Chapter eighteen

After breakfast, Audrey and Connor ventured from the shed to hunt for Emandi.

Knowing that Connor was expected to stay out of sight, they kept to the woods, skirting the small settlement and the druids' camp while they searched. Connor led them back to the clearing where the funeral had been held and Audrey found the exact spot where she and Emandi had surreptitiously watched the whole thing. The grass was still flat from where they had crouched, but nothing else — not even Audrey's pack — remained.

"Damnit, Emandi," Audrey hissed. She turned in place, searching for a clue. "Where are you?"

Connor stood back, his hands in his pockets as he scuffed at the earth with the toe of his boot. "Why is your friend named after the Emandi?" he asked. "Have they ever told you?"

Audrey, who had dropped to her hands and knees to examine what might have been prints in the soft soil of the forest floor, answered without looking up. "They aren't named after the Emandi — they are Emandi." She pointed at the impression in front of her. "Does this look like a paw print to you?"

When Connor didn't answer, Audrey glanced up to find him gaping back at her.

"Are you serious?" he exclaimed excitedly. His eyes were wide and unblinking, as if closing his eyes for even a second might reveal this entire conversation to be a dream. "That's incredible! How did you meet an Emandi? I didn't think there were any left!"

Smirking, Audrey got to her feet. "Yeah, well, you also think all the other Wishes are dead, so that tracks." She dusted the dirt and forest debris from her palms. "Although in your defense, this one is the last of their kind."

"Right," Connor said, folding his arms across his chest. "So it stands to reason that maybe I'm the last of my kind too."

"If you're a glass-half-empty kind of person, then sure."

Connor shook his head and averted his eyes to the still-burning funeral pyre. The man Audrey now assumed to be Rue's father was still there, feeding wood into the fire and fanning the flames with a cedar bough. "Listen, I'm not saying I want to be right about this," Connor insisted. "No one would be happier than me to find out that there are other Wishes out there. But until I know for sure, I'm not taking any chances."

"Fair enough." Audrey conceded. After their little blow-up the night before, she didn't want to push her luck. She motioned for Connor to follow as she pressed onward through the forest. "And to answer your question: my parent is friends with Emandi."

"Your Star parent?"

"Yep."

They walked on for a minute or so without speaking. The sounds of the forest, with its bird calls and rustling flora, was almost serene enough for Audrey to ignore the panic that was slowly mounting in her chest. She couldn't fathom that Emandi had abandoned her here. After all, Welkin had asked them to keep her safe. But if Emandi hadn't left of their own volition, did that mean they were in danger? Audrey's stomach twisted at the thought.

"So, what's it like having a Star for a parent?" Connor asked, cutting through the noise of Audrey's thoughts. The question took her off guard, and she hesitated just long enough to make it awkward. Connor rushed to back-peddal. "Sorry. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine," Audrey insisted. "It's just a tricky question, that's all."

"How come?"

"Well, for starters, parenting doesn't exactly come naturally to them. For a long time after my mom died I even thought they resented me. She was the one who wanted a baby — they just wanted to make her happy."

Connor's lips pressed into a tight line as he hummed thoughtfully. "What about now? Do you still think they resent you?"

Audrey shrugged. "No. I just don't think they know what to do with me." Thinking about Welkin, especially after so much time without hearing from them, made her heart hurt. She wasn't used to missing them. Before, when Welkin would disappear for weeks or even months at a time, missing them had seemed pointless — nothing more than unrequited longing. But after all the progress they'd made on their fraught relationship, the weight of their absence was unsettling. She knew they were trying to be better, so she decided to extend them some grace in return. "To be honest, I think they're just scared."

"That's kind of refreshing," Connor said.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it: we expect the Stars to have everything figured out, right? But if a Star is just as freaked out about raising a kid — especially as a single parent — it makes them feel a bit more relatable, don't you think?" He laughed. "Stars: they're just like us!"

The idea of Welkin being just like them was outrageous enough that Audrey started laughing too. She doubted Connor would think that if he ever met them. Still, he had a point. Thinking about Welkin's questionable parenting skills from Connor's perspective almost made them seem endearing in their haplessness.

"I guess you're right," Audrey agreed. "And besides, they're trying to be a better parent. That's actually how I wound up out here in the first place."

Connor raised his eyebrows at her. "I thought your Emandi friend brought you here to meet a Wish?"

"Yeah, but I only met Emandi because Welkin was taking me somewhere to practice my abilities." Audrey noticed the quirk of confusion on Connor's face at the unfamiliar name. "Welkin is my parent. Anyway, they had to take care of some Star business and Emandi's keeping an eye on me until they get back."

