Seeds of Autumn

  Chapter Nineteen

  25th November

  It was gone midnight and Ariana was starting to get tired, having spent the day training and an evening out across the city. But her mind was buzzing and she slunk out through the back door for some peace and quiet in the still night before turning in. She climbed the fire escape and went onto the roof to look out over the city.

  Her eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness and she looked over the territory, pausing to peer into dark corners and the shadows between cars. It was as though she were automatically tuning in to the territory, the way Shadow had been teaching her to.

  A movement half a block away caught her eye. Just a glimpse of a shift in the shadows, but it had her attention. It was the same shifting in the corner of her eye that she had been experiencing for a few days. Stepping to the edge of the roof and peering over she tried to focus on the movement, but her dull senses weren't up to the task and with a sigh of frustration she shifted into the form of a wolf. She ran along the edge of the roof, just above the guttering, all the way to the end of the terrace and leaped down onto a garage roof and down to the ground. She set off running after the mysterious shadow.

  She caught the scent of an intruding shifter. For a split second she contemplated going back to alert Fortune, but knew that she had one chance to track down the intruder. So she put her nose to the ground and set off. The trail was incredibly hard to follow, it was a much lighter scent than she was used to and she lost it a few times, only picking it up again when the wind made subtle shifts in her favour. It was male, so it couldn't be one of the Witches and it wasn't a familiar scent from the Wrecking Crew either.

  The trail led her to the southern edge of St Mark's and the boundary of Blue Moon territory, but it didn't cross the border into China Town. She followed it up a dark alley to another fire escape like the one at the betting shop. She shifted silently into her human form and climbed the ladder deftly. She came out onto a flat rooftop with high walls and a small cabin in the centre with a door into the building. Deep shadows were thrown across the roof by the orange street lamps just below roof height. She could feel the presence of the one she had been following, though she could no longer smell him in her human form.

  Her heart hammered in her chest but she summoned her courage and called out.

  'Hey. Who's there?'

  A movement behind the cabin got her attention and a slick, dark grey wolf padded out, his nose to the floor in submission. He shifted before her into a tall, slender young man with long black hair tied in a loose ponytail, his clothes were dark and loose and he wore a pendant on a leather strap around his neck. He raised his hands and stepped into the light.

  'Hi. I'm sorry to alarm you. I crossed into your territory in pursuit of...' He stopped and looked at her hard for a moment, a small smile of wonder crept onto his face. 'Huh.' He dropped his hands and cocked his head.

  Ariana took a defensive stance and watched him carefully, she felt a strange sense of connection to him, a glimmer of trust and warmth, but she didn't entirely trust the new feeling.

  'What?' she snapped at him, narrowing her eyes.

  'She's called to you,' he whispered, stepping closer to her again. 'You're on the path.'

  Ariana twitched, confused, to say the least.

  'What are you talking about?' she hissed at him.

  'Pursuit-of-Midnight-Solitude, she's called to you, hasn't she?' He smiled, but faltered seeing her confused expression. 'Oh. You haven't answered the call yet.'

  Ariana planted her hands on her hips and scowled at him. She did not appreciate being spoken to in riddles.

  'Look. You can't just run across other people's territory,' she huffed at him, impatiently.

  'I know. Fortune knows me, he gave me permission to cross your territory when I need to. Check with him. I swear. You must be new to the Blue Moon. My name's Hunter.' He took another step towards her and Ariana twitched nervously. He held up the pendant around his neck so she could see it in the light. It was a circle with a hole in the middle and there were small runes carved into the metal. She squinted to see them clearly, cursing herself for not having paid enough attention to the runes Flames-First-Guardian was always using in rituals. It was the written language of their kind, but there had been no time yet for her to study them.

  Deciding to save face rather than admit she couldn't understand his apparent free pass, she relaxed.

  'Okay. So what is this Pursuit-of-Midnight-Solitude?'

  Hunter smiled and Ariana couldn't help but smile too.

  'I think she'll be making that clear to you soon.'

  Ariana flung her arms up in exasperation.

  'You aren't going to give me a straight answer are you?'

  Hunter burst into a warm laugh.

  'No.' He looked down in mock sheepishness with surprising schoolboy charm. 'It's against the rules. I can't show you the path, you have to find it for yourself. But I can tell you've been called. You feel it too don't you? We're on the same journey, you just haven't let yourself follow the path yet.'

