Leading Ladies Anthology [FEATURED STORY]

@browneyedgirl65: Her Last Gift (From: The Road North)

Corrine felt carefully around the edges of the magic holding her down. She wasn't sure what these creatures were; she and her family were only peripheral to the larger supernatural world. They certainly looked nothing human, with polished dark mahogany skin, long silky hair in varying shades of black, backswept ears and eyes that looked like faceted gemstones. She had been unable to hide her surprise when she ran into them on the street and from the lack of reaction of everyone else, they had some means of looking entirely human that didn't work on her.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried to push her fear down, slow the hammering of her heart. Whether they could sense it or not, she didn't know, but there was no reason to give them another weapon they could use against her. She hoped that Little Kit would sense something wrong and not come back to the motel room. Her daughter, a lynx shifter like her uncle, enjoyed being out in the woods; she often ran for a while before getting down to the business of hunting. Shifters were increasingly rare: she'd been surprised that her daughter had been born a shifter when she herself wasn't.

If she could escape her restraints she might be able to get away from them or at least keep them from trapping her daughter. Little Kit was old enough to be able to find her uncle on her own now. She'd told her twin brother more than once that she thought something was after their kind. Too many suspicious deaths among shifter families. Not for the first time she wished she could also change form. But she had other gifts instead, and perhaps those had saved her and Tomas before. She wasn't sure what she could do to save herself now.

The one that appeared to be in charge—she'd heard the others call him Nianthall, though whether that was his name or a title, she didn't know—walked back to her and she stilled once more. His hair was lighter than the rest, approaching a gunmetal gray while the other two were coal-black. If it was due to age, his hair had lightened uniformly. He spoke in English, rather than the lilting, rapid-fire speech they spoke among themselves. "The other one with you. Where is she? Who is she?" He held a small ball of mage-light in his hand.

"No," she said.

He looked at her steadily. "A daughter. We will not kill her when we find her," he said. She blinked. She could feel something curling around her, pushing, looking for agreement.

"Of course not," she said. Seelie never lied, after all. "You'll just kill her later on."

The tone of his voice sharpened with interest, though his expression remained unchanged. "You wound me. I will have you know we have her best interests at heart."

She shook her head. The light in his hand crackled and darkened. He smiled, and this time his smile wasn't at all pleasant. He squeezed his hands around the ball and she cried out despite herself at the pain lashing across her skin, made worse by her enforced paralysis.

"It does you no good to resist, shifter. The kynou will burn you if you lie or do not answer. Have a care."

"You will not find her," she said angrily, recklessly. This time, the kynou pulsed softly yellow.

He laughed. "It is lovely to see what you believe at this time. It is of no import."

She caught her breath. "But why do you hunt us? We harm no one. We are nothing. I don't even know what you are and yet you treat me as an old enemy." The kynou's yellow glow remained steady. She'd always been good at figuring people out and persuading them, pushing them. She tried that now, while she continued to probe at the magic holding her still.

"Your people hold the land sacred; that blocks us from using it as we would."

She blinked. She hadn't expected that, not at all. Land? How could it be used?