The lights in the house were lit, casting a soft dancing glow on the worn path as they approached. James slowed and tugged on Max's sleeves, jerking his head toward the house. James knew no one should've been home. It was still a day till Miss Silvia was due back. Max's eye began to glow; he quickly threw a hand over it and ducked low behind the old wooden wagon, trying to hide from the shadow in front of the kitchen window.

  "What do you see?" James asked in a hushed tone, ducking low and placing his back against one of the cart's massive wheels. James peeked around the wheel, trying to catch a glance at whoever was walking inside the house. Whoever it was cast a large shadow as they walked inside Miss Silvia's room. The dark shape seemed to be looking for something as they moved from room to room.

  "I can't see past opening da door." Max nodded, looking at Nera, "Can you duck around back in case whoever it is runs?"

  "Sure, what are you two going to do?" Nera grabbed the too-large sword from where it rested on her back. Her dark cloak fluttered in the soft breeze, a scent tickling at his nose, a spicy scent mixed with clean leather. The smell distracted him long enough that Max had to smack the back of his head. With a broad smile, Nera stalked off, blending into the greys and dark greens of the forest around them. James felt the blood rush to his cheeks as he turned to meet Max's unamused gaze.

  "What?" James peeked back around the cart's wheel.

  "Nothing." Max pointed to the kitchen door. Light spilled from it toward the practice pit, and James could see the motes of sand and leaves swirling around as the breeze moved across it. James swore that for the briefest of seconds, the swirling formed the shape of a small woman, who blew a kiss towards him and disappeared. , "We can go in over there."

  "Did you see that?" James pointed to where the specter had been. "There was a woman in the air." Max grabbed James by the shoulder, pulling him back down beside the cart. James hadn't noticed he'd been standing. Kneeling face to face, Max looked deep into James' face, searching as if he didn't recognize his friend. "What?"

  "Seeing if ya had gone mad. But no, you're just being stupid." Max punched James in the chest. "Focus."

  "There was a woman in the wind," James said under his breath but pushed himself forward, watching the shadow inside the house move from room to room. "Now."

  James took off at a run, heading towards the house. He kept low to try and stay inside the shadows, dashing from one patch of dark to the next until he finally came up next to the open kitchen door. As quietly as he could, shifting his weight from heel to toe and back, he shuffled his feet until he stood flat against the wall outside the door. Max shoved up against the wall on the other side, his breathing puffing in little clouds as he worked to catch his breath. James turned just enough to peek one eye inside the open door. The heat from the kitchen hit him first. It was like being slammed by farmer Gorgie's prized bull. The fire in the fireplace blazed, and most of the chairs and tables had been broken and shoved into its stone maw. A man in dark clothes, with a fine embroidered coat, squatted next to the fireplace, poking the fire with a chared end of a table leg. A thick black smoke filled the air and poured out the open door. There was a loud crash from the other room, and the man feeding the growing fire looked up.

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  "Ya 'ight Duncan?" The man called, turned to look back into the house. James could see him clearly then, a head of messy black shoulder-length hair, a nose crooked from being broken too many times, beady black eyes on a too-broad face— Collin Deedry, a local drunkard and thug for hire. That would mean Duncan Riley was making the ruckus from the other room. James leaned back against the wall and mouthed Collin and Duncun to Max, who rolled his eyes. James winked at Max and burst into the room, catching Collin off guard and delivering a powerful kick with the bottom of his boot to Collins's chest, sending the lanky man spiraling.

  "Max, put out the fire before we lose the house!" James yelled, trying to keep the recovering Collin from returning to the fireplace. Collin pulled a wickedly curved knife from his coat, the golden hilt catching the dancing firelight; he reversed his hold on the blade and raised his arms in front of his chest. With his free hand, he waved for James to attack him. James lunged, drawing his sword in one quick motion, but Collin's knife was there, stopping the blade cold in its tracks. James pushed against the smaller blade, arms trembling with the effort. But it didn't move, and Collin grinned a knowing smile, one that seemed he knew a secret that James didn't know.

  "Funny, ain't it." Collins' voice was squeaky, his grin showing yellowed broken teeth. He pushed James' sword away and slid in under his guard, driving a fist like a hammer into James' gut. The air fled his lungs, and his knees wobbled, but James managed to take a step back, creating distance between him and the follow-up blow; the knife's edge kissed the air where James' neck had been. James twisted the hilt in his hand and drove the point of his sword towards Collins's chest, but the slender man batted it away with the flat of his knife. The ruby in its hilt glowed bright in the firelight. Collin advanced, his beady eyes wide, showing tick lines of red. He stared unblinkingly at James, the wide toothy grin growing wider and wider. James swung his sword in a wide arc, trying to keep Collin back, but each sweep of the blade connected with the dagger and stopped in place. "A big lady dressed in all black gave this to me and told me to take care of the town's problems with it."

  James rolled under a cut across his face, but he wasn't quick enough as Collin twisted the blade at the last moment, and the tip nicked the top of James' head. Pain exploded across his scalp, far worse than what the little cut should've done. He could hear Max scream and curse as he fought to dowse the inferno leaping out from the stone fireplace. To his horror, as James placed a hand on his head, it came away bloody. His power should have healed a wound like this in seconds, but it hadn't; blood trickled down the side of his face, hot and sticky.

  Still, Collin danced forward as if enjoying himself, bouncing from foot to foot. The slender man ducked low as James stabbed a piercing blow, trying to skewer Collin on the tip of his blade. Still, Collin slid to the side, knife scrapping across the length of James' sword before driving it deep into and through James' wrist. Immediately, James' hand went limp as Collin pulled the blade from the wrist, his sword clattering to the floor loudly.

  Collin licked the blood from the blade, eyes rolling back in his head, and a low moan escaping his lips. "She told me to take care of the problem, and you..." Collin pointed with bloody fingers at James, who held his wrist tight against his chest, trying to stop the bleeding. "...are the biggest problem Oakwood has." There was a mad glee to his words, a zeal James had never seen before. Collin moved faster than he had the entire fight, ducking low, blade out in front of him, driving quickly towards James' heart; James breathed out the little moonlight he held and, in the blink of an eye, slashed the coalescing dagger of silver light across Collin's outstretched arm. The hand came free from the arm just below the elbow in a spirit of blood that soaked James' coat further. Collin screamed in pain. He stumbled back, clutching the bloody stump where his forearm should have been. "No. No. No! This isn't how it's supposed to go."

  With a crash, Collin fell back into the whitewashed walls of the kitchen, blood pouring from his wound with each beat of his heart. James looked down and collapsed to his knees, a golden hit sticking out of his gut just below his ribs, the ruby in its hilt pulsing rapidly in time with the beating of James' heart. Fingers numb, he grasped awkwardly at the hilt, now slick with blood, as he fumbled to pull the knife free. Pain lanced up and down his side, terrible burning pain. He could make out a black blur topped with blond hair, dragging a larger black smear into the room as the world tilted sideways. James could see the outline of Max kicking a screaming Collin in the head as James' head hit the floor. James blinked, trying to clear the blurriness from his eyes; he had been stabbed, but he wasn't healing; he could feel the panic wrapping tight around his chest, but it was distant as if there was a veil between him and the emotion. The screaming and shouts seemed muffled and distant as the world went dark. One screamed words echoed more than the rest as darkness and pain engulfed him.

  Sondia