“It’s that the same sign as before?” asked Trace as we noted the north and south directions.
“I think we’re walking in circles.” I shook my head, trying to understand how we’d ended up here again even though we’d never turned off our path.
“It has to be a different sign.” Gabriel looked down at his map again and then pulled up his compass to make sure we were going the right way. As if answering himself, he nodded a moment later.
“How do you know for sure?” I asked as a strange cloud of that purplish-gray fog wafted in between us.
“We’ve been walking in a straight line since we turned,” he answered, his eyes following the fog as it weaved its way around our legs, slowing and then picking up speed as it circled us.
What kind of fog was this? I wondered as my eyebrows pulled together.
“Relinquo,” growled Trace, and my eyes immediately snapped to his.
He was talking to the fog. The fog. Which could only mean it wasn’t fog at all.
I cleared my throat. “Do I even want to know what you’re talking to?”
His eyes bounced from me to Gabriel and then back again. “No.”
Wonderful. A nervous chill washed over my body, but I did my best to ignore it. Not wanted to get sidetracked from what we’d come here to do, I shrugged it off and said, “Let’s keep moving.”
The three of us continued forward, keeping in the same direction we’d been walking, though now it was obvious that we were being following by whatever the hell was in the fog. As if that wasn’t off-putting enough, it appeared to be growing in size and density, as though the mist were coming from all directions, magnetizing to us and slowly closing in.
The whole thing was beyond disturbing and I didn’t like it one bit.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of what William had said earlier. That our focus needed to remain on the mission at all costs, so that was what I did.
“So how do we know when we’re actually there?” I asked, being that everything thus far looked the exact same and at this point, I just wanted to get my ass to that burning book so we could get the hell out of here.
“The Magister said we’ll know it when we see it.”
“Oh, well that’s super helpful.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Have you ever been down these parts, Trace?” I asked with faux excitement in my voice.
“Nah.” He shook his head and then ran a hand through his ebony hair. “I’ve never been this far inside before.”
Oh, goody. We were all virgins of the Veil then. What could go wrong with that?
“It shouldn’t be much longer,” announced Gabriel, basing his conclusion on god knows what.
“So, what kind of business did you have in the Veil anyway?” I looked around the landscape purposefully. “There’s seems to be a whole lot of nothing here.”
He laughed again though it was restrained. “It’s kind of a long story.”
He wasn’t getting off that easy. I dug my heels into the ground and fixed him with an unimpressed stare.
“We have plenty of time, Trace. Or haven’t you noticed we’re walking in circ—” My words cut off as Trace slammed into me with his body, his arms around my waist as we tumbled to the ground together.
“What the fuck is your…” My reproach died in my mouth as a lightening bolt exploded in the spot I’d been standing in two seconds ago. But that wasn’t even what had me shook up the most. It was the foggy apparition standing a few feet away from us with its hand outstretched as smoke sizzled out from the tips of its fingers.
“Did they just try to electrocute me?” I asked, still laying on top of Trace with his arms fastened tightly around me.
Gabriel had already withdrawn his knife and was pointing it right at the strange ghost-like who dissolved into mis right before our eyes.
“That’s not going to work against them,” informed Trace as he lifted me off him and then climbed back to his feet. I tried not to notice the way my body had been vibrating against his or the fact that my skin prickled with goosebumps when he flattened his palm against the small of my back.
“Why not?” asked Gabriel, his olive-green eyes pinned on Trace as though he were the one making the rules around here. “What are these things?”
Trace dusted off his pants as he looked back at Gabriel and then answered, “Displaced souls.”
My gaze snapped to Gabriel who appeared to know exactly what Trace was talking about. He nodded grimly and then holstered his weapon before pulling out his compass again.
“Um…is anyone going to fill me in here?” I asked, my eyes still running wildly between the two of them. “What the hell is a displaced soul?
Gabriel was the first to answer, though he barely lifted his head from his compass when he did. “They’re souls who haven’t yet made it into the Spirit Realm.”
“Why haven’t they made it to the Spirit Realm?” I asked, being that this was the first I’d heard of it.
“Usually because they didn’t leave our world in the same way a person who passes on leaves our world,” answered Trace as if that clarified everything.
Honestly, it didn’t.
“Okay….” I blinked through my confusion. “How do they leave our world then?”
Trace glanced at Gabriel, probably to see if my Handler wanted to take a shot at explaining this to me. Apparently, he was too busy with his map to notice.
“Basically, they leave against their will.” When zero clarity came to my eyes, Trace continued, “Like in the case of a demon taking possession of a human’s body. The human soul is exiled from the body and that soul usually ends up in the Veil. No longer earth-bound but not quite in the Spirit Realm either.”
My face blanched.
That meant that Trace’s father, Peter Macarthur, had most likely ended up inside the Veil when his body was overtaken by a demon. I swallowed the knot in my throat as I wondered if Trace knew the truth about what happened to his father or if he’d been told another lie just like the rest of his newly concocted life.
“Hey. Are you alright?” asked Trace, worry etched across his face as he regarded me. “You look a little pale.”
