Excerpt: Tracing Shadow Webs

A chill gripped her insides as she looked at his face again, but she forced a weak smile onto her lips as she circled around to the driver's side of the car, and hoped he didn't notice that she'd gone around the front rather than get within arm's length of him. As she moved she pulled all her aura tendrils in tight to her body, spinning them close the way a mother would pull along a recalcitrant and curious child. She was suddenly certain that she didn't want his aura touching hers for even a split second, and gave him a wave even as she jerked the car door open and dove inside. The moment her cheeks hit the seat her fingers had scrabbled to lock the doors, and exhaling a breath she shoved the key into the ignition and turned.