  Her conversation with Shadow rang in her ears, about being called by her blood and suddenly she wasn't sure she was meant for Odin's Warriors, but that didn't feel right either. Did it have to be one thing or another? Could she have two things calling her? Something else tugged at her memory too, Grins-Too-Widely had spoken to her about her path. He'd used that word, path, just as Hunter had.

  'Are you all right?' Hunter asked softly, he took a few steps towards her. She startled a little but quickly regained her composure.

  'Yes, fine, thank you.' She didn't know where to look.

  'You know what I'm talking about now, don't you?' he whispered. She nodded and closed her eyes as the pieces began to fall into place in her memory. 'Good,' he whispered in her ear.

  Then he was gone and she opened her eyes with a start, just in time to see him disappear over the side of the building. She ran forward and leaped up onto the high wall with ease, but by the time she had got her balance and leaned over to look down into the street he was lost into the shadows.

  She searched the street below for him but he was gone. Ariana jumped back down onto the roof, propped her elbows on the wall and stared out at the night. The shadows she had seen in her dreams and those demons that had disappeared suddenly on her catching sight of them now felt as though they were taunting her, inviting her to follow. In Hepethia a darkness demon had even grabbed her, perhaps to drag her into the chase, or possibly just to claim her as its own. She wasn't sure, but she did know now that it wasn't all coincidence.

  As if on cue, movement caught her eye a few car lengths away and the shadows seemed to blend and shift around something. It was Pursuit-of-Midnight-Solitude. She knew it. She felt the elusive being calling to her, begging her down from the roof. It was three storeys, she was not about to jump as Hunter had. She ran for the fire escape, descended swiftly and shifted back into her wolf form in the dark alley, before sprinting out into the street.

  Hunter's scent was gone already, Pursuit-of-Midnight-Solitude left no scent either, but she felt her call and followed it. The shadows seemed to dance before her, teasing her and she pursued the spirit relentlessly across St Mark's, unsure whether it was a demon or fae. It took her all over her territory, past her flat just a few blocks away from where she had started, up alongside the river and into Northgate where the factories churned and hissed. The shadows here were deep and dark and Pursuit-of-Midnight-Solitude led her right into them. Ariana felt the shadows clinging to her, hiding her from prying human eyes, she knew her scent would be light, almost impossible to track, just as Hunter's had been.

  The chase took her east into Redfield and then south, past the looming telecoms tower and back into St. Mark's. She was led down back streets, through gardens and through the underpass that enabled pedestrians to cross the huge roundabout where the two dual carriageways that crossed north Caerton met. The lights in the underpass were out and it was pitch black. Ar
iana raced through, soaking up the darkness and when she emerged on the other side her fur had absorbed it and turned a darker shade of grey.

  Ariana knew that she wouldn't ever catch the spirit, that wasn't the point, the point was the chase, the quest, embracing the darkness and running in the night. It was thrilling and everything she had been excited about since she first knew what she truly was.

  Eventually it led her home to the back yard of the betting shop, where Shadow's Step was sat waiting for her on the step in front of the back door. He smiled as she strode into the yard, resuming her human form with a wild grin on her face.

  She could feel the most important words of her new life pulsing through her. She felt the call of the night, Pursuit-of-Midnight-Solitude had spoken to her as she ran and called her by her true name.

  'Are you all right?' Shadow asked, still smiling knowingly.

  She nodded, breathless from her run.

  'Yes,' she managed to say at last. 'I met someone.' She threw her head back and looked at the cloudy sky. Light rain fell on her face.

  'You've changed.' Shadow stood up and stepped towards her. She looked at him with a broad grin that wouldn't go away. She felt something brush against her legs and looked down to see Grins-Too-Widely slinking past them. He sat down and looked at them, they returned his gaze.

  'Did you enjoy your run, Stalker-of-Night's-Shadow?' he asked and she laughed.

  'Yes. How did you know?'

  'I know your spirit,' he seemed to shrug before twisting and disappearing back across the veil.

  'Stalker-of-Night's-Shadow?' Shadow raised an eyebrow.

  'Yes. That's my true name.' She felt warmth spread from inside her and her skin glowed suddenly in the darkness of the back yard. She looked at her hands in amazement and then lifted them carefully to her face. She felt the runes flare up on her skin, they faded just as quickly as they had appeared. The marks would be invisible, but they were there on her spirit, the runes that represented her true name. Stalker smiled, finally she felt whole.