Winter Halo (Outcast 2)

The graveyard ghosts remained with us, seemingly intrigued by Jonas even if they kept their distance from me. I wished again I could talk to them, as they were probably the only witnesses to what had gone on in the crater while the wraiths were chasing me. But to do that, I’d have to call in Cat, and that was something I was still reluctant to do. Maybe tomorrow, when the sun was bright and there was no chance of vampires or wraiths jumping out of slimy shadows . . .

I shivered but resisted the urge to rub my arms—if only because the wounds were heavily scabbed over, and I might just open them up again if I touched them. We reached the rim of the crater without mishap and stopped. The darkness that clustered around the base was deep but natural, and filled with nothing more threatening than rocks.

“There was definitely a rift here,” Jonas said. “Its energy still lingers.”

I raised an eyebrow as I glanced at him. “Meaning you didn’t actually believe me?”

His gaze met mine, his expression flat. “Oh, I believed you. I was just hoping you were wrong—that the wraiths couldn’t produce rifts at will. Wait here while I go down and check.”

“Be careful. They might have left a surprise or two behind.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

He started down the steep slope. The ghosts hesitated, then followed him, their bodies becoming ethereal wisps of fog as they moved into the deeper darkness. That they still accompanied him wasn’t really surprising, as they were—for whatever reason—bound to the loneliness of their graveyard and its surrounds . . . The thought trailed to a halt and I frowned. Why were they suddenly visible? The only time I’d seen them previously was when I was in vampire form.

“Jonas, stop.”

He immediately did so. “Why?”

“I can see the ghosts.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “And what is so new about that?”

“They’re human ghosts, like those in Carleen. I should only be able to see them in vampire form or with Cat’s help.”

“Ah.” He drew his gun and slipped the safety off. I wasn’t sure how a weapon would protect him against whatever magic might wait below, but maybe he also felt safer with its weight in his hand. “Interesting that I didn’t sense anything.”

“It’s possible that whatever magic it is is aimed at me more than you.” After all, he couldn’t see the darkness that covered the false rifts in Carleen, nor was he affected by it, despite the fact that he was sensitive to magic. That darkness certainly seemed to be designed to prevent someone who had a good percentage of vampire blood in their veins—or maybe even the vampires themselves—from easily entering the false rifts. But if it were the same magic, why would it cause the ghosts to suddenly gain substance? As far as I knew, the magic that protected Carleen’s false rifts had no effect on the ghosts there—although given that they tended to avoid them, maybe they’d discovered the hard way that it did.

Jonas continued on. The ghosts followed him, but their forms had begun to fade again. Whatever had caused them to briefly appear was obviously situated around the midpoint of the crater.

I started down, carefully picking my way through the debris and loose stones. It was very slow progress, and that was probably the only reason I even felt the magic. It was a subtle caress of foul energy that didn’t feel as if it belonged to this world, and one that barely raised the hairs on my arms, let alone any internal warnings. I stopped and reached out with one hand. A jagged whip of light appeared from nowhere and lashed toward me. I yelped and jumped back, losing my footing in the process and ending up on my rump. Pain slithered through me and blood began to trickle down my spine again. I ignored it, jerking my feet closer to my body as the whip reached full length and snapped angrily back and forth inches from my toes—a black snake that intended Rhea only knows what.

“What happened?” Jonas’s gaze was on our surrounds rather than me. Maybe he expected the magical attack to be followed by a real one.

Which was certainly possible, though it was more likely that the wraith hadn’t risked hanging around any longer than it took to set up this barrier.

“The magic you can’t see attacked me.” I inched up the hill a little more, even though the whip of energy was beginning to fade.

“They obviously know you survived the wraiths; why else would they protect this crater with magic?”

“Either they’re just being cautious or there is something down there worth protecting.”

“Given the run of luck we’ve had of late, I wouldn’t be pinning many hopes on the latter.”

I wasn’t, even though he was wrong about our run of luck. We’d saved five children despite the trap designed to kill, and that was a miracle in itself. But I’d also rescued him from the old military bunker that lay deep in the Broken Mountains, one that had been filled to the brim with vampires. If Rhea wasn’t looking out for us, we’d both be as dead as the ghosts who currently surrounded him.

But how much longer would that luck hold? That was a question I really didn’t want to think about—especially not after the closeness of death tonight.

I shifted position slightly but didn’t climb to my feet. The warmth flowing down my back suggested I’d opened the wounds again; the less I moved right now, the better.

Jonas reached the base of the crater and carefully picked his way through the larger bits of debris that lined this side of it.

“The rift was located on the western edge,” I commented.

He walked over and squatted down. “There’s been some attempt to hide the footprints.”

“Obviously not a good attempt.”