Rae's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Rae pressed her hand over her baby's mouth and counted the boots in the market square below. Her daughter's fingers glowed faint blue against Rae's palm. That soft light was the whole problem. Rae had spent a year dreaming of a safe place in Oak Grove, a hidden home where mothers like her could raise magical children without hiding. But dreams didn't help now. Someone was hunting kids like her daughter, and Rae still didn't know who or how close. She crouched behind a barrel, knees tucked, her short black hair damp against her neck. The whispers had started three days ago. A child taken. Then another. No names. No faces. Only fear moving mouth to mouth. Rae needed to learn who led the search before it found her. A fat sausage with tiny wings buzzed past her ear. She swatted at it. The little creature circled back and hovered over the barrel, glossy and stupid and loud. If a hunter looked up, they'd see it. Then they'd see her. "Go," she hissed. It didn't go. A heavy shape stepped from the alley behind her. Rae spun, ready to run. Then she saw the sandals, the wide belly, the calm face she knew too well. "Marcus." Her breath rushed out. "You scared me." Mac Daddy Marcus filled the whole alley mouth. He was huge, slow, and gentle, the father of the child pressed to Rae's chest. He didn't speak fast. He never did. He knelt beside her, and the ground seemed to shift under his weight. "I know who leads them," he said. His voice stayed low. "I followed two of them last night." Rae grabbed his arm. "Who?" "The one who owns the ruined tower on the fallen redwood." He pointed past the rooftops. Rae saw it then, a broken stone spire perched on a massive limb, gray and ancient against the sky. "They took a boy there. He's still inside." Rae's stomach dropped. She had passed that tower a hundred times and thought it empty. "How many hunters?" she asked. "Six. Maybe more." Marcus met her eyes. "They pay coin for every child. Someone in the market is telling them who glows." The winged sausage landed on his shoulder. He didn't shoo it. He just watched Rae, waiting for her choice. Rae looked at her daughter's glowing hand. She looked at the tower where a stranger's child sat trapped. Her dream of a haven felt far away and useless. But now she had a name for the danger. She had a place. She had one thing she hadn't had an hour ago. "They think the market is safe for them," Rae said. "It won't be." She pulled her hood over her baby's light and stood. The whispers were no longer just whispers. The hunt had a face now, a tower, and a leader. And Rae was done hiding from it.