“Ghosts of the Elves!” Kallie screamed. “Hundreds of them!”
The moans grew louder as the ghosts began to surround us. My heart hammered, and I asked in a shaky tone, “They can’t hurt us, right?”
“Well, actually—oof!” Marcus started, but he cut off when a pair of hands shoved me, and I stumbled backward into him.
“Ancestors, Kallie!” I screamed. She was the only one who wasn’t near me. It had to be her.
“I didn’t do it!” she cried from several feet away.
I felt the blood drain from my face. I realized I’d just been shoved by a freakingghost.
“How do we— ow!” Kallie yelped. “Fuck, they left abruise.”
“They’re just trying to scare us,” Ava insisted, though she sounded frightened. “We can’t turn back now. Come on!”
Ava grabbed my hand and yanked me forward. We burst out into a run—in the direction of the ghosts. Was she fucking insane?
Hell, we all were, just for being down here in the first place.
Rishi yowled, and Oberi continued to bark as we rushed down the tunnel. Shiver after shiver traveled down my spine as spirits of the Elves passed through me. Hands as cold as ice landed on me, taking physical form for the briefest of moments. I tried to shove them aside, but I couldn’t barrel my way through spirits. One moment their hands were solid, and the next, they passed straight through me. They could touch us, but we couldn’t touch them. The ghostly moans of the forgotten Elves resonated throughout the cave, like some kind of death anthem. It only made the situation that much more terrifying.
Kallie wasn’t lying about the bruises. I’d taken plenty of hits this semester, but I’d only been up against one guy at a time. These attacks from the ghosts came from all angles, and they clawed at us as we ran. Fists slammed into my gut, and fingernails scratched across my face. Warm blood sprang from a wound on my cheek, and it trickled down my skin. I didn’t care about myself, but I’d be damned if I let my friends get hurt.
“We have to turn back!” I protested.
Ava continued dragging me along. “We— ow— can’t!”
“There’s no end in sight!” Kallie cried.
Something smashed to the ground, and glass cracked. It sounded like Marcus’ headlamp.
“Ava—!” I started, but my shoe caught on something solid, and I went tumbling forward. Ava and I crashed to the cave floor, and I fell on top of her.
Blow after blow landed on me as the ghosts beat us up. I tried to spring to my feet quickly, because I knew from all the fights I’d been in that youneverstayed down. But there were just so many ghostly hands colliding with me that I couldn’t move. I curled on top of Ava, doing my best to protect her from the blows. Nearby, Rishi shrieked, and Oberi howled. I heard athud, then Kallie gasped, as if she’d just been shoved hard against the wall of the cave.
“Charlie, we have to keep moving!” Ava demanded.
I couldn’t. If I moved, she’d be hurt. Pain radiated across my back as bruise after bruise took shape, and the ghosts continued pounding down on my raw skin. Fingers sank into my hair and tugged hard on the strands. I reached up to yank them off of me, but as soon as I tried to touch them, they vanished. A second later, they were back. There was no fighting against the ghosts.
“Marcus, how do we vanquish them?!” Ava screamed from beneath me.
“Sage, salt, and— augh— cedar oil!” he cried.
“Tell me you have some!” Kallie shrieked.
“I— fuck!” Marcus cut off. He must’ve conjured various items out of his stash, because several things clanked to the cave floor all at once. “Hell, that hurt!”
A sharp pain rippled through my back. “Do the spell!”
Marcus scrambled to pick up the items he’d dropped. He swore, and it sounded like he’d landed hard on his knees. He grunted several times. The ghosts were taking a real beating to him. Hell, I wished I could beat up these motherfuckers and save him, but I couldn’t move.
“Sage… salt… I’ve got it all!” Marcus announced in a pained voice. I heard the sounds of salt crystals pouring into a bowl, then smelled the cedar oil. Something clicked, but Marcus gasped a second later. Whatever it was fell to the ground yards away. “My lighter!”
“I’ve got Fire!” Ava offered, but when she tried to extend her hand, one of the ghosts kicked it. Her hand flew into my face, smacking against my nose.
“I’ve— ow!— got it!” Marcus strained. The lighter clicked again, and the scent of burning sage filled the tunnel. He began chanting. “I am love... I am light. You cannot hurt me! I am love… I am light. You cannot hurt me!”
I heard the bowl scrape off the ground as Marcus, I assumed, took it into his grasp. After he repeated this several more times, he stopped wincing to catch his breath. It must’ve been working.
