Silver Secrets

Chapter 13: Bree

I jolt awake when the door to the hayloft slams open. I sit up, spitting hay and dust out of my dry mouth, and look around blearily. I'm the last one up. They've even started breakfast without me.

River pulls herself up through the door, her hair making wet patches on her shoulders and her mouth set in a hard line.

"River," Clay says around a mouthful of bread. "Nice to see you looking like a pond, instead of just smelling like one."

River's lip curls. "Shut the fuck up, Clay. We should've made you sleep down there with the cows."

Clay's huge arm flexes as if he wishes he was holding his axe. When River sits down, she sits as far away from him as she can get, glaring at him the whole time.

"Well?" Angaret says after a minute of silence from River. "Did you find them?"

"I did." River snatches the last slice of bread from the plate the farmer gave us.

"And...?"

She tears off a little piece of bread and places it delicately in her mouth. "I'd say they're about ten miles away. Maybe fifteen."

Angaret's eyes widen. "That close?"

"I caught the girl when she decided to take a bath in a millpond. I could've finished the job there, but..." She trails off, looking guiltily at Angaret from under her eyelashes. "She caught me."

"She what?"

River swallows. "I pulled her under. I nearly had her. My hands were around her neck, I almost had her, but then..." River shakes her head and looks away. "She did something. It was like she was shoving me away. I felt her in my head. I had to let her go. She made me." River shudders, and I want to smile. Now she knows what it feels like when someone scares you just by existing.

"You were caught?" On the last word, Angaret slams her hand down onto the floor, making us all jump.

River nods. "I don't know if they know they're being chased, though," she says quickly. "The werewolf pulled me out of the water and I'm sure he knew I'm a water elemental, but there was no way for them to know there's more of us."

"Unless she looked in your head," Clay adds helpfully.

Angaret sighs and runs a hand through her cropped hair. "River, I told you to be subtle. Not to take any risks."

River's cheeks go slightly pink. "I didn't think it was a risk."

"She has psychic powers, River! What did you think she'd do? Didn't I tell you we don't know what we're dealing with here?"

"In my experience of drowning people—which is a lot, I'll remind you—people don't think when they're drowning, they panic. I thought—"

Angaret lurches to her feet, and I shrink back into Eddie. Even Clay looks a little startled. "It's not your job to think, River, it's your job to follow the orders I give you and your orders were to observe them and report back. That was it." She takes a deep breath and seems to remember that the rest of us are there. "Pack up. All of you. We're leaving. If what River said is true then they're not that far away. For your sake--" she glares at River again, but River doesn't even flinch, "—you'd better hope we can still catch them."