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  “Everything feels wrong right now,” Chase said with enough worry in his voice to make me stop and face him.

  “That bad, huh?”

  He nodded slowly.

  “Maybe you should go back to the car,” I suggested. “There’s food and water there. I don’t know how long I’ll be, but if you fold the seat down and rest, you’re probably better off than you will be tramping around the woods with me.”

  “I’m not leaving you alone,” he insisted. “We don’t have a lot of time, so please don’t fight me on this. Finding this crazy old hermit lady is the only chance I have at getting out of this alive. I’m too invested to go sit in the car.”

  I wanted to protest, really I did. But I respected Chase too much to disagree. We both knew I’d have done the same thing in his position. No sense in arguing about it. Instead, we trudged on in silence. Sweat slicked my back beneath my pack, and the thin canvas straps were starting to dig into my shoulders. Worse, the lower we dipped into the valley, the thicker the clouds of bugs got. It was tolerable as long as we kept moving, but stopping for even a second invited swarms of nearly invisible black blurs that zipped into my nostrils and ears. I was in the middle of thinking at least they didn’t bite when something stung me on the temple. No sooner had I swatted the offender away than some other flying asshole else dug its stinger into my neck.

  “I’m inhaling these fuckers every time I breathe,” Chase said when he stopped beside me. He slapped at his left arm just below the hem of his t-shirt. “I’ve never seen an insect swarm this thick before.”

  “Neither have I,” I told him. “Then again, this is pretty much the exact reason I don’t spend a lot of time communing with nature.”

  Chase swiped several little black dots away from his face and wrinkled his nose. “They seem to be coming from that boggy area. Let’s head away from it.”

  I let Chase take the lead. The intensity of the swarm lessened a tiny bit, but most of the bugs seemed determined to stick with us once they’d picked up our scent. So many of them were crawling on my face, I couldn’t keep them away. Soon the corners of my eyes were sticky with tears and tiny insect carcasses. My nose was plugged with the little things, and I didn’t dare breathe through my mouth for fear of choking. It was so hard to see, I nearly tripped and fell several times trying to stumble after Chase. The insect cloud had reached biblical intensity. It was like being lost in a pitch black snowstorm.

  “I think it’s getting better the closer we get to that river,” Chase shouted over the buzzing of millions of tiny wings.

  The temperature dropped several degrees by the riverbank. Most of the rivers in this area cascaded down from the surrounding mountains, ice-cold from snowmelt. I didn’t know if it was the chilly air current coming off the river or what, but the bugs didn’t seem to like it. Great as that was, the river looked like it was flowing too fast to cross without the risk of getting swept downstream. I scanned upstream and saw a spot where a massive tree had fallen across the river in a way that would allow us to cross.

  “That way,” I said, already moving. “Let’s get to the other side then take our bearings.”

  The thing about gut feelings is that they usually don’t kick in until the split second before trouble finds you. The log was wide and seemed stable, but to play it safe I sent Chase over first and waited for him to step off onto the far bank before following. Maybe without the high-pitched buzz of the insects trying to burrow into my ears, I would have noticed the subtle tingling of my skin before the hermitess’s trap unravelled beneath my feet.

  Chapter Six

  Instead, I was halfway across the log when I felt a spike of magic erupt from beneath my feet. I lunged forward to try to grab onto the far side, but both halves of the split log pivoted downstream and broke loose from the shore. I clutched onto the half I’d fallen on, fingernails clawing into the bark. Everything from my waist down dangled in the water. Even through the surge of panic, I felt the icy chill numbing my legs.

  The log slammed into a submerged rock, bouncing upwards and rolling me over backwards. Water rushed in through my nostrils. I had the presence of mind to clamp my mouth shut and not swallow any, but the impact had knocked the wind out of me and my lungs were already burning. Every second I spent in the water numbed my limbs, making it that much harder to swim. My backpack was like an anchor tugging downwards against my efforts to find the surface. I’d been doing my best to conserve energy since draining my reserves back at the lumber mill, but my self-preservation instincts took over. The river was too deep for me to kick off the bottom, but as I rolled head over heels with the current, I could see sunlight filtering through the water and indicating which way was up. More subconsciously than anything else, I cast a violent eruption of kinetic energy that propelled me to the surface.

