It took us the better part of two hours to get to Westchester from Brooklyn. The snow never really picked up again, leaving bone-chilling winds howling across the snow scape instead. Thanks to that, some New Yorkers had decided to try and brave the weather, which led to traffic. Then there were closed roads. Add in the distance… well, I had the chance to get plenty of rest.
“Jain,” Mina said, waking me up. “We’re here.”
“Hurgh,” I replied, not even bothering to wipe the drool spooling out from my mouth. I just wiped the inside of my hoodie on the corner of my mouth, looking in her general direction.
We arrived at the same snowy hill at which the forest began, and suburbia ended.
“Now what?” Mina asked.
“We find the Hudson Witch and tell her everything,” I said.
Abigail gave a pointed look outside the window. “She’s here?”
“It’s the last place I saw her.”
The wind stirred, throwing up a wail of powdery snow that rolled across the hillscape. Even without stepping outside, I knew the snow would crunch like ice beneath my feet. That would make it hard to walk.
“And you’re sure whoever set those dabblers up are here too?” Mina asked.
“It’s less about me being sure and more about they have to.” I peered out the window, trying to see how deep the snow was. A foot? Maybe a little more? “If it really is the Wickerman, he has to stop us from bringing the branches to the Hudson Witch, because she’ll suspect him. If it’s the Valentines, bringing the branches to the Hudson Witch basically means I win. At which point, all that was for nothing.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
“A plan.”
Mina raised an eyebrow. “You have a plan?”
“I’m in the process of thinking of one.”
Abigail and Wol sighed. Hwari sent me the emotional equivalent of a cheer.
I breathed in through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. I hugged my pink backpack tight to my chest, feeling the weight. How many doodads did I have left? Better yet, how much strength left to do something with them? Wol and Hwari were with me, but somehow I felt that draining myself through the ordeal in the house would affect things. I could tell on a base level that the tricks I’d picked up would be out of my reach, like a tracking spell, especially in an area as widespread as this one. Eldritch fire? Gone too. Atleast, not until I had a proper time to rest.
Which meant the small trinkets in my bag, plus basic circles, and the nightmare teddy bear crucified on my backpack. Plus, Hidebehind and Tagalong who were on their way here.
“I think we should split up,” I finally said.
Mina frowned. “Okay. I’m listening.”
“We split up, look for the Hudson Witch, or the Geistheilers. We can cover more ground that way.”
“And also easy pickings for whoever is behind all this. If they really did show up,” Mina commented.
I ignored her. “And if we’re all in the same place, then when they find us, it’s over anyways. Better to increase our chances.” I reached into my pocket and brought out my knife. “If we’re together… best case scenario, it’s us against Charlotte Valentine in a three on one situation. Or against the Wickerman. Do we have a chance? You would know best, Mina.”
“Ugh,” Mina made a disgusted sound. “No. She’s old, Hallow. And she was taught by practitioners who fought in the War.”
“Uh, World War II? There were a lot of wars.”
“All of them,” Mina said. “Even if we caught her by surprise… she’s had years to make trinkets.”
I didn’t bother commenting on the fact that Mina even saying this much was pretty much admitting that the Valentines might be involved on some level. I let her keep talking.
“Rumor is that she’s a Enchantor, but no one really knows what her other two talents are. A lot of people say it’s Evocator, because she’s a Valentine. But…” she trailed off.
“She wouldn’t be in charge of family matters if she had the same talent as everyone else,” I said. “My bet is on Divination for one of her other talents.”
Mina didn’t answer.
“Abigail, what about the Wickerman?”
“No,” Abigail said immediately. “We won’t. I can’t speak to his capabilities because he changes hosts so often… but there’s a reason he’s part of the Table.”
“See? That’s why we should split up. And I didn’t even get to the worst case scenario yet.”
“Which is?” Abigail asked.
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“Either they show up with all their thugs, or show up together.”
The lighthearted mood in the car faltered and the banter was bogged down by the implications of what we were in for.
They were kids. Hell, I was a kid. We’d discussed the plan, we’d gone over the dangers, but we left one thing unsaid: the potential consequences of what might happen. I was scared, and I was sure that the two girls were too. I didn’t want to say it, nor did I want to admit it. But everything that happened to me so far kept making me think what if. Most teenagers think they’re immortal. They kind of are.
Me?… Well, I said ‘Death’ in my awakening ritual for a reason. I’d just seen dead bodies few hours ago. In some far-off corner of my mind, where I had shut the door, a muffled voice kept screaming in fear. I knew the cost.
I needed to make sure they knew too.
I cleared my throat. “You guys don’t have to do this.”
All eyes were on me.
I cleared my throat. “Mina, you said you were in this to get something out of the trial. Connections with the Table, some of the forces in New York… Well… You know how to get in contact with the Intellect Transit. You saw me do it. We also met Sana Ravok together.”
“What’s your point, Hallow?”
“That if you want to back out, I’d understand,” I said.
The uneasy silence festered.
“What. The. Fuck. Is that supposed to mean, Hallow?” Mina muttered. “You think I’m not good enough? You think I’m going to get in your way? You think you’re better than me?”
“Whoa,” I held up my hands. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
“Wake up. You rescued me once. That’s it.” Mina glared at me some more. She reached down to grab her kendo bag, and took out her staff. The blue iridiscenct metal gleamed in hues of purple, green, and blue. “I haven’t gotten shit yet. I’m going to help you finish this trial, and you’re going to owe me, Hallow.”
