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“All right. I’ll tell you while we walk.” I needed to remember she was off-limits and I had a job to do. “Let’s go find you a hat, shall we?” I stood and placed our cups on the counter.
Outside, the bite of cold stung my cheeks. “Even though historians believe it was a temple to the Goddess of the Hunt, the legends claim the Hunters also went there to honor the death of the animal they’d killed. To gain a measure of forgiveness for taking a life. And for this reason, spirits who are unable to cross over, spirits they believe have unfinished business, linger near the temple ruins. Or at least, they linger there at certain times of the year.”
“Like the Day of the Dead?”
“Around here, it’s All Saints’ Day.” Those were just human celebrations. “There are other days of power. The solstice, for example.”
“Do you believe this?” She turned to look at me. Her lips pressed together and her forehead creased as she studied my face, waiting for my response.
Of course I believed this. It was part of my life, my world—a world I could not share with her, but one that was very real. I knew Edric’s spirit grew stronger as the days grew shorter, and come the solstice, he’d lead his band of vengeful spirits on their Wild Hunt. If I didn’t find and destroy the object he’d chosen as an anchor, allowing him a foothold in the living world, he would continue to hunt my kin in his pointless search for Godda.
This knowledge was off-limits for Evelyn. Instead, I limited my response to human-appropriate facts. “I’ve studied the stories collected from people who profess to have experienced these sightings. But I don’t see any reason to believe temple ruins like this one are any more likely than any other place for sightings.”
“You sound like you believe these sightings are real.”
I shrugged. “There’s no proof that they aren’t.”
She shook her head and frowned. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
“How do you know?” I grinned at her. “Just because you’ve never seen one?” I nudged her shoulder with mine.
She snorted. “You’re impossible.”
“I prefer ‘open-minded.’” Brightly colored yarn caught my eye, and I stopped in front of a store window. “Ah, here we are. I think they’ll have something suitable.” I stepped over to the door and held it open for her. She slipped past me and disappeared into the shop.
The inside of the shop smelled like felines and herbs. An old woman with a weatherworn face appeared from behind a display of wool sweaters. “Can I help you?” she asked. Her gaze lingered on me a bit longer than I’d expected and made me wonder if she might be a seer. Some humans were born with the ability to see past a glamour to the true Fae form beneath. I could only hope she wasn’t one of them.
“I’m looking for a warm hat,” Evelyn said.
The woman grinned, creasing the wrinkles around her eyes. “Well, you’ve come to the right place,” she said. “Follow me.”
She led us over to an assortment of winter hats on display. Most were knitted wool in a variety of colors. Some had long tails or tassels. Some had yarn balls at the top. Evelyn gravitated toward the standard beanies in neutral shades of gray, black, and cream. She ran her hand over the cashmere knits and ultimately selected a speckled gray beanie made from a cashmere and wool blend. Boring and practical. I scanned the display while she checked her reflection. A red-and-green-striped hat caught my eye. I reached for it and smiled when I realized it had ear flaps.
“Try this one,” I said.
Evelyn turned from the mirror to look at me. “What’s wrong with this one?” she asked, glaring out of the corner of her eyes at the hat I had balled up in my hand.
“Nothing. It’s fine. Just try this one.” Everything she’d said, everything she’d done, every word she’d spoken, had left me with the impression that she was the type to play it safe. But the world was a colorful place. If I couldn’t show her my world, I could at least bring some color to hers.
She pulled the gray hat off her head and smoothed down her hair. Then she reached for the one I held out to her. As she unfolded it, she began to frown and her forehead wrinkled.
“Go on,” I said. “Try it.”
“You’re trying to make me look ridiculous, aren’t you?”
“I think it will look brilliant. It has personality.”
She squinted at me and turned toward the mirror before pulling the hat down over her head. I watched her reflection as she blinked at herself in the mirror. Then the corners of her mouth twitched and slowly turned upward into a smile. Grinning, she tugged at the strings that dangled from the ear flaps.
Our eyes locked in the mirror, and I returned her smile. “You like it, don’t you?”
“It’s all right,” she said. But her smile grew, and she bounced a bit on her toes.
“Turn around,” I said.
She turned to look at me and stretched her arms out at her sides. “Ta-da,” she said.
“Much better.”