  My head emerged into daylight, and I sucked in as big a lungful of air as I could manage before being pulled under again. The backpack was still pulling me down, so I squirmed my way free of it and frantically kicked my legs until I was able to get my head above water again.

  “Alex!”

  I swiveled my head around until I saw Chase sprinting after me from way upstream. He was running as fast as his broken body would let him, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep pace with the river’s formidable current. Even through the icy paralysis seizing my body, I could feel the burning emptiness in my stomach that meant I wouldn’t be able to cast even the most basic of spells to get myself out of the water. Another minute, and simply treading water would be too much for me. I had to get out, and I had to do it immediately.

  The river had been wide and deep where we’d tried to cross, but I soon realized I was entering a narrower stretch of surging whitewater. Foamy white peaks of spray surged around me as I rode the current up and down through a gauntlet of submerged rocks. I considered trying to grab onto one as I passed, but I was moving so quickly I worried I’d break my arm if I slammed into one of the boulders the wrong way. The shore rushed by at an alarming rate. Powerful waves smacked my in the face and tossed me every which way. It was all I could do to keep my head above water. My arms and legs felt like they were made of cement. My teeth chattered, the painful clacking echoing in my skull over the roar of the river.

  Think, Alex. Think. Ignore the cold. Ignore the pain. Don’t focus on the problem. Look for a solution.

  Had I let myself stay overwhelmed with panic for another second, I would have missed the log that had jammed sideways across two boulders. It was off to the left of my current trajectory, but it was far enough downstream that if I paddled with everything I had, I could just make it. I didn’t think I’d be able to catch it straight on — most likely I’d just get sucked underneath it — but if I could grab onto the side, I might have a chance at climbing onto it and crawling to safety.

  I’d never much of a swimmer as a kid, but the last six months I’d spent trying to go to the pool three times a week for exercise were about to pay off. My arms were almost useless by now, but I dug my hands into the water and thrust them down towards my waist with every stroke. Kicking as hard as I could, I paddled parallel to the current with every ounce of strength left in my body. I only needed to get myself a few feet to the left. Four or five were all I needed.

  Or, it should have been. Instead of lining myself up so I could grab the log with both hands, I only barely managed to hit it with one desperate lunge. I felt a fingernail rip away from my skin as the current dragged my body past the log. Somehow, I managed to hold on with just three fingertips making contact with the slippery wet surface. I felt, more than heard the crack of wood when the chunk of log I’d grabbed broke free. I had just enough time to let out a hopeless little whimper before slamming ass first into a boulder. Pain shot through my tailbone, but I was saved from cracking my skull open when the current pushed me off to one side of the rock.

  I felt relative stillness for the first time since falling into the water. I was still moving downstream, but only barely. Dizzy
and drained, I dog-paddled for shore. My knee smacked something hard, so I flailed my hands out in front of me until they caught hold of the much smaller rocks in the shallows. I’d been in the water so long, I didn’t feel a thing as I crawled across sharp rocks until I was mostly out of the water. My legs still dangled in the river’s edge, but all I could do was lie there and shiver.

  “Holy shit,” I heard Chase say from somewhere above me. “I can’t believe you made it out of there. Are you alright?”

  I tried to speak, but my lips wouldn’t move.

  Water splashed beneath Chase’s feet as he scrambled towards me. He hooked his arms under my armpits and lifted me up out of the water with a grunt.

  “You look like you’re an inch away from death,” he muttered to himself after he’d laid me on the grassy riverbank. “I’ve got to get you warmed up.”

  Even lying in the sun felt blissfully warm compared to the frigid river water. The adrenaline rush from fighting to keep from drowning was quickly being replaced by a total nervous system shutdown while my body tried to keep itself from succumbing to hypothermia. I needed more than just a bit of sunlight to warm up now. Chase seemed to realize the same thing. He propped me up and rubbed my arms vigorously to try to get the circulation flowing.

