“What is that?” Lavie whispered.
“Let’s get closer.” We continued on, but it soon started to feel like no matter how fast we walked or how far we thought we were getting, the giant cage seemed no closer. “We’re not getting anywhere.”
Lavie sucked in a breath. “I know! What do we do?”
“Just keep moving, I suppose.” I picked up the pace, but paused when I realized she was no longer beside me. “Lavie?” I spun around, and found her caught in the root-infested ground. The harsh roots were strapped over her face, arms, chest and legs—seemed to be dragging her under.
I reached for her hands but couldn’t get a grip. I tried to yank the roots away from her and all that did was scrape my palms. I stopped for a moment, trying not to freak out, never taking my eyes off my friend. I was afraid she’d disappear if I looked away for even a second.
“Sierra,” she whispered. A root snaked over her mouth, covering it. If these things could move by themselves, did that mean they were somehow organic? Maybe my blade would work.
I yanked the silver dagger from my boot and held it out in front of me. The double-edged blade glowed inside this dull place, the markings on the hilt and blade lit up with the same pink neon as my hand, as if it were affected by my connection to the ley line power grid on the other side of this horrid patch. I spun the hilt around in my hand, lowered the blade and hacked at the closest root. It split, so I swiped from one side to the other, tearing the roots apart as if I were cutting off belts—but belts didn’t screech and drip gooey liquid. Some landed on my boot and ate away the leather, revealing my sock. Another drop hit my jeans and burned past the denim.
Shit, that hurts! I clenched my teeth and fought back the pain. Some of the liquid had struck Lavie’s hand—the only bit of skin she had exposed. Well, except for her face. I didn’t want to cut at the root over her mouth and risk burning her.
I swiped a hand in front of me, trying to swat away the sudden buzzing near my face. These things weren’t flies or bees—they were green orbs.
Other roots were already trying to tangle themselves where I’d removed them. If I didn’t get Lavie free, they’d drag her under. The green orbs—they reminded me of fireflies—hovered over the root covering Lavie’s face. As I watched, the few became half a dozen. I couldn’t believe my eyes when they bounced off the roots, causing them to snap like branches.
I shoved the dead things away and helped Lavie to her feet. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
The fireflies were now floating in front of our faces.
“I guess these are the will-o’ wisps Burr warned us about,” Lavie said, holding up a hand and watching as the tiny orbs flew around her fingers.
“You know what these are?”
“Wisps like to lead travelers astray. They seem helpful at first, enough to capture the weary traveler’s imagination, before leading them as far from their desired destination as possible. They don’t mean harm, are just mischievous by nature. It’s strange that something so colorful would live here.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Now that I knew a bit more about these things, I tried not to look at them but couldn’t help but notice the sudden scent of strawberries in the air. “I’m just glad they helped. Let’s keep moving.”
She nodded. “How are we going to reach that structure when it looks as far away now as it did before?”
Lavie was right and since I didn’t know how slow or fast time moved while we were in this patch, I didn’t want to waste a single second. I stuck my dagger back into its scabbard and took a step, followed by another. I wasn’t going anywhere. It actually felt like walking on a treadmill, so I started to jog.
“What’re you doing? You’re jogging on the spot.”
I stopped. “Yeah, that’s the only way we’re moving.” I sighed. “I don’t get it. We were definitely getting somewhere before.” I held up my hand and looked at the pink line trailing behind us. “We got pretty far, but now we’re stuck.”
“Do you know what that means?”
“I think we have to find a door.” For whatever reason, this section was barren and stuck. Maybe it was the roots growing so freely, or it could be that this spot was cordoned off like rooms. I had no idea, but both Oren and Burr said the demonic Hand of Glory would help inside the shadow patch. It was time to test their theory. I unhooked it from the belt loop.
“Oh, you’re going to use the Hand!”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Just because we came from a world where doors were physical things, that didn’t mean it was the same everywhere. My own dark patch was nothing like our everyday domain, so why had I assumed this one would be?
“Sounds good to me,” Lavie said.
The will-o’ wisps were buzzing too close to my eyes. “It looks like we’re onto something because these things are trying to distract me.” I gripped the Hand tightly, hating the way the pickled skin felt against mine, and held it up. “What do I do now? How does this thing work?”
“Like this.” Lavie clicked her fingers and a flame ignited from the tip of her index finger. She held it out like a matchstick and lit each of the wicks on the three talons. “It should work now.”
I extended the Hand, holding it in front of us like a lantern. Click. I stepped closer and pressed my other hand in front of me until I felt something solid, and pushed. The landscape slanted sideways as a door opened.
“That’s amazing,” she said, flicking the flame off her finger.
“And creepy as hell,” I added. “That’s a neat trick, by the way.”
“Saul taught me.”
“It sounds like Saul taught you a lot of things.”
Lavie shook her head and avoided my eyes. “What are you insinuating?”
“Oh, I don’t know…he’s pretty cute and you do spend a lot of time with him—”
“Let’s see where this leads.” Lavie stalked past me, and she was blushing.
I followed her through. The terrain hadn’t changed but we were definitely closer to the cage structure.
“It worked,” Lavie said.
“Let’s see if we can open another door.” This time when we took a step, we actually gained ground. We trekked across the large expanse of treacherous rooted ground until we reached other jog-on-the-spot areas. By the time we reached the giant, spooky cage we’d opened another six doorways using the Hand.
“What do you think this cage is for?” Lavie asked.
The pull of spook activity made my skin crawl. I hadn’t actually seen any shadows yet—asides from the giant one in the sky—but could tell they were nearby. “It’s an enclosure.” I walked up to the bars. They were thick and too close together, probably to keep their small prisoners from escaping. “It’s a prison.”
