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“Any vehicle or foot movement?” Lugh asked. “I know the barrier remains in place, but the signs did say the area was regularly patrolled.”

“Nothing whatsoever.” Cynwrig rose and dusted off his fingers. “This town is as barren as the forest when it comes to life of any kind.”

“Which is damnably odd,” I said. “And rather creepy, to be honest.”

“Look on the bright side,” Lugh said, slanting me a sideways glance. “At least there’ll be no rats.”

I snorted and shoved him down the hill. He laughed and continued on, his pace not slowing until we reached the outskirts of the town.

This close, it was pretty evident that the destruction of the buildings was due to time, weather, and erosion rather than any calamitous event. The wind whistled through the lonely remnants, shivering through the shrubs that clambered over them and rattling various bits of loose tin. I cautiously stepped through the broken doorway of what had once been an old sweet shop. Dusty jars still filled with sweets lined the wooden shelves, and the old-fashioned register remained on the counter. There were even two brown paper bags of sweets sitting nearby, as if still waiting to be picked up by the purchaser. There was no evidence of a fight of any kind, though, which was odd if the Annwfyn were the reason this place was all but wiped off the maps. But maybe the place had been empty when they’d hit.

I turned to leave, then caught sight of the stain on the floor near the counter. Curiosity stirred, and I walked over. The dark stain’s shape was oddly similar to the pattern we’d seen in the forest, containing an obvious blast point and splatters that radiated out from there. There were also fine scraps of what looked like hair.Humanhair.

A chill ran through my soul.

If someone had been at the counter paying for the sweets, this was more than likely where they’d been standing. But it was insane to think this stain had once been a human. Bodies just didn’t—couldn’t—spontaneously explode, even if the splatter pattern here did resemble the one evident in the forest destruction.

I rose and walked around the counter, stirring the heavy layer of dust that covered everything. It danced lightly around me, catching my nose and making me sneeze. My gaze dropped... there was a second stain under the old cash register. Same pattern, but a few more scraps of hair in a much lighter color.

Ohfuck...

“Everything all right?” Lugh said, as he stepped into the shop.

I jumped a little then swallowed heavily. “What does that stain near the counter look like to you?”

He raised an eyebrow, but nevertheless walked over to examine it. “Blood,” he said, after a moment. “Old, dried blood and what looks to be hair of some kind.”

“Human hair?”

“Could well be.” He rose. “Neither is unexpected if the Annwfyn did come through here.”

“Annwfyn aren’t this neat,” I replied. “If they did this, there’d be blood and bones scattered all over the place.”

“There might be blood, but there wouldn’t be bones, given the government apparently buried everyone who died here.” He paused and scanned the sweet shop thoughtfully. “We should check the rest of the buildings to see if the stains are repeated.”

I followed him out. Cynwrig was just leaving the building opposite. “Did you find anything?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Unusual blood stains. You?”

“Same.”

We moved into the next lot of buildings. More blackened, circular patches. More human hair accompanied by the occasional scrap of leather or cloth that could have been remnants of clothing. If nothing else, it was concrete evidence that the people here had been caught totally unawares by whatever had happened.

I shoved my hands into my pockets again and tried to ignore the shiver that ran through my soul. I really,reallydidn’t want to believe what I was starting to believe.

As Cynwrig came out of the last building, I asked, “Where’s the dark gate from here?”

“It’s in the old mine just above us. Why?”

I automatically looked that way, but the new growth forest was too thick to see the mine or anything else. “I was just trying to figure out if the center of the blast that smashed the trees was here in the village or up near the mine.”

“It came from the mine,” Cynwrig said. “There’s a detectable difference in the ground that lies just below the entrance to what lies above.”

I raised my eyebrows. “What sort of difference?”

He hesitated. “The ground immediately near the cave is unable to sustain any sort of life, but returns to some normality a few yards further down, though none of it—even the ground here—has the same capacity to hold water that the ground above the mine has.”

“Suggesting whatever the blast was, it targeted the water in the soil.” I rubbed my arms. “Do you think whatever affected the soil could be responsible for the bloody stains we’re finding? Human bodies are roughly sixty percent water, so it would feasibly be possible.”