The Faerie War by rachel morgan Page A

living person stay with a pile of rubble?
    “Do you want to look through your things?” Yale asks gently.
    I shake my head. I don’t want to remember my home like this.
    “Well . . . we need to decide what to do now, Ryn. Should we go to your Guild?”
    Oh, dear Seelie Queen, the Guild. Is it possible it looks just like this? Completely demolished? It can’t be. The Guild is enormous. I can’t imagine how much of the forest would be flattened if all the glamours and concealments of the Guild were shattered.
    “Just . . . give me five minutes,” I say. I turn away and write another doorway in the air. I walk through, thinking of Violet’s home, wondering if by some small chance it escaped this destruction. But when I step out of the darkness, it’s to see a scene almost exactly like the one I just left.
    A moan of despair escapes past my lips. I don’t often cry. I’m assaulted by countless emotions every day, including sorrow, but crying isn’t something I generally do. Right now, though, tears seem like the only response. I’ve never felt so lost and helpless. I don’t know how this happened or who did it. I don’t know where anyone is. I don’t know who’s alive, who’s captured, who’s free. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.
    I squeeze my eyes shut, forcing tears back before they come. I climb onto the heap, searching the clutter as I go. My heart speeds up with each piece of furniture I move aside; I’m terrified I’ll find a body beneath one of them. I reach the top of the pile having found nothing. It’s a relief, but I still feel lost. If Violet hasn’t come looking for me it’s because she can’t. She’s either captured or . . .
    I don’t want to consider the other possibility.
    I look down at a drawer lying beside splinters of wood. Brightly colored ribbons catch my attention. The ribbons from Violet’s grandmother. The ribbons I had Raven make into a bracelet. I crouch down and remove them from the drawer. I wind the ribbons around my fingers before pushing the multi-colored loop into one of my pockets. Then I take the tokehari ring Violet’s father gave her and add it to the ribbons. I’ll give these things to her when I find her. Because I will find her.
    I stand and navigate back down the wreckage. I’m about to open a doorway to return to my home when I hear a whimper nearby. I swivel my head around, searching. When I hear the sound again, I step toward the tree I think it came from. A glowing knife tingles in my hand. Before I can take another step, a squirrel drops from one of the charred branches and lands on the ground. It stares up at me with large eyes before shifting into a white mink.
    “Filigree?”
    He squeaks and bounds toward me. He crawls all the way up my body and wraps himself around my neck. I pull him gently away and hold him in front of my face. “Do you know anything about Violet? Do you know where she is?”
    He squeaks, reaching for my neck once more. I hold him closer, like a child hugging a toy, and listen to his pitiful whimpers.
    I’ll take that as a ‘no.’
    I let him wrap himself around my neck as I open a doorway and head back to my ruined home. I see a few raised eyebrows when people notice the shapeshifter pet clinging to me, but no one says anything.
    “Okay, let’s figure out what to do next,” I say to the group. “We need to check out the Guild, but we should definitely approach it carefully.”
    “That won’t be happening.” I jerk to the side and find the owner of the voice stepping in front of a tree. The two knives that appeared in my hands vanish when I see who it is.
    “Dale.” Relief washes over me at the sight of my friend, although it’s hard to feel it amidst all the panic I’m receiving from everyone else in the group. “You’re okay.”
    A strange smile curls on his lips. “Got you,” he says, then raises his bow and arrow and shoots at me.

 
     
     
     

     
     
     
    Filigree leaps off my neck as I