“Oh my…”
“What’s wrong?”
Lavie pointed inside. At first I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to see because I’d already noticed the smaller hutches inside were filled with human kids. “What?”
“Look past the cages.”
I squinted and spotted a huge tree on the far edges of the formation. The trunk was almost as wide as the exterior cage and the branches reached high into the sky, though it had no leaves. Small human skulls hung from the branches, sick decorations or trophies. Some sort of vise-like contraption held a child steady by the head, his body dangling uselessly.
“What the fuck is going on in there?” The question slipped from my mouth, but I didn’t expect an answer.
“We’re stealing their delicious essence,” a voice whispered to my right.
“What did you say?” When I turned, I came face-to-face with a shadow monster and grabbed the first thing I could from my hip utility belt—the letter opener. Before I could strike, the creature’s mouth widened enough to engulf my entire body in one huge gulp.
Chapter Seventeen
I was suddenly wrapped inside a blanket of moth wings fluttering against every inch of me. The darkness was so pure I thought I might have escaped to my dark patch. But no, Lavie would be with me if I had, and I wouldn’t feel this sense of claustrophobia creeping over me as I struggled for breath.
The darkness dissipated, dumping me in a different place. The weapon slid from my hand as I rolled before hitting the dirt and landed on my feet, keeping my eyes glued on the shadow hovering above me. Its red eyes were small but I could tell it was staring at me.
“You shouldn’t have come,”
the strange voice said inside my head.
“You’re not welcome here.”
“You’re not invited into our world but you still wander in long enough to take something that isn’t yours. What do you want these kids for?” I looked down at the ground and found the letter opener lying a few feet away.
The shadow stared but didn’t utter another word.
A thump and a rush of air made me turn. Lavie landed on her butt beside me, wiping at her sleeves and jeans.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, holding out a hand. The shadow was gone.
She took it and I pulled hard enough to get her to her feet. “No, but it looks like we’re inside the cage now. Can you feel that?”
“What?”
“The buzzing beneath our feet, it seems to be in the air too.”
I nodded. There was no way I couldn’t feel it. “Yeah, I think it’s because of that.” I pointed at the bizarre contraption at the head of this large domed-shaped cage. The ground was made of gray dirt, without the roots and vines from outside.
“What do you think it is?”
I shrugged. “Could be anything, but they’ve got a kid strapped to it. Makes me wonder if it might be some sort of power source…”
Lavie frowned, looking around. “But I haven’t seen any houses, vehicles, not even a city that needs to be powered.”
“I don’t think this world runs the same way as ours.” I took a few small steps, surveying our surroundings. Cramped cages were haphazardly placed throughout, and every single one had a kid squashed inside. A lot of them were crying, while others looked to be in a comatose state. All of the children had a thick tube sticking out from the back of their necks, which continued along the ground like cables connecting to the base of the huge tree.
Everything is connected to that thing.
I stalked closer to the outer rails and dared to press my fingertip against one. When the bar slithered at my touch, I knew these weren’t made of metal—but from those killer roots.
“How many kids do you think they’ve got trapped in here?” I asked, turning to face Lavie.
She was squatting in front of a nearby cage. “I’m not sure, but this is Charlie.” He was still asleep.
“Is he connected to that thing? Look at the back of his neck.”
“There’s a tube.”
A bunch of will-o’ wisps charged into the cage and milled around us. I swatted at the pests, but they avoided every attempt I made to get rid of them. “These things sure are annoying.”
“I think they want to show us something.” Lavie stood and held out her hand. A few of the wisps settled on her palm before flying off to hover around the crank. “They want us to go there.”
“How do you know?”
“Can’t you hear them talking?”
I couldn’t hear any chatter. Not since the shadow told me they were stealing children’s essence. “What are they saying?”
“They want us to stop this,” she said. “That’s what we’re here for, right?”
I tried not to think about my other reason for stepping into this horrible patch. “Yeah, but
how
are we going to do it?”
“They’re telling us how. We need to destroy that thing.”
“You make it sound so easy. Where do we even begin?” I was about to ask her if we could trust these will-o’ wisps, but then remembered how they’d helped me free Lavie from the writhing roots.
Lavie was talking, but I wasn’t listening. I tried to think this through. I’d always wanted to know why the shadow ghosts took children, and we’d just stumbled on the answer. They used their essence to fuel their pathetic world. And I was about to stop them.
“Sierra, did you hear me? How are we going to destroy it?”
“There’s got to be a way…” I tilted my head and looked at the contraption the shadows had constructed into the tree trunk. This close, I could see a multitude of wiry roots crisscrossing over each other. The vise-like device restraining a boy by the head looked suspiciously like a gnarled tree branch. The kid’s eyes were closed and he looked pale and lifeless. “I need to take a closer look.”
“I’ll come with you—”
“No, you stay with the kids. I need to astral project.” The will-o’ wisps hovered behind the sagging boy. “There’s something wrong with this picture. Don’t you think there should be shadows?” Aside from the one who’d transported me into the cage, there didn’t seem to be anything else around.
And that doesn’t make any sense.
“I was wondering about that.” She scratched her head. “So, are you going to use your dark patch?”
I nodded.
“Will it work in here?”
I hadn’t thought of that. “There’s only one way to find out.”
“Good luck!” Lavie backtracked to the other side of the cage and wedged herself between two small cages, crouching down. I had a feeling she wanted to be as far away as she could get so I wouldn’t drag her into the dark patch with me. I didn’t blame her.