by Linsey Hall
Worse, you couldn’t even fight them. Only a Phantom could harm another Phantom.
It was the last major challenge before Hider’s Haven, and Uncle Joe had made it clear that we needed to pass through the crater, not around. If we cheated and drove around the top to get to the other side, the path to Hider’s Haven wouldn’t reveal itself to us. It was the main reason the place was so well hidden.
“I don’t see Uncle Joe or his truck,” Rowan said.
She was right. He wasn’t here. Most often, he would drop people off at the edge of the crater to avoid going in. It was just too dangerous. If they wanted to reach Hider’s Haven, they had to do this last bit themselves, running across the bottom of the crater.
“Look, over there.” Bree pointed.
Tire tracks led toward the edge of the crater, then disappeared. The vehicle had driven in.
Uncle Joe went through the crater.
Holy fates.
“Why would he cross?” Bree said.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.” We could only keep going forward, though. I sucked in a ragged breath and looked at the sun. It was nearing the horizon, about to set. According to Uncle Joe, we had to make it across before nightfall. I looked at my siblings. “You ready?”
Two pairs of stark eyes stared back at me. They both nodded, looking slightly ill.
“Remember, try to think happy thoughts,” I said. We didn’t actually have a whole lot of those since we’d run from home with our mother when we were five, but there were definitely some.
“Like the time you laughed so hard orange juice shot out your nose?” Bree asked.
I grinned. “Exactly.”
I drove us toward the edge of the crater, my grin fading. Fortunately, the slope toward the bottom was gradual enough that the buggy could drive down. I did not want to run through Phantoms.
“Here goes nothing.” The front wheels dipped, and we headed toward the bottom.
As soon as we hit the horizontal surface, Bree sucked in a deep breath. “Fast as you can.”
I pressed the gas, and the buggy shot forward. Wind whipped at my hair as we sped across the bottom of the crater. It was darker down here, the setting sun casting deep shadows across the crater floor.
We were halfway across when it turned freezing. My breath fogged in the air as biting wind whipped my hair back.
“They’re coming.” Fear echoed in Bree’s voice.
We’d never encountered Phantoms, only heard of them. But it was enough to give me nightmares.
The air in front of us shimmered, coalescing to form the ghostly blue shadows of men and women.
Twenty yards away, dozens of them glowed a transparent blue. Though their figures were hazy, it was still possible to make out their faces and the old-fashioned clothing they wore. Overalls and dresses, bonnets and hats. Most looked like they’d died while trying to cross the desert in carriages in the nineteenth century.
Instead of finding their dream of a better life, they’d perished here.
If they took us down, we’d become one of them. Haunting this place for eternity, feeding on the misery and pain of others.
No freaking way.
“Try to close off your mind,” I said. “Remember. Happy thoughts!”
It sounded ridiculous, especially given the fear that iced my skin.
Ravenous eyes met my own, and the Phantoms surged forward, hands outstretched. They ran for us, closing the distance quickly.
They were still ten yards away when the cold tendrils of their magic reached inside my mind, twining around my memories and pulling them forward.
I flinched, unable to keep them out.
The darkest parts of my past rose to the surface. Running from our home when we were five years old, my terrified mother dragging us along. Her seer’s vision had told her that something horrible was coming for us, and the next night, we’d run.
Pain twisted my insides as I remembered. As my mind was dragged into the darkness.
My foot slipped off the pedal. Next to me, my sisters were curled into balls, their hands over their heads.
The buggy slowed. I was too weak to keep my foot on the gas.
The Phantoms neared, their hands grasping for us. The Ravener poison did nothing to them—they passed right through the spikes and reached for us with icy blue hands. There were dozens of them, and even more formed in the air in front of us.
“Hunted,” hissed one.
“Prey,” said another.
Pain pierced my mind. Images of my sisters and I flashed in my mind. Those who hunted us had succeeded. They’d found us. They’d killed our mother—when we were thirteen, she’d died to give us a chance to escape—and now they’d found us. Even Death Valley couldn’t hide us.
Horrible visions of what they might do to us played in my head. I didn’t even know what they wanted us for, but my mother’s fear still echoed in my soul. There was nothing too terrible for my mind to invent, and the torture of it made me slump against the wheel, weak. My bones and muscles felt like jelly. A railroad spike had been driven through my head.
I thought I was tough.
I was wrong.
The Phantoms tried to scale the side of the buggy, reaching for us.
“Ana!” Bree rasped.
I blinked, trying to drag myself upright. The pain of the memories was freezing me up.
Clumsily, Bree leaned into me, trying to find the gas pedal with her foot. Rowan was still curled against the passenger-side door, sobbing.
Tears ran down my cheeks. We were still at least forty yards from the other side of the crater, and I was failing.
Failure.
Those who hunted us didn’t need to find us to kill us. I could do that all on my own.
I sucked in a ragged breath and straightened as best I could. Pressing the gas pedal felt like trying to kick a boulder uphill.
A Phantom reached for me, its icy blue arm brushing my bicep. Tearing pain streaked through me. The pain froze my arm, but it woke me.
I used it, pushing aside the dark memories that the Phantoms so expertly dredged up.
