Finally, Maks noticed. “What’s wrong?”
“Felines are sensitive to the dead.” I was trying to talk normal but it came out as a whisper. “And the dead know it. They tend to . . . want my attention. I was hoping this place was old enough that the spirits would have moved on by now.”
Maks came around Balder to my side. “Then we have to go if it’s not safe.”
“This is safe, at least from the dragons, if Lila is right,” I said, and my stomach rolled with the thought of staying more than another few minutes. “I just . . . I won’t sleep is all.” Or eat. Or relax. As it was right then, the need to whip around and tell the spirits to back the fuck off was strong enough that I had to work to hold in the words and fear. Because saying those things would do me no good.
I was no medium trained to handle spirits. Certainly, not pissed off spirits of dead supes crawling around the graveyard looking for attention and trying to draw me out to them. Some spirits could steal your energy and take you into a coma, and that’s if they were playing nice. That was shit I did not need when Darcy was depending on me. I touched the ring that rested against my chest, taking strength from it.
I drew a breath and let it out slowly, still fighting the sensations that wormed around me. “Get a fire going. It’s safer here than out there.” I repeated those words, needing to believe them.
Maks watched my face. “You sure?”
“Yes.”
No.
But that word didn’t flow past my lips.
I wasn’t sure at all, but I would give him a point or two for asking, at least, and trying to make sure I was okay. Maybe I could see a little of what Darcy saw in him. Maks was solid, and more dependable than any of the other partners I’d had on a trip. He turned away and something touched my elbow, a hand and fingers that tightened for a moment and then were gone. Letting me know they knew I was aware of them.
Again, just awesome.
I froze where I was once more. Balder turned his head and bumped me.
“Right, let’s loosen your cinch,” I said. I made my cold fingers work, easing his tack and then Batman’s. Most nights, we took all their gear off, but not here, not inside enemy territory. We’d all rest with one eye open. Two eyes, in my case.
Lila swept into my range of sight and landed on Balder’s saddle, her tiny claws clutching at the edges of the leather. “I’ve been here before, but I’ve never felt anything like this.”
I drew a breath and caught a scent of salt in the air, like the ocean. It was there and gone. “How close are we to water?”
“Water?” She frowned, wrinkling her skin around her eyes. “You mean a river?”
“No, like an ocean.”
“We aren’t,” she said. “Why?”
I drew a big breath and let the air rest on the back of my tongue, tasting it. “I can smell the ocean.” Which made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
I didn’t like it. This world was not one for coincidences. Not in the least. And smelling the ocean this far was a sign of some sort. I just had to figure out what it was trying to tell me.
“No dragons are connected to the ocean, right?” I crossed my arms and tucked my hands into my armpits for extra warmth.
Lila shook her head and Maks crouched in front of the crypt to set up the fire. He said nothing, but I had no doubt he was listening.
“No, we can’t go near the ocean. That is the Ice Witch’s territory, though the dragons would like to take it from her,” Lila said. She shivered and I opened the edge of my hood. I didn’t have to say a word, she leapt up and burrowed into my thick mane of hair. Her scales were cool against my skin, but I didn’t mind. Better than having something undead touching me.
Lila shifted around inside my hood so her head hung out. “The Ice Witch rules from the edge of the water and we avoid it. She’s a right bitch, that one. She used to take the youngling dragons as prizes. She skinned them and used their armor for her army of ice goblins. There was a battle and from what I know, a truce was called. She couldn’t beat us, and we couldn’t beat her. The Jinn stepped in and smacked them all soundly.”
I didn’t like the sounds of that. Like the Jinn were somehow running the show, even all the way up here.
I noted Maks listening intently, though he was trying to look like he wasn’t. Subtle, I thought to myself, he was not.
I took a step away from Balder, then another, and another until I was across the pile of sticks from Maks under the overhang. His hands swept over the wood as he produced a flint. He struck it a few times, the sparks flying and then the wood catching with a rush of light and warmth.
My mind raced with thoughts of what might be out there watching us, and it didn’t help that the sensation of being peered at rolled over me again and again, in waves. Ocean waves. I swallowed hard. “Maks, did anyone else know we’d left the Stockyards?”
“What do you mean? Your brother knew. Ish was sending you out to check on—” he glanced at Lila then back to me, “things.” The firelight danced over his face giving him a ghoulish look.
“The servants, or other supes, anyone at the Stockyards besides Ish and my brother?” I crouched, pulled my gloves off, and held my hands to the fire, soaking in the heat. Because there was no way they would try to sabotage us. Was there?
Maks put a couple pieces of wood on the fire and the heat seemed to push back some of the weight of the eyes on me. “Not that I know of. Why? What are you getting at?” Maks shifted and then sat, putting his back against the stone door so he stared into the dark graveyard, his blue eyes flitting from one headstone to another. Searching for things he couldn’t see.
“I think someone warned the Ice Witch we were coming for Darcy.” I rolled my hand and the smell of ocean water and ice curled up my nose, making me sneeze. “Yeah, I think she’s onto us.” I thought for a moment, coming up with only a single answer. “It had to be Steve, but why?” And why would the Ice Witch care if we came for Darcy? Wouldn’t she be more worried if we were coming for the jewel?
Maks snorted. “You hate Steve, and I get that, I do. But that doesn’t mean he’d jeopardize Darcy’s life. Didn’t they have something going on at one point?”
I glanced at him and then away so I looked out into the graveyard too, his words creating a bitter gall in my belly. “He’s too stupid to realize that he’d be risking her life. He only sees what’s in front of him, not long-term repercussions. Hence the cheating. Hence the atrocious lying. If he thinks he can get rid of both me and Darcy in one fell swoop, he’d do it.”
“You just said he’s stupid. How would he have done this? And so quickly?” Maks asked.
I rubbed my slowly warming fingers over my face. He had a point. Either Steve was too stupid to see the consequences of hampering us, or he was smart enough to figure this out.
“Shit, I don’t know,” I whispered.
Laughter spilled out of the graveyard followed by a low whistle.
“Tell me you whistled,” I whispered.
“Not me,” Maks whispered back.
The three of us froze in tandem as a mist began to crawl between the gravestones. Mist that should not have been with the snow falling unless . . . I made myself move so I was on the edge of the crypt’s step. I reached down and pulled a glove off so I could touch the ground with my bare hand.
Warm . . . the ground was warm and getting hotter. I watched the snow melt in front of us and the mist rose thicker, like a fog. A fog that turned into three distinct figures.
Maks reached for the gun he carried. “What were you saying about this being a good idea?”
Chapter Eight
Maks’s question, about just how much of a good idea this was, was not unwarranted. But in that moment as fog turned into figures, and we stood at the doorway to a crypt of long-dead supernaturals, I wasn’t about to go into just why coming here was still a good idea. Dragons looking for us being at the top of the list. Ghosts couldn’t kill you if you were smart about it; dragons could no matter how smart you were.
I made myself stand and took a step forward so the fire was behind me, putting my face into shadow.