She felt decidedly less confident now that she knew shades had found them. It made her hesitate, question what she planned to do.
Sensing she was waffling, Eamon said, “We’ll be fine, Shea. I’ll make sure we don’t leave the safety of the tree. You concentrate on saving Fallon. That’s your task, that’s what’s important.”
Shea took a deep breath and released it. That was what she loved about the Trateri. They didn’t take the easy path, even when death lurked on the harder road. They didn’t leave their people behind just because it was dangerous. They were stubborn, hardheaded and courted a death wish more often than not. She fit in perfectly.
“I should go with you,” Daere said.
“No, you’ll only slow me down. I need to be able to move fast and without distraction if I’m going to do this.”
What Shea didn’t say is she didn’t want the responsibility of another soul if this went wrong. She was as sure as she could be that they would be fine as long as they ignored the shades and kept in contact with the tree. Even with the shades present, what she was about to do was infinitely more dangerous.
“If it’s possible, I’ll bring him back.” It was a promise Shea intended to keep.
Shea could sense that Daere was torn, not wanting to let Shea take this chance but also not wanting to be the one responsible for Fallon’s death.
“Don’t fail,” she ordered.
Shea made a small sound of assent. She didn’t intend to.
“And come back safe,” Eamon added.
Shea took a deep breath. Her hand dropped, the rough texture of the rope sliding from her fingers. She took a step back and then another. A thick wave of mist blew between them, obscuring Eamon, Daere and the rest, muffling their voices until Shea was standing alone with only the sound of her own breathing to keep her company.
CHAPTER FOUR
SHEA MADE her way through a landscape unrecognizable from the one she’d set out in that morning. Even with the hazy white around her, she could tell this place was not the Forest of the Giants. It was a desolate place, filled with a deep quiet that swallowed Shea’s soft footsteps. Even if she screamed, that quiet would consume the sound, leaving not even the memory of it behind.
There was nothing holy or divine about this place. It was instead, oppressive and threatening with its inescapable never-ending sameness. If you got lost in this, you’d wander, never getting hungry or thirsty or tired. You’d just walk and walk. Forever. No purpose, no joy, no pain, no happiness, no sorrow. Just existence. Or so the stories said.
Shea couldn’t think of a worse fate.
The rock under her feet and vaguely similar landscape was the same as previous trips into the mist. She’d never gone this deep though. Normally she was trying to escape, not venture further into it.
When she was a child on a trip with her father, the mist had descended unexpectedly. She’d gotten cut off from the group and since she hadn’t been through the necessary training to develop a talent for finding her way through, she should have died. Instead, she’d discovered something odd. Something she’d never had the chance to verify because to do so was too dangerous.
On that long-ago day, she’d gone silent and still and listened, concentrating on her father until he was a dim beacon at the edge of her conscious. It was possible that had been the imagination of a scared child, lost and alone. She’d never experimented to find out for sure.
She suspected the connection had to be strong. It wasn’t something you could do with an acquaintance or even a close friend. It had to be someone that you loved with all your heart. The connection had to run deep, with tentacles all through your soul that couldn’t be severed even through death. That day, she’d been a terrified child intent on seeing her father again. It had been enough that she stumbled into his path against all odds.
Today, she hoped her feelings for Fallon would be strong enough to lead her to him.
Shea stopped walking, knowing she was deep enough in the mist. She concentrated, ignoring the tug that said she needed to go back. That way led out of the mist. She wasn’t going anywhere until she found Fallon.
There. It was small, almost unnoticeable. She was half convinced it was her imagination, but there was something there. Some unexplainable feeling leading deeper into the haze.
It occurred to Shea it could be something else, a trap meant to lure her in. Her feet took her in that direction regardless. It was more than she had a moment ago. She’d come this far. Might as well see it through to the end.
She followed that feeling, a tiny spark under her skin. Wending her way deeper and deeper into the blanket of white that had descended on the world.
Sounds reached her, echoing from all directions. Voices that seemed familiar.
Shea stopped briefly. It could be shades trying to lure her deeper. She hadn’t heard them since she left the others, but they could have found her again.
She decided to take a chance.
“Fallon! Fallon, are you there?”
There was a breathless moment as Shea waited, her ears straining as she stared unseeing into the white, her heart thumping with a painful hope.
