about the hand and shoulder scarring, but I really hoped the hair would grow back. In the meantime, the less damage I took, the better.
There was a path through the forest. It might seem like the smart thing to do would be to veer off that path and cut through the woods, but my goal was speed, not stealth. If I’d had my blur spell, that would have made things much easier, but I was trying hard not to bemoan what I lacked.
If I needed to hide, witch spells were perfect. Plus, since my death I had learned a few nasty offensive ones, the sort even spell-hungry Paige might deem too dangerous. They took time to cast properly—time I hadn’t had back in that village. If I needed them, I’d make the time to do them properly.
As I raced along the path, I kept glancing over my shoulder. The first time I saw Dachev, he was less than fifty feet behind me, but within a quarter-mile he’d dropped to well over a hundred feet back. Not accustomed to chasing former track stars obviously.
To my right, I caught glimpses of houses as the path circled behind the village. When I hit the far side of the village, the path divided, one branch heading back to town, the other going deeper into the forest. I took the village route. At the midway point between the fork and the path’s end, I dove into the woods and cast a cover spell. Then I waited. A minute later, Dachev appeared at the fork. He looked both ways.
“Did you keep running?” he murmured. “Or are you trying for the prize already?”
A moment’s hesitation, then he walked past me, into the village, and vanished. I considered slipping out and finding a better vantage point, so I could see which house he chose, but that was too risky. When I’d first seen him, he’d been coming from the far end of the road, meaning one of the last two houses was probably his. I suspected I’d know which house he occupied the moment I peeked through its window. No sleeping mats on the floor for that ghost.
After about ten minutes he returned to the path, walking fast. Again, he passed me. This time, when he hit the fork, he headed back the same way he’d come. Strange, but I wasn’t about to question his sense of direction.
When his footfalls faded to silence, I slid from my hiding spot and crept closer to the village. As tempting as it was to race in and find the book, it wasn’t safe, not in daylight, when the others were almost certainly still watching for me. The sky was growing dark already.
When I was close enough to see the village, I found a suitable tree, climbed to a sturdy branch, cast a cover spell, and settled in to wait for dark.
For nearly an hour Dachev hunted for me, twice coming to the edge of the forest and scanning the village to be sure I hadn’t returned. The third time he left the forest, looked around, then hurried to the last house on the left.
“Thank you,” I thought. “One problem down; one to go.”
When he emerged from his house, he surveyed the village again, peering into the gathering night. Then he walked to a stand of bushes by the forest’s edge. After less than ten seconds of contemplation, he strode back toward the road. A man like Dachev fancies himself a purist—a predator who catches his prey by running it to the ground, not by skulking in bushes, hoping it’ll run past.
Down the street, two other residents stepped from their homes. When they made a move to come closer and see what he was doing, he snarled something, then stalked into the woods. One followed. The bird-man—darting back and forth, weaving his way there, sticking close to trees and bushes, ready to dodge behind one at the first sign of Dachev.
Dachev had disappeared into the darkening forest before bird-man even got to the edge. Bird-man stepped into the forest, hesitant, head high, body tense. He took a few steps, then strained forward, obviously unwilling to go in any deeper.
He dropped to his haunches at the edge of the path and crouched there. Dachev returned roughly a half-hour later, which must have been how long it took him to scour the small patch of woods. I hoped his return would scare off the bird-man, but he darted into a thicket and waited for