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“Daria, he’s a myth. Where did you even get this…” Realization dawned. “You got it from the haunted house. You got the key from that guy.”
“The book was in the library. It’s a children’s book. I got this from the house.”
She handed him another piece of paper containing a map with x marks and coordinates. He had seconds to memorize it before she flicked a lighter, snatched it back, and burned it into ashes.
“What does the key do?” he asked.
“It glows.”
“That’s it? What else?”
“I won’t know until I get there.”
He turned the pages once more and got to the part where the book pretty much said the same cryptic thing she did. Charlie growled, then stopped when she did. They looked straight ahead at an open field filled with rock formations, tall grass, and a mountain that rose covered by fog and clouds.
“That’s not the highest mountain,” he blurted out.
“It’s the highest mountain to me,” she said. Calm as a lake, Daria turned to peer at him. Despite her blindness, it felt like her eyes were probing him. “This is my stop.”
Gently, she took the book from him, waited for it to shrink back, and slipped it out of sight. Quietly, she nodded and ambled away, a silent goodbye just like all her other goodbyes beforehand: spending so much time with him the last few days, holding a melancholy that left questions in his head and a weird feeling in his chest. He realized it was hurt when the questions were still there, unanswered. He stood there for a while.
Then Charlie muttered a curse and was catching up once more.
“Wait up.”
The Fae slowed down and ogled him as he started trudging beside her, careful not to leave footprints. When he didn’t say another word, her brows furrowed.
“You are supposed to go back,” she blurted out.
“You are not supposed to go there.”
Defiance and stubbornness flashed. “You can’t stop me.”
“If I can’t stop you, you can’t stop me from accompanying you, either,” he returned breezily.
“This is ridiculous, Charlie. You are not obliged.”
“You are my best friend.”
“Best friends have their separate lives.”
“And best friends accompany each other in doing stupid, crazy things. Best friends tell each other when something’s up—something as important asyourisking your life to chase this myth.”
Silence. He couldn’t tell what she was contemplating, but he knew there was no stopping her when she put her mind to it. The hoodie she had on hid her body language and her expression. He sighed.
“I just want to make sure it’s safe, Daria.”
The moment he said it, the air around them shifted. His hair stood on end, detecting when the easiness began to make way for a sharpness that brushed along his nerves. Still, Daria didn’t stop, seemingly already aware of it. When the grass got shorter, she crouched her body and veered to the right, where a rocky formation rose with jagged edges. They crawled inside it and were cocooned within seconds.
“Vampires,” she said, her voice so low in the small space. “I can sense them. It’s not a vampire’s den since there aren’t enough of them for that. There’s no cave down here, either, or any underground dwelling for them to hide in. So, I figure it’s a hangout spot to hunt for prey or a spot they are guarding.”
“Which means it’s the last spot we should be in,” he countered. When the sharp brushing in his senses didn’t turn alarming, he peeked in between the rocks and waited for the breeze to move the grass until he could see the landing in front of the mountain. From this relative distance, nothing moved, the trees and brushes as still as ever. “You can’t outwit vampires. Their senses are insane.”
“I’m not planning to outwit them. Just check how many they are.”
“How do…?”
Her hand flicked and he caught the thud of an object landing on the other side. Seconds later, the ground shook as an explosion filled the air with smoke and glittering lights, sending soil and broken rocks flying everywhere. The forest was unaffected, but it was no longer still. He spotted a shadow darting in a blur yet not stepping towards the explosion…no, shadows. So many shadows.