I swallowed. “Got it.”
“Besides,” Mina looked out the window, more to refuse my gaze than to actually see something out there in the barren white. “I saw the dead people too. If a Practitioner did that… I need to know. I have a duty to stop them.”
It was there again. The same sense of responsibility that led Mina to help me during the school fire, which led me to accepting her presence on this trial in the first place.
“A Society Practitioner with morals,” Abigail said quietly.
Mina snapped her gaze to Abigail, baring her teeth in a snarl. Seoul growled from the bottom of the limo. But there had been no bite in Abigail’s words. Not as far as I could tell.
“As for my answer, you still owe me Jain Shin Hallow. I saved your life once before, and you haven’t repayed my favor yet.” The Goth reached across my lap, pushing up against me for one very confusing second, and opened the limo door herself. “Enough deliberating.” Then she exited.
We followed her out.
It was cold.
If this ends well, I’m not coming out of bed for a week straight.
I opened the limo trunk and passed one branch each to Mina and Abigail. Abigail took the branch but stopped me from taking one of my own.
“I’m staying with you, Hallow. You’re too hurt.”
I frowned.
“I agree,” Wol finally joined in.
“But Mina—”
“I can take care of myself.” Mina was holding her staff in one hand, and the branch in the other. “You’re the one who needs help, Hallow. You barely have one arm working. Use the detritus.”
Abigail clutched the branch wordlessly.
“Mina, you have a way to try and find her?” I asked, just to make sure.
“Like I said,” Mina said, tracing a circle in the snow with her staff. “Worry about yourself. I’m heading this way.”
Then the air around her shimmered, transmutating into liquid consistency. Thick and viscous, it dripped like slime over both Mina and Seoul. Where the slime left, there was nothing. Then there was the harsh crunch of ice, leaving footprints heading towards the left side of the forest. I watched until the footprints disappeared, hidden by whatever transmutation working Mina had used to veil herself.
“Alright then,” I said. “You and me, Abigail.”
Wol wrapped himself around my neck. “I as well, Practitioner.”
‘Aye,’ Hwari said.
“Was that a joke?”
Hwari did not respond.
Abigail brought out a flashlight and sweeped the ground in front of us. “Tread carefully, Jain Shin Hallow. I feel things here.”
Standing side to side, Abigail and I began my trek up the hill and into the Old Forest.
Winter nights are already dark, and the forest was darker still. Nothing cast a shadow here; everything was covered in it. The wind screeched and whistled, brushing through the barren branches. My shoe punched through the outer ice, creating shards and powders that nipped at my poor ankles. For the foot with the cast, it began to grow steadily cold. A absence of warth that radiated inwards. The presence of the dryads was still there, but more alert. Like people ready to wake at a moment’s notice.
Still, compared to the first time I came to this place, I felt more at ease.
I hated that.
“Third time in a dark forest,” I muttered, more to fill the silence than to say anything meaningful. “Third time’s the charm.”
“Practitioner, do you have an idea for how to find the Hudson Witch?”
Abigail seemed less restless than I was. “I was just about to ask the same thing.”
I looked up because for a second, I got that paranoid feeling that something might be sitting up in the branches looking down at us. I saw nothing. Not even the branches. Too dark. “Kind of. I’m waiting.”
“Waiting for what?” Wol asked.
I gave him the best mysterious look I could muster. He sighed and went back to keeping my neck warm.
“I just realized, we need to do something about our footprints.” But to my surprise, there were none. Turning to Abigail, I said, “Did you… do this?”
“A small talent of mine,” Abigail said.
Even as I watched, the footsteps behind us were actively fading. The wind seemed to stir more strongly around them, throwing up snow dust to overwash our tracks. Abigail didn’t seem to be actively doing anything, and I sensed nothing happening around her. Yet, it was evident that there was more than just the New York Winter at play here.
We trekked some more, wading past knee-deep snow and rocks. The lack of talking made the winds howl louder. As if they were trying to pass on a message.
“Abigail?”
“Yes?”
“…What are you?”
The question caught her offguard, because the flashlight lighting out path stopped. The sound of her boots did too.
I took a couple of steps forward and turned back, waiting for her.
“Why do you ask now?” Her dark dress blended with the darkness. The light made it too hard to make out her shape.
I covered the beam with one hand. If my eyes got too used to the light, I would lose what little dark vision I’d gained. “Because you’re risking your life to help me out. And if I’m guessing right, I’m going to have to risk mine when you ask for your favor.”
The answer took awhile to come back. “Is that all?”
I scuffed a little of the snow off the hem of my jeans. “No,” I said honestly. “Everyone we met so far treats you like shit. They call you… debris.”
“Detritus,” Wol corrected.
“Detritus,” I said, rolling my eyes.
She flinched when I said it. Whoa.
“I’m not calling you that. I’m just saying… that’s what I heard people call you. Look, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I just thought—”
“Keep walking,” Abigail said. “Don’t look back.”
Her voice shook. There was no note of fear in her voice, so she wasn’t telling me to do that because there was something after us.
I turned around and started walking. Abigail shone the light so that I wouldn’t trip over anything.
“I never went to school." Then Abigail began her story.