Free Black Moon Sing (The Turquoise Path Book 1) by L. M. Hawke Page B

Ell?”
    She drew a shaky breath. “Something happened. Something bad.”
    “Vivi?” Sylvia’s voice was thick with fear.
    Ellery shook her head. “I didn’t find any trace of her. But I shifted, and then I lost focus, and I…”
    She swallowed hard and tried another way of explaining. “Remember that creepy feeling I told you about? That call ?”
    “Yeah,” Sylvia said cautiously.
    “It seemed to take over while I was in my coyote form. It was like that force chased all conscious thought away. I just went toward it without thinking, and I ended up in traffic—”
    “Oh my God!” River pulled her close in a protective hug.
    Gently, Ellery untangled herself from his arms. “I’m okay now. I’m shaken up, but I’m all right. It’s just…” She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to dispel her nerves. “That was really, really scary.”
    “I bet.” Sylvia unlocked the front door and held it open. “Come on inside. I’ll make you some tea.”
    “Is there anything you can do, Sylvia? Do you know any spells that can break this thing’s hold over me?” Ellery sank onto Sylvia’s couch and pressed her palms against her eyes, trying to ward away the memory of screeching tires and howling horns. Sniffling, trying her best not to cry, Ellery added, “I’m really afraid that the call took Vivi, and now it’s after me, too. I don’t know how to fight it. Is there any spell you know? Anything to keep it away from me? Anything at all!”
    She felt the couch cushion shift as Sylvia joined her. “I don’t know,” the witch said softly. “I don’t know the source of this power, so I’m not even sure a spell exists that can defeat it. And if a spell does exist, is it one I know how to use? Without knowing what this thing is, what it wants—”
    “It wants traders specifically,” Ellery said. “Unless either of you know any local weres who can tell us whether they’ve been feeling it, too.”
    Sylvia and River both shook their heads.
    “We don’t know that this… thing , whatever it is…is responsible for Vivi’s disappearance,” River said.
    “ I know it is,” Ellery insisted. “Somehow, whatever is behind this calling force is targeting traders. The trader who was killed nearby, and William Roanhorse—”
    “Hold on,” River broke in. “I know you’re upset, but we can’t get carried away. We have to be clear-headed about this. We have no idea whether those murders are connected to each other, let alone to the calling force.”
    Ellery bit back a growl of frustration. “You’re right; I know you’re right. But I have this gut feeling, this certainty that all these mysteries are connected. And that makes a kind of sense, doesn’t it? If local traders are being targeted in one way, why not in another way, too? And why not by the same person…or people…or whatever is responsible.”
    Sylvia shrugged. “Honestly, that makes as much sense as anything else. Until we find any evidence to the contrary, we might as well assume the same force is behind anything that targets the trader community.”
    She stood and paced the room for a few moments, lost in thought. Then turned back to Ellery. “Do you still have that turquoise bead?”
    “Of course.” Ellery pulled it from her pocket and held it out to the witch.
    Sylvia set the bead on the coffee table and crouched down beside it. She closed her eyes, raising both hands until they hovered just above the smooth, polished turquoise. Then she began to mutter, so softly Ellery could scarcely hear the whisper of her breath. Sylvia’s lips moved with the words of the spell, and Ellery shivered as a mild chill drew across her, followed by a wave of warmth.
    Sylvia was manipulating the elements through her spell—or so Ellery assumed. As a Changer, had only the most cursory understanding of how spells worked, how witches and other Casters wielded their particular kinds of magic.
    After the warmth passed over and around Ellery,