Bree slid to the floor of the truck, pressing against the gas. Together, we managed to hit the gas hard enough. We were both so weak. I’d heard that depression and sadness could seep away your strength, and that was right.
A sob burst from my chest as I struggled to keep the truck on course, only one of my arms working. Another Phantom managed to scramble up the side of the vehicle, reaching for me. I shrank away, but it gripped me. Pain flared, making me shake. I was losing control of the vehicle!
Rowan lurched away from the door, toward me. She grabbed the wheel, helping me steer.
Just feeling her pressed up against my side grounded me, dragging me away from the pain and dark memories.
My sisters.
I had to save them.
Together, we plowed the buggy through the last of the Phantoms. When the tires grabbed onto the slope that led upward, a tiny bit of relief filled me. The truck climbed away from the Phantoms, the air growing warmer.
Strength returned to my limbs, and the horrible ache inside my head vanished.
I looked behind.
Hordes of Phantoms surged against each other inside the crater, clawing for us. Some kind of magic kept them bound to the place. As I watched, they disappeared.
“You got it?” Rowan asked. She was still pressed up against me, helping with the wheel.
Bree was still on the ground, pressing on the gas.
I shifted my arm, grateful to find that some movement had returned. “I got it.”
Rowan slumped away from me, exhausted. Slowly, Bree climbed up onto the seat, wedging herself into the middle. Her head dropped back against the seat. “That was the freaking worst.”
“I didn’t think we were going to make it there,” Rowan said.
“We did.” My tone was harsh. “We made it.” I sucked in a ragged breath and drove the buggy onto flat land at the top of th
e crater. “We freaking made it.”
Bree rubbed a hand against her face, swiping away the tears. I realized that my face was wet, too, and I rubbed it against my aching arm.
“I vote that if we make it out of here alive, we never cross the crater again,” Rowan said. “Uncle Joe was right. Better just to drop folks off and let them run for it.”
“Agreed.” I hated to do it, but it was clear that too many trips across the crater would kill us. If the Phantoms didn’t get us, the repeated mental torture would. We’d go insane.
“Night’s nearly here,” Bree said. “Step on the gas.”
I eyed the horizon. The sun had just dipped down below the mountains where Hider’s Haven was supposed to be located. I stepped on the pedal, and the buggy jumped forward, bumping over the rocky ground.
“Think we’ll make it before it’s too dark to see?” Rowan asked.
“No problem.” I gave the truck more gas, and we sped along. “We should probably take the last bit on foot anyway. Just in case.”
“We really should install a stealth feature on the buggy,” Bree said.
I grinned, liking the plan. Working on the buggy was one of my favorite things to do, and a stealth feature would come in really dang handy.
The mountains loomed large as we neared. Bree climbed over the back seat and dug around on the ground.
“Got it!” She climbed back into the front and stood, propping her arms on the dusty windshield. She raised the binoculars and peered through, studying the terrain ahead.
“You see him?” I asked.
“Give me a sec.” A few moments later, she cursed low under her breath. “I see his truck. Burnt out.”
“Totally?”
“Nothing but a shell.”
A hole opened up in my chest. “Is there… Is there…”
“A body?” Bree asked. “No. But I see two figures guarding an entrance to the mountain of Hider’s Haven. Looks like they’re standing next to a huge rock that’s been blown apart.”
“The rock must guard the entrance to the haven,” Rowan said.
“Crap. Can they see us?” I asked.
“They’re sitting,” she said. “Maybe sleeping.”
I slowed the buggy, not wanting the figures to hear our approach. Hopefully they hadn’t seen us yet. I drove the buggy behind an outcropping of large rocks and parked, hiding us.
“What do you think happened?” I asked.
Bree sat. “No freaking clue. But Uncle Joe never said anything about guards out front. And it looks like the rock that concealed the entrance to the haven has been blasted apart.”
“Like someone was trying to break in?” Rowan asked.
“Maybe. And somehow, Uncle Joe got mixed up in it.”
“Indeed, he did,” an unfamiliar voice said.
I nearly leapt out of my seat as I spun around. “Who’s there?”
A figure drifted out from behind the rocks. He was tall and slender. And made of dust. His eyes glittered with a pale golden light, but his features were indistinguishable.
“What are you?” I asked.
“Who am I, is the polite question,” he said. “And ideally, you would introduce yourself first.”
My cheeks heated. The weird figure had a point. My mother—fates rest her—would be horrified. We might have spent our lives with her on the run, trying to evade those who hunted us, but she’d tried to raise us with manners. We’d turned a bit feral being on our own these last few years, but that was no excuse.
“Um, sorry.’” I smiled. “I’m Ana. This is Bree, and this is Rowan. We’re looking for our uncle.”
“I gathered.” The figure nodded his head, which was weird, considering he was basically a dust cloud. “I am Ferio, a mine sprite.”
“Oh, so you live in the mines?” Bree asked.
“Indeed, I do. And we get along quite well with those in Hider’s Haven. But the new usurpers are a problem.”
“Usurpers?”
