Page 50 of Scout’s Honor

“Did he do something to you?”

Mama Soline shook her head, a haunted look in her golden eyes. “Not him.”

“Who, then? What happened? Why were we told you were dead?”

Mama Soline’s voice was a sad, weary murmur. “He got too many shadows, that man.”

Dallas crouched by the table, ignoring the pain in his bad leg. He had to get Mama Soline to open up.

“Shadows?” he asked gently.

A pained look entered Mama Soline’s eyes. “So many shadows. One shadow stole my magic and snatched it for himself. That shadow, it live with him all the time.” Mama Soline clutched her bony hands together, twisting them in her lap. “The other shadows…” She shook her head. “You gotta help him. If they get power over him… ain’t no hope for none of us.”

“They?” Bonhi breathed. “Who?”

Mama Soline flinched. “Them other shadows, they come later.” She tapped one finger to her forehead, then clutched her hands again. “They tried to steal my mind.”

“Steal…?”

“Steal it all.” Mama Soline rocked back and forth in her chair, like a child trying to soothe herself. Tears welled in her eyes. She gestured at the carved wolf beside her. “Only the red wolf save me.”

Dallas looked at the statue. “The carving?”

Mama Soline lifted her chin. “He say they wouldn’t stop until my mind belong to them. He say, ‘but you got witch blood, Mama Soline, so you trick them. Play dead and they leave you alone.’ So that’s what I did.” She nodded once, like that settled it.

Bonhi’s eyes were big. She looked from Mama Soline to Dallas.

“Were they va—?” Dallas began but Mama Soline held up a hand.

“Don’t say that word in here! They’re evil! Dangerous! Don’t call them back!”

Dallas looked at Bonhi. She was staring back at him, her eyes wide and scared, her hands covering her mouth. Dallas realized Mama Soline had been visited by vampires because she’d done magic for Thorn—and then he realized he and Bonhi were putting her in danger again.

Mama Soline nodded at Bonhi. “Don’t be scared, bébé. I got witch blood, but you the real thing. I got tricks, but you got real magic.”

Bonhi relaxed slightly. “I don’t know how,” she said.

Mama Soline grasped Bonhi’s curled hand in hers and turned it over. Bonhi opened her fingers to reveal the trinket. “You keep that to help you learn.”

“Thank you.” Bonhi brought it close to her face, peering at it.

Blue light filled the cramped room, blinding Dallas, and… compelling him in some way to touch the red wolf carving. A breeze blew through the closed-up room.

Mama Soline raised a hand. “Don’t you touch—”

But his fingers were already grazing the wood. Mama Soline’s back bowed and she cried out. Bonhi grabbed her around the waist and tried to hold her up.

Blue fairy lights swirled through the air, creating a vortex that opened up on a forest somewhere. The circle filled with a pink glow and focused on a woman—Warrior Woman, with her wild hair and primitive clothing, her hand raised in front of her and the cuff in it, like a memory of the morning Dallas had first seen her. She looked directly into the circle, into Dallas’ eyes like she could see him too. She spoke like she had that day, and instead of running water, he heard words.

“You are the Scout.”

Warrior Woman dissolved into pink sparks and a series of flickering images filled the vortex, like projections on a screen. The Ingrav first—it was a jagged circle with four slashes across it, and what the shifters used to call for help. Then he saw a snakeskin, a baby, red eyes, a funny looking bottle hanging from a strap, the Ingrav again, a red wolf, the knife he’d made, a cabin in the woods, a black bear cub, a raptor on fire, Bonhi bathed in stormy blue, Dakota in turquoise, red eyes, the Ingrav again…

The images flickered, faster and faster and Dallas’ eyes couldn’t keep up. He couldn’t process the images visually, but he felt them somehow, and a terrible truth hit home. Urgency rose in Dallas’ chest. There was something they had to get before the vampires did… some item… or key… and if they didn’t get it, the vampires could control someone important, and ‘The Cause’ would be destroyed from the inside out… the members scattered and… killed? Dallas leaned toward the sparking vortex, trying to see what the key was.

Mama Soline cried out and struck the wolf carving. It flew into the wall. The vortex snapped shut. The carving clattered to the floor, its wooden eyes glowing red before winking out.

Mama Soline recovered first. She yelled at Dallas, “I say don’t pet that wolf! What he tell you?”