We knelt in the shadow of a big tree, scanning our surroundings. No one moved. Bears didn’t need guards, apparently. Two windows glowed in the large house just ahead. We were in a large estate, surrounded by towering trees and woodlands. Bear country, indeed.

Nate waited for me to meet his gaze, and then nodded, holding out a hand for me to lead. He smiled wryly as he did it, not completely condescending, but as close as he could get to it.

I sniffed disdainfully and calmed myself. This was important. I needed this. For myself.

I needed to know I wasn’t a coward, that I could at least overcome fear and approach danger with a level head. I knew I could fight. But fighting when I knew safety lay at the end was one thing, like training. Sure, I could get injured, but there was never any real danger. This… was different. A wrong move could be the end of everything.

And that was when my nightmare usually tried to get me. But it hadn’t with the vampires. Claire’s unspoken philosophy had seemed to work better than anything Roland had ever tried. Coupled with my dad encouraging me to find my I, maybe I had finally overcome it. If not, Nate was here.

Knowing that I didn’t want to be a Shepherd like Roland, it was doubly important that I learn how to take care of myself. I didn’t know what my future entailed, but I could at least walk away with a small measure of self-confidence.

Like in my training, I took a deep breath, forming the feather of focus in my mind.

Then, I moved.

I masked my footsteps with a whisper of magic, so no one could hear. Without thinking, I cast another spell that I had never been taught, my mind abruptly clouding over, as if I was watching someone else do the magic from a distance.

Nate followed, and I saw him frowning at me.

I glanced down and saw that my form was a blur, like a smeared watercolor.

Huh. That was something, but it was a distant thought, as I was wrapped up in the void. Only the feather existed.

Nate reached my side, now pressed up against the side of the house. “The church teach you that?” he asked softly.

I shook my head. I wasn’t sure where it had come from, but he didn’t need to know that. And I knew for a fact that silence upset men.

It worked on Nate.

I managed to bite back a smile at my small measure of success.

Glancing about, still confident we were alone, I flung up my hand, and an orb drifted up above us to hover outside the window on the second floor, one of the windows that was illuminated. The orb didn’t have a color, exactly, but seemed to be a distorted view of its surroundings, like staring through glasses with Vaseline smeared over the surface.

Again, Nate grunted. That one had been from Roland.

Sounds slowly reached my ears and I felt Nate tense, thinking someone was creeping up on us. Then he seemed to understand what my orb was doing. Like a small microphone, it was picking up on sounds from the room above.

“I don’t care what she said. We don’t work for her. The warning didn’t do any good anyway.”

“… payback…” a muffled voice replied, too far away to catch all of his reply.

“Oh, she’ll pay for this. It’s already in motion.”

“… Temple…?”

The first voice hesitated. “We’ll see…”

“… rumors…”

“I damned well know the rumors!” the first voice growled. “But we don’t have much choice if he shows up. Even considering…” the voice faded with a steady thump of walking feet on a wooden floor. Then the light in the room winked out. I released my spell, glancing at Nate.

He shrugged, then held out a hand for me to proceed with whatever I chose to do.

I waited, wondering what the two bears had been talking about. Or maybe they had been guards. Still, it seemed someone had come to warn them of something. And that I needed to pay for something I had done. But… I hadn’t done anything to them. Nate had been the one to fight the bear at the auction, and I realized with a start, I had never asked him the outcome. Had he killed him? And who kept going around warning people about me? I was confident it wasn’t the Demon, because her letter had admitted to killing the wolf and vampire, and she had no need to warn them ahead of time only to kill them hours later. It made no sense.

But none of that mattered. I needed that spear. It was the last piece. Then I could get it to Roland and be done with this.

But you need to make an impression. A stand. Give them fear… a small voice inside of me whispered. I nodded resolutely. This was like the first day in a prison yard. I needed to walk up to the biggest man in the pen and punch him in the teeth. Even if that meant bluffing.

I refocused like Roland had taught me, feeding my emotions into the image of the feather in my mind. The feather ruffled lightly as the wind of my emotions struck it, and were absorbed into it, leaving only the feather, slowly rotating in midair.

I was ready. No fear. No emotions. Cold. Calculating. One with my training.

One last flicker of fear darted through. Would that be enough?

I fed it into the feather, waiting for the calm to return. I thought I heard faint laughter in the depths of my mind, but it stopped as soon as I focused on it.

When I opened my eyes, Nate was watching me thoughtfully. I stared back at him, face devoid of emotion. An eager smile slowly spread across his face, and he gave me a single nod.

“Back me up if things go bad, otherwise please stay back.” He nodded.

I repeated the same spell I had used earlier over both of us, washing us in a water-colored smear. Nate grunted, glancing down at himself, eyes thoughtful. I knew he could duplicate it now. He seemed a quick learner.

I grabbed his shoulder, and enveloped the two of us in a small cocoon of magic, the same I had used to kill sound as we had snuck away from the tree. Then I Shadow Walked us into the room where the bears had been a few moments ago. Nate hissed at me, sounding surprised I had done so rather than sneak in through the ground floor. I checked that we were alone before whispering back.

“They’re less likely to check a room they vacated only moments ago, and I bet the ground floor entrances are heavily guarded. They seem to be expecting us. Perhaps your spying didn’t do much good. Soldiers can die with faulty information,” I added as an afterthought, something Roland had told me repeatedly.

Nate’s vague form flickered in agitation, but I dismissed him, studying the room. It was an office. I quickly crept around the room, careful to keep the orb around me so my motions were silenced. I found a desk, and slowly began sliding open drawers, searching for the spear. It wasn’t there. I found papers all over the desk, and even a confirmation email about the auction, proving that at least some of Nate’s information had been accurate. This was the right house. Bear shifters were reportedly loners, but that didn’t mean there couldn’t have been two or more grizzly families in town.

So, we had the right house, but no spear on the desk. I glanced over my shoulder to see Nate scouring one of the closets. He had duplicated my sound-suppressing spell, although his wasn’t an orb around him that I could see. Maybe that was because of the illusion spell I had used on him. Still, no sound betrayed his search.

He finally looked up at me and shook his head. He pointed to various spots around the room, again, shaking his head, letting me know where he had searched — the bed, the night stand, and the closet. I didn’t see anywhere else to hide the spear, but I did unfold from my crouch to check behind paintings on the wall, curious if they had safes for the spear tucked away behind one.

Then I had another thought. Would I be able to sense the spear? I had felt the other two pieces, so maybe I could follow that connection. I focused on what I had felt from the spear pieces I had touched, and a moment later, I flicked my head to the desk for some reason. To an empty spot between papers.

I frowned, but nothing was there. Still, I felt a… resonance of some kind, as if the spear had sat there for some time. Maybe the bears had taken it when they left the room. I focused on the resonance again, and I could feel Nate studying me, sensing something. A faint trail of… not light, but something, drifted from the desk to the door exiting the room. Nate still watched me, apparently not seeing it, but I wanted to let out a hoot of triumph. I could follow it!

I motioned him forward, and tentatively placed my hand on the door.

It exploded into me, hammering me across the room.