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I’m fine. Just surprised is all. Let’s keep moving,” I suggested and started forward on my own. “So, if our weapons don’t work against these displaced souls, what are we supposed to do if we get attacked again?”
“They can’t kill us,” answered Trace.
“That’s not really what I asked you,” I pointed out.
“Truthfully?” he asked me as though I’d want anything other than that. “There’s not much we can do except dodge their attacks. It can get pretty dicey out here which is why it’s best to keep moving. But like I said, they can’t kill us,” he added, trying to keep my nerves at bay.
Too late. We were stuck in some alternate non-world dimension with a bunch of displaced souls that could attack us at will, without the ability to defend ourselves. I couldn’t help but question, yet again, what the hell I’d gotten myself into.
Before I could voice my displeasure out loud, Trace cut in with a curt tick of his head. “Is that it up there?” he asked.
Gabriel and I both stared forward into the murky distance. It seemed as though we were coming up to some kind of wall that appeared to go on forever at both ends, though the closer we got, the quickly I realized it wasn’t a wall at all.
“Is that…water?” I asked no one in particular.
“It certainly looks that way,” answered Gabriel, looking between the wall of water and his map.
“It’s a waterfall,” added Trace, laughing under his breath. “But it’s going backwards.”
“Upside-down,” corrected Gabriel. “It appears we’ve made it to The Upside-Down Waterfall.”
“How cute.” I stopped walking and stared across at it. “You better not tell me we’re going down that thing. Or should I say up that thing?” I didn’t like the sound of either one.
&
nbsp; “According to the map, we need to get around it.”
I glanced to the left of it and then the right. The thing had literally no end in sight. “How are we supposed to do that?”
Gabriel shook his head, his eyebrows huddled together over his eyes in confusion.
“Maybe we need to go through it?” suggested Trace.
I thought about it for a moment. It definitely made more sense that trying to get around it. “Any volunteers?”
“I’ll do it,” offered Trace.
Gabriel quickly chimed in, “We’ll go through at the same time. We don’t want to get separated.”
“One of us should test it out first…in case there isn’t another side to it.”
My stomach tightened at Trace’s words. I hadn’t even considered that. “I’ll do it then,” I quickly said, unwilling to let either of them take the risk. They were here to assist me—not take the fall for me.
“Not happening,” said Trace, in that vaguely familiar overly protective tone he used to take with me.
“Excuse me?” I looked at him incredulously.
“You’re the only one that can get the Sang Noir, so it can’t be you.”
Oh. Right. That was a good point. “Alright, toss a quarter and decide. I don’t want to stand here all day.” Especially with these displaced souls lurking about.
“Hold my bag,” said Trace as he handed me his knapsack and then sauntered towards the wall of backwards water. He paused in front of it, took a deep breath and then walked through it like it was nothing.
Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I waited nervously for him to come back out the same way he’d went in.
“What’s taking so long?” I snapped, though it had probably only been a couple of seconds.
“There he is,” said Gabriel, as my eyes darted back to the waterfall.
Trace emerged looking completely dry and beautiful with that dimpled smile on his face.
“All clear,” he said as he walked back over to us and took his bag back from my hand. “It looks like water and kind of feels like it too…but it’s not wet. Weirdest thing ever.”
Anxious to test it out for myself, I strolled over to the waterfall and outstretched my hand to it. The substance swam around my hand as if I were nothing but an air pocket, leaving my hand completely dry and undisturbed.
“How long did it take to get to the other side?” I asked, my hand still wafting through the strange matter.
“Like three seconds. Tops.”
I nodded, focusing on nothing else but that. Squeezing my eyes shut, I stepped forward, feeling the waterfall surround me as though I were walking through water, but when I stepped out onto the other side, like Trace and then Gabriel, I was completely dry.
“This is seriously the strangest place I’ve ever been,” I said and then laughed as I turned my arms over, inspecting them for any signs of water or dampness.
“I’m going to have to second that,” said Gabriel as he checked his map again—which was also as dry as a cotton ball.
“So, now where?” asked Trace, looking around. At what? I had no idea. The landscape was the pretty much the same redundant scene as it was on the other side.
Shocker.
Gabriel furrowed his brows in frustration as he turned the map at an angle. “It’s supposed to be right around here.”
I spun in a slow circle, looking for anything that might resemble an ancient book or, you know, black flames. Coming up empty, I asked, “are you sure you’ve been reading that thing right?”
Gabriel glared at me. “Of course, I’m sure.”
I put my hands up in self-defense. “I’m just making sure. Don’t have a cow.”
“Maybe we should spread out a bit,” suggested Trace. “If the map says it’s here, then it’s here. But it’s probably not going to be visible to the naked eye.”
“Good point.” Being that it was protected by Angel magic and all.
Gabriel tucked the map back into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and then scanned the area. “We’ll fan out but be sure to stay within viewing distance. If you start to lose visibility, turn back around.” His eyes were fixed on me in a stern warning. “Is that clear?”
I saluted him. “Yes, sir.”
