Free Autumn Moon by Jan DeLima

energy than what plants provided. It seemed contented to wait, and to rest for future storms. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
    â€œTouch the circle.” The pixie flew a good distance away before issuing that command, and then further still to settle within the protective branches of the hawthorn tree. “Don’t break it,” she warned with a piercing cry that carried to where Elen stood. “Just tap it, and then step back.”
    Curious, she walked to the edge of the circle and touched her toe on the inner rim.
    And a maelstrom erupted, encasing her in the eye of a vortex the width of the circle and the height of her barn, if not taller. Air and Earth enclosed her in their furious joining, forming a moving wall of turned soil and wind.
    â€œHoly shit!” Joshua’s voice filtered through the contained tempest she’d created. “That is
so
cool!”
    Panicked, Elen swept her foot over the ground to break the circle, and the vortex dissipated, but not as gently as the first one she’d conjured. Dust and gravel whipped about her garden and traveled through her orchard, causing a weaving tumult of trees and projectile apples. The shutters on her cottage banged and groaned but held firm until the worst of it calmed.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” Elen asked her nephew, blinking grit from her eyes.
    Joshua held up a covered plate. “I brought Ms. Hafwen a present.” Tall like his father, the teenager had to duck under her garden arbor to avoid hitting his head. He wore jeans and a T-shirt, while the sword Dylan had given him hung from a belted scabbard and rested against his thigh.
    â€œThe closing needs work.” Ms. Hafwen flew to Joshua’s shoulder, a prime perch to glare at Elen from. “Unless it’s a hurricane you’re wanting to produce, you need to unravel the joining before setting it free. But you did well, Elen. I am pleased. You accomplished what I wanted you to. From this point on, Air will respond to your call. Remember that in times of need. Now,” she chirruped when she turned to Joshua, “my dear boy, what have you brought me?”
    Joshua, Sophie, and now Cormack, were the only ones who knew of Ms. Hafwen’s true identity. But Elen suspected Joshua was her favorite.
    Less gangly now that he’d stopped growing, he had his mother’s brown hair but resembled Dylan in every other way. He’d aged in the short time Elen had known him, but there was still a youthful mischief about him, a blessing in light of what he’d survived. Having been in the battle that took place in these woods, he’d watched Guardians kill his grandmother and kidnap his mother.
    And he’d seen Elen mutilate one right before his eyes.Did it matter that she’d ripped out the Guardian’s power to save Joshua’s life? Yes, she knew that it did, but once violence was seen, it could never be unseen, at least for those who still bore a conscience. And that knowledge had a way of aging the innocent.
    His black gaze now bore the weight of that experience. But he still lived, and learned, and offered sheepish grins as he held up the plate with a pixie attached. “Apple crisp, anyone?” The little cheat knew Ms. Hafwen had a weakness for baked sugar and fruit. “Enid left it on the counter, and I didn’t want it to go to waste.”
    â€œOf course you did not.” Ms. Hafwen was all aflutter, trying to peel the foil away from his blatant bribe.
    â€œHow did you get here?” Elen asked.
    He gave a flippant shrug. “I walked.”
    She shook her head, knowing full well he’d understood the implication of her question. “I meant how did you get around the guards?” Even now, Cormack was in the woods that surrounded her cottage, meeting with Gabriel and Sarah.
    â€œI have my skills.” Joshua made a sliding motion with his free hand, demonstrating how smooth he thought his skills