Silver, Hermes, and Clare follow strange blue lights deep into the forest, where the night seems to be waiting for them.
The forest beyond town changed after dark. By moonlight, every trunk looked older, every shadow deeper, and every sound seemed to come from somewhere just out of sight. Silver, the silver-haired young fox with the restless tail and bright, curious eyes, loved it best that way.
He was waiting beneath the old oak when Hermes finally came padding through the leaves, still chewing the last acorn in his paws. A moment later, Clare dropped from the sky without a rustle of wing, landing soundlessly on a low branch above them. Silver grinned as soon as he saw them.
"You heard about the lights?" he whispered.
Clare tilted her head. Hermes swallowed hard and gave a quick nod.
"My cousin saw them on the far side of the forest," Clare said. "Blue flashes. Not fireflies. Not lightning either."
Hermes shivered. "And rabbits on the lower path said something was moving between the trees."
Silver’s ears pricked forward. "Then we find out what it is tonight."
No one argued. They left the oak and slipped into the dark, keeping close enough to hear one another breathe. The path ahead was a narrow ribbon of pale earth, but even that seemed to vanish in places, swallowed by roots and black leaves. Branches scraped overhead. Somewhere nearby, an owl called once and then fell silent.
Halfway down the slope, they met a rabbit crouched beside a fern, wide-eyed and breathing too fast to speak properly. He pointed into the trees and begged them not to leave the path, not tonight, not with the strange glow wandering through the undergrowth.
Silver wanted to ask more, but Clare was already looking past him. Hermes had stopped so suddenly that the acorn shells in his fur rattled.
The clearing opened ahead of them like a secret.
Blue light drifted above the grass in slow, spiralling ribbons. It pulsed softly, as if it had a heartbeat of its own. Shapes began to gather inside it - fox-shaped, rabbit-shaped, owl-shaped - not quite bodies, not quite shadows.
Silver stepped closer before he could stop himself.
One of the shapes turned.
It had silver fur.
And when it opened its mouth, it spoke his name.