Meeting (26 page)

“Yil—my—I saw it, too,” Sibyl said.

“You did?” said Maya.

“Kind of sensed it. A glowing outline right near you. Yil—a kind of person.” Sibyl’s hands were shaking. Her loot bag rustled with her shudders. “Were you scared?”

Had
she been scared? All the feelings she’d had lately—apprehension, wonder, frustration, sorrow, the overwhelming sensation of too many secrets hanging over her head and not knowing how to organize them. Sarutha saying good-bye. Columba and Evren saying hello. Harper frowning at her, as he always did. Weyland saying she had another safe place to come. Benjamin and Gwenda coming out of the shell of Janus House and stepping into the rest of the world, where Maya and Travis lived.

Here she was, out in the Halloween-haunted night, with friends in disguise, and one friend who had unmasked by becoming a mask. She had a growing candy stash at her right hip and Rimi wrapped around her, and Steph had come back. Steph had come back. Steph knew about the magic, and she had left Maya in the heart of it, with her blessings.

“Happy,” said Maya. “But Steph just came to say good-bye, and now she’s gone.”

“Still,” said Peter. “Best Halloween ever!”

Over the past twenty-some years,
NINA KIRIKI HOFFMAN
has published novels, juvenile and media tie-in books, short story collections, and more than two hundred fifty short stories. Her works have been finalists for the World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Theodore Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, and Endeavour awards. Her first novel,
The Thread That Binds the Bones,
won a Bram Stoker Award, and her short story “Trophy Wives” won a Nebula Award.

Nina does production work for
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
, and teaches short story writing through her local community college. She also works with teen writers. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with several cats, a mannequin, and many strange toys.

To learn more about her work, visit
www.ofearna.us/books/hoffman.html
.

Unmasking
Child of an Ancient City
(with Tad Williams)
The Thread That Binds the Bones
The Silent Strength of Stones
A Red Heart of Memories
Past the Size of Dreaming
A Fistful of Sky
A Stir of Bones
Time Travelers, Ghosts, and Other Visitors
(short stories)
Catalyst: A Novel of Alien Contact
Spirits That Walk in Shadow
Fall of Light
Thresholds
(Magic Next Door, Book I)
Meeting
(Magic Next Door, Book II)