Page 14

Our debut mission as Callanish was going down in flames… or going down in trees, really. I stared angrily at the bark in front of me. There was so much of the same velvety bark everywhere that I could spit. At this point, the forest was mocking Sike and me. We’d wandered around until early afternoon, with no sign of the others or the plane.

“I’m almost positive we passed that exact tree stump two minutes ago,” Sike muttered behind me. I paused and studied the mortal stump with him. He tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, it’s got a funny little knob on the left side. I remembered because it’s the shape of an aquatic wildling’s tail.”

Creepy. So, we’ve been walking in a circle, somehow, or the trees are following us. I kept back a complaint, which was more of a frustration about our unsettling situation.It wasn’t Sike’s fault that the forest was being tricky, but I was hungry and irritated. He could only sense auras and darkness—creepy moving forests were beyond both of us. Worry gnawed at my stomach, along with hunger pangs. Why couldn’t I have fallen with the food supplies? God, I hoped somebody picked up the food rations before we went down.

I stepped over a fallen trunk with mushrooms growing on it, wishing I had taken that extra forestry survival course at the Bureau back before I met Dorian. They wouldn”t have covered the edibility of supernatural mushrooms, but it would”ve been better than nothing. Zach had always been better at identifying things on hikes and wilderness missions than me. I missed him, even now.

”Let”s try left this time,” I told him, not wanting to come across that stump again. I shivered, unsettled at the thought that the forest might be trying to sabotage us. We were intruders into the Leftovers, which now existed as the world”s most messed-up ecosystem.

Sike gave me a grunt of approval, distracted by his scanner. He was getting good at it, even if the device only liked to work half the time. It was currently working for us, but I didn’t want to jinx it by mentioning that. The trees were suspiciously still and quiet as we moved through them. We should”ve heard the buzz of some immortal insects, but those creatures seemed to come and go in the Leftovers. All the normal animals had fled this area. They were smart enough to stay away, but we don”t have a choice.

I glanced at Sike over my shoulder. The Leftovers were frightening because of how little we knew about them. ”Do you think the Leftovers could ever go back to some kind of normal?”

”Maybe. Or at least maybe the Leftovers might stabilize to be more immortal than mortal, in terms of plane properties. It seems like the immortal effects are kind of winning right now,” Sike said hopefully. ”I”m picking up a few fluctuations—”

We stopped as a flock of cawing birds rose in the distance. I hadn”t heard many birds since the beginning of the mission. The calls sounded surprised and panicked.

”We can divert our course,” I suggested. The birds might have spotted a creature that we wanted to avoid. Shaking his head, Sike excitedly showed me the scanner.

”There”s a distortion,” he breathed. The thin green lines that represented the barrier were all over the place. I couldn”t make much sense of them. ”It”s in the direction of the birds. It might be something… a creature, or a gate.”

Hopefully not the monster who took down our plane. I glanced out into the distance and nodded. ”Fine, if it could be a gate to the Immortal Plane, let’s do it. But let me know if you pick up anything that could be a threat. We”ll need to be extra careful if that invisible creature comes back, since we have fewer members to fight it off.”

We booked it forward and headed left on the narrow path through the forest. The cawing grew louder.It hit my ears all wrong, like the birds were both behind and in front of us. They hovered above the treetops.

”I sense something—” Sike”s breath caught in his throat. ”It might be a gate. It”s definitely a vampire.” That was all the information we needed to start running. It could be Dorian. I took off, pumping my arms and ignoring the odd velvety brush against the trees.

I heard shouts several yards up ahead.

”Get out of the way,” someone bellowed. It was a female voice, but deep and rough around the edges. Arlonne? Excitement raced through me as Sike and I rushed to the edge of a clearing. Arlonne”s curly brown hair caught my eye. It was her. I called out to her, but she wasn”t alone.

