That was the strangest thing of all. He had honestly thought her daft as a duck when he’d followed her on his last foray to the local pub, but when she’d pulled him aside, he’d seen what she had been avoiding and couldn’t deny that there was something quite untoward about it. There were shadows, of course, and then there were shadows. What he had seen had been a less of a shadow than a hint of magic. Watching a lad step into its embrace, pause as if he’d had his will to move briefly stolen from him, then carry on as if nothing had happened to him . . . ’twas passing odd, that.
He paused, but that was only because he’d just realized that Meera had stopped, turned, and was currently glaring at him. He examined her for implements of death, then shook his head. As he’d told her a few nights a
