Prince of Shadows by Susan Krinard

“He didn’t—”

“I know. If I thought he did, I wouldn’t be taking you anywhere near my family.” Her expression was grim. “The cops are going to be combing these woods once they figure out he’s run, especially when you disappear with him. There’s maybe one place they won’t check right away, and that’s the rez. Especially not my grandma’s cottage.”

Mary. The old medicine woman with her sharp tongue, cryptic comments, and too-knowing eyes. Who had been so intent on talking to Kieran.

“Your grandmother?” Alex repeated.

But Julie was looking at Kieran, and it was to him she spoke. “I had a feeling the first time I met you. Grandma suspected. But when Tracy told us what happened by the pond, it all came together.”

Brown eyes met yellow and held in silent communication. “You don’t know what I am,” Kieran said without inflection.

“We know enough.”

He lowered his head and narrowed his eyes. “Don’t get involved, Julie.”

“Too late. We’re already involved.” Her voice dropped to a mutter. “In more ways than you know.” She looked at Alex. “Have you made any plans about how to get him out of the area or where you’re going to go?”

What little control Alex had gained over the situation was rapidly slipping out of her hands. “I didn’t have the chance. Julie, listen to me—”

“No. You listen. Both of you.” Every trace of Julie’s usual good humor had vanished. There was something about her, a subtle authority and dignity that silenced all of Alex’s questions. “I know trust doesn’t come easily to either one of you. Maybe you’ve got good reasons. But right now you haven’t got any choice, because you’re going to need all the friends you can get. And my family’s it. Now let’s go.”

Before Alex could summon up a reply Kieran had begun to move, head down and jaw set. Julie nodded once and turned toward the reservation.

“Wait,” Alex said. “I left the cabin this morning with nothing. I wasn’t thinking too clearly when I went to find Kieran. There are things I need—we need. Let me just go back—”

Julie gave a sharp sideways jerk of her head. “Wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“If it’s because of the police—”

“Not only that. I went by your place after you’d already left.” She glanced at Kieran, who was almost out of sight ahead of them, and shrugged out of her own backpack. “This is what I found.”

The object she pulled out of her pack was black and ratty and musty, the fur moth-eaten and old. Alex touched it.

A black wolfs fur. Some portion of a pelt, splashed with blood and pierced with a large hole.

“This was left on your doorstep with a stake planted through it,” Julie said. “There was a message written in the snow. I’m not going to repeat it, so don’t ask.”

Alex let the scrap of pelt fall into the snow. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t want to. I sent Mike into town to check on the police and catch up on the latest news. Seems that the mood in town is ugly. Some folks are with the police, and believe a man did it.”

“Kieran,” Alex said hoarsely.

“Yeah. But there’s a contingent, led by our friend Howie, who think it had to have been an animal. A wolf. The same black wolf, in fact, that was raiding livestock recently. The one you were defending.”

Alex nudged the pelt with her foot. “So now they blame me.”

“They need someone to blame. Peter was an outsider, but I guess he could make himself popular when he wanted to.”

“Yes,” Alex murmured. “Peter was that way.”

“And you can’t afford to mess with Howie’s bunch now,” Julie said. She sighed and closed her eyes. “There’s another thing. Five years ago there was a similar murder near town. Same kinds of wounds. There was a black wolf around then, too. So both the cops and Howie’s stooges see a connection from that other time. It’s complicated, and it’s no good for you or Kieran.”

“Who… was killed before?”

Julie opened her eyes. They shone suspiciously bright. “A girl. A girl from the rez. My cousin.”

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