I could see where the crowing came from now. A flock of birds was pecking wildly at an airborne creature, which was clearly enraged. The big creature had the general shape of a massive bird, but ropey muscles underneath scales and angry red eyes that glinted with fury. It was trying to attack Arlonne, but the storm of ravens was blocking the beast”s way. Did it want to eat her?

A smaller, nimble vampire with dark skin and light red hair done in a braid darted across the clearing. Behind Arlonne, Bryce lay on the ground. He was passed out with a small trickle of blood running down his face, but he twitched wildly like he was having a nightmare.

”You”re more distracting than the birds, Chandry,” Arlonne snarled at her companion. ”Get out of my way so I can blast this thing.” The other vampire, Chandry, executed an expert tumble to avoid the beast”s swiping claws and sprang up beside Arlonne.

”I can distract it better than those birds can,” Chandry said, her voice unusually chipper for the middle of combat. Her personality was bubbly and warm, unlike most of the vampires I’d met. Where had they been hiding her? I glanced at Sike, but he just shrugged his shoulders. He didn”t know her, either.

Before Arlonne could give her companion instructions, Chandry bounded toward the winged beast again. She ran back and forth, taunting the creature as it tried to break free from the flock of birds in front of it. The beast broke through the crowd at one point, its razor-sharp beak aimed straight for Chandry”s torso. She flipped back and up into a low-hanging branch while Arlonne took her shot. She had a crossbow on her person and lifted it, firing at the creature. The ravens broke away, as if sensing the energy from the oncoming arrow, and the shot landed square in the beast”s mouth. It reared back, flapping its mighty wings and stirring up a cloud of debris with it. The creature slammed into the trees on the other side of the clearing, wailing in pain.

”You”re welcome,” Chandry said happily. Arlonne rolled her eyes.

”Let”s finish this,” Arlonne said and gestured to me. ”We can talk after.” I was so relieved to see her, although I wanted to rush to Bryce”s side immediately. I snatched one of Reshi”s knives from my belt and joined Arlonne. Sike ran to Bryce’s side, crouching beside him to make sure he was okay.

The beast was clearly injured. Its beak was still smoldering, and it cried out like an enraged banshee, thrashing its wings. The acrobatic Chandry twirled in front of it again, leading its eyes away from us. It was easy enough now for Arlonne to work another shot in. She launched an arrow into one of its wings, pinning the beast to the tree. The creature gave out a weak dying cry as black blood oozed from its body. It jerked forward and ripped its wing as it attempted to take flight into the air, barely getting off the ground. It gave two more flaps before dropping from the sky. Up close, I now saw the ribs of the creature. It had already been in a bad state when it had attacked them.

Chandry bounded up the side of the tree and yanked out the arrow to return it to Arlonne.

”Nice to meet you,” she said with a wide grin. ”Arlonne said we”d be looking for a cute human woman.”

”I didn”t say cute; I said capable,” Arlonne corrected dryly. “Don’t put words in my mouth.” I smirked at their exchange. It was hard to imagine that Arlonne ever described anyone—even Bryce—as cute. I greatly appreciated that she’d called me capable. It meant a lot, coming from her.

”Thanks,” I replied to the smiling Chandry, replacing my knife in its sheath. Arlonne took the arrow from Chandry and shook off the blood. The liquid was stickier than the blood of most creatures. The surviving ravens settled into the trees and seemed to be gazing down sadly on their fallen comrades… and hungrily at the winged beast. ”What happened here?” Sike was with Bryce, so he was in good hands. I wanted to hear from Arlonne. Most importantly, how was she here? They must”ve found a gate.

”The creature was starved,” Arlonne said, and cast an almost pitying glance back at the corpse. ”All of them are. The birds were startled by the beast, just as much as we were.”

Thank goodness. It was because of the birds that we’d even found them, but it meant that the creatures in this area were affected more than I’d thought. Even in the Leftovers, these animals lacked their usual amount of food, which made scavenging more important. My stomach growled. I can understand that.