  “We need a fire or something.” The words came out even, but there was a tremor of fear in the edge of his voice. “Any chance you can magic up a flame? Maybe do that trick where you dry your clothes out with a snap of your fingers?”

  “Fire… maybe,” I said through clattering teeth.

  My jaw rattled so hard, I thought it might fall off. Every muscle in my body seemed to be jittering with uncontrollable shivers. Somewhere deep in my water-logged brain, a persistent thought reminded me that this was a good thing. If I started feeling warm again, I’d be well into hypothermia. Deep enough to have lost any ability to think clearly. As long as I felt like a mage popsicle, I wasn’t too far gone to save myself.

  Chase lay me back down on the grass. “I’m going to gather some kindling. I’ll be right back.”

  I curled into a ball and watched his feet hurry away from me. I don’t know how long I lay like that, but it felt like a lifetime before the stomping of feet pounding towards me made me look up to see Chase hovering over me with a worried look on his face.

  “I think I found our hermit lady,” he said. “There’s a cabin just on the other side of that clump of trees. I didn’t get close enough to see if anyone was home, but there’s smoke coming out of the chimney. It’s obviously a massive risk, but it’s our best bet at getting you warmed up again.”

  I nodded vigorously then tried to get to my feet. It was only with Chase’s help that I made it upright. As though he wasn’t on the front porch of death’s door himself, he apologized for not being strong enough to carry me, then slipped an arm around me and helped me stumble towards the cabin.

  Chapter Seven

  “Hello?” Chase called out when we cleared the trees and came within sight of the cabin. “Anyone home?”

  There was no answer. Of course there was no answer. This was how every low-budget horror film started. Some kids discover a seemingly empty cabin in the woods, break in to have a little fun, then get eaten by the creepy old lady who’s been stalking them from inside the house. And in this case, that creepy old lady was a magic user.

  Apparently Chase felt the same way. “This feels like the worst possible decision,” he said as he twisted the doorknob. “Hello?”

  We didn’t wait for an answer. Chase helped me inside and deposited me on the couch. The fireplace held little more than smoldering coal and ash, but it took only seconds for Chase to build it up into a roaring flame. I’d managed to wrap myself in a big woolen blanket I’d found on the couch, and was laboriously stripping away my soaked clothing beneath the blanket. I moved to the floor and plopped down on a cushion in front of the fireplace, sitting so close that the intense heat threatened to burn my eyebrows off. The shivering hadn’t completely abated, but my bones were no longer rattling beneath my skin.

  Chase returned from the kitchen holding a large casserole dish covered in tinfoil. “I found some kind of pot pie in the fridge.”

  We both stared at it a moment.

  “You don’t think it’s made from...” He trailed off as if too afraid to finish the sentence.

  “What? Children?” I asked, suppressing a laugh. “Well, I guess it wouldn’t be without precedent. There was this one cannibal who used to live out near Chilliwack, but I think he was an ethical cannibal or something? He only sourced meat from volunteers. Terminally ill people or something like that. I don’t really know the details.”

  “That’s not helping, Alex.” Chase set the dish on the coffee table and lifted the foil. He poked at it with a fork. “Oh hell, I think I found an eyeball.”

  I leaned over and looked at the slimy curved bit he was pushing around with the fork. “That’s a mushroom, you dolt. And those look like carrots and onions. Chase, I think that’s a vegetarian pot pie.”

  Chase flashed me a don’t-look-at-me-like-I’m-crazy glare. “Since you came clean about magic and faeries and all kinds of whacky shit being real, my baseline for normal has shifted way the hell out from where it used to be. Can you blame me for jumping to conclusions?”

  I laughed despite myself. Here we were, sitting in the living room of the woman we’d been sent to kill, arguing about pot pie. I was nearly frozen. Chase was essentially a walking corpse. Of all the absurd things that had happened to me over the years, this had to be up there in the top five. Top ten at least. Okay, weird things happened to me more often than I wanted to admit. It was still pretty damn surreal though.

  I eyed the pie. “I’m so hungry. Give me that fork.”

  “Are you sure? What if it’s poisoned?”

  “At this point, I’m willing to risk it.” I reached across the table and grabbed the fork. The pie looked and smelled amazing. It would no doubt have been better warmed up, but I was too hungry to wait.

