Of Witches and Wind by Shelby Bach

Author:Shelby Bach
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

y the time I clawed my way back into waking, the storm was long over. The sun shone into the cave and stretched shadows along the earth floor; the breeze was warm. Morning must have been half over. Something was going thwack-thwack-thwack at the cave mouth in a very annoying way.

It took me a second to realize it came from Chase and the hatchet in his hand and the log he was splitting into fire-ready pieces.

“Are you seriously chopping wood?” I asked. The at a time like this? part was implied.

“Yep. Rory? You’re up, right?” He shielded his face and squinted inside. “I can’t actually see you. It’s too bright out here.”

“Can you stop? Otherwise, I might have to smack you over the head with that log,” I told him.

“Go ahead. You’ll put me out of my misery.” He held it out, grinning. I sat up gingerly, but I was barely sore at all. “Feel better?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Where is Iron Hans, anyway? And how long did I sleep?”

“Fifteen hours,” said a deep voice just outside.

I jumped out of bed, my hand reaching for my hilt, but someone had taken my weapon away while I slept. My sword leaned against the wall, out of reach. “Geez, way to be creepy and not talk. I thought Chase and I were having a private conversation.”

Chase hit the log one more time, and it broke apart. “Well, I knew he was there. He’s been making me do chores.”

Only an ancient metal warrior could make Chase split wood.

“There’s a third one missing, isn’t there? The one you call Lena?” asked Iron Hans.

I wished I could’ve seen his face when he said that, but when I walked out, he didn’t look up. On an old stump, he sat still as a pewter statue, the sun glinting off his metallic skin.

He didn’t feel like an enemy. I had faced enough of them to know—malice kind of radiates off them, so you go, Oh, right—that person wants me dead. Maybe it was the Binding Oath, but Iron Hans only seemed . . . mildly interested. And patient.

I still didn’t want to talk about Lena in front of him.

“How about we go find the others now?” I had forgotten all about the bandage on my arm. Easing down to another stump, I unwrapped it slowly. The back of my hand was bruise-free, except for a tiny brown spot between the first two knuckles. “We need to get back to our quest.”

“Others have found them,” Iron Hans said in a low voice, like squat twisted imps were scurrying around doing his bidding. I tried not to imagine Ben’s face when Iron Hans’s evil minion showed up. “We can only wait.”

“But how are we going to find them? We can’t afford to just wait around all morning.” We only had a day left before our grace period with the Unseelie Court ended.

“Rory, we’re good,” Chase said. “Iron Hans sent out an army of squirrels.”

I paused. “Is that a Fey term Lena’s gumdrop didn’t translate?”

“No.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.