Rufus let out a sad little peep, wings drooping.
Tiff was looking rather happier now that her packmates had confessed. “It’s okay, guys. I get why you did it, and I’m not mad. I wouldn’t normally have screamed and run away like that. I guess I was just kind of on edge, what with the owls and everything.”
“Owls?” Shan said sharply.
“Yeah, there were loads of them.” Tiff sat up straighter, some of her usual cheer returning. “Spencer said they probably just wanted my sandwich, but I don’t think that can be right. They just sitting there, staring at us. It was really spooky!”
“That’s why Rufus told you to run,” Finley said. He gave the griffin a rather skeptical glance, but continued, “He was hiding nearby while you did your, um, ritual. He saw the owls weren’t acting normally and decided it would be best if you all got out of there. So he tried to warn you. Only you can’t hear his telepathy, and Spencer’s got a kind of mental block, so Rufus couldn’t reach him, either. He didn’t have any choice but to try to speak out loud.”
“And then you screamed and shifted, and so did Spencer,” Estelle said. “Excepthewhipped around rather than booking it. Rufus didn’t even have time to blink.”
“It’s not fair,” Archie muttered. “Iwant to get zapped by the death rays.”
“You met Spencer’s eyes in his basilisk form?” Shan kneeled next to the bed, leaning in to examine Rufus more closely. “Are you hurt?”
“No, he’s fine,” Finley answered for his friend. “Rufus says it happened so fast, he wasn’t even aware of it. One moment he was behind Spencer and Tiff, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground, and they were nowhere to be seen.”
“Poor Rufus.” Tiff stroked the griffin’s feathered head. “You must have been really scared too, waking up to findwe’d gone. Good thing you came straight back to camp, rather than wasting time looking for us.”
Leonie’s mouth went dry.
“Kids,” she said. “Where’s Spencer?”
CHAPTER 23
“Tiff?” Spencer pushed through a stand of young trees, hands outstretched. “Are you there? Can you hear—ow!”
In his mind, his basilisk hissed.Shift. See. Too dangerous to be stumbling blind through the forest.
“No,” he said out loud. He sucked the fresh scratch on the back of his hand, eyes still shut tight. “I’mtoo dangerous.”
Who had he stunned? Tiff? One of his other packmates? He couldn’t be sure. He’d only caught a single, fleeting glimpse of wide, startled eyes before his basilisk had taken over, whisking away through the undergrowth with the lightning speed of a snake.
It had taken him a long time to regain human form, and even longer to calm down. When he’d finally stopped running, chest heaving for breath, he’d found himself in an unfamiliar part of the forest. Not that he’d dared to take much of a look around. He still had his clothes, but his glasses were long gone, lost somewhere in his frantic flight.
And now, he was lost.
A forked tongue flickered in his soul.We could smell the way back. If you let me out.
Spencer shook his head, pushing his animal away. Eyes still closed, he untangled his T-shirt from the clutches of a buckthorn sapling by touch, biting his lip every time the sharp spines stabbed his skin. Free at last, he edged forward, feeling his way through the forest.
“Tiff?” he called again. She was so tiny in her shift form. Surely she couldn’t have gone far. “Are you okay? It’s all right, I’ve got my eyes closed. I won’t hurt you. Hello? Anybody?”
Something screeched right above him. He jumped, eyes almost flying open before he caught himself. Breathing hard, he pressed his palms over his face, fighting down panic.
“Just another owl,” he whispered. “That’s all.”
There were certainly a lot of them. As he cautiously picked his way around trees, he kept hearing their high, eerie screeches. It was like they were keeping track of him, calling out his position as they monitored his progress.
There had to be a rational explanation, of course. Maybe it was breeding season. Maybe they could sense he was dangerous and were trying to drive him away from their nests.
Or maybe they were calling out to something else…
“There is no such thing as ghosts.” Saying it out loud made him feel a bit better. He drew himself up, putting more conviction into the words. “These are ordinary owls. This is an ordinary forest. No matter what Shan, or Rufus, or anyone else thinks, it is absolutelynothaunted.”
He saw it, then. At first, he thought it was just his optic nerve playing tricks on him, misfiring sensors trying to make meaning out of nothing. It was just the faintest flicker, filtering through his closed eyelids.
Light.
