“I don’t want to talk.” I felt the pulsing electricity of the Seelie tunnel at my back. I fired my magic straight into it without taking my eyes off of Riah. “You had your chance. You chose to betray me instead.”
“That’s not — you don’t understand—”
“Oh, I understand perfectly.” OPEN! “You’ve been lying to me since the day we met.”
I pushed off my feet and leapt backward. Just as my head passed through the wall and into that damn tunnel, a memory I had no interest in seeing slammed into my mind…
Chapter Four
Saffie
December 5th 1691
“Olli?” I whispered as loud as I could without drawing the attention of my sleeping neighbors. “Olli, where are you?”
It was well after midnight. If my mother or uncle knew I was out of the house, they would be furious with me. These were dangerous times in Salem. Tension was at an all-time high. The feuding had become volatile and physical. There was something coming, I could feel it in the air around us. It was building like a rising tide, ready to drown us in its rage.
As I walked between two houses, I crouched down and looked between the wooden slats of my neighbor’s fence, but Olli was nowhere in sight. With a curse, I stood and hurried down the alley. My feet crunched in the snow with every step. Everyone’s windows were closed but these wooden walls were thin and sound traveled too well. And with the full moon reflecting off the blanket of white snow it almost looked like mid-day. Just one peak out their window and my red hair would be impossible to miss.
Wind ripped up the alley and the chill felt like pin pricks against my skin. I hissed and wrapped my arms around my waist to try and stay warm. I’d somehow forgotten my waistcoat in my panic to find him. But with this storm rolling in I knew he would not survive the night outside, I already felt my fingers and toes losing feeling. I’d been out here too long.
I hurried down the alley, then rounded the front corner of Bridget Bishop’s house. There was a chance Olli was in with her horses or stealing her apples. Bridget was a friend of mine. She would not mind me looking. I moved between two trees toward her gate when a large man stepped out in front of me. I choked on a scream and leapt back.
“Please, I won’t hurt you,” he said, though his voice was not quite as deep as I expected it to be for the width of his shoulders. “I am sorry.”
He stepped out from the shadow of the tree and my breath left me in a rush. Though he towered over me, he was no man at all, but a boy who couldn’t have been more than my own sixteen years of age. His long golden hair swayed around his shoulders in the bitter breeze. He took another step forward and the moonlight glistened in his bright golden eyes. His high cheekbones cast a shadow over his sharp jawline.
My chest tightened and butterflies danced in my stomach. He was more beautiful than a sunset on a summer day.
Breathe, Saffie.
He smiled and my heart fluttered. “Hello, good evening. I apologize, I did not mean to startle you.”
I licked my lips and smoothed my hair, though I didn’t know why I was so flustered. “I did not expect to see another person out this late.”
He cocked his head to the side but his golden eyes were kind and warm. “Why are you out this late, if you don’t mind me asking? Out by yourself.”
I grimaced. In times like these, the truth was my best option. “My dog got out of the house and he likes to chase the chickens. I’m worried one of the wolves or bears will find him before I do. Or worse, the snow.”
“I’m so sorry. May I help you find him?” He looked down at the snow. “My father always says I’m an excellent tracker.”
I opened my mouth to say yes when I remembered I did not know this boy. I eyed him carefully. Beautiful he was, but a stranger nonetheless. “Who are you? This is not a large village and I have never seen your face before, and trust me it is not one a girl would forget.”
He grinned and my heart fluttered again. “Thank you, I think. And trust me, I shall never forget yours either.”