I wasn't as far from the ranch as I'd thought. The darkness had made the going very slow and it took me less time to return. The sun rose, cresting the trees, and I judged something like two or three hours had passed by the time I encountered the boundary stone I'd passed on my way out.
It was enough time for cold certainty to fight off my doubts. Enough time for me to come up with the basics of a plan. Three months before, a warlock had tried to turn some of my friends into living batteries. He'd been able to incapacitate shifters and trap them in their animal bodies. I had stopped him and eaten his heart, taking his power so I could free my friends.
I didn't like going into Bernie's memories, tapping into his knowledge. He hadn't been a very sane or very nice man. I felt like it should have bothered me more to kill him, but every time I touched his power or accessed his knowledge I remembered why I wasn't bothered at all.
I stopped at the stone and placed a small rock I'd picked up in the woods an hour before on top of it. I had filled the pebble with my power until I felt it wouldn't hold more without blowing apart. Which it would, as soon as I told it to, in a blast designed to at least score if not break the boundary stone. The explosion would disrupt the ward.
If Sky Heart was guilty. I was sure he was, my mind going over and over the things Not Afraid had shown me and going over my own gut feelings about this place, about my grandfather.
But I would do what was right. I would cast my version of a circle of truth and I would hear his guilt from his own lips. I was sure this was the only way I could live with myself later. The murders had to stop but justice needed to be done, as well.
I looked around the gravel circle and saw a few people gathered in a group near one of the cabins, talking. The doors of one of the pole barns was wide open and there were sounds of people using tools inside. Further on I saw two women throwing pottery on wheels under the awning of another barn. The scene was more normal than it had been, domestic even.
As I stepped into the camp and walked toward the big house, I wished for a fleeting moment that Alek wasn't off on a wild goose chase. I wanted to ask him what he thought, tell him about what I had discovered. I hesitated at the steps of the house. I was acting alone again, the way I was used to doing things. My whole life since Samir had killed my true family, the family of my heart, I'd been alone. I wasn't used to having friends who I could trust with difficult things, friends who could handle themselves in the magical world. The real world.
Alek wasn't here. I shook my head. This was my choice. My decision. I would learn the truth and I would stop these murders. Alek would understand that.
My thoughts felt like lies and I shoved them away. If he saw the bones. If he knew.
The door opened and Sky Heart stepped out onto the porch, taking away my last moments to think.
"You will leave," he said, leveling the shotgun at me. "Now."
No more hesitation. I caught the gun with my magic and yanked, ripping it free from his hands to clatter uselessly onto the boards. Then I pushed my magic into a circle using the knowledge I'd gained from the late Bernie the warlock. The power formed a ward, locking Sky Heart inside. I layered on a second spell courtesy of Bernie, a spell to keep him from reaching out to that other plane, from calling on his crow half and shifting.
What would have taken Bernie multiple items carefully researched and gathered and the power of a full moon and hours of ritual took me a couple of seconds.
Now for the coup de grace. Or as Harper would call it, the cup-dee-gracie.
I layered one more spell, forming my magic into a glowing white circle, envisioning the purity of truth, a light that pushed away all lies, all shadows, a light that would let nothing hide within it.
My head started to pound and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold the spells for long. Time for a chat with grandfather.
"Did you throw Not Afraid's sister off a cliff?" I asked, keeping the question as unambiguous as I could.
Sky Heart's mouth worked as he stood frozen inside my circles and his eyes blazed with rage.
"Yes," he said, the words hissing out of his throat.
Was that enough? No. I wanted to know more. I wanted to hear him admit to all of it.
"How many children have you thrown off that cliff?" I said, my voice rising. Behind me I heard people moving, coming closer. Good, I thought. Let them come. Let them hear.
"Jade?" Pearl called out to me, but I ignored her.
"Tell me," I said. "Tell them, Sky Heart. Tell them all how you killed their children."
"You don't understand. You are exile. You are not one of us. You should be dead. I should have killed you when you were a baby. I let your mother keep you. I was weak and now we are all punished for it." The hatred in his face shocked me and I almost lost the spells.
