Page 21 of Shadow Spirit

“I can, and Brie there is a lynx-shifter. There are all kinds of shifters here at the abbey. Would you like to go outside and see?”

“Yes, please,” said Erin with more animation than she had shown since bursting into the chapel.

“Okay, grab the gingerbread cookies and the macaroons, and let’s go to the changing room,” said Brie.

Erin quickly transferred the two preferred types of cookies onto one plate and then followed Brie and Adriana into the changing room.

“Is she going to be okay with us being naked for a few minutes?”

Adriana laughed. “Uhm, witches are pretty comfortable with nudity, and we hold a lot of circles and bonfire dances ‘sky clad,’ which is another term for naked as the day you were born.”

Once in the changing room, Brie and Adrianna undressed as Brie explained that Erin would need to stand clear of the powerful, cataclysmic mists that would envelop her and Adriana and allow them to shift. Standing clear of Erin, Brie shifted first, allowing the swirling maelstrom to shroud her as she shifted.

“Doesn’t she need to spin around?” asked Erin.

It took Adriana a moment to realize the little girl was thinking about Wonder Woman from the comics. “No, sweetie. We’re shifters, not superheroes.”

“But isn’t being a witch kind of like being a superhero?”

“A little, but a whole lot more fun. Once we’re both shifted, we’re going to go out that door. I think you can fit, too, if you want. Otherwise, go back to Maya and ask her to take you outside.”

Erin looked at the door. “I can go through that easy.”

Brie’s beautiful lynx purred at Erin as she approached and rubbed up against her. Erin knelt down and stroked the long, luxurious fur of Brie’s altered self. Adriana gave herself some space and surrounded herself in the contained storm that was the shift. Emerging from the swirling mist as a wolf, Adriana bounded toward Brie, all but knocking her over before charging out the dual-flapped creature door.

She could hear Erin giggling as she, too, followed them out the door. Adriana and Brie played and cavorted in the back garden, running along the paths and bounding back to Erin who seemed to be beginning to embrace life at the abbey. Adriana was glad to see it. If Eoghan and his people had slaughtered Erin’s family and coven, the child was in danger, and there was no safer place for her than the abbey.

Adriana had come to love being a she-wolf. There was freedom to be found in the simpler form. She barked and play bowed to Erin and Brie, who seemed to sit contentedly at Erin’s feet and be stroked. To hell with that. Adriana zoomed past them, slowing only long enough to tug Brie’s short tail. Brie yowled and Adriana bounced at her, wagging her long tail and woofing. When Brie turned back to Erin as if to ignore her, Adriana charged back thinking to nip at her again. She should have known better. Brie smacked her with her snowshoe-sized paw—with her claws retracted—and sent Adriana tumbling before she could scramble back to her feet.

She and her wolf barked furiously, and Brie made a playful hiss before galloping toward the fountain in the center of the garden. Adriana gave chase, plowing into Brie as she trotted daintily along the fountain’s edge and knocking them both into the water. Brie snarled and got out of the water, shaking furiously and spraying water all over Erin, who laughed, enjoying the game. Brie hopped off the stones that surrounded the fountain and sat down by Erin, licking her paws and trying to bat away the dripping water.

Adriana was about to charge Brie again when she skidded to a halt as Erin extended her hand, palm facing outward and making signs with her index finger. She was trying to draw magic. She wasn’t doing it successfully and was most likely just mimicking what she’d seen her family and the rest of her coven do. It was no matter, as Adriana could teach her.

Inside her head, she could hear Erin speaking as clearly as if she was talking aloud. “You think you can teach me?” Adriana nodded and Brie looked between them. It would seem Brie could hear her as well. “I’m not so good at spells yet, but I can talk to animals. My aunt said we were related to Dr. Doolittle, but I don’t know if that’s true.”

“Ask Brie something about being a lynx,” said Adriana, wanting to know the extent of Erin’s gift.

“Do you think you could teach me to purr? I’ve always thought that would be nice.”

Brie shook her head, but even as a lynx, Adriana could tell she was astonished. “Unfortunately, as a human, you don’t have the right kind of vocal chords, but when you’re older if you like, you can choose to become any kind of shifter you like.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Brie assured her. “But it’s a big step and you have to be sure.”

“Erin, do you have any other gifts?” asked Adriana, knowing that many times, closely related gifts came in pairs.

“Sure. I can heal animals as well.” She pointed to a field beyond the keep that lay fallow. “There’s a red fox in the undergrowth. She has kits, and she’s hurt; I’m trying to heal her. She has a wounded leg. I’m almost done.”

The three of them headed out to the field. A small red vixen came out of the bushes, baring her teeth.

“It’s all right. These are my friends,” soothed Erin. “They’re not really animals, and Adriana is a witch like me.”

Dancing lights drifted from Erin’s fingertips to the wound on the vixen’s leg. Adriana and Brie watched as the wound seemed to heal itself. They left the fox to care for her young and walked back to the changing room. Once inside, both she and Brie shifted back and got redressed.

“Erin? Outside you could communicate with us without speaking. Can you hear our thoughts now?”

The little girl shook her head. “No. Some of our elders could, but none in my family.”

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