“We need to head to the village,” I said.
We set off across the field. I felt like prey, as if being out in the open left me exposed and vulnerable. My senses twitched like mad, trying to pick out the scent and taste and feel of all the magic that surrounded me. There was so much of it that it was impossible to distinguish where or who it was coming from. So many scents hit my nose—most of them bad—and so many tastes enveloped my tongue that I almost gagged.
I drew my knives and said, “This place is wild. Can you feel the magic?”
“Yeah,” Aidan said. “But I can’t sense who it’s coming from.”
“Me neither,” Del said.
“If it’s the thief’s protective magic, he’s going a good job,” Nix added.
For real. If my life hadn’t been on the line with the information that scroll contained, I’d have hightailed it out of here. When I sensed magic, it usually came from another person. But I saw no one.
We were about halfway across the scrubby field when the ground began to tremble. I stumbled. The scent of dark magic grew—like rotting earth. The ground shook harder.
“Hurry,” I said as I picked up the pace. We needed to get away from here. The magic was strengthening. I could feel it seething and roiling beneath our feet.
“Run,” Aidan said.
We picked up the pace, sprinting across the vibrating dirt. My lungs burned as I raced away from whatever threatened us. The earth groaned loudly, an unholy noise that broke the silence.
An enormous crack opened in front of me, a fissure reaching into the dark earth. Aidan grabbed my arm as I stopped abruptly at the edge, teetering over the abyss.
He yanked me back onto solid ground, but the sound of the earth breaking echoed around us. Cracks streaked across the soil. Dark magic wafted up from them, smelling strongly of the rotting earth I’d noticed before.
We were surrounded on all sides by deep fissures that looked like they led to hell. Fear chilled my skin. Would we make it only this far?
Aidan threw out his hands and the scent of his evergreen magic washed over me. Magic burst from his palms, a shimmer of light directed at the field ahead. The earth trembled and groaned as it pushed itself together, building a safe path for us.
“This way!” Aidan yelled over the sound of breaking earth. He sprinted along the path he’d created. We followed, racing in a line along the narrow bridge of land. Crevices continued to open on all sides of us as we ran.
My lungs burned as I sucked in air tainted with rancid magic. I glanced behind to see our path cracking open once more.
No going back.
Ahead of us, Aidan continued to build a path with his magic. We neared the village. When we stumbled onto a street that dead-ended at the field, silence fell abruptly. The sound of groaning earth ceased.
I spun to face the field.
It looked normal.
“What the hell?” I wheezed, bracing myself on my knees as I caught my breath. Nix did the same, though Del looked fine. She’d always been the most athletic.
Aidan looked completely unfazed by the sprint as he said, “Our magic ignited the field. Whatever dark magic enchants it came to life.”
And now it was dormant again. Though I could still smell the rotting earth, another scent hit me as I turned to face the village street. It was fresh and so icy it chilled my nose.
“Weird magic here, too,” I said.
We stood on a short, dirt street. Only two small cottages on either side. With their decaying thatch roofs, thick stone walls, and tiny windows, they looked to be at least a few hundred years old. The orange flame of the setting sun glinted off the thick glass in the windows.
Nix peered into one, then jerked back. “It looks like people are home. There’s food on the table.”
A chill crawled over my skin as I approached the window. This was so horror movie it wasn’t even funny. Aidan was peering in, so I nudged him aside and peeked for myself.
Nix was right. The small cottage had a rough, wooden table set for three. The old wooden bowls were full of some sort of stew and a great pot hung over the hearth. The flame was dead though.
“No one’s in there,” Aidan said.
“I don’t think they have been for a long time,” I said. “This place feels abandoned. But it smells like magic.”
When a ghostly form floated out of the wall, the familiar misery hit me. It poked at my mind with sharp claws, searching for my worst memories. The ghostly figure was a woman wearing a regal gown, her hair done up elaborately and styled with jewels. She shimmered a transparent silvery blue, the shadows under her eyes standing out starkly. When her lips parted, I saw fangs.
“FireSoul,” she hissed.
I shuddered. Another drifted out of the wall beside her.
“Phantoms,” I breathed as I backed away from the window. That was the icy smell. Thank fate that Aidan couldn’t hear what they said about me.
“They aren’t normal Phantoms,” Aidan said as he backed away. “That one was vampire.”