Hidden in Spirit

By Chrissy Wissler

Kate Silver made a mistake. A small one, involving just a small, teensy bit of magic.

Lost elven magic, to be exact.

Now every elf-descendant holed-up in Montana knows about her. Not to mention the magi, including her evil dad, who wants her for his equally-evil purposes.

Too late to run. Or hide.

One choice left: stay and fight.

"Hidden in Spirit," the sixth story in the popular Elven Heritage series, where elves, legends, and one stubborn young woman, collide.

"I love this [story]; it was a very fast and clear read. A wonderful coming-of-age fantasy novel." —Dean Wesley Smith, USA Today Bestselling Author, on Hidden in Time

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Cedar Publishing
• Release date: Aug 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465794833

Chrissy Wissler

Chrissy’s short fiction has appeared in the anthologies: Fiction River: Risk-Takers, Fiction River Presents: Legacies, Fiction River Presents: Readers' Choice, Deep Magic, and When Dreams Come True (writing as Christen Anne Kelley). She writes fantasy and science fiction, as well as a softball, contemporary series for both romance and young adult (Little League Series and Home Run). Before turning to fiction, Chrissy also wrote many nonfiction articles for publications such as Montana Outdoors, Women in the Outdoors, and Jakes Magazine. In 2009, Inside Kung Fu magazine awarded her with their ‘Writer of the Year’ award. Follow her blog on being a parent-writer at Parents and Prose.

Book preview

Hidden in Spirit

Hidden in Spirit

An Elven Heritage Short Story

Chrissy Wissler

Blue Cedar Publishing

Contents

Hidden in Spirit

Sneak Peak: Hidden in Time

An Impatient Forest. One Stubborn Girl.

Also by Chrissy Wissler

About the Author

Hidden in Spirit

Acomforting breeze picked up the strands of Kate’s hair, the thin blond locks somehow tangling and knotting together even more, if that were possible. It teased against her cheeks, her nose, that very small tip of her ears. The way her ears curved up, just slightly, but enough. Enough of a difference to stand out in the crowd, to never be normal.

The only outward sign of her heritage.

The wind continued to pull and play, joyous, even, as it tickled her ears in just the right way. Her face burned red to keep from giggling, and the wind, warm and welcoming, kept on at it. As if…as if it understood the promise being made here, as Kate’s fingers closed around her grandmother’s hard, callused hand.

The midday sun beat down on her, heating her thin black shirt and going right on through her jeans.

If the heat bothered her grandmother, she sure as heck didn’t show it. She stood there, heavy, mud-splattered boots braced on that cracked pavement. The hideous pink shawl of hers, which Grandma had wrapped round her shoulders and hips, though the darn thing never never stayed up. And somehow she didn’t show an ounce of discomfort on her aged, wrinkled, and pretty determined face.

Which was really pretty unfair. Especially considering Kate was anti-everything when it came grace and composure, and well, you name it.

Though, at the moment, the sun’s warmth felt wonderful.

Especially after the freezing chill of the forest, the part that existed right in the center of town, with its sagging park benches, the paint chipping, the wood in desperate need of paving.

The sun felt wonderful, and it really, really felt wonderful to be free.

Even though the whole town was, more or less, a ghost town at the moment. No sounds other than the distant cry of Kate’s eagle intruded on them (she’d glimpsed his outstretched, huge-ass wingspan a moment ago, soaring overhead). No car horns or slamming doors, not even the clanging cow bell from Martha’s Ice Cream Shoppe.

Except for a Styrofoam cup and brown, twisted tumbleweed, rolling on down the cracked pavement that was considered the main street of Lighthome, Montana, there was no other movement. No other sign of life. As if everyone was hiding indoors, as if they’d felt the dark presence coming, and even though it was gone, thanks to Kate, they’d decided staying indoors with the doors locked shut and windows snapped closed was