the sadness there, hidden just beneath the tough façade. I gave her a small smile and nodded. She stared at me for the briefest of seconds, then turned away, as if something on the far wall had caught her attention.

  As we left the school and crossed the parking lot to get to my Jeep, I glanced at the library window, knowing I would see her there again. And she was, staring out toward the sidewalk.

  I craned my neck to see what she was looking at. There was someone there, just on the other side of the hedge. I could see a glimpse of brown shoes and dark trousers.

  “Hey, aren’t you parked over this way?” Tommy asked when I didn’t follow them, my curiosity leading me straight down the sidewalk.

  “I see the Jeep over there,” I heard Michael tell Tommy in a huff. “I’m going to die if I have to keep carrying these books for much longer.”

  In spite of their complaining, they stuck right behind me, though I bet one of them stopped for a second after I heard the sound of a book hitting the concrete.

  Our rather loud approach got us the attention of the mysterious man, and he stepped into view.

  “Hello, Mr. Perkins,” I said politely, hoping I didn’t look too shocked to see him. Seeing the town librarian staring at the school librarian wasn’t what I’d expected, though the more I thought of it, they seemed a perfect match…with the exception of the little issue of her not being human.

  “I promise I’m not one of those people,” he said, his face flushing with embarrassment, no do
ubt assuming we thought him some sort of weirdo who hung out in hedges.

  “Of course not,” I said, grinning. I glanced at the window, then back at him, knowing I was grinning wider and wider each second, but I couldn’t help it. “Why don’t you go in? You don’t have to stay out here. I know she’d be happy to see you.”

  “I can’t,” he said sadly, his voice oddly matching the sorrow I was becoming accustomed to hearing in Wynter’s. “She won’t let me come any closer.” And with that, he turned and walked away, head low and shoulders drawn as if the very thought of staying away from her was the hardest thing in the world to bear.

  Tommy whistled low. “Never would have figured those two as a match.”

  Michael groaned. “Yep, match made in heaven. They both love books. Can we go now?”

  The instant I dropped the cousins off at the Res, it hit me.

  There was one thing I’d meant to do before my mom made it home. Now it was going to be too late.

  I passed the garbage truck as it headed out toward town, and I held my breath, praying my mother’s car wouldn’t be in the driveway when I made it home. She and Emily were going to be leaving for a week-long trip to Florida, a quick getaway that served both as a mini-vacation to visit our relatives and so they could pick up Tori and Brian who were down there visiting her dad. I hoped like crazy they’d still be shopping, but I knew my mom would want to be home by now. Still, I held my breath as I turned the corner.

  No such luck. Her little blue car sat in its usual spot, announcing that I was, indeed, in a heap of trouble.

  It wasn’t the fact I had forgotten to take the trash out.

  It was the fact I’d forgotten to hide my ruined shirt in the bottom of the garbage bag to go out. I’d stuck it the trash can in my room—right on top of everything.

  “Maybe she’ll have forgotten to go upstairs and get everything from up there. Maybe she will have been too busy packing to go into my room,” I said hopefully, talking to myself as I got out of my Jeep and headed onto the porch. “It might not be bad.”

  Emily opened the door and whispered, “It’s bad,” completely dashing any hope I had of getting out of telling our mother a lie about why my shirt was covered in blood.

  “Nicole Harmon, get in here!”

  Sure enough, Emily was right. Rarely ever did our mother use our entire name, but when she did, she meant business. I edged around the corner of the doorway, peeking into the kitchen. I saw her at the table, hands folded in her lap as she stared at my shirt in front of her.

  “Come in here and explain this to me, please.”

  I sat down warily, keeping an eye on her. She was tense, as if every muscle was poised to strike. It was a nervous calm, something I knew from years of experience to be the worst kind. If she was showing emotion of any kind, then it wasn’t going to be so bad. Unfortunately, she was still. Not good news for me. I eased into the chair in front of her and took a deep breath.

  Where to begin? I thought for a quick second about everything that had happened since I had come to Bland. From that first night when I saw Adam at the edge of the forest to now, with me being the Seer of the Pack who also had the spirits of four animals inside me. How was I supposed to explain all of this?

  “I’m waiting,” she said in a tone that implied her patience was running out.

  “Mom,” I said, “you know how you always used to tell me there are things in this world you can’t explain?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, I’m one of them.”

  “Nice try,” she replied, her eyes narrowing. “Explain.”

  “I’m able to see things and know things before they happen,” I blurted in one swift sentence. It sounded garbled and rushed, even to my own ears.

  “Yes, I know.”

  “You know?” Never had I expected to hear those words. You’re lying? Yep, expected that. Tell me the truth and quit making up stories? Yep, expected that too. But…I know? Nope. Not in a million years.

  Luckily, I didn’t have to ask how she knew. Instead of me explaining the past few months, she started explaining things to me instead.

  “Your father’s family has always had special gifts. They always had a way of knowing when something was going to happen. Unfortunately, I haven’t been blessed with these special powers. What I want to know why this shirt is ripped and bloody. It has something to do with the wolves, doesn’t it?”

