Declan gave him an odd look. "Charming Edge custom, keeping elderly relatives locked up."
"Because of Grandpa, Georgie can't fight that good. I protect him in school, but he'll go into middle school when he's twelve and I won't. I don't know what to do about that yet."
Declan gave him another odd look. "Is the schoolwork hard?"
Jack shook his head. "Boring. We do word lists. You have to memorize the way words are spelled and pretend to read them back. I don't have to. I already know how to read. Rose taught me."
"What about math?" Declan asked.
Jack shrugged. "I can add things together. I already know how many angles are in a triangle. It's called tri-angle. I'm not stupid." He held on to the knife a bit too long, but made himself put it down and looked at the trailing point blade. Declan nodded.
Jack took the knife into his fingers. He liked the way it felt, light and comfortable. "Lunch's awful," he volunteered. "They give you fish sticks. They taste like cardboard. Georgie says they're made from mystery meat. Nobody eats them."
"Have you ever eaten cardboard?"
Jack nodded. "I chewed it."
"Why?"
"I wanted to know if it's good to eat."
Jack put the knife down with reluctance.
"What kind of animal do you change into?" Declan asked.
Jack narrowed his eyes into sly slits. "I'm not supposed to tell you."
"Why not?"
"Because Rose told me not to talk to anybody about it." Declan leaned forward and fixed him with his eyes. Jack tensed. If Declan were a changeling, he'd be a wolf, Jack decided. A large white wolf. Very smart and with big teeth.
"Do you always do what Rose says?"
Ooooh. That was a trick question. If he said he did, Declan would think he was a mama's boy. If he said he didn't, he'd have to tell him that he was a cat. Jack thought about it. "No. But I always know I'm supposed to."
"I see," Declan said.
Jack decided he had to explain, just so there wouldn't be any doubt that he wasn't a mama's boy. "My mom died. My dad left to hunt for treasure. I don't remember him. He was a good dad, I think, but he might have been not that smart, because when Grandma talks about him, she calls him 'that stupid man' sometimes. She can do that because he's her son, so I don't get mad."
"Aha," Declan said.
"So until my dad comes back, I'm Rose's cub. So I have to do what she says."
"Makes sense," Declan said.
"You like Rose?" Jack said.
"Yes, I do."
"Why?"
"Because she's smart, kind, and pretty. She stands up to me. That's hard to do."
Jack nodded. That made sense. Declan was hard to stand up to. He was tall and big and he had a sword. "Rose is prickly."
"She is certainly that."
"She's nice, too," Jack said. "She takes care of me and Georgie. And if you ask her really nice, she'll make you a pie even if she's tired from work."
"And she's funny," Declan said confidentially. "But I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell her that. If she knew I thought she was funny, she might not take me seriously. Women are like that."
Jack nodded. He could keep a manly secret, and it wasn't something that Rose had to know. "If you win the challenges, you'll take Rose away."
"That's the agreement," Declan said.
"Can we come?"
"Yes."
"Breakfast!" Rose called.
Jack started for the door and turned. His eyes flashed with amber fire. "I won't help you win," he said.
Declan grinned. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
ROSE crouched by him. Jack wished he were bigger. He disliked it when people crouched to talk to him, but he knew Rose did it so she could look at his eyes.
"Focus, Jack."
He nodded.
"You don't chase the leech birds. You don't stop to catch a bunny. You run as fast as you can, and when you get tired, you hide as well as you can. Do you understand me?"
He nodded again.
"Repeat it."
"Run and hide. No leech birds."
Rose bit her lip. "It's very important. I know that Declan saved you and he's nice to you, but he won't be nice to me if I have to go away with him."
"He said we could come."
Rose stopped. "Where?"
"With him and you."
Rose hugged him. "Jack, of course he would say that. He would say anything to get the two of you on his side. You can't trust him."
Jack squirmed until she let him go.
Rose sighed and took hold of his bracelet. "Are you ready?"
He nodded.
"Run and hide."
"Run and hide," he repeated.
Rose slipped his wrist out of the bracelet. The room swayed. The floor buckled and punched him in the face.
ROSE stepped onto the porch. Declan waited for her in the yard, his handsome face serene.
"You wanted a challenge."
Declan nodded. "I'm a-flutter with anticipation."
A-flutter. Right. Rose held the screen door open and let Jack onto the porch. He padded out on disproportionately big round paws and blinked at the sun with huge amber eyes. Thick fur, spotted with rosettes of rust and deep brown that seemed almost hunter green, clothed him in a dense coat. Jack wrinkled his muzzle, shaking his white whiskers. The long chocolate tufts of fur at the tips of his large ears trembled.
He looked adorable, like a poufy, stout kitten on long legs, slightly larger than a big house cat, but she knew those big, soft paws hid razor-sharp claws. Even at eight, Jack was deadly. In lean times, when they didn't have meat, he went out hunting and more often than not came back with a turkey or a hare, sometimes slightly chewed up. Jack knew the Wood like the back of his hand. And when he didn't want to be found, even an experienced hunter couldn't discover his hiding place. She had to resort to magic to find him.
"Here is your first challenge." Rose smiled. She crouched and petted Jack on the head. He rubbed against her knee. She whispered, "Go!"
Steel muscles tensed under the fur. Jack leaped off the porch, sailing through the air as if he had wings. He landed in the grass and bolted, his rosettes blending into a blur. A blink and he vanished in the trees.
Declan looked after him. "What is he?"
"Edge lynx." Rose straightened. "You have until morning to catch him. If he returns here free by sunrise, you forfeit."
Declan nodded, picked up a sack lying at his feet, and headed into the forest.