Sorceress Rising (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

sounds their own footfalls and the soft rustle of leaves. The
forest was unnaturally quiet. No squirrels scurried among the branches.
Nothing, not so much as a bird song on the breeze. Even the resident chipmunks
were absent. She glanced in Gregory’s direction.
    “It’s exactly
like Gran said; it’s as if all the wildlife has been scared off by a pack of
city born trophy hunters. No wonder Gran was having fits. Three months of this,
and I would be ready to start hunting the invaders, too,” Lillian grumbled more
to herself than Gregory.
    They walked for
perhaps another twenty minutes. All the while the forest grew thicker, the
shadows darker, the rich scent of loam heavier in the air. As the forest
embraced her, Lillian relaxed further.
    Gregory stopped,
lifted his head, and sniffed the air.
    “Now what?”
    In answer,
Gregory stepped out around her, veered off the path, and disappeared behind an
evergreen’s dense foliage.
    “Why, Gregory,
thank you for answering my question.” With a snort, Lillian followed her
gargoyle off the path and into the forest. They continued to walk, dodging tree
trunks, craggy roots, thorny thickets, and boggy low spots. Lillian was used to
the forest’s tricky geography and kept pace with Gregory relatively painlessly,
though she was envious of the way he moved so gracefully.
    She knew he
could move much faster without her, but she appreciated the slower pace given
how winded she was after even a short run. The shadows of the forest thinned
ahead, brightening to true sunlight twenty feet beyond. They emerged into a
meadow. This one carpeted with knee high grass and a sprinkling of wildflowers.
At the end of the clearing, the unicorn circled a large pine. He trotted with
his neck arched and his tail a glowing white banner behind him. Every inch of
his body language said he was pleased with himself.
    When Lillian
squinted at the shadows below the pine’s sweeping branches, she could just make
out another shadowy form. Unlike the unicorn, who showed no more concern for
human authorities than Gregory did, the one under the tree was wise enough to
want to hide.
    Upon closer
proximity, Lillian recognized the other Fae’s slender form and long silvery
hair, the shimmering shade not one she’d ever seen on a human. She raised a
hand in greeting to the sidhe leader. Whitethorn cast a nervous glance around
the meadow before he edged out from underneath the tree’s canopy. Only then did
Lillian notice he had his bow at the ready, an arrow notched. He lowered the
point to the ground and jerked his head toward darker shadows to his left.
There the forest thickened again, choking out the meadow grasses with the
shrubby growth of understory trees.
    Gregory skirted
the meadow, and as Lillian paced him, she felt when he called on the cold magic
of the Spirit Realm. The air around them became chilled, like someone had
opened a freezer door. A fine mist rose from the warm ground, and shadows
beneath the surrounding trees deepened, blurring and softening the bright light
of day into something more like twilight. Ahead, Gregory’s bulk had vanished
completely, and Lillian was willing to bet she herself was now invisible to
mortal eyes.
    But it didn’t
mean they were immune or hidden from a more technological variety of eye.
    “Wait. Gregory,
you might not be as concealed as you think.”
    Casting a
nervous look at the clear blue sky, she lengthened her strides and came
alongside where she’d last seen Gregory. She grabbed in the general vicinity of
where his shoulder should’ve been and came in contact with a wing instead.
Tugging forcefully, she attempted to turn him. “Humans have technology, science
you have never seen, which can track things like body heat and movement from
high overhead or kilometers away.”
    He became
visible as he flicked his wing free of her grasp. “You doubt my ability to
protect us from humans?” Then turning toward her, he stepped closer until his
muzzle was only