Page 12 of Soul of Shadow #1

The second disappearance came less than a week after the first.

It was a Tuesday, the second day of the new school year. At seven that morning, Mrs. Peterson went down the hall in her favorite robe and knocked on her sons’ bedroom door. When she got no response, she stuck her head inside to tell the boys to get up.

But when she looked at their beds, they were empty.

An hour later—and after many frantic, unanswered phone calls to the boys’ cell phones—the police arrived. An hour after that, a search party was assembled. By lunch, the news had hit every television in Silver Shores—along with every cell phone at the high school.

By the end of the school day, the search party still hadn’t found the boys. What they did find was another tree. A white ash carved up with Norse markings, Odin’s Knot once more at their center.

Two pairs of shoes hung from its branches.