She’d already told me it was stronger since we completed our bond, but every passing day, I saw the flame growing brighter and lasting longer. She’d never have Kobal-level abilities, but she might attain River’s fire level and possibly surpass her if she kept working at it.
Last night, she’d rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and held her hands out. We all watched as the flames spread from her palms to her wrists, up her arms, and around her biceps. The fire intensified when I touched her back before she extinguished it.
The hounds prowled through the woods and spread out as they slipped into the shadows. If something tried to come up behind us, they would tear it to pieces. Corson held up a hand to halt the rest of us before he continued toward the peak of the hill.
I stepped closer to Aisling as I surveyed the woods. The six hounds sniffed the air as they moved. If something were out there, they would let us know, but something about this place didn’t feel right.
I surveyed the trees as a squirrel crept to the end of a branch and looked down at the hounds. Even with the sign of animal life, something felt off about this place as leaves floated on the air.
Corson knelt at the top of the hill and leaned forward as he peered over. Wren took a couple of steps toward him when he turned to wave us forward. I knelt beside Corson and rested my hand on the ground as Aisling knelt beside me.
The hill descended into a valley awash in color from the trees. A fog hanging low over the valley blocked the bottom of it. Beyond the mist, more hills and mountains rose and fell with the earth. Some of their peaks touched the pristine, blue sky and snow covered the farthest mountain tops.
Aside from the swaying trees and the rustle of the wind moving through the leaves, nothing stirred below. I searched for any sign of Caim but didn’t see him anywhere. He had to be nearby; that carving in the tree was only a few hours old.
“Where’s Caim?” Bale murmured.
“He could be below or on the other side of that mountain. We won’t know until we go down there,” Lix said.
He was right, but I didn’t want to take Aisling down there. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a choice.
Chapter Twenty
Aisling
Hawk stayed by my side as we moved from tree to tree to keep from falling down the steep hill. We were almost to the bottom when my feet skidded on some leaves, and I almost went down. Hawk caught my wrist before my ass could hit the ground, but I was stuck in some weird Twister move as my backpack weighed me down and my feet kept skidding on the leaves.
Hawk plucked me off the ground and set me on my feet. He grinned as he released me. “Easy there, graceful.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“No problem. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I muttered as I wiped the dirt from my palms.
We were near the bottom of the hill when thin tendrils of mist coiled out toward Corson and Wren as they moved deeper into the fog. I bit my lip while I studied the thick fog covering whatever lay ahead of us. At least we were off the hill, and the going was easier through the flatter section of land.
“Maybe…” I had no idea what I was going to say. Maybe we should turn back? Maybe this was a bad idea? We could climb back out of the fog and try to walk around it, but that could take hours, and we were so close to Caim. There was no turning around, and we all knew it was a bad idea, but we had no other choice.
“Maybe?” Hawk prodded.
“Nothing,” I muttered as a tendril of fog brushed against my cheek.
I almost slapped it away, but it was impossible to hit fog. Still, when another one coiled around my arm, I couldn’t stop myself from trying to brush it away. It did no good, of course, and more of them drifted around me as we progressed deeper into the fog.
Beads of water formed on my skin and stuck my clothes to me as the mist caressed my skin.
Through the fog covering the ground, I caught glimpses of my boots, but the further we walked, the thicker it got until my ankles vanished and then most of my calves.
I wiped away the sweat on my nape before lowering my hand to one of the knives at my side. The day wasn’t chilly, but goose bumps covered my arms, and the ice seeping into my bones caused my teeth to chatter.
The hounds slid from the trees and prowled closer to us. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the oversized furballs—I still had a bruise on my forehead from the one who ran me into a branch— but I was glad they were here. If anything was out there, they’d be the first to know, wouldn’t they?
Dogs and other animals sensed things before humans, but these were Hell creatures. Their definition of dangerous was probably alotdifferent than mine.
“Have you ever encountered anything like this before?” Corson asked Wren.
“I’ve encountered fog before,” she said. “And I’ve been in thicker fog, especially in mountainous areas, but something doesn’t feel right about this.”
