Free Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1) by Cedar Sanderson Page A

Linn regarded him with mild irritation. He annoyed her more than anyone she could remember meeting, but she still liked him.
    Finally he straightened and wiped his eyes. “You remind me so much of your grandfather. Yes, I knew Loki.”
    “Knew?” Linn thought the immortals couldn’t be killed.
    “Long story. Catch me some winter night and I’ll tell you, child.”
    They entered the forest, and Linn reined her mare back until she was behind him. They fell into silence, both of them aware of the forest and not needing to speak. Bes pointed, then veered off the path. Linn stayed with him, weaving through the trees in the open forest. There was little brush, and she enjoyed the spicy scent of the forest as they traveled farther than she had gone before.
    Bes stopped his gelding in a little glade with a cairn of rocks in the center. He pointed to it. “Look at that with your Sight, child.”
    Linn focused on it, watching as it began to blaze with the orangy-red she associated with her grandfather. A thin thread of light stretched off in either direction. Bes dismounted and put his hands on the top rock in the pile. He closed his eyes. Linn could see the power flowing from him and mixing with the power her grandfather had left there. The flames leapt up and the thread got thicker.
    Bes looked at her, his eyes flickering with the power. “Come down, child.”
    Linn slid off her horse and joined him by the uncanny fire.
    “You asked if every immortal had a different color. Not quite, but there are some who say they can tell whose power is whose by the shades.”
    He took her hands in his and held them to the cool, rough surface of the rock. She could feel the warmth of his Power flowing through her skin. It prickled a little. She watched the flickering light dance through both their skin with fascination. Then she could see filaments of fuchsia join his white. She jerked her hands away with a cry.
    “Was that me?” She was wringing her hands as she backed away. They tingled painfully.
    “Yes. Your Power, not much, but enough that anyone trying to enter the wards would alert you,” he said quietly.
    Linn shook her hands and blew on them. “It hurts!” she scolded.
    He nodded. “It’s not an easy thing to use. Your grandfather and I have been doing it for so long... well, I feel it, I’m not sure he still does.”
    “Why didn’t you warn me?” Linn demanded.
    “Didn’t want to scare you, and I was helping.”
    Then the other thing registered. “Pink?! My power is pink?”
    He laughed.
    Linn glared at him. “I... don’t... like... pink!” she hissed, then mounted up again. Bes again got in the saddle much more gracefully than someone who looked as old as he did ought to be able to manage.
    “Why do you and Grampa even bother looking old?” she asked. He looked at her and she felt her face flush. She was being rude. “Sorry,” she mumbled, looking down at her mare’s mane.
    “What?” He prompted, pretending not to have heard her. Bes reined his gelding closer.
    Linn repeated at a louder volume, “Sorry,” and gave him a look.
    “I can’t give you all the answers today. Or even in a year. Some things you might never know. But this one’s easy. How do you think humans would react to people living amongst them that never aged?”
    He rode off and she followed him silently, thinking about that. He was right. Historically, people had been pretty brutal to outsiders. How many lifetimes had the immortals chosen to live, pretending to die and then reappearing somewhere else, far from family and home?
    She maneuvered up alongside him and reached over to put a hand on his sleeve. “Bes, I’m sorry. It’s all just... so much.”
    “Sometimes I forget just how young you are. Child, it’s a long life you’ve got, never mind what me and your Grampa got to put up with. Now, we have five more wards to get to.”
    She fell back again silently. He helped with the other wards, but by the time they were done with