RISING SHADOWS (Shadows Book 2)

Chapter 14

I stirred in my sleep, pallid dreams dissipating like stolen whispers caught in the wind. As my consciousness returned, I became aware of a subtle vibration resonating through my pillow. Groggily, I reached out a hand fumbling to locate the source.

My fingertips brushed the cool surface of my phone, where it pulsed with an urgency that roused me further from the depths of slumber. With a sleepy sigh, I retrieved the phone, squinting against the dim glow of the screen. Still in the early hours, shadows danced and swayed across the walls in the illumination of the faint moonlight seeping in through the window.

I tapped the screen to answer, my body awash with trepidation. It's never good when people call in the middle of the night. With a soft click, I brought the phone to my ear, the sound of my own breath matching the erratic breaths of those on the other end of the line.

"Riley," came the hushed voice.

I sat bolt upright. "Kat?"

A few more seconds of uneasy breathing.

"Can you meet me?" she said eventually in a broken whisper.

"I thought you were dead."

"I need you to meet me."

"Of course. Where are you?"

"Meet me where the demons first came."

My senses awoke fully piercing through the veil of sleep as I struggled to process what she'd just said. "How-"

But she interrupted me, her words tumbling forth like a cascading river. "In the clearing in Derwent Woods."

The immediate world outside my window seemed to fade away as if it had been swallowed by those damned woods which now had me surrounded. Everything drew me back there.

"I'm on my way," I said quietly.

"Tell no-one. Promise me, Riley. You must come alone."

More warning bells sounded in my head, their peeling tones of foreboding moot because I'd do as she asked anyway. "I promise."

The phone went dead. No goodbyes. No see you soons.

With resolve setting like concrete in the pit of my stomach, I rose from the bed and got ready.

The night air rushed against my face nipping at my cheeks as I soared through the inky darkness. I'd veiled myself in case anyone happened to look skyward and saw a girl whooshing over head on a broomstick. The Immemor was still taking effect, not that it explained how Kat knew the truth about the music festival and the demons.

From my vantage point, I looked down upon Pagnall, its flickering lights casting pools of soft illumination on the black streets. The town appeared quiet and slumbering, unaware as I was of what was happening in the woods at its border. I ventured further, the familiar landscape transforming beneath me. Urban sprawl gave way to a vast expanse of wilderness, Derwent Woods unfolded like a tapestry of danger and death.

Magic pulsed in the air on an electric current. I could hear it, see it. Taste it even. It was raspberry coulis in mid-August or the tickle on your tongue after a packet of fizzy sweets.

I swooped low, skimming the brittle tops of the trees with the toe of my boots and made for ground in the middle of the clearing. Before I'd even landed, I'd caught a smear of colour against the bleak backdrop of the woods. My breathing steadied and deepened, becoming the only sound to fill my ears.

Only after I'd landed and dismounted did I remove the glamour to reveal myself. Kat didn't so much as flinch. She knew. Somehow she knew, and now she knew too much. Her flame of hair was wild and free, toyed with by the breeze. She curled a forefinger in my direction before turning and heading deeper into the woods.