Page 54 of Golden Star

“You’re seriously comparing fae magic to hunting with your dad?” I ask.

“Totally,” she says, and then she rattles off a bunch more hunting advice, as unwilling to give up on this as she’s been with any hobby she’s ever pursued.

“Fine,” I give in. “But if anything happens—anything at all—you scream, okay?”

“I’ll scream bloody murder if I have to.” Her eyes light up, and she nods enthusiastically. “Now go, before you pass out and I have to carry your hangry ass through the trials tomorrow. And bring some sharp rocks back with you. It can’t hurt to have a stash of mini projectile weapons in our pockets.”

“Deal,” I say, and I quietly move in the tent to peek through a small gap, barely daring to breathe as I scan the area.

Riven sits beneath a nearby tree, his eyes closed, his head tilted back as he rests. Somehow, he manages to look alert even when he’s sleeping.

Ghost is curled beside him, breathing in slow, steady rhythms.

The four knights are stationed in various places around the perimeter. Two of them are resting, and the other two are alert.

Now’s the tricky part. Because I can only project to a place I can see. And the place I choose obviously can’t be one that will catch the knights’ attention.

It’ll have to be as far away as possible. But there’s only so much I can see through the slit in the tent.

Then, I see it. A shimmer of golden light, beaming from the sky like a message from the stars, illuminating a tree far in the distance.

The tree has a thick branch sticking out of it—one I can surely balance myself on.

That’s my target. A sign. It has to be.

So, I focus on the branch, call on my magic, and materialize on it.

From up here, the forest spreads out before me like a sea of trees and ice. The camp is barely there in the distance, and I’m far enough away that the knights probably assumed the noise was from an animal.

I have to hurry out of their line of sight.

Quickly, I eye the branches spanning before me. There are lots of other thick ones. Definitely thick enough to hold my weight. And none of them have leaves, so there’s not much for me to get stuck on.

Worst comes to worse, I’ll snap back into my body and no one will have any reason to think I came out here at all.

But sitting around up here isn’t doing me any favors. I have to move.

So, I take a deep breath and look up at the stars.

As if they’re answering my call, my skin tingles, buzzing with magic, filling me with what feels like the soft glow of night.

Time to go.

Just like when I ran along the branch at Riven’s window, I hurry across it now, pushing myself off the end and landing on the nearest branch with a surprising amount of precision. My body feels so incredibly light. It’s like gravity doesn’t exist—as if the air is guiding my movements—and I barely feel the cold thanks to the thrill of it all.

Keeping momentum, I jump to another branch, and another, and another.

Eventually, I spot my target.

A deer-like creature up ahead, like the one I saw while we were walking with the knights earlier. Its silvery fur glistens under the starlight, and its antlers are sharp enough to serve as weapons.

Perfect.

I don’t move. A single wrong step could alert it that I’m here, and there’s no way of knowing when I’ll find another deer.

Remembering Zoey’s advice, I spot a large icicle hanging from the branch of the tree I’m in, just thick enough to make a good weapon.

With as much focus as possible on being as quiet as I can, I crawl toward the icicle. And, by some miracle, I can’t even hear myself moving. It’s like there’s a thin cushion of air around me, protecting me from hitting anything on the tree that might cause any noise.

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