The deeper we moved into Moonlight Flats area, the narrower and rougher the roads got. Acreage properties soon gave way to scrubland, and the road began to climb. It was the perfect area for hawks and eagles to hunt, which made me wonder why—if our shifter had decided to bunk down in this area—she was seeking prey in more distant forests. Not that the diggings area was very far away, especially by wing.
“Here—stop here,” Ashworth said, and scrambled out the minute Aiden did.
I grabbed my gear and followed him out. Once I’d pulled out the flashlight, I hooked my arms through the backpack’s shoulder straps and scanned the area. The cicadas weren’t as noisy here, which meant the haunting note of an owl was clearly audible. The wind stirred restlessly through the trees, and the moon silvered the wattles. Nothing moved through the immediate darkness, not even the little bats that were plentiful in this area. Though Castle Rock was little more than ten minutes away, it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere.
Ashworth walked around the truck and then into the trees lining the road, raising his free arm to brush away the lower-hanging branches. Aiden caught them as they whipped back, only releasing them once I’d moved past.
We wound through the trees, moving deeper into the forest. There was some movement to be heard now—possums or sugar gliders scrambling away from us, no doubt—but overall, the forest remained quiet. It was almost as if the trees were holding their collective breath.
Tension stirred through me, even though the gentle breeze held no hint of evil and there was no whisper of a threat.
“Ashworth,” I asked eventually, “are we getting any closer?”
I couldn’t help the uneasiness in my voice, and Aiden glanced sharply over his shoulder. “You’re sensing something?”
I hesitated. “Not exactly.”
“Which is generally a precursor to ‘yes, I am’ and then hell breaking loose.” His voice was grim. “Ashworth?”
“As I said earlier, the resonance is so faint, there’s no guarantee the spell will actually lead us to our shifter.”
“But you’re still picking up a signal?”
“I wouldn’t be trudging through this goddamn forest if I wasn’t, laddie.”
Aiden snorted and glanced at me. “I don’t suppose you can define the direction of whatever—”
The rest of his words were cut off by a scream.
A horrendous, high-pitched scream.
The same sort of scream last night’s victim had uttered before death had swept in and ripped his flesh from his bones.
Five
Aiden leaped forward, his form swiftly changing from human to wolf.
“Wait for us!” I yelled.
He didn’t. I swore and hastily cast a spell after him. It hit just as he leaped over a log and disappeared from sight. For one horrible second, I thought I’d missed. Then the spell came to life and a sparkling thread appeared in the air, spooling out between Aiden and me, providing a visible trail to follow.
Ashworth immediately did so, leaping the log with surprising dexterity. “I hope he’s wearing the charm you made him, because he could be in a whole world of trouble if the flesh stripper is the cause of that scream.”
“The only time he takes it off is when I need to add another spell layer.” And while the ‘repel demons’ spell I’d attached to the charm was fairly general, it should still protect him from this demon long enough for us to catch up with him. “What about the directional beacon on the feather? Has it changed at all?”
“Yes—it’s now ahead of us.”
“Suggesting she heard the scream and decided to investigate.”
“Possibly, although you’d think anyone with any sort of sense would be running in the opposite direction.”
“We’re not.”
“Yes, but I’m paid to run after bad guys, and you’re the reservation’s chosen guardian.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then snapped it shut again. While Aiden’s sister—who, via a spell cast by her witch husband, was now forever a part of the wild magic—was the true guardian here, few knew that. And because she was something more than spirit, I was basically the only one she could communicate with. Thanks, no doubt, to my own growing connection with this place.
The screaming stopped abruptly, and silence returned. It was eerie. Unnerving.