Devilish Game (Shadow Guild: The Rebel 4)

“What the hell?” Mac muttered.

“This city is coming alive,” Seraphia said. “Some kind of charm, maybe.”

Chills ran down my arms as I approached the end of the tunnel. Would there be people? For good measure, I withdrew a stunner potion bomb from my pack and gripped it tightly.

At the tunnel exit, I hesitated, peering out. Mac and Seraphia crowded behind me, also studying the open square at the edge of the city.

“It’s empty,” Mac murmured.

“But it’s reconstructed.” The simple, white plaster buildings rose toward the sky, gleaming under the moonlight. There was a slightly hazy look to them, as if they weren’t really here, but the entire city looked intact. Albeit slightly transparent.

“We’d have noticed this from the outside,” Mac said.

“It was definitely rubble.” Seraphia reached forward, as if hoping to feel whatever spell was on the air. “But this is what it once looked like.”

“We triggered it when we reached the middle of the entrance tunnel.” But how, I had no idea. I pressed my comms charm and spoke quietly to Eve, who I could sense above us somewhere in the sky. “Are you seeing what we’re seeing? The whole place has come alive.”

“I do, yes. Once I lost sight of you in the tunnel, a shadowy image of the old city seemed to appear. I don’t see any people, though.”

“Not even the ones we seek?” I wish I knew who or how many we were looking for.

“I can still sense them at the temple but can’t see them. It’s blocked, somehow. More than the other places in the city.”

“Which way to get there?” I asked.

“Fastest and safest is to go through the palace on your left. From there, you’ll find a path right to the temple. It will lead you through the center of the city.”

“Thanks.” I turned toward the palace, spotting the enormous wooden doors. They were painted a burnished red to match the straight lines that cut horizontally across the white plaster front.

Mac, Seraphia, and I hurried across the open square toward the palace. It was the largest building in the square, and though it was some kind of royal residence, the architecture wasn’t that much more ornate than the other buildings. I quite liked the simple, grand lines of Ugarit.

We climbed the stairs quickly, pulling open the enormous doors and slipping inside a courtyard that was open to the sky above. Beautiful wooden benches lined the walls, and the ghosts of flowering plants stood in the center.

“There are nine courtyards,” Eve spoke quietly from my comms charm. “You should pass by three of them if you go to your right. It’s the quickest way to the temple path.”

We turned right, heading into one of the large, fabulously appointed rooms. The furniture was simple but large, the gleaming wood draped in colorful fabrics that were slightly hazy. I ran my fingertips over one of them, wondering if they were really there. My hand rubbed over the smooth silk, and I nearly leapt backward, almost surprised to have felt something. I’d have thought it would have felt ghostly—whatever that felt like.

I spun to face Mac. “Are ghosts real?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Not terribly common, though.”

“But this place has them,” Seraphia said.

“How do you know?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Don’t you feel them?”

I supposed I did—a slight chill on the air. The sense of not being alone.

Were ghosts responsible for the kidnapping?

No, that was laughable. It was hard enough to believe in vampires and witches. But ghosts were incorporeal. They couldn’t orchestrate a series of international kidnappings.

A pale white figure drifted by the doorway, moving quickly. I started, then lunged toward the door, peering out into the hall.

The figure was gone.

I turned, spotting Seraphia’s wide eyes. “That was one of them.”