Unspoken Magic by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Author:Emily Lloyd-Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Forgotten and Unforgotten

For a long moment, no one moved. To Fin, it seemed as though the very forest was holding its breath.

Then River made a noise.

It wasn’t a very dignified noise—it was a strangled whimper that belonged to a creature far smaller than Scott River. He scuttled backward on all fours until he hit a tree. His fingers scrabbled at the rough bark, as if he needed its solidity. His gaze never left the monstrous, shadowy creature standing by Cedar.

Eddie skidded to a halt beside Fin, his breathing hard and gaze wide with alarm. He seized Fin’s sleeve, as if he was prepared to run and take her with him. “What is that thing?”

“It’s okay,” said Cedar. Her voice came out frantic, words tripping over each other.

Fin gaped at Cedar. She tried to cobble a sentence together, but all she could manage was “What?”

“It’s mine,” said Cedar. “I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you.”

The shadow monster was cast by Cedar. But that couldn’t be true. Cedar was normal—well, normal for Aldermere. She helped her parents with the coffee shop; she was quiet in school; she liked animals and was polite to everyone she met. This monstrous creature was nothing like Cedar.

“It isn’t real,” said River, his words jamming together. “That—that big-footed thing isn’t real. That shadow isn’t real. You’re doing it, somehow. It’s special effects, holograms—”

The shadow took a step closer, eyed him with a distinctly horselike tilt of its head, and then reached down to tug at his shoelaces with its teeth.

River made a sound like a dog whose tail had been stepped on.

“It’s all real,” said Cedar. She patted the horse’s neck, and it took a step back from River. Cedar’s gaze met Fin’s. “The other night, she must have been following Brie, investigating the herd of bigfoots. She likes to keep track of the other magical creatures. It’s how I knew about the tracks in town.”

Fin’s memories were a tangle of yarn, and pulling on this one thread could unravel everything. She thought of how Cedar knew things about people, and how she’d once explained that she was observant. She thought of Cedar’s silence when Fin had told her and Eddie about the shadow monster she’d glimpsed. And then she thought of another night, nearly six months before.

“In the fall, before the science fair,” she said faintly. “Teafin warned me to stay indoors because something scary was outside the house. Was that . . . was that your shadow? Was it watching me, even back then?”

Cedar’s gaze fell to the ground between them. Shame crossed her face. “I mean, I didn’t tell her to. But yeah, that was probably my shadow.”

For a heartbeat, anger swelled within Fin. It was like a match being struck—a brief moment of heat. Cedar had lied to her. All this time, Cedar had lied—if not through her words, then through her lack of them. She could have told Fin and Eddie about her shadow monster at any time in the last six months, and she’d never said.

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