Shadows of Fate

Chapter 7

"I was sure we came this way." Who was I kidding? Last night was so dark I couldn't see my own feet. Not to mention, at the time, I was self-medicated and scared half to Hades. But we were heading towards the lighthouse, so we had to be going in the general direction.

After I'd embarrassingly returned home to change my pants, we decided to retrace our steps to look for clues. A regular pair of sleuths we were turning out to be. Except that we had no hints, guesses, or suspects.

Icarus walked next to me, looking wide-eyed at the trees as if he'd never seen anything so green in his life. Fuzzy moss clung to branches, and the leaves above were vivid emerald.

"So you didn't like the look my hot chocolate gave you." I ticked off my fingers as I spoke. "You love cider, and you speak blasphemy about mythology. Have any other memories come back?"

Icarus sighed. "Nothing tangible."

"Anything un-tangible?"

"Maybe." He stopped and knelt to the ground.

I knit my brow. "Could you vague that up a bit?"

"When that earthquake happened. I felt...something," his voice trailed off.

"Something...like a tingle in your spider senses? Like a rock hitting you in the head? Like a hot cup of chocolate finding its way onto your pants?" I waited, but he didn't look up at me. I was getting nothing from him, and I was sick of it.

"Look at this," Icarus whispered. He was staring at the dirt.

"No," I said. "You've managed to avoid every question since you magically popped into existence. And don't think for a second that 'I don't know' is a valid answer to anything."

Icarus didn't even smirk at me. He remained completely entranced with the ground.

I stomped up to him and went to stand in front of whatever he was looking at. He couldn't ignore me if I was literally blocking his view. I'd make him face my wrath if I had to tackle him to the ground to do so.

He shot up and grabbed me by the arms, stopping me. Fire surged from his fingers deep into my skin.

I pulled away before the calming warmth could find its way to my brain and make me crumple into his arms. Icarus's gaze remained locked on the ground as if he didn't feel the heat.

A tingling webbed down to my fingers like electricity, but he simply knelt back down. Every time we touched, I felt energy surge through me, but I had no idea if he felt it too.

He glanced up at me as if he knew I was stupidly overanalyzing every touch. "Are you seeing this?"

I rolled my eyes and squatted. "Okay what am I looking—ohmygod!" Jolting to my feet, I backed a step away.

What at first looked like a random dip in the ground was clearly a giant paw print, about as long as my forearm with deeper holes in the front that had been dug in by claws as thick around as my wrist.

"Is that—does that—oh my God! Those things were real? Those things were real. I mean, I thought they were, but I didn't really think they were," I rambled to the point of hyperventilating and had to gasp for air.

The green of the forest made Icarus's eyes shimmer like summer. He appeared completely serene in the face of this discovery. Only the tightening of his jaw and thinning of his lips suggested he was concerned. Meanwhile, I flipped out like a total spaz.

"I can't remember a lot, but this?" He backed away from the print and looked to me. "Those creatures weren't normal. Were they?"

"Of course not," I shouted. "We have to get out of here. What if they come back?"