  “It’s delicious,” I said around a mouthful. “If I don’t pass out or go into convulsions in the next five minutes, it’s probably safe to eat.”

  “It’s okay, I’m not that hungry, anyway.”

  Sitting by the fire cramming food into my mouth was immediately restorative. I still had almost no access to magic, but at least my brain was spinning up again. Now that the sluggishness from my river bath had mostly worn off, I couldn’t help but worry about how listless Chase was. The partner I knew and loved would have been in the kitchen looking for any scrap of food he thought might be safe enough to eat. The broken down version of him simply sat glassy-eyed on the couch, staring into the flames. His breathing was so shallow, I almost couldn’t see the rise and fall of his chest. It took me a minute to see the spot on his neck that pulsed along with his heartbeat because the rate was so slow he might well have been brain dead.

  “Seems safe enough to eat,” I said after a few minutes had passed and I hadn’t keeled over from being poisoned. “It didn’t occur to me at the time, but I’m pretty sure that insect swarm was one of the hermitess’s traps. It must have been designed to lead us to the log. Only problem is I’m not sure if it was supposed to kill us or lead us to this house.”

  Chase dutifully picked up a fork and stabbed at the pot pie, but I noticed he just pushed a few pieces of crust and vegetables around without actually lifting it to his mouth. “You think we’re sitting in a trap?” He slurred his words like a drunk.

  “This cabin does have a bit of a Hansel and Gretel vibe, doesn’t it?”

  Chase sighed and ran a hand through his hair. When he pulled it away, his fingers were matted with tufts of it. Had it been my hair, one look at the bloody little chunks of skin dangling from the end would have sent me into a screaming fit. Chase only hung his head and let his hand fall to his side. The hair floated free, spiraling towards the ground. It was tough to say exactly what Slaski had done to keep him from dying, but it was a good
bet Chase’s body was drawing energy away from non-critical systems in order to keep his organs from failing.

  “Gotta be honest,” he finally said. “I think I might have overdone it. Don’t think I could walk out of here even if I wanted to.”

  My clothes weren’t even close to dry, but I had a bad feeling things were about to get significantly worse for us and I really didn’t want to get caught with my pants down. I didn’t know what to say to Chase to make any of this feel remotely hopeful, so I gathered up my things and went behind the couch out of Chase’s line of sight to change quickly. I was just considering burning a smidgen of magic to dry out my clothes when I heard the click of a door handle directly behind me.

  I spun, preparing both shield and kinetic blast only to realize I didn’t have nearly enough power to pull either one off. In the split second of fear from not having magic to protect me, I hesitated. And in that moment, I saw a look on the hermitess’s face that I imagined must have perfectly mirrored my own.

  Too bad she came to her senses before I did.

  My brain had only just sent the signal for my body to leap back behind the couch when I saw her raise both hands and snap before bringing her hands together in a crisp clap. That was the last sound I heard. Weight placed all the way over the toes of one foot, body twisted and leaning behind me, I froze in place. The surrounding air was hazy and smelled faintly of chlorine. I tried to twist my head to check on Chase, but not even my eyes would move in their sockets. I was completely and utterly stuck, and the woman I’d been sent to kill was staring at me with arms crossed and a pissed off expression on her face.

  Chapter Eight

  The old woman shook her head slowly, like a mother too disappointed in her children to even scold them. She made a weird clucking sound in the back of her throat, then turned around and shut the door she’d left open in her surprise at discovering us in her living room. I couldn’t see what she was doing after she walked past, but I was pretty sure I heard the crinkle of tinfoil and the clatter of metal on ceramic. There was a sound of feet slapping and scuffing away from me, in what I thought was the direction of the kitchen, followed shortly by the soft suction of a fridge door opening then closing again. I heard her run water for nearly a minute, then there was a click I couldn’t identify. For several minutes there was almost no sound but for the occasional whisper of her feet from across the house. I thought I heard the creak of a door open at one point, and it wasn’t until I heard the sharp rumble of boiling water just before a harsh whistle that I realized what she’d been doing.