Helen Harper - 01 Bloodfire by Helen Harper

Author:Helen Harper [Harper, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Using his index finger, Alex held the wichtlein pebble in the palm of his hand and circled it several times.

A smoky blue snake of light escaped from it, just as before with the shape of the woman. This time it wound its way into the wood, heading away from the beach. Without saying anything further, we followed it.

It took us along the path that led to the keep for a few hundred metres before curving to the right – and the eastern perimeter where I’d last seen John. We ended up being forced to pitch into the tangled undergrowth.

“Your trailing spell doesn’t pick easy routes to follow, does it?” I was suddenly starting to feel very tired. It felt like such a long time since I’d had any proper rest, and I was well aware of the continuing ache in my side. As far as my memory went, the fight with Anton could have been last week for all that had happened since, however the pain in my body reminded me that it had just been that morning.

Behind me, Alex gasped in exertion. “It’s not GPS, dude. It doesn’t conveniently pick the nearest motorway to drive along.”

The blue snake took that moment to decide to dive through a patch of nettles. Great. So far, I’d been cut by briars, beaten up by Anton and Theresa, attacked by a giant horned quake beast, chewed out by Nick, almost killed by Corrigan and now I was trying to commit death by stinging plants in the middle of night. Oh yeah, and John was still dead.

Alex muttered further complaints from behind me. “Get with the programme, surfer boy,” I said, trying not to snap. “We’re going to follow this if it kills us.” Under my breath I cursed that it just might.

The wood around us was alive with the sounds of the night fauna.

A midge buzzed by my ear and I slapped at it in irritation as I ploughed behind Alex’s blue trail. I wasn’t happy about being eaten alive on top of everything else. Then, without warning, I found myself being forced to steady my body briefly against a tree as a light wave of dizziness caught me unawares.

“Feeling tired, human girl?” There was definitely a note of sulky petulance in Alex’s voice. I gritted my teeth and pushed myself away from the tree, carrying on into the wood and ignoring him. If we could catch the wichtlein then it would all be worth it. I just prayed that we found it soon or I wasn’t sure that I’d manage to stay conscious for long enough to do anything.

After what seemed like an age later, we came to a stream. The trail passed directly over it and I felt my heart sink. Oh for fuck’s sake. I placed one foot into the icy water and gasped as I felt it seep slowly through my trainer. The stones underneath were slimy and slippery and, even though it was only about calf deep and two metres wide, it took everything I had to get across.

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