Of Sorcery and Snow by Shelby Bach Read Free Book Online

me. “I think it feels like a movie night.”
    â€œDefinitely.” As long as I could sneak to my room and get an update from Lena beforehand.
    Glass shattered near the front, and we all glanced back. I expected someone to apologize profusely for knocking over some wine bottle, but the woman in front of the purplish puddle just backed away from the entrance.
    A white wolf stood in the doorway.
    For a second I just stared, too shocked to move.
    It couldn’t attack me here , not when I was surrounded by people who knew nothing about magic, not when I was with my family .
    But when its yellow eyes met mine, the wolf began to growl.
    I’d left my sword in my carryall, sitting in the backseat of Amy’s car. Useless.
    Someone near the back of the store screamed, but it sounded far away.
    Mom shifted forward slightly. “Stay behind me, Rory.”
    Amy’s hand crept into her purse, where I knew she kept a can of pepper spray. She was too slow. The wolf crouched, and if Mom was standing between us, it would just attack her before it got to me.
    The wolf leaped.
    I yanked Mom back so fast that her rain-booted feet flew outfrom under her with a rubbery squeak. Then I struck out with the only weapon I had on me: my left fist, armed with the ring of the West Wind. A gust rippled over my arm as the punch connected with the wolf’s snout. The furry body crashed into the canned vegetables section. Then it slid to the floor, out cold before it could even whimper.
    It also left a big dent in the metal shelves.
    I glanced at Mom, checking to make sure she wasn’t hurt, but she was just staring at me. Amy too. Actually, every eye in the store stared at me. My face started to burn. Cans rolled on the floor past my ankles.
    â€œRory, what did you do ?” Amy whispered.
    But it was the look on Mom’s face that scared me the most—like she didn’t recognize me at all.

    With a nod from Mom, Amy went straight into damage control mode. She walked up to the cashier and offered to pay for all damages.
    Mom just got us out of there before the police, animal control, or the press showed up. With a hand clamped on my shoulder, she steered me out the door, around the corner, and to the car.
    She wasn’t saying anything. She wasn’t even looking at me as she climbed into the driver’s seat, and it was freaking me out.
    â€œMom . . . ,” I started, buckling my seatbelt.
    â€œHold on, Rory,” she said, turning the car toward home. She sounded as strained as she did when she had to drive in a blizzard back when we lived in upstate New York—she had the same distant look, the same tense focus making her entire body rigid. “Let me get us home.”
    My hands shook as I unzipped my carryall. I fished around untilmy fingers closed around my sword hilt. I didn’t pull it out, but I felt the tiniest bit better with it in my hand.
    Mom had come so close to getting hurt. And it was my fault.
    But why now ? I’d been on high alert for weeks after trolls invaded Lena’s home in Milwaukee. I’d been sure that my family was next, but the Snow Queen hadn’t sent anyone. Chase said it must have been because my family didn’t know anything about EAS. Even Solange wouldn’t cross that boundary. Not knowing kept them out of danger.
    But the wolf had come after me. The Snow Queen would follow me wherever I was, whoever I was with.
    The normal world wasn’t safe anymore.
    Mom turned the corner onto our street, and I jumped. But the big furry shape on the sidewalk was just the poodle that lived two doors down. His owner trotted behind him, poop bag in hand.
    We reached the cheery yellow house Mom had rented, with its pale green trim, its giant upstairs window with crisscrossed panes, and its small front garden, full of tulips in bloom. Mom parked the car and turned off the engine.
    Then she looked me straight in the eye, dead serious. “Is Ever