Page 17 of Kiss of Smoke

Noctifer parted a thicket of thorny branches for me, and I climbed through.

“Because strange things happened when they tried to build here,” Jack said, following me and bringing up the rear of our crew. “Perhaps because of the entrance to the Undercity being so close, and the wild magic seeping through. Materials would go missing overnight, along with the Fae using them. Stable structures would collapse. They finally gave up and moved over to the hill.”

That made sense, in a creepy sort of way. I supposed I wouldn’t want to live in a palace haunted by wild magic, either.

The cottage Jack led us to was almost literally falling apart at the seams.

I could almost feel the age of the structure; beneath the damage of time, it had once been the idyllic sort of fairy tale cottage humans liked to illustrate in their little books. There were even speckled red mushrooms growing in clumps beneath the windows.

But now it looked empty and haunted. Shingles were missing like broken teeth, and the porch was sagging under its own weight. The glass windows were veined with cracks.

I cringed when Gwyn stepped up on the front porch, the boards creaking under his heavy boots, and kicked in the front door.

It flew inwards with a spray of dust and wood chips. I coughed, waving my hand in front of my face.

“You’d better not be developing a habit,” I told him, peering over Jack’s shoulder. “I don’t have time to go around fixing doors every time you kick one in.”

Gwyn laughed. “It’s satisfying. You should try it sometime.”

“Okay, then leave the next door to me, and