“A crone can be a witch or a hag. Or she may not have magic at all.”
“If she doesn’t have magic, she’s just a cranky old woman. Why the title, then?”
“Plot devices need names.”
Evelyn was only half listening, walking slightly behind the men.
There must be something here I can actually see. It can’t all be illusions.
A doorway caught her eye. The place used to be a shop, but now the windows were boarded up. The front door was covered in peeling brown paint. But something dark and wet had been spread over it in a largeX.
That’s not… blood… is it?
Leo realized Evelyn wasn’t with them. He and Damien looped back around to her.
“Everything okay?” Leo asked, placing a hand lightly on her shoulder.
Evelyn approached the door, stopping a few feet in front of the shop. Her heart pounded in her chest.
That’s definitely blood.
Leo and Damien stood next to her. They followed her gaze, but it was clear they didn’t see anything wrong.
“I don’t think this place has been open for a while,” Damien noted.
“Evelyn,” Leo asked again. “What are you looking at?”
“Blood,” she whispered.
Damien jumped to attention. “Where?”
“On the door.” Evelyn used her magic to create an identicalXdesign in the air made of flames instead of blood. “It’s like this, but definitely blood. It’s still wet.”
“What do you want to do, Leo?” Damien asked.
“We need to check what’s inside,” Leo replied.
Damien groaned but used a bit of lesser magic to unlock the door and swing it open. They couldn’t immediately see anything. Evelyn conjured several small balls of flame and shooed them through the door to light the room.
“Wait here,” Leo told her.
“No!”
“Evelyn—”
“I found this place. You can’t even see the blood on the door. What if you can’t see anything wrong inside and I can?”
“She has a point,” Damien added.
Leo rubbed his temples. “Can I at least walk in first? So if something tries to jump out at us, you aren’t in front?”
Oh. I was so focused on the blood that I didn’t consider how dangerous the other side of the door may be.
“That’s fine.”
“Thank you,” Leo said. “Stay with her,” he told Damien.
Leo cautiously stepped across the threshold, Damien and Evelyn following behind him. The shop was silent and full of stale air, emptied of its merchandise and furniture. Except…
