“All right, then let’s get to it,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Charlie, we can take a minute—” Kallie started.
“I can’t,” I interrupted. “Thaddeus is gone, and sitting around wallowing in myfeelingsisn’t going to bring him back. I need to dosomething. The least we can do is give his death meaning, so it motivates us to get the hell out of here.”
Kallie hesitated. “What do youwantto do?”
“Anything!” I cried. I just wanted to get the hell out of the Institute, no matter what it took.
Ava must’ve sensed my thoughts, because she quickly chimed in, “We should check out the next spot on the map.”
“Kallie and I looked this morning,” Marcus said. “Kallie sniffed around a bit, and I tried to use my Seer powers, but whatever used to be there must be long gone. We found nothing but trees.”
“Good thing trees are my specialty,” I said.
Marcus sounded uncertain. “If you want to check it out again, we can, but Kallie and I didn’t have much luck.”
“I think we should look again,” Ava pressed. “Charlie might find something you missed.”
She was trying to keep me busy and distracted. I could feel her intention slip through our bond. I didn’t mind, because she wasn’t wrong. I needed to act. It was better to distract me with this than to let me loose on the school, hunting down Mad Dog.
And well… I couldn’t do that. At least, not now, in the middle of the day when I’d be easily caught.
“Show us the way,” I suggested.
Kallie and Marcus led us out of the school and into the forest. It wasn’t easy getting Ava’s chair through the trees, but I used my Air magic to hover her a few inches above ground. We came to a part of the forest not far from the Lair, where the trees became thick and difficult to navigate. I used my magic to push back branches so Ava’s chair could fit through.
Kallie and Marcus stopped ahead of us. “This is it,” Kallie said.
Oberi sniffed a nearby tree.I don’t smell anything but dirt and pine needles.
“We searched at least a hundred-yard radius, and we didn’t find anything,” Marcus added. “This part of the forest is pretty old, so we thought maybe there used to be a building here, but there were no remnants— nothing.”
I splayed my hand over a tree trunk and focused my magic. Sprigs jumped out of my pocket and ran down my arm, until he could reach the tree, too. “This forest is old, but only a hundred-fifty years or so. These trees weren’t around when Amalie and Dante were here. If therewasa building here, its foundation may be deeply buried. Hold on.”
I took a few breaths and focused deeper into the earth. I made it six feet before I felt a disturbance. It wasn’t rock, or anything that felt like earth. I brushed my magic up against it, trying to map out its size and shape in my mind. It felt broken and decayed, whatever it was. It could be nothing, or it could be exactly what we were looking for.
I guided my magic outward, and that’s when I realized there was more. Hundreds of small objects littered the area, all buried six feet below our feet. Tree roots curled around them— some roots pierced straight through the objects. My magic swirled around something round, and it hit me.
I jumped back with a gasp, and I nearly dropped Sprigs. I placed him back into my pocket before turning to my friends. “It’s a graveyard.”
There were no caskets, just endless bodies tossed haphazardly into the earth, like no one had cared to give them a proper burial.
“That can’t be right,” Marcus protested. “I would’ve felt that.”
“Maybe you didn’t know what you were looking for,” I said. “These bones have decayed pretty badly. There may be nothing left in them for your magic to sense.”
Leaves rustled as Marcus knelt to the ground. He must’ve been using his magic, because he gasped. “By Mother Miriam, you’re right. It’s so faint… but they’re everywhere.”
“This could be death row,” Ava realized. “The records said their graves were unmarked.”
“That means we’ve found Dante,” I said. “That must be what the map is pointing to. The key could be with him!”
“We can’t upturn a hundred graves,” Ava said.
Oberi started digging, throwing dirt all over my feet.We’re going to have to if you want to find that key, sweetheart.
“There may be a way to save us time,” Ava suggested. “Marcus and Charlie could use simultension— Seer powers combined with Earth powers— to locate the proper grave.”
