“Now we wait, and while we wait, I show you what I can summon,” said Jolene. And she made a little swirl of her right hand in the air, and something infinitely more powerful than anything that Anna could conjure spun up and then exploded like another rocket.

She heard it before she saw it: great, slow thuds that shook the earth she sat on, and made the leaves tremble. At first she heard and felt the thuds with puzzlement; it sounded a little like distant thunder, but it wasn’t overcast, and anyway, the sound was too abrupt to be thunder. Was it explosions? Had Matt decided to use dynamite to blow up some stumps on his land? But that didn’t make sense, the sounds were too close together. What could it possibly be?

The trees across the lane shook, and birds flew up from them, as the thuds grew closer. Her heart beat faster, and she glanced over at Jolene, who looked as calm as a statue. What was going on?

And between one breath and the next, a thing came lumbering out of the forest across from them.

Anna felt the paralysis of sheer terror strike her as the thing pushed its way through the trees. It was taller than the cabin, a man-like shape covered in long, shaggy green hair, long enough to completely cover a body that was otherwise unclothed. And it carried a club that looked to have been made out of an entire tree trunk over one shoulder.

The creature lumbered up to the crick, and stood above her. It gazed down at her, and she trembled all over, expecting it to strike her with that massive club at any moment.

But what struck her was Jolene—Jolene smacked her lightly on the shoulder, with impatience. “Didn’t I say I was going to show you the sort of thing I could summon? Don’t be afraid, you little fool! This is a Borovoi. He won’t hurt you.”

She managed, somehow, to turn her head to look at Jolene, who seemed to be torn between amusement and exasperation.

I cain’t let her think I’m lily-livered . . .

Somehow, she managed to muster the courage to stand. Somehow, she got one foot in front of the other and took a step. Then another. Then another. Until finally she was standing at the monster’s feet, looking up at it.

It looked down at her, face unreadable under all that hair. All she could see were a pair of eyes like distant stars, glowing with a dim, white light. She reached up her hand, somehow, and managed to choke out words.

“Pleased t’meetcher, Mistuh Borovoi,” she said, even though her voice quavered with fear.

The Borovoi reached down with its free hand and delicately took her hand between its finger and thumb, with no more pressure than if it was trying to hold a delicate feather. It shook her hand politely. “Privyet, sestra,” it rumbled, and looked up at Jolene. “Ya tebe nuzhen seychas?”