Chapter Fifteen
Ryder
I might occasionally be blinded by a pretty face, but I’m not stupid.
I’ve watched Senán sneak off into the woods nearly every day for over a week now. Sometimes they wear their work uniform, sometimes they’re male-bodied, sometimes they carry odd parcels with them and return empty-handed.
I know they were collecting plant cuttings that day in the rose garden.
That damn spell book is the only thing I’ve seen them read.
The simmering pot in the corner of an otherwise empty kitchen was the grain that tipped the scales, and when I catch sight of Senán slipping into the forest only hours later, I follow.
There’s no telling what I’ll see. I have no idea what she’s doing out here, nor do I have any idea what the hell I’m going to do about it—it’s my last day at the resort, and once I leave, there’s no guarantee I’ll ever be able to find her again.
It’s not like I want to turn her in—I’m a reasonable man, and I’ve never been a fan of punishment for punishment’s sake.
In my day-to-day, I let a lot of minor violations fly under the radar.
But I don’t like being lied to. And I really don’t like being used.
She isn’t easy to follow. She moves quickly, her black skirts shifting like shadows through the dense trees, and there’s a point when I think I must have lost her.
Light is scarce under the thick canopy of branches, which makes it harder to see someone dressed in dark clothing.
It also makes it easier to see an other-worldly green glow through the branches and early morning mist.
It grows brighter as I get closer, and the air hums as I come within sight of the source: Senán, with her back turned, both hands in front of her as a series of runes glows green on the trunk of the massive, ancient redwood tree she’s facing.
“Performing ‘energy healing’ on trees now?”
The green glow dissipates suddenly as Senán whips around to face me, clearly surprised by my presence but managing to show no signs of fear or guilt.
“I would have invited you,” she says in that playful tone that tries to lure me into a false sense of security, “but I thought it might make you jealous.”
“What are you actually doing out here?”
Senán doesn’t move, her expression doesn’t change. “I thought we were done with the blind accusations, love.”
“Cut the bullshit, Senán. I’ve been watching you sneak out here all week—”
“I’m not allowed to go for a walk?”
“--carrying whatever that shit is you keep dropping off, bottles and sheets, and then whatever the hell you’re doing here—”
“That was a sanctioned spell I was performing, Ryder.”
“Then what was it?”
Senán doesn’t answer.
“And the potion you were making in the kitchen this morning, on the stove. What was that for?”
Senán looks down, and I see an unfamiliar expression, something pained and vulnerable, flash across her sharp features.
“I can’t tell you,” she says firmly.
I laugh bitterly. “Right, of course. Can’t tell me anything, can you?
” Days and days’ worth of pent-up feelings are working their way like bile up my throat, their acidity ready to corrode the wall that Senán insists on holding up between us.
“Is this how you treat all the Bureau agents who threaten to get in your way? Flirt and fuck your way into making them trust you?”
Senán jerks her head up, her eyes fierce and defensive. “That is not what this is, Ryder.”
“No? Then what are you doing with that tree?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“What potion were you brewing in the kitchen?”
“I can’t—”
“What have you been coming out here for all week?!”
“ I can’t tell you!”
We stand silently for a few seconds, with meters that feel like miles of chilly, empty space between us. Senán’s voice is calm when she speaks again.
“But I can show you.”
Senán turns and starts to walk through the copse of trees, then looks over her shoulder at me. “Are you coming or not?”
I realize I’m still standing in the same spot, her response so unexpected that I was shocked into inaction. I shake my head to clear it a little and follow her deeper into the woods.
We walk silently, her striding confidently ahead and me trailing behind.
I didn’t plan this far into the confrontation—hell, I didn’t plan at all, and at first I assume that Senán is trying to distract me or lose me in the winding woods.
But every few minutes she glances over her shoulder to make sure I’m still behind her, occasionally pausing so that I can catch up.
Climbing a steep hill covered in slippery moss, I’m starting to wonder how much deeper into this forest we can go, when we crest the hill and finally come upon a small clearing.
It’s well-hidden by the trees and topography, and it’s immediately apparent why it needs to be.
I freeze when I see them, my feet rooted to the ground beneath me, finding myself faced with something I’ve read about, dreamed about since I was a child.