"How many?" I demanded. "Tell them."
"I do not know," he screamed. "All of them. All the ones who are not my people. They were abominations, insults to the pure blood of Shishishiel. Like you. Just like you."
I reached out with a thread of power and found my exploding stone. A slight nudge of more power and it went off. A crack reverberated through the camp.
"No! What have you done," Sky Heart shrieked.
I sprang forward, clearing the steps in a leap and broke my own circles by diving into them. I ripped the beaded bag from his neck, pulling him forward. I kicked his legs out from under him and jumped aside as he tumbled down the steps.
He sprang to his feet quicker than I expected and turned on me, snarling.
A huge crow dropped out of the clear sky like a comet of death, slamming into Sky Heart and carrying him back to the ground in a swirling cloud of feathers. He screamed as the crow's unnaturally curved and sharp talons dug into his chest. Blue-white fire ripped into Sky Heart, flowing from the crow's open beak.
He died screaming, his chest bursting open, as the crow ripped out his heart and turned it to ashes before my eyes.
I stood on the porch, the beaded bag in my hand, shaking as the adrenaline dump hit me in the aftermath of using so much power.
The crow, which I guessed was Not Afraid, looked up at me and cawed, his huge black wings spread.
"It is done," I said. "Justice is done."
"No." Jasper was the first to reach Sky Heart's body. He waved his arms at the giant crow as though he could shoo it away. "NO!" he cried again.
The crow looked at me and something in its gaze warned me, but not soon enough.
Not Afraid beat his wings and flew up into Jasper's face, his talons hooking into my father's chest. Blue fire spilled around them and Jasper screamed in pain.
I gathered my magic but couldn't blast the crow without hitting Jasper. I jumped off the porch and attacked the crow with my hands, tearing at his feathers. Cold burned me, icy fire rippling up my arms. More on instinct than with clear thought, I thrust the beaded talisman around Not Afraid's neck.
The Crow shrieked and shifted. Now I wrestled with Not Afraid himself. He looked fifteen but his body had a strength I couldn't match. Jasper went down and Not Afraid shoved me off, then came after me, ripping the talisman bag from his neck. He was free of my father. Free and clear for me to blast the shit out of him.
I summoned my power and sent a bolt of pure force at him. It should have ripped him apart, but he merely staggered and then laughed. His hands and face were covered in blood. My father's blood or Sky Heart's, I wasn't sure. It didn't matter.
"You broke your oath," I said as I struggled to my feet.
"I had a prior oath." He grinned at me, his gaunt and bloody face a death mask. He reached into his shirt and pulled out a small rectangular piece of paper, tossing it onto the ground.
I ignored it and lunged for him, sending another bolt of power at his face. His eyes flared blue and he shifted to a giant crow again even as he leapt to meet me.
Wolf sprang between us, her huge body slamming into the crow and knocking it aside. I twisted and managed to avoid colliding with her as well. She spun and snarled, spit dripping from razor-sharp teeth as long as my fingers.
Not Afraid beat his wings and lifted into the sky, circling once and then glowing with bright blue fire before disappearing into the sunlight like a ghost.
I let go of my magic, falling against Wolf's warm body as exhaustion hit me like a drunk driver with a lead foot. My foggy brain realized someone was crying, pleading over and over for someone not to leave them.
Jasper. I opened my eyes.
He lay in a spreading pool of blood, his chest ripped open, his heart a smoking ruin within a mess of pink lung tissue and too-bright red blood. I knew he was dead. Even a shifter can't heal a vital organ destroyed by fire.
Pearl knelt over him, his head in her lap, smoothing her hands over his hair again and again, her pleading a high keening, the words blending and melding until they meant nothing. Emerald stood behind Pearl, her face pale with shock, her green eyes wide and unseeing. As I watched, shudders and shakes took over her body and she dropped to her knees and clung to her mother.
Movement to my side caught my eye as something fluttered on the ground. The paper that Not Afraid had removed from his shirt.
Slowly, as though I had aged a thousand years, I staggered over and picked it up.
It was a post card.