At first I heard only the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees, but then I made out a low throaty trill riding the night air.

Ooooh lu lu lu

Ooooh lu lu oooh

I looked west toward the sound but saw nothing.

“Turn around,” Duncan whispered. “He’s thrown his voice to fool you.”

I turned and looked east, where a half moon hung in the branches of a white pine. At first I only saw the feathery branches outlined against the moon, but then one of those branches moved and acquired tufted horns and yellow eyes.

“A great horned owl,” Duncan said with pride, as if he’d conjured it himself. “I was hoping for one. It’s the strongest and smartest of the owls. Look at his eyes. Do you feel the Aelvesgold in your blood pulled by them?”

“Yes.” What I didn’t say was that they reminded me of Duncan’s eyes and the pull they’d had on me in my dream. As I stared at the owl he bowed to us, hooting a long-drawn-out cry as if releasing the sound through the movement of his body.

Duncan bowed back, sweeping both arms out in a graceful swoop. In the moonlight his shadow swirled around him like a cape. I imitated the motion. When I swept my arms out I felt the air moving over my skin, raising goose bumps on my flesh. When I lifted my head and met the owl’s eyes again my skin bristled from the nape of my neck, down my spine, to my tailbone. The owl called again. Whoooo are youuuu? It seemed to ask.

“Kay-Lex,” I answered, my name suddenly a series of clicks in the back of my throat. I bowed again, this time feeling my arms rise weightlessly on the breeze and my tailbone lengthen. My whole body was weightless. When I lifted my head this time I saw that the owl’s eyes were not the only things glowing in the forest. Each branch and pine needle was tipped with moonlit white gold – another shade of Aelvesgold. Duncan had said that the Aelvesgold inside me drew more Aelvesgold to it like a magnet. I was in control. I would find Lorelei and compel her to return to Faerie. How could she resist me with this much magic flowing through me?