  My mouth dropped open.

  The barest hint of a smile touched her lips. “Yes, I know about the Pack. Did you really think the sheriff and Anita were going to keep me in the dark as to the strange things that happen in Bland County, especially with my job of being a dispatcher?”

  I’d never thought of that and found myself making sheriff Black Water a silent promise to thank him the very next time I saw him.

  “You still haven’t answered my question,” she said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “What happened to this shirt?”

  “Ronnie was helping me fly. She kinda saved me.” I knew this wouldn’t make a bit of sense to anyone else in this world, but maybe, with the amount of knowledge she apparently knew, it would be enough.

  “I was right thinking it was a claw mark. Why didn’t you tell me what happened? You might have needed stitches, Nikki.”

  “I didn’t know you knew everything. I didn’t know how to tell you. And…I didn’t want you to worry.”

  “Even if I didn’t know, you need to make me a promise. If something like this happens again, I expect you to tell me. I don’t want to find out from someone else. I’d much rather know what is going on from you. I’m your mother, and it’s my job to worry. All right?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I promised.

  She smiled the first true smile I’d seen since before this whole conversation began. A wave of relief washed over me. Never had I figured her knowing what I was would be so freeing. I jumped out of my chair and shot straight into her arms like a little kid who wanted nothing more than to be held by her mother.

  Which reminded me instantly of Emily.

  My sister…who had lately been able to foresee much more than I could.

  A little part of my brain clicked with the information my mother had given me. At least now I wouldn’t have to wonder what power my sister held. Hers was part of my family’s special traits. Nothing more. I wouldn’t have to wonder if one day I would need to let her hold the tiny book in my necklace to help her with her own magic one day. Still, my curiosity was piqued. How strong had my ancestors been? Were they the reason I was able to be the Seer to the Wighcomocos Tribe, even though I didn’t hold a single drop of their own bloodline?

  I leaned back from my mother’s embrace. “Would you tell me more of the stories about Dad and the others? I’d like to hear more about them.”

  “Me too!” Emily announced, bounding into the room, seemingly out of thin air. I sat in my chair, and she hopped onto my lap, and we waited for my mother to begin her tale.

  “Where should I start?”

  “At the beginning,” Emily and I said in unison, then laughed.

  As my mom began talking about my father, I knew I wanted to lock this moment of us together in my mind forever. While other people might make memories with their folks during vacations and holidays, I was making one not everyone else in this world could make. I was getting to learn about magic with two of the people I loved most.

  Chapter Three

  The next weekend brought me help of a sort. I knew they were coming mere seconds before I heard the gravel in the driveway crunch. It was the first bit of my “sight” that had shown itself since my dream of Wynter, so I took it to be a good sign. I opened the front door in time to see a girl with dark, shoulder-length hair get out of the passenger side of a small red car. A dark-headed guy got out of the other side.

  Then William hopped out of the back with a huge smile on his face. “Hey, Nikki! This is Claire and Logan.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, watching as they all c
ame up the steps and onto the porch.

  The girl, Claire, gave me a warm smile, and the first thing I noticed were her eyes. They were a light, clear blue that reminded me of the sky.

  William’s brother wasn’t quite as friendly.

  The dark and brooding sort, eh? I thought, eyeing him cautiously. He gave me a curt nod and shoved his hands in his pockets as he leaned against the railing.

  “Want to come inside?” I asked.

  “Thanks for the offer, Nikki, but Logan and I are heading to Wytheville to catch the new Batman movie,” William explained.

  “What he means is they’re just here to drop me off and that you’re completely at my mercy,” Claire said, her laughter causing the blue in her eyes to sparkle.

  “She isn’t as bad as she lets on,” Logan said, his first words catching me off guard. I hadn’t expected him to say anything at all. His eyes hadn’t left Claire in all the time they’d been standing here. The way he watched her now made me second-guess his tough-guy act.

  Maybe he wasn’t as tough as I’d thought. She caught his stare, and their eyes locked for a moment. It didn’t take my ability as a Seer to know what they felt for one another.

  Watching them made me miss Adam, and I found myself wondering how long it was going to take them to find the missing hiker.

  As if on cue, he and the other Keepers emerged from the edge of the forest in wolf form. They shifted all at once in a flurry of swirling colors as they stepped into my yard.

  Adam jogged across the driveway and up onto the porch. He nodded toward my company, acknowledging them without saying a word, and then came straight to me. He gathered me up close to give me a kiss that made my heart race.

  Several catcalls came from the Keepers, as well as a suggestion we needed to find a room, before Adam set me down. “Have to go now,” he said with a grin. “Just wanted to stop and see you first.”

  And with that, he ran back down the steps and joined his pack. They shifted and vanished just as quickly as they had appeared.

  “Wow…” I said, breathless. “That was…unexpected.” Part of me wanted to go with them and run with the Pack to be near Adam, not stay here.