The three of us split up with Gabriel taking the west, Trace on the east end and me hovering in the middle between the two of them. I wasn’t sure what we were looking for as William only said we’d know it when we saw it which was like, zero percent helpful at this point. But I searched, nonetheless.
After checking under nearly every rock and crevasse and still coming up empty, I looked over at each of the boys to see if they’d found anything interesting. While we were still in yelling-earshot of each other, visibility was beginning to get compromised as the dense fog continued to thicken around each of us. I couldn’t help but feel like it was actively working to segregate us. Which, come to think of it, wasn’t that farfetched.
“Any luck?” I called out to them just as my foot hit a strange cold spot on the ground. Woah.
“Nope,” answered Trace.
“Nothing yet,” said Gabriel.
Not wanting to get my hopes up, I withdrew my foot from the hot spot and then pushed my other foot inside, making sure it wasn’t just my weary mind playing tricks on me. When I was sure that I felt the cold with both feet, I sucked in a lungful of air and stepped forward with my whole body. I immediately felt the bone-deep chill slap against my body as it twined around me like a serpent. Okay. This was definitely…something.
“Um, guys?” I called, as the cold continued to scratch at my skin. “I think I found something.”
29. SIX COLD FEET IN THE GROUND
Trace and Gabriel were by my side in seconds. Their expectant eyes fell hard on me as they dug their heels into the ground and looked around.
“Where is it? I don’t see anything,” said Trace as he shared a look with Gabriel.
“You can’t see it,” I said and picked up his hand. “You have to feel it.” I yanked him toward me so that he was now standing in the cold spot beside me.
“I’s freezing cold,” he said, still holding my hand.
“I know.” I tweaked my eyebrows and then gestured for Gabriel to join us. “This has to be it, right? I mean, everything’s been exactly the same for the last hour. This is the only thing that’s different.”
Gabriel nodded his head and then opened his jacket pocket again. “I think you might be on to something,” he said and pulled out a sheet of paper, though this time, it wasn’t the map. “There’s only one way to know for sure.”
Trace and I both looked at him in anticipation.
“A Third-Eye Spell must be done in order for us to be able to see passed the mirage. If this is the place the Angels hid the Sang Noir, this spell should be able to reveal it to us.” Gabriel turned to me, holding out the sheet of paper. “Would you like to do the honors?”
It seemed only fair. Nodding, I took the sheet of paper from him and swallowed. “So, all I have to do is read these four lines and the book appears?”
“If it’s the right place,” he added.
“Right.” My eyes bounced from his to Trace’s and then down to the piece of paper. “Umm…hold up. This isn’t English.”
“No, it’s Old Latin.”
I crinkled my nose at him. “I’m going to mess it all up.”
“Here, give it to me,” said Trace as he grabbed the paper from my hands, but I snatched it right back.
“I didn’t say I couldn’t do it. I’m just warning you that my Old Latin’s a little…rusty.”
His mouth curled into a smile as he crossed his arms across his husky chest. “We’re waiting.”
I looked down at the four lines, and read them aloud, sounding out each word as best as I could, but knowing with absolute certainty that I‘d butchered the whole thing. The minute I’d read the last line though, a large square hole had opened in the ground about three feet away from where we stood,
with soil-packed stairs leading down into some underground cavern.
“Are you guys seeing what I’m seeing?”
“I don’t see anything,” griped Trace.
“What do you see?” asked Gabriel, his heavy eyes on me.
“Basically, I see a giant hole in the ground with stairs.” Sounded totally normal and not at all sketchy.
“That has to be it,” said Gabriel, his voice awestruck. “They must’ve hidden it underground.”
“How are we supposed to get down there if we can’t see it?” wondered Trace. The apprehension was blowing off his body like fumes. “Give me that spell,” he said before anyone could answer his concern.
Not wanting to get in his way with the obvious, I handed him the sheet of paper and watched.
He repeated the four lines I’d said earlier—though with a much better accent—and then waited for the big reveal. Judging by his face, nothing happened.
“Why isn’t it working?” he asked, clearly ticked off.
“I think this is the part I have to do on my own.” My eyes were back on my point of entry, my shoulders high and squared. I knew what I had to do, and I knew I had to do it alone. “If I’m not back in fifteen minutes…wait a little longer,” I said, knowing I’d have no way out of this place if they decided to give up on me and leave.
“We’re not leaving without you,” assured Gabriel and by the look of determination on Trace’s face, he was thinking the same exact thing.
Rolling my shoulders to ease the tension, I walked to the edge of the cavity and peered down into the abyss. A faint light flickered from somewhere deep inside the tunnel. At least it wasn’t total blackness. Unwilling to rely on that, I pulled out a flashlight and flicked it on. Without turning back, I stepped down onto the first step.
The soil was packed hard beneath my feet, though judging from the musky earthy smell, these stairs hadn’t been used in a very long time. Hopefully, they’d still be able to hold my weight. Aiming my flashlight downward, I climbed down the rest of the stairs until I finally reached the bottom landing.
Incarnate: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Saga Book 5) Page 24