Isla
Of all the other village chiefs, Celeste was Isla’s favourite. Her presence made Isla feel warm, and her words were like a welcoming embrace. She and Felix were the only goblins who sought Isla out for company and not just business. Though the way Felix stared at her stiffly with his arms crossed over his chest reminded her that that was different now, too.
Isla helped Celeste up the stairs to the Park home and was about to turn away when she felt the woman’s hand tighten on her arm.
“You’re of roaming age, aren’t you, Isla?” Celeste asked.
Isla stiffened, casting her eyes away. “I am,” she said, as if confessing some great secret. Why is everyone suddenly thinking about this now? She risked a glance at Felix but found no help there. Knowing it was for the best didn’t stop her heart from aching.
“I don’t suppose Galhad has acknowledged it, has he?” Celeste asked knowingly.
“Oh. No. Well — Somewhat.” Isla let go of Celeste’s arm so she could unclip the black scabbard from her waistband and show it to the elder. “He gifted me this.”
Celeste’s eyes brightened. “What a beautiful dagger,” she murmured as she carefully took it from Isla and ran her fingers across the leather case. “You must take great care of it, Isla.”
“I thought Galhad didn’t want you to go roaming?” Felix asked, his voice cold.
Isla swallowed the lump in her throat. “He gifted it to me despite that,” she explained.
Felix just shrugged in reply.
As Isla strapped the dagger back to her hip, her eyes caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Despite the mid-morning glare off the snow, the shadows at the edge of the house appeared to be growing and fluctuating, rippling like a wave and inching their way toward the edge of the house. That’s strange, she thought, and looked back toward the group she’d lead here. She found Nathan was staring right back.
A cold drop of water landed on her cheek, and she looked up to find its source. A whole row of icicles, each the length and sharpness of a chef’s knife, trailed along the edge of the roof. That wasn’t safe. Everyone was supposed to clear icicles like those regularly. One of them was right above her, almost as if aimed at her face.
“Felix,” Isla asked sharply, “why haven’t these been cleared?”
Felix looked up and frowned. “Those weren’t there a few minutes ago.”
More shadows began to creep across the edge of the roof, coating the base of each icicle in inky darkness.
Isla took a small step back. A faint tingle coated her body, as if her ability was reacting to something in the air. “Celeste, you should—”
“Get down!” Nathan’s voice hit Isla barely a moment before he did. The werewolf barrelled into both her and Celeste, catching them in his massive arm span. They flew off the steps together into the snow just as the icicles crashed down, shattering across the stone steps of Felix’s parents’ house.
Nathan carefully released the goblins he’d tackled and leapt to his feet with a snarl. But before he could take a step, Celeste’s guard was in the way, his sword drawn and aimed at Nathan’s throat, intent on protecting his charge.
Isla sat up with a gasp, struggling to gather air back in her lungs. She watched as the dark shadows slipped back down the walls of the house until her view was cut off by Jessica crouching in front of her with a worried look on her face.
“Are you alright?”
Looking to Celeste, Isla was relieved to see the elder appeared unharmed.
“I believe we owe these people our gratitude, Anton,” Celeste said calmly and held out a hand to her guard.
The soldier sheathed his sword and stepped around Nathan, unfazed by the snarling werewolf, and helped the elder to her feet. “There is never a dull moment in this village,” he agreed in a gritty voice.
While Celeste dusted off her robes, Jessica extended a hand to Isla. Ignoring it, the young goblin stood up by herself, having caught her breath. “Felix?”
At the sound of his name, he poked his head out of the house. “What just happened?”
“Something caused those icicles to fall. Had you been standing there, you could have been skewered,” Jessica explained, looking at the roof overhangs.
“Thank you for your quick action,” Celeste told Nathan. “How did you move so fast?”
Cheeks turning red, Nathan dipped his chin. “I’m a, uh … a werewolf.”
“Ah.” Celeste looked to Isla. “You keep some interesting friends, Isla.”
Isla didn’t reply, her attention focused on where she had seen the shadows moving as though they had a mind of their own. As the witch moved towards Damien and Abigail, the darkness from the edge of the house seemed to stretch towards her feet for a moment, before snapping back into its usual place. After a few heartbeats, they remained still.
“Any luck?” Jessica asked Damien. Isla noticed the witch hunter was holding what looked like a golden pocket watch in his hands.
After consulting it briefly, he shook his head. “They’re gone,” he replied, snapping the contraption shut and slipping it back into his pocket.
“But they were definitely here,” the witch said.
Isla took one last look at the shadows of the house. They remained still, and the tingling sensation in her skin had subsided. Was that a demon? she wondered. When the others had called them “shadow demons,” she hadn’t expected that to be literal. Maybe she had imagined the darkness moving on its own; it could have been caused by a trick of the light, or refractions from the ice.
“Isla?”
She turned with a jerk to face Jessica’s stern expression.
“We should split up,” the witch advised her. “The shadow demons could be anywhere by now, and now they know we’re looking. They’re going to strike again.”
Definitely not the light playing tricks on my eyes, then.
Isla grabbed Jessica by the elbow and began leading her away from Felix and Celeste. Nathan followed behind them, joining their little huddle off to the side.
“Fine,” Isla agreed, keeping her voice low and private. “But no more glowing orbs. Not all the chiefs are as patient as Celeste, and we can’t risk word of this spreading.”
The witch scowled but didn’t argue. “Nathan and Abigail can take the west side, and Damien and I—”
“And I’ll go with you,” Isla cut in. No way she was leaving the witch unattended.
Nathan looked up at the sky with his lips pursed together. Abigail sighed. “Maybe there’s something else I could do? I’ll just slow Nathan down,” she said, shooting her brother a side-eyed glare.
He held up his hands defensively. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You could at least try to hide it better.”
“Nathan, Abby is there to make sure you don’t get ahead of yourself,” Jessica explained. “Plus, she can deal with any … interactions if you have to talk with the goblins.”
The werewolf furrowed his brow. “I can ‘interact’ just fine.”
His sister, with a hopeful smile on her face, was already heading in the direction Jessica had pointed. “Come on, Nathan.”
“Hey, wait up!”
Once the siblings were gone, Jessica turned to Isla. “Right, then. Let’s see what we can find.”