Flash. Flash. Side to side. Flash.
The light was still there.
I narrowed my eyes, getting irritated. It swirled upward, hovered, then dropped again.
Who the hell was out there playing tag with death?
Lightning struck in the night sky, followed by the jarring sound of thunder.
I clenched my jaw and sank deeper into the sheets, trying to convince myself that it didn’t matter, that it wasn’t my business, that whoever it was—ghost hunter, lost tourist, ritual-chasing nutcase—could enjoy their last few minutes alive without dragging me into it.
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply.
Sleep. I needed sleep.
If someone wanted to get themselves dragged into the afterlife by something with a grudge, fine. Just do it somewhere I couldn’t see it from my window, ugh.
I was trying to force myself to sleep when a screech split the silence.
It ripped across the sky like it had claws, sharp, high and full of emotions. I jolted, heart stalling in my chest. It came from the hills, from the direction of The Crater. But it was too far to hear someone from there. Much too far. Even if they screamed.
And yet—
My chest tightened, as though an invisible hand hooked its fingers into my sternum and tugged. It was the pull. The strange thing that made my chest ache towards The Crater.
Don’t.
The Crater is only a thing leading you to your death,I reminded myself.
I turned my gaze away from the window, tried to curl back completely under the sheets and pretend that I could close my eyes and block it out, pretend I wasn’t the kind of girl who’d chase darkness just to prove they only existed in one’s mind.
But I knew better. I could lie and convince everyone but myself. There was no way I’d sleep knowing there was someone out there, not after that screech, not when my chest was tugging towards the hills.
“Ugh,” I grumbled under my breath as I stood up from the bed. “Fuck this. Fuck me. I should have slept.”
I grabbed my sweaters and coats and threw them on until I felt weighed down, properly wrapped for frostbite or monsters or both. I snatched up the car key from the desk and jogged downstairs.
I paused at the bottom of the stairs and looked back. Thrax’s door was shut, no lights and no sound. He still wasn’t back from wherever he’d left for around eleven p.m.
Unfortunate.
Stepping outside, I slid into the car and turned the key. The engine hummed, the headlights pushing out into the mist. I drove.
Straight towards the hills, head straight into danger.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SANORA
Oh, hell.
How the fuck could I forget a flashlight?
I stood outside the car, frozen in a mental facepalm. No flashlight, no weapon, nothing smart for a girl about to nose-dive into what was basically the belly of a historical grave. Nimorran had its secrets, and The Crater was the most haunted of them all. Yet here I was, empty-handed.
I sighed, dragged myself back into the car and fished out my phone, switching on the flashlight. The light glared back at me, weak and narrow in the dense fog, but it would have to do. I stepped out again, the beam trembling as I lifted it toward the large, almost faded sign, half-swallowed by overgrowth.
Welcome To The Crater: The Scar Of The Moon.
