A Drop Of Haunted Blood

Chapter Twenty-Six: Wrath and Wraith

The world was cold and damp and still mostly dark when Felix and the others were awoken the next morning. Archer stood next to the tent and started rattling off instructions before Felix was even sure he was no longer dreaming.

"—get the tents packed up before we start hiking," Archer was saying. "Make sure you seal up any containers of food."

Felix groggily unzipped the tent. "Could you repeat that?" he asked, trying to blink the sleep from his eyes. "Slower?"

"We don't have all day," Archer said coldly.

"We don't?" Mason mumbled a few feet away.

Archer was already walking away, likely off to shake Jack's tent awake with the same lecture. Felix dragged himself outside. It took a couple of minutes for Mason to follow. Arisa stumbled out last, Clementine under her arm.

Archer walked by, carrying his bags to the car.

"What about breakfast?" Arisa called after him.

"You can eat snacks while we hike," he replied.

Kendra emerged from her tent, looking the most put-together of any of them. She joined Archer in cleaning the site up immediately. Felix and the others stumbled around, trying to help as much as they could, but they didn't contribute much. At least they weren't Jack and Co, who went back to kicking around their ball until Archer barked at them that it was time to go.

It didn't rain during their hike, but the previous night's storm left the trail muddy. Dark clouds in the sky kept visibility low even after the sun broke the horizon. Felix nearly slipped more times than he could count.

"If we're going to a house, why couldn't we just drive?" he asked after recovering from a particularly close call.

"The road to the house was taken out in a landslide earlier this year," Archer said. "This entire part of the forest was the family's property, and since they moved out after the exorcism, no one's bothered to repair the road."

The group finally trudged out of the forest into the yard around the house. It was three stories, rustic, and while it was already falling into disrepair, it had clearly been a nice place when it was occupied.

"See if you can sense any magical energy inside," Archer ordered. "All of you."

Felix stared at the house and focused. A minute passed, and he felt nothing.

Jack yawned. "There's nothing here."

Arisa shook her head. "I'm feeling something. It's not much, but it's definitely there."

"Arisa's right," Archer said. "What you're sensing is ambient energy leftover from the exorcism. It will take a few more years to fade fully."

Jack shot Arisa a dirty look.

"This low level of energy is hard to sense, even with experience," Kendra said. "But the rest of you should keep trying until you feel it."

"Mason." Archer glanced in Mason's direction. "Can you tell if an energy masking spell has been used here?"

Mason studied the house. "Not by sense alone," he replied. "I would have to find the site where the spell had been cast. Or cast another spell to undo it. But my wand isn't strong enough for that."

Archer nodded. He turned to Kendra. "I'm not sensing anything active inside, but given everything that's happened recently, we should go in to confirm."

Jack folded his arms. His other friends exchanged nervous looks.

"You kids stay out here," Kendra said. "We'll be right back." She waved a hand. Butterflies darted out of the trees and circled the air around the kids. The patterns on their wings shifted into sigils.