Connor let out a whistle. "Talk about having friends in high places."

They continued picking their way through the woods until they eventually finished tracing the perimeter of the settlement and wound up back at Connor's shack. By that point it was mid-afternoon, and Audrey was officially worried.

"I don't get it," she fretted as she paced a tiny circle around the shed floor. "There's no way Emandi would just leave me here. They told Welkin they would look after me."

"I'm sure they'll be back for you soon," Connor reasoned as he lounged on his bed.

Audrey chewed her bottom lip anxiously. "I shouldn't have run off last night. What if something happened to them?"

"To an Emandi?" Connor sounded incredulous. "I seriously doubt it." He rose to his feet and laid a hand on Audrey's shoulder. "Let's give them one more night. You can check out the connection ritual tonight and I'll introduce you to Rue, and if Emandi's still not back by the morning, maybe she'll know what to do."

As much as she hated the idea of waiting, Audrey didn't have a better plan of her own. She didn't even have her stuff, so it wasn't like she could just charge off into the woods and hope for the best. Instead, she took a breath and agreed to wait things out with Connor.

After a meager lunch of watery soup and stale bread, Connor led them back into the forest. There, in the cover of dense trees, he encouraged Audrey to show him her abilities. She obliged by conjuring a few balls of glowing light and letting a few of them burst like miniature fireworks. She even used energy to light a few fallen branches on fire.

"Pretty pathetic, isn't it?" she said, frowning at the small flaming stick she held like a torch. "I feel like I belong in a circus."

"In what world is being able to set things on fire with your mind pathetic?" Connor countered.

Audrey let the stick fall to the ground, where she kicked dirt over it and stamped out the flame. "Okay, fine. I just wish I could do something more interesting than becoming a human flashlight."

"How do you know you can't?" Connor scooped a baseball-sized rock from the forest floor. "If your ability is energy manipulation, I'll bet you can do all kinds of cool stuff with it."

Before Audrey could ask him what he had in mind, Connor wheeled his arm and threw the rock straight at her. She didn't have time to think, only react. With a startled shriek, Audrey threw her arms over her head like a protective shield. The rock collided with something, but it wasn't her. As if she was surrounded by an invisible electric fence, the rock ricocheted skyward with loud lightning-like crack. It shot into the leafy canopy above and landed heavily a short distance away.

Connor turned back to Audrey slowly, a wide smile spreading across his face. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

The shock and indignation of having a stone hurled at her head was quickly replaced by shock of another kind. "Holy shit!" Audrey cried. "How did you know that would work?"

"I didn't," Connor admitted, "but I had a hunch. In my experience, the more you overthink this stuff, the harder it is."

"What??" Audrey rushed at him, but he leapt out of her reach with a laugh. "What if your hunch had been wrong, you sociopath?"

Still chuckling, Connor picked up another stone. He tossed it, caught it, then flashed her a mischievous grin. "Then I would have begged for your forgiveness. But seeing as it did work—" he held the rock up higher "—wanna try again?"

They spent the next few hours honing Audrey's new-found skill. At first, Audrey was only able to draw up her protective barrier out of necessity. This led to the creation of a strange, violent game of hide-and-seek in which Audrey would close her eyes for a count of ten while Connor hid somewhere close by. Not knowing when or where the next stone would come from kept her senses on high alert. Once she got the hang of how it felt to summon the energy needed to protect herself, Connor stopped hiding. By the time the sun sank below the treetops, Audrey had graduated from deflecting palm-sized stones to rocks that anyone other than Connor would have struggled to lift with two hands. They didn't launch nearly as far when they struck her forcefield of energy, but Audrey was still pretty proud of herself.

"That was awesome," she panted as she followed Connor to the encampment where the connection ritual was to take place. Hours of exertion has left them both sweaty and out of breath, like a pair of kids who had played too hard at recess. And, just like a pair of played-out children, they both bore wide and giddy smiles. It had been a good day.

"Tomorrow we should see if you can use energy to pick things up," Connor said. He stretched his arms and rolled out his shoulders as they walked. "I'll bet that would come in pretty handy."

Audrey beamed at him in the fading twilight. The fact that he was talking about spending more time together made her happy; she wasn't sure exactly when he had started feeling like a friend to her, but she welcomed it. She wanted to tell him how much she appreciated his company, his patience, his trust. But just as she opened her mouth to say so, Connor's arm shot out in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. He pressed a finger to his lips. Audrey held her breath, and in the silence she heard the droning of voices chanting in the distance. It was an eerie sound that sent a thrill racing through her.

Connor turned to her, his green eyes sparkling even through the gloom, and whispered like a breeze through the trees.

"It's time."