Even if the old wall hadn’t served as a very clear boundary line, I would have known the instant I stepped out of range of the estate’s protective enchantments. The air pressure lightened slightly and the bittersweet aftertaste of magic, only detectable in its absence, was gone.
I turned and carefully shut the rusting gate behind me, double-checking that the latch was secure. After a second I stepped back, satisfied, and glanced up at my house. All of the windows were lit, as usual, but I knew the old mansion was empty. It was funny how normal it looked from this angle, barely visible under the light of the moon. A lone jogger or dog walker going along the distant road would have dismissed the faded yellow paint or the colorful flowerbeds as nothing out of the ordinary. It was only on closer inspection – much closer than most people would ever get – that a visitor could see that the weather vane was shaped like a dragon or spot the bright lights darting around the flowerbed.
Seis shifted uneasily from his perch on top of the crumbling wall. “This is a really, really bad idea,” he said for the thousandth time that night.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. This was just getting pathetic. Seis had always been overly anxious for a gargoyle, but tonight he seemed even more on edge. As I watched, he rubbed his paws together anxiously to make a harsh, grating sound.
“I’m just going to get the stupid plant and come right back,” I said, reaching out to check the gate latch again. Satisfied, I switched on the flashlight I had stolen from my dad's workshop and started to walk away.
“You’re going to get caught!” Seis called after me. I ignored him, concentrating on finding the old trail.
The woods had almost grown up to the wall. I walked past the path twice before I finally found it, almost invisible under a tangle of prickly plants. I could only hope that they weren’t poisonous.
“Back in ten minutes!” I yelled to Seis, gingerly stepping over the plants. The gargoyle, just a small, hunched shape on top of the wall, didn’t reply.
“Fleabane, fleabane, fleabane…” I muttered under my breath. I swept the flashlight beam along the base of the nearest tree. Nothing but some ugly, scraggly ferns and a shattered beer bottle.
I squinted back down at the website I had pulled up on my phone. French Fungus Revenge was written across the top of the page. The key ingredient, a white and yellow flower, was pictured below that. It didn’t look like the kind of plant that you would use to curse your jackass ex boyfriend, but who knew?
I took a few more steps down the path, ripping up random handfuls of foliage. “Fern… leaves…” I said, holding the plants up to the light. “Ugh, poison ivy!” Swearing, I flung it deeper into the woods and scrubbed the palm of my hand against my jeans.
A dog barked somewhere in the distance. Nervously, I glanced over my shoulder. The shadows had swallowed up the wall, but the lights from the house were just barely visible through the trees. Mom and Dad were supposed to be out late at a meeting with their Head of Security, but if they came back early and caught me on the other side of the wall…
I headed farther along the path, a new urgency in my steps. The flashlight beam darted around erratically, illuminating fallen trees and glinting off more broken glass. It was obvious that my parents hadn’t bothered to upkeep any of this in the years I’d been gone. The winding trail was overgrown and choked with weeds, and I hadn’t seen a single familiar landmark yet. Of course, the fact that it was two in the morning and pitch black beneath the trees might have something to do with that, but shouldn’t I have at least passed the old Climbing Tree by now? And had the woods always been so eerily quiet?
My phone suddenly vibrated in my hand. Somehow, I managed to simultaneously jump out of my skin and drop the phone. Swearing, I bent and snatched it out of another patch of poison ivy.
A new text message had popped up on the screen. I recognized the poor grammar immediately. Only one moron could manage to misspell the word “hey.”
“Hay Cassie do i dazzle u? - Nick.”
I shoved the phone into my pocket, disgusted. Did he really think quoting Twilight of all things was going to win me back? Yeah, like that was going to happen. God knew he was no Edward Cullen.
I kicked a rock out of my way, scanning the ground again. Where the hell was this damn flower? All I wanted to do was find it, rip off some petals, make my revenge potion, and go to bed. Preferably before Seis heard a deer snort and had a panic attack.
I paused to look at another plant. Nope, no fleabane. I really hoped this spell worked. I could just see Nick with mushrooms sprouting of his nose and orange mold growing in his hair. I bet skanky Nancy Lewis wouldn’t want to kiss him then. She would probably –
A branch snapped somewhere behind me. The sound echoed through the still summer air like a gunshot. A chill cascaded down my spine. I stopped walking, my heart pounding.
