Free Kindred and Wings by Philippa Ballantine

as she did, Talyn suspected she was not. The child had a heart-shaped face, soulless black eyes, and most horrifying of all, a tiny row of shifting, shadowy nubs sprouting from her collarbone. Talyn counted four trapped Kindred already in service to the girl. But that was not what caused her hands to clench into fists.
    Dark lines ran down the girl’s shoulder, from underneath her eerily wet shift dress. The pae atuae were written on the skin of the seers of her people, to help them see the path for the Vaerli. The Phage were a breakaway group of Talyn’s people, but they had never had seers of their own. Things had changed, apparently.
    She averted her eyes for a moment, steeling herself to look at both of them. Behind her, she saw Syris recoil, stamping his cloven feet and shaking his head. She was pleased that he stood his ground. She did not want to be alone with her new master and the frightening child who had her gaze locked unflinchingly on Talyn.
    Finally, the once-Hunter gathered enough resolve to meet those eyes. The Phage waited at the water’s edge, with her hand now on the child’s shoulder, rubbing back and forward in a dire parody of maternal pride. While the child displayed the nubs of her forming Kindred, the older Phage was keeping her prisoners hidden. Talyn was thankful for that small mercy. For the moment the only hint of their presence was a slightly raised scar running around her neck just above her collarbone. The first time that Talyn had seen the snarling, snapping many-headed creature, her blood had almost frozen in her veins. Now she knew that only when using magic did the Phage need that nightmarish circle. Such knowledge gave her little comfort.
    This Phage was the one she interacted with most often—though she had seen others. It had taken the longest time for this one to even deign to give Talyn her name. Naturally it was not her true name, but at least it gave the Vaerli something to use when addressing her. She did not introduce the child at her side, but her smile was parental enough to induce plenty of chills.
    The Phage inspired fear in all who saw them—even without the circle of trapped heads—but there was one thing that kept Talyn from fleeing them: the sensation of connectedness.
    As always the sensation of empathy fluttered on the edge of her senses—like a timid bird hovering near food. It was certainly not how she remembered it being before the Harrowing, but it helped her believe there was hope to be found in their presence.
    Still she remained cautious—much as Syris was. The Phage might have offered her power, but they had yet to deliver on their promises. The tasks she’d been set might well be testing her capabilities and her integrity—or they could be a way to get her to dance to their tune without explanation.
    Sliding the scroll tube out from under her belt, Talyn it held it out as casually as possible toward the adult Phage. “I have got you what you sent me for, Circe.”
    The child, standing in the water, smiled at Talyn, and suddenly that dangling hope of connection did not matter one little bit. The once-Hunter wanted to turn about, throw herself on Syris, and ride until she passed out. She could not help but let her eyes linger on the dark lines peeking out from under the girls dress. Though she feared what the words might be, Talyn still wished she could get a better glimpse of the dark parody of Vaerli power.
    Only the seers ever wore the pae atuae . It was a way to connect with the true power of this land, the Vaerli. Her mind whirled with exactly what that could mean, and she feared very much that it meant the Phage were trying to make their own seer. That thought alone was enough to fill her veins with ice and make Talyn wonder, even more strongly than before, what she had done allying herself to the Phage at all.
    She had been hollowed out by the Caisah’s epic deception, the one in which he had sent her hunting and killing all over Conhaero for