“Thieves. They’ve taken the power from the Hider’s Haven council and are robbing everyone. Since those in the haven are people who are already hiding out, they have no one to go to for help.” He looked over his shoulder, back out at the desert. “And no way to get out.”
“We’re here now.” My words sounded brash. Just the three of us against enough criminals that they took over Hider’s Haven? Not great odds. But I was determined. “We’ll help.”
I couldn’t tell if his look was skeptical or not, which was probably a good thing. I didn’t need any doubt right now.
Onward, always.
“You’ll need to get in, then,” Ferio said. “And you won’t want to take the normal entrance. It’s guarded. But I can show you another way.”
“Excellent. Thanks!” Rowan said.
“But I’ll need payment.”
Damn. “We don’t have any money.”
“You have something else.” His gaze dropped to my pocket. I looked down. The red gem glowed brightly, magic making it shine through the fabric of my pants. Good thing I’d picked it up.
“Right.” I dug into my pocket and held it out.
He took it. “Thank you. And you’ll have to leave your vehicle.”
Rowan’s face dropped. So did Bree’s, and I’m sure mine did as well.
“The tunnels in the mine are too narrow for it. I will try to keep an eye on it out here. It should be safe enough, hidden behind these rocks.”
I touched the buggy, my hand resting on the hot metal. “Thanks. She’s our baby.”
“Quite a strange baby,” Ferio said.
“Not where we’re from,” Rowan said.
“We’d best not dawdle.” Ferio turned. “Come on. We’ll need to be quick.”
We jumped out of the buggy and followed him, darting from rock cluster to rock cluster, timing our trips across open desert to when the guards weren’t looking. The darkness helped.
By the time we made it to a separate, smaller entrance, I was sweating and panting. Night might bring cooler weather, but it was hot when you were sprinting.
Ferio pointed to the narrow crack in the rock. “This should take you all the way to Hider’s Haven. But I warn you, it is dangerous.”
“More dangerous than the other way with the guards?”
“Debatable. But if you want to beat the villains who are wreaking havoc, you need to be skilled enough to at least get there.”
He had a point. “Thank you for the help.”
“Best of luck. Get rid of the vagabonds.” He drifted away, then stopped. “You’ll go faster if you ride one of the carts.”
“Carts?”
He smiled. I couldn’t make out his individual features, but it was clear from his demeanor. “You’ll see.”
With that, he drifted away on the wind, back toward the buggy.
“I hope he can keep a good eye on it,” Rowan said.
“Me too.” I started toward the narrow crack in the rock. “What do you think he meant by cart?”
“I’ve got some ideas, but they’re crazy,” Bree said.
I slipped into the cool tunnel. It was dark, but my eyes adjusted. Glowing stones were set into the dark brown stone all around us, providing a bit of light.
Was this what they had mined here? Or was it some kind of old-fashioned lighting system?
Bree and Rowan crowded in behind me, and we set off down the narrow tunnel. The dark was a relief after the bright sun, as was the cool air. We were only about twenty yards in when I caught sight of a mine cart sitting on some tracks.
“Yep,” Bree said. “As I thought.”
“Oh fates.” I approached it. “We’re supposed to ride that?”
“For sure!” Rowan said. “All aboard!”
The ground sloped downward from here, going deeper into the mine. Coming back out would require a donkey or some kind of pulley system, but going down shouldn’t be so hard.
I swallowed hard and climbed into the cart. Bree clambered in next to me.
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“Hang on to your butts!” Rowan began to push the cart. When it picked up speed on the downslope, she leapt in, smooshing Bree and me.
“Hey!” Bree shouted.
“Chill, man!” Rowan popped up and wrapped her hands around the front of the cart, a grin on her face so big you’d have thought she was a golden retriever on her first car ride with her head out the window.
The wind whipped our hair back as we zipped through the tunnel.
“At least we’re making good time.” Bree clung to the side of the cart, looking slightly green.
My stomach rocked as the rickety cart hurled through the tunnel, feeling like it was one misplaced rock away from setting us flying through the air.
“Oh, crap!” Rowan shrieked.
I peered over the edge, catching sight of a great gap in the ground. It had to be twenty feet wide, and the pit plunged far into the earth—and there was no more track. On the other side, the broken track hung down limply over the edge of the cliff.
We were too close to bail out.
“Rowan!” I cried.
“On it!” Her magic swelled on the air, bringing with it the scent of lilacs in the dusty tunnel.
The cart sped out onto the little bit of track that remained over open space. The broken-off piece of track rose up on the air, carried by Rowan’s telekinesis. It joined the broken track that our cart was riding upon.
But the cart slammed to a stop.
The tracks must not have met evenly!
It was my last thought before inertia threw me out of the cart. My mind blanked as I flew over a deep black pit and finally crashed to a stop on top of the track that Rowan had lifted into the air.
Bree landed in front of me, but Rowan missed, going too far left.
At the last second, she reached up and grabbed the track, dangling by her fingertips. I lunged, grabbing her hand with a sweaty grip.
My stomach plunged.
She dangled over an endless blackness, her wide eyes on mine. Her magic swelled on the air as she did her best to keep the track raised. Without her, it would fall back to its former limp position, and we’d all go plummeting to our deaths.