“Seis?” I hissed, angry that I was so easily frightened. “I told you to stay at the wall!” I turned around, half expecting to see the cat sized gargoyle standing behind me.
The path was empty.
Ooo-kay then, I thought uneasily. I brushed a loose strand of hair out of my eyes, peering through the trees. The lights from the house had faded a while ago. I couldn’t even see the moon, thanks to the thick canopy overhead. No reason to be concerned…It was probably just a deer.
I started walking again, carefully weaving between a few skeletal saplings that had grown in the middle of the path. One of their branches snagged on my T-shirt, and I had to fight to keep myself from panicking as I freed myself. Why did I suddenly feel like the stupid chick in the horror movie? I had absolutely nothing to be afraid of. I was a witch. I could jinx Michael Meyer’s socks off if I wanted to.
Another branch broke, off to my right this time.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I muttered, waving the flashlight around frantically, desperately looking for anything resembling a white flower. How long had I been walking now? There had to be some fleabane around here somewhere.
The path twisted sharply, following the edge of a large pond. The still water looked like ink in the beam of the flashlight. A clump of flowers was growing a few feet away from the path, but they were blue, not white. Freaking fantastic.
I forced myself to stop and pull out my cell phone. There was no reception, of course. This little adventure was just getting better and better. I jammed the phone back into my pocket, ticked, and moved closer to the flower patch. Maybe there was some fleabane mixed in with the blue flowers?
I knelt next to the flowers and ran my fingers over the silky petals. Nope, no fleabane, but these looked like the plants my mom used to make lie detecting spells. I wondered if I should take some back to the house for her, then discarded the idea. She’d know right away that I’d broken her rule and gone out into the woods.
I stood up again. As I brushed leaves off of my jeans, I suddenly caught a flicker of motion out of the corner out of my eye. I froze, a rush of fear making me lightheaded. I was no wildlife expert, but I was pretty sure that deer didn’t stalk people. And – my heart was pounding a jagged rhythm in my chest – I had just picked up on the familiar old smell of sulfur. I had inhaled that nasty smell hundreds of times before out on patrols with my parents. There was something out here with me, and it sure as hell wasn’t my friendly family gargoyle.
My mother’s voice rose, unbidden, in my mind. “They say that there are little tears between our world and Hell. Places that the Darktown creatures can slip through to wreak havoc on our world. Maybe there are, or maybe that’s just a legend. Maybe Hell is just a myth to explain how God can let goblins and wraiths and demons wander the earth alongside us. But you know what I think?” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I don’t think it matters. I think we’re screwed anyways. For every Darktown monster we kill, for every little girl we save from a demon or every protection spell we make, it will never be enough. Night will always fall again, and the Darktowners will come back out to play.”
I ran through a mental catalog of creatures that smelled like sulfur and stalked teenage girls in the woods. Okay, now was definitely the time to be concerned. I had left the silver knife my father had given me for my last birthday on the kitchen table, and all I had in my pockets was my phone and my car keys. For some reason I didn’t think a savage goblin was going to be intimidated by my horse key chain.
I spun and headed back up the path, fighting to keep my pace at a casual walk. Darktowners weren’t always looking to kill someone. Some of the smaller ones just liked to cause mischief. If I didn’t show fear, whatever it was might not bother me… right?
I clambered over a fallen tree, scraping up my palms. Great, now they were itchy, sweaty, and bleeding. I didn’t even care anymore, though. All I wanted to do was get back into the safety of the wall, and back under the protective enchantments that had guarded the house for centuries. Seis would be still waiting for me, hopefully.
The path suddenly forked. I stopped, bewildered, and stared at the two identical dirt tracks. Each snaked away into the darkness. I didn’t remember the trail splitting before. And why the hell did all of these trees look the same?
Something stirred in the foliage nearby. Panicked, I headed down the right path, desperately praying that I would end up back at the house. I silently swore to put up signs if I could ever work up the nerve to go back in the woods again.
A breeze had whipped up, carrying the musty, acrid smell of sulfur like a sickly perfume. The smell was almost overwhelming now. I covered my nose with my hand and put on a burst of speed, looking frantically for the lights from the house. How much longer could this stupid path be?
A root snagged my foot. I went down, hard, and landed face down in a pile of last autumn’s leaves. The flashlight spun away. I heard a loud crack as it hit a tree. The light flickered and went out, plunging the woods into darkness.
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