Page 49

Precisely one week—to the hour—after I met Radira, I hovered just behind the treeline surrounding the strange shanty where she was imprisoned. Wind rustled through the leaves of the giant, sprawling, gnarled oak… that now stood at least five feet closer to the door than it had been last week.

I hated to admit it, but that tree scared me. I was not small or weak, but it had thrown me across the yard with no more effort than I used to lift a pen. Well, its bear form had.