Promises to Keep (24 page)

Renna leaned back and enjoyed her chai latte, already contemplating who she would
choose as her narrator. As always,
the others had been involved in forming the story, and she was left to write it.

Her power had changed, she thought, but who could really tell? She had been born an
Arun witch, tainted by vampires, partially trained as a Triste, and now possessed
more than one strain of shapeshifter power. All of that had been jumbled and reassembled.
It would be fun to see what happened next.

She pulled out her laptop, flipped it open, and opened her word processor.

“I think the best place to start would be at Kendra’s Heathen Holiday,” Xeke said.
“With Jay coming in from the snow.”

Renna nodded. She had visited the gala briefly, but too many people didn’t like her,
mostly due to her propensity to tell the stories she learned, regardless of the preferences
of those involved. But she knew how things had looked. She knew that Daryl’s
Lady with a Falcon on Her Fist
had stood in the front hall this year; Xeke had already told her how it had stopped
Jay cold as he’d examined it, as if unsure whether he could love it for its beauty
or should hate it for its creator.

Yes, she would begin there.

A
MELIA
A
TWATER
-R
HODES
wrote her first novel,
In the Forests of the Night
, when she was thirteen. Other books in the Den of Shadows series are
Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror, Midnight Predator, Persistence of Memory, Token
of Darkness
, and
All Just Glass
. She has also written the five-volume series The Kiesha’ra:
Hawksong
, a
School Library Journal
Best Book of the Year and a Voice of Youth Advocates Best Science Fiction, Fantasy,
and Horror Selection;
Snakecharm; Falcondance; Wolfcry
, an IRA-CBC Young Adults’ Choice; and
Wyvernhail. Poison Tree
is her most recent novel. Visit her online at
AmeliaAtwaterRhodes.com
.