“Oh yeah, sure, being the only living thing in the underworld and sitting in the open feels like a great idea.”
“Sarcastic much?”
For my sanity, I choose to ignore him.“Process of elimination.We know I couldn’t get through the stone portal in the library, so we try a normal Veil tear.If I can’t get through that, then…”
“You could hitchhike.”
“Come again?”
He tilts his head.“You need a soul to get into Ora, so maybe steal a shade and piggyback through.”
I frown at him, open my mouth to tell him that’s a ridiculous idea, but he might be on to something.I file it away for consideration.
“What about them?”He bumps his head into one of the runes on my wrist.
“I’m not sure.”
“Can you read them?”
I slouch.“Not yet, but if I have enough time, I think I could.They’re very close to both celestial runes and demonic ones.Almost like a hybrid of both.I think if I could study them, I’d be able to find the patterns and decipher enough to figure them out.”
“But not quickly.”
I shake my head.
He suddenly leaps up, his fur all standing on end.
“Eleven o’clock,” he says and darts in the other direction.
In the distance, lurking in the shadows of decaying trees is a dark, amorphous shape.It writhes like wraiths do.A sinewy arm pokes out or a mangled foot.Yeah, definitely a wraith.
“Let’s go,” I say.
The cluster of wraiths jerks and then vanishes behind the decayed shrubbery.Mortem spots a mouse, hisses and darts in and out of the bush at a thousand miles per hour.
“Shh!If we’re going to try and follow a wraith out, the last thing we want is to get caught,” I whisper to Mortem.
The tower’s gardens get sparser as we leave the safety of the complex.What used to be a perimeter wall is decayed and chipped.It stands decrepit and crumbled on the edge of the tower’s property line.
We stay crouched next to it, observing first.The underworld is perpetually dim, the clouds never ceasing to billow and plume grey streaks and moody lighting.It’s the type of dark that crawls under your skin, dragging nightmares and lice with it.
“I didn’t realise the underworld had a nighttime,” I say.
Mortem pads closer to me.
Outside the city and the tower complex, the land is barren.The river drifts and meanders over the planes, but there’s little life down here.Fungus grows in irregular patches.The skeletons of what once were luscious trees and dense bushes litter the ground like roadkill carcasses.
We follow the wraiths from a safe distance.And by safe, I mean as far back as we can get without losing sight of them.
“You need to move your arse and get closer if you want to be able to jump through a Veil tear.They don’t exactly stay open long,” Mortem says.
“Would you like to be the scout?”
He opens his furry mouth and then shuts it again.
“That’s what I thought.”
The ground rumbles, I’m knocked off my feet and the wraiths surge forward.