Something so rare that I’ve long given up on the thought of ever seeing one in person; and here they are, a whole family of them.
I exhale a stunned breath and take a moment to make sure I’m really seeing what I think I’m seeing, then still feel the need to confirm it with a question I already know the answer to.
“Are those… Sasquatch?”
Best described as a cross between a chimpanzee, a grizzly bear, and a Wookie, the largest of them is crouched, but looks to be eleven or twelve feet tall.
It has two smaller sasquatch with it, possibly children, each of them as tall as I am, one with a splint on its left leg.
A woman, dressed in white with hair to match, is tending to the bandages and looks up at the sound of my voice.
“Senán!” the woman calls out. “He found us!”
The eyes of all three sasquatch are on me now, and I suddenly realize that I’m standing barely sixty yards away from several very large, wild animals in an extremely vulnerable situation.
The largest of the three bellows angrily, the booming sound echoing off the trees, and comes barreling towards me.
Simultaneously thinking this is how I die and my God, they’re so fucking majestic, I can’t seem to move as the beast charges at me from across the meadow. I guess my body has skipped past “fight” and “flight,” and has gone straight for “freeze.”
“Turn your back to her!” Senán shouts, and I follow the command without question. I hear the animal slow its approach as I try to control the pace of my frantic breathing and racing heart.
I’m acutely aware of the massive creature behind me, grunting and snuffling, and I feel it get close enough that its breath ruffles my hair as it sniffs me.
After a few tense seconds, it seems to decide I’m not a threat, and I hear it lumber back to its family on the other side of the clearing.
I stay perfectly still, unsure whether it’s safe to turn around, until Senán approaches and stands next to me.
“She’s a little on edge at the moment,” she explains. “Not very trusting of strangers. Or humans in general.”
I swallow dryly. “Is she—can I—”
“It’s safe to face her now. Well… probably. They are wild animals, after all.” I turn around slowly and let out a breath I don’t think I realized I was holding, relaxing only slightly.
Sasquatch are incredibly rare—likely less than fifty of them left by the Bureau’s estimates, spread out over thousands of miles of forest and mountains.
They’re also reclusive, and intelligent enough to keep themselves well hidden from humans.
Almost nothing is known or recorded about their behavior, and the only clear photos the Bureau has in our files are from autopsies.
I was obsessed with them at one point in my life, in the way that some kids obsess over dinosaurs or horses, and even with so little possible for me to know about them, I memorized it all.
“I’ve never seen one before,” I murmur.
“They’re wonderfully terrifying and terrifyingly wonderful,” Senán says, her voice sounding warm and a little nostalgic.
“A family?”
Senán nods. “Mother and two children. The father was killed a few months ago.”
“Killed?” My eyes shoot to the bandage on the little one’s leg. “By what?”
“‘By whom’ would be a better question. He was shot.”
I feel something twist inside me. “And the young one there—”
“Was luckier than his father.”
I look at Senán, who has a sad, serious expression on her face, and for the first time I think I can see the years in her eyes.
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I ask, trying and failing to keep the hurt out of my voice.
Senán looks at the ground. “I couldn’t. Magick works like wishes; you talk about what you’re doing and—”
“And it won’t come true,” I say, finally understanding. Senán smiles apologetically at me, which only makes me feel worse because, really, shouldn’t I be the one apologizing? “So… all the potions and spells, everything you’ve been hiding from me for the past two weeks—”
“You’re looking at it.” She nods towards the three animals and one wary Witch watching us from a few hundred feet away.
“Senán,” I say carefully, “look… I know you don’t trust the Bureau, but you have to report stuff like this. If there are poachers out here—”
“Poachers?” Her tone and posture prickle, then she shuts her eyes and starts again, more gently.
“Ryder… this has been going on for months. They aren’t just shot, they go missing entirely—and when we do find bodies, they’re gone within a day.
If someone were hunting a near-mythical creature at that scale, don’t you think they’d want to show it off?
Don’t you think there would be news stories about someone finally having proof of the existence of the legendary Bigfoot? ”
Dots are connecting in my mind, but I can’t quite see the full picture yet. Or maybe I just don’t want to.