”I”m glad we found you,” I said, and scanned the dozen fallen birds around the area. Arlonne was right. Their bodies were thin and worn down. It looked like these creatures hadn”t seen food in a few days. I glanced warily into the trees. ”Should we get out of here?”

Chandry hopped from one foot to another. ”They”ll stay up there. I bet they”re waiting for us to leave so they can pick at the body for food.” She gave me what I thought was supposed to be a reassuring grin, but it came off as morbid given what she’d said. I just nodded and snuck a glance at Arlonne, who was headed over to Bryce now. How had these two vampires ended up working together? Arlonne struck me as the kind of person to dislike anything that was overly bright and cheery.

Sike”s face brightened as I came over with Chandry. He smiled at her, his eyes glittering with interest. Maybe he was also shocked by the newcomer”s personality.

”I”m Chandry,” she said, before he could get a word out, and offered him a handshake. “Is this how the humans say hello? You’re practically one of them, I’ve heard, with all your adventures. I can’t wait to ask you a million questions.” He stumbled out an introduction, and suddenly, I felt as if I might be in the midst of the universe”s strangest meet-cute. I focused on Bryce, trying to ignore my disappointment that Dorian and Cam weren”t among this group.

”How”s he doing?” I asked, crouching down beside him. It looked like a scratch was causing most of the bleeding. I couldn’t see any other sign of injury.

Arlonne grunted. She was staying several feet away from Bryce. ”The creature caught us off guard.” She met my gaze. ”Chandry and I had already found the gate, so we came through. We were here a few short hours, and then I sensed Bryce’s presence when he fell to the ground close by.”

Hope surged through me. A gate was good. We could do a lot more now that she’d found one, like get help from our allies in the Immortal Plane to form a bigger search party if needed.

”Nearby?” I asked.

”Yes, I can sense it more easily now that we”ve found it,” she informed me and then cast an annoyed glance at Chandry. ”My new partner is exceptionally good at sensing gates. I hope she”ll come in handy, if she doesn’t get us killed first.” Chandry wasn”t paying attention to us but merrily chatting with Sike and asking him a million questions about his scanner.

”I”m happy as long as we know where the gate is,” I said with a sympathetic shrug. New members were an adjustment for every team on this mission, it seemed.“We lost Bryce’s nephew and Dorian in this mess. Have you seen them at all in the forest?”

Arlonne frowned and shook her head. “Not at all. I haven’t sensed anyone else until I felt Sike coming up.”

I cursed inwardly, turning my attention to Bryce. “We’ll need to check for a concussion when he wakes up. Did the bird attack and knock him out?” I needed to know. It wasn’t good for him to sleep if he had head trauma.

“Not quite,” Arlonne muttered, and averted her gaze to the trees for a moment. A hint of embarrassment crossed her face. This is a first.

“If he fell on his head, he shouldn’t be sleeping. I’ll need to check his neurological—”

“It was the curse,” Arlonne replied sharply. She glanced down at Bryce. “I didn’t realize what was happening until he fell. The thing swiped at him, and he fell, but he was struggling to get back up. I heard the thud when he fell. It didn’t sound that bad, but I panicked, and when he got back to his feet, I rushed toward him. I felt my heart rate spike when I saw him, and then, when I got too close…”

I tried to stop the shock from playing on my face. It was great news for avoiding a potential concussion, but I hadn’t realized they’d progressed that much in their relationship. I cleared my throat.

“Well, luckily, I’m an expert in that department,” I said awkwardly. “He should come around in a bit, but you might want to stay back just in case.” Sike and Chandry were lost in conversation about the scanner. Arlonne bent her head, perhaps to thank me for my discretion. It would get out eventually, but Arlonne needed this moment of privacy to sort out her feelings. A strange invisible alliance formed between us as I hovered over Bryce’s unconscious body and she watched from several feet away.

We had a gate to the Immortal Plane, one leader passed out, two members missing, and an emotional forest with slimy trees and crazed animals. Things were getting interesting but incredibly unsettling for our team.