Page 74 of Forging Darkness
I turn toward my sister, throwing her a smile as she trudges along beside me. She frowns and wraps her arms around her bubbled torso. Her puffer coat is silver, of course. She wants everything to match her name these days. Girls are weird.
“I just want to see what’s over that ridge. I’ll bet there are some epic ice caves.”
“Why can’t we just come back tomorrow with Mom and Dad?”
“Because we’re already almost there.”
She stops walking, forcing me to halt as well or leave her behind. When her eyes narrow, a seed of unease plants in my gut. That look is never good. I don’t want to know what wicked thoughts are going through her brain. A slow smile spreads on her face and the unease blooms into full worry.
“I’ll keep going with you, but you have to let me have Thundersinger for a full week.”
“Silver,” I whine.
The spirit realm’s light purple snowflakes collect in her hair, graying the dark, tangled strands. She shakes her head, dislodging some of them. “Take it or leave it. I don’t know why you’re so attached to that sword anyway. You know once you morph, you’ll fight in animal form.”
Not if I end up pulling the short straw and only morphing into a bull. I don’t voice that concern. It’s a touchy subject for me. “I have to be prepared to defend myself before that. We won’t morph for years.”
“Pfft. In a few weeks we’ll be spending most of our time wrapped in a bubble back at Seraph Academy. Nothing can hurt us there. We only get a few short breaks a year to spend with Mom and Dad. It’s not like we’re ever away from their watchful eyes.”
I spread my arms wide. “Yet here we are on a snowy mountain all alone.”
She sticks out her tongue. “So are you gonna give me Thundersinger for the week, or should I turn around now?”
I tip my head back. Sisters are so annoying. I should have brought Sterling or Greyson with me instead. “Fine. Just hurry up.”
She throws me a smirk and does a little shimmy victory dance before hopping to it.
We walk in silence for several more minutes but the crest we’re trying to reach doesn’t seem any closer. Ten more minutes and the sun has sunk beneath the horizon and the spirit world sky dims. The snowfall has worsened as well, and the last gust of wind almost pushed me off my feet.
I sneak a peek at Silver, wondering if we should give up and head back. She’s hunkered down in her coat, her lips flattened into a thin, purple line. She’s freezing. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all.
“Yo, lover boy.” Tinkle’s voice snaps me back into the present. “There’s something down there.”
My eyes work like a telephoto lens in this form, allowing me to enhance and magnify objects in the center of my field of vision. I scan the gorge beneath us but see nothing.
“Not there, you doofus.”
I caw at the Celestial. How did Emberly put up with this creature for so many weeks?
“It was back there.” Tinkle tilts and loops around. I follow in his wake, letting him lead me to where his Spidey senses say we should go.
We circle the air, slowly descending while we search. I still don’t see anything. Tinkle lands on a relatively flat area, and I set down next to him, changing back into my natural form immediately. Tinkle’s hawk explodes in a cloud of sparks that reveal his flying squirrel form when they clear. His little body can stand on top of the snow without sinking.
“Burr. It’s cold.”
“Then why didn’t you transform into a polar bear?”
His round Yoda eyes blink up at me. “Why would I do that? That wouldn’t change the temperature.”
It’s not worth it. “Which way?”
His nose twitches as if he’s sniffing the air. He points in a direction, and I set off on foot.
“Hey, wait up. I want a ride.”
The tiny creature scampers after me, and then climbs up my pant leg and the back of my coat until he’s perched on my shoulder.
“It feels like there’s something in front of us.”