Spirit by Shauna Granger Page B

to lean over
and look. I was right; the fish was still raw, just blackened on the outside. I
grimaced and leaned back to put the caldron between us.
    “I
don’t think I’ve ever met a water sprite before,” I said, mostly to cover the
noise of her chewing and rending the fish. “I’ve met undines and nymphs;
they’re kinda like intense mermaids, though.” I laughed uncomfortably. “I’m
sure you know that.”
    She
didn’t respond, only started to suck on the lethal little bones between bites.
    “So
can you call up the visions in the water because you’re a sprite or because it
was of another Hunt?” I asked. “Since you’re part of this Hunt?”
    Again
she was quiet save for the chewing. I sighed, starting to lose steam. I inched
a little closer to the fire to warm my hands.
    “I
was just hoping you could tell me because if you can call up any visions, maybe
you could show me my friends or my family?” I kept talking even though I was
sure she wasn’t listening. Talking was better than the quiet punctuated with
her gross chewing. “I’m trying to figure out a way to let them know they can
still reach out to me. Gwyn told me I could get out of here if I did it before
I became part of the Slaugh. But he didn’t tell me how long or soon that might
be.”
    “Everyone
becomes part of the Slaugh,” she finally said, startling me with her closeness.
She had finished her fish, discarded the bones somewhere, and walked around the
caldron to sneak up on me.
    “Ugh!”
I said, shaking out my hands as if I could shake off my fear.
    “Stupid
human.” She shook her tiny head, making her stringy white hair waft back and
forth.
    “Maybe,”
I said as she started to walk away. “Maybe I am a stupid human, but Gwyn said
there were ways for me to leave, and I’m damn well going to try.”
    “Meh,”
she said, waving a hand as if to shoo me away. I got to my feet and followed
her.
    “Look,
I’m not asking for a lot here. If you could show me my friends –”
    “What
for?” she sneered at me, squinting one eye. “You can’t reach thems through the
water. Why should I be showing you nothing?”
    “I
don’t…” Words failed me. I guess I had been hoping I could reach out to them
through the water once the window was open. But it wasn’t a window; it would be
like seeing them from the other side of the mirror. Much help that would be.
    “Meh,
stupid girl,” she said again, shaking her head before she walked off and left
me alone again. Maybe she was right; maybe I was a stupid girl. Gwyn said I
could leave if I could find the edge of the Outlands. Maybe that was the best
thing I could do. I certainly couldn’t reach out to Steven and Jodi to tell
them to summon me; I could only hope they would think of it on their own. I
thought about Steven asking Jodi to help him bring me back and how the thought
had scared her. I would’ve been scared too; that was dark magic, blood magic,
nothing we ever dealt in. And besides, Jodi was right. I wouldn’t have come
back. No one ever survived a resurrection with a sound mind. I shuddered to
think what I would’ve become if Steven had tried.
    But
they could summon my spirit. I was cognizant, not some wandering, tortured ghost,
wailing over my mistakes and losses in life. If they summoned me, we could talk.
I could help them think of a plan, or at the very least I could tell them to
find Iris and cash in her favor. But this was all moot. I couldn’t reach them,
so dwelling on those thoughts right now was pointless. Right now I had to think
of what I could do, and that was to find the edge of the Outlands. I had walked
for miles in that forest without an end in sight; it wasn’t until I was with the
Hunt that it had changed at all. Maybe I would walk for years and never find
the end of this place. I had to figure out how to tap into the magic in this
place.
    I
would have to get Gwyn to help me even though he seemed completely disinclined
to do so.
    “But
he did tell