“It sounds like someone’s out there,” I said, shivering as if we were being watched. “It’s freaking me out.”
Boone’s lips quirked. “Nah. There’s no one out there.”
He held out his hand and beckoned me closer. Sliding my palm against his, he tugged me toward him.
“Listen,” he murmured. “Hear that sound?”
“The fluttering and…” I listened. “The rustling.”
“That’s the leaves fallin’ from the boughs overhead and findin’ their way to the forest floor.”
“And there’s that cracking sound… It sounds like someone stepping on branches. Someone following us.” I shivered, panicking slightly at the thought of other unseen people out here.
“Ah, that’s old branches breakin’ away from the trees and fallin’ to the ground.”
“How do you know?”
“I spend a lot of time walkin’ out here.”
“Why?” I frowned, wondering what the attraction was.
“It’s quiet,” he murmured. “I can think out here without bein’ distracted. And I can change if I want. I can run or fly without anyone seein’.”
“You can fly?”
“Of course. It takes some time to create an affinity with a new animal, but I can change into several things.”
“Like what?”
“A fox, a tabby cat, a gyrfalcon, and a horse. I’m sure I could change into Fergus’s donkey if I tried, too.”
“You can change into a horse?” I wondered what that would look like.
“I made friends with Mark Ashlyn’s black stallion.”
“Really?”
Glancing up, I realized how close we’d become and let out a little yelp. Tugging my hand from his, I wrapped my arms around my middle.
“I’m not much of a wilderness person,” I said lamely. “The closest I got was my dad’s house by the beach.”
“The house by the bay?” Boone asked. “With the cargo ships that sailed in and out?”
My brow knitted, and I angled away from him. He sure seemed to know a lot about my life. Even more than me. Another wave of jealousy threatened to take control of my mouth, and my scowl deepened.
“You sure know a lot of fun facts about my life,” I said irritably.
“Aileen used to talk a lot about you.”
“Yeah?” I was much more open to talking about her after yesterday’s revelations. If she were still here, then she would be able to tell me what to do, but she wasn’t, which was why I was here in the first place. I would have to figure out this puzzle on my own with the limited expertise of a shapeshifter with amnesia.
He smiled, then nodded toward the tree. “Do you want to give it a try?”
“My magic?” I asked nervously.
“It’s why we’re here.”
“I’m much more interested in talking about you,” I said, trying to stall. “Is magic a universal thing? If you’re a shapeshifter, does that mean you’re meant to live over there? Is that where the witches came from? That other place?”
Boone chuckled and shook his head. “You’re stallin’, and no. I’m human at my core, and so are you. Magic lives in lots of creatures that aren’t exclusively fae.”
“Like Robert?”
“Aye, like Robert.” He nodded at the tree again. “Now how about you give somethin’ a try?”
I made a face and hunched over like I had an upset stomach. “How am I supposed to do that when I can’t feel anything? Like, there’s nothing in me that feels any different. Not before being zapped with Robert’s magical pen or after. That sounds rather perverted when I say it like that.”
Boone raised his eyebrows, his cheeks turning pink, and it was rather cute. He turned away and crossed the clearing. Squatting by the base of the hawthorn, he fossicked in the undergrowth before holding up a green leaf, the stem pinched between his forefinger and thumb.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” I asked, watching him return with his find. “That’s a leaf. What’s that got to do with casting spells?”
“It’s a hawthorn leaf,” he retorted. “And I know a little. Robert gave me some pointers, but there’s only so much I can do. The rest is up to you.”
“Don’t tell me there’s some mystical prophecy about having to find my own path and learn my own lessons,” I complained. “What a cliché.”
Boone shrugged.
I threw my hands into the air. “Typical!”
“Concentrate,” he coaxed, placing his hand on my shoulder. The movement was intimate, and I tensed as he held up the leaf in his open palm.
“What do I do? Make it float or something? How about bursting into flames?”
“How about floatin’? I left me fire extinguisher at home.”
“Ha, ha. Real funny.”
Narrowing my eyes, I had no idea what I was doing, but I tried to will the leaf to rise. Nothing happened. I screwed up my face and tried again, knowing I looked like I was borderline constipated. This better not be one of those hidden camera shows, I thought.
“Float, you little piece of—” Just as I was about to throw a tantrum, the leaf began to twitch in Boone’s palm, and before I realized what was happening, it fluttered upward.
“Yes!” I fist pumped the air. “It worked!”
“Uh, it more than worked,” Boone said, looking around the clearing.
Lifting my head, I gasped. We were surrounded by thousands of floating leaves. The effort I’d placed in making a single little thing float had blown out to a seven-meter radius. Wow, talk about putting your back into it.
Reaching out, I tapped a leaf, and it spun around once before settling back into place.
“How do they go down?” I asked.
“You’re askin’ me?”
“I don’t see anyone else here.” Sighing, I lifted my hands and held them out palm down. “Let’s see… Down!” I waved my hands downward, and the leaves fluttered back to earth. I laughed. “Ha! Take that!”
“You showed them.”
“Did I really do that?” I asked, twirling around. “It wasn’t some illusion like one of those Las Vegas magician shows?”
“Aye. It was you,” Boone replied, his voice echoing through the clearing. “Do you want to try again?”
“I…” I glanced around uncertainly, not sure I wanted to find out how deep this magic ran. Now that I’d disturbed it, I could
