A glance back down the line confirmed the others fared just as poorly—spooked looks, jumpiness, hands clasped together for dear life. Anne bodily jerked Davies back onto the path despite her slighter stature. Lily whimpered. Limbs of the trees and thorn-laden bushes pulled at their clothes as fiercely as the voices calling to them.
“The fog confuses. Don’t listen.”
Ahead of them, the floating flame still flickered in the fog. Though they’d trekked for minutes, it was no closer than it had been, as if it moved with them or they’d gone nowhere at all.There was no path, no markers, only a hazy cocoon encasing them within the nearby trees and underbrush.
Worry slid around her middle, making her chest grow tight. Another tendril grabbed at her throat and squeezed. They were trapped here. No matter how they walked, where they went, they’d never get out. Other voices whispered to her now, ones she didn’t know. Unlike her parent’s reassuring words, these were mocking, teasing, jeering. A branch scratched her cheek, another seemed to reach for her.
Tink tugged her hand, tried to pull it away from James to slam her palms over her ears. A scream rose to the tip of her tongue.
“It clears ahead,” James said. “Almost there.”
Light cut through the mist, slicing a path ahead of them. The underbrush seemed to pull back, creating a path of packed dirt. Her whole body tingled with the desire to run. Her wings fluttered behind her, stirring up the last traces of fog. The whispers faded away completely.
James sighed, his grip loosening on hers.
And then they were out, standing in a clearing with cloud-dotted skies and sun overhead. Three mountain peaks speared above the canopy. Two were flush with vegetation, one brown and rocky. Colorful birds squawked from the trees. Even the air itself greeted them with a strong perfume of flowers from the red blooms hanging on vines in the trees. This part of the island was everything the land near the shore wasn’t.
Sage brushed at her clothes. “We’re finding a different way back.”
“That was…something.” Smee shivered.
“Those voices.” Lily paled further.
“The fog confuses,” Smee echoed the witch’s words.
Tink looked back. The fog lingered thick as ever, and there was the eerie flame still floating at the edge of sight. A chill slid downher spine. They’d never passed it, nor had it grown closer. “You think we can follow it back?”
“Told you, we’re going another way,” Sage said. “That—” She pointed back at the fog. “—is one big nope.”
“We may not have a choice.” James rubbed at the scruff on his chin.
A cloud moved to block the sun, leaving them in sudden shade. Not just any cloud, a dark one.Just great.Their curse would choose to rear its head on the Shrouded Isles of all places.
“Of course,” Sage sighed, staring up at the sky.
“Come on,” James said. “We’ve got to beat the storm.”
The path grew wider. Clear, packed dirt and smooth stones guided them up into the mountains. Someone made this path. Maybe they maintained it even now. How else would it be clear when so much else wasn’t? But who? They hadn’t seen a soul. Nor any evidence of a person living here except Lily. She claimed not to have seen anyone either, and on that score, Tink believed her.
“People avoid the Shrouded Isles for a reason,” Anne said. “Many reasons. But none of the stories I’ve heard mention anyone living here…” She ran her hand along a smooth stone where she knelt on the path. “Making trails like this.”
“Ghosts,” Sage said.
“Maybe.”
Tink swallowed. If skeptical Anne agreed, it might just be true.
Rain pelted the crew by the time they made it up the mountainside path to a clearing. A rickety, old rope bridge swayed in the wind over a gorge. If Tink didn’t know better, she’d bet the ground had cracked in two like an egg long ago to form those steep, rocky cliffs. Too bad she’d seen spiderwebs sturdier than the poor excuse for a bridge holding the sides together.
“Hold your breath as you sway and swing,” Smee said, an echo of the witch’s guidance.
“Nope. Not happening. No way.” Sage threw her hands up in the air.
James rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “What choice do we have?”
Lightning lashed at nearby tree. Tink screeched and crouched on the ground. James was at her side in an instant. Thunder crashed and rumbled, louder than a cannon blast.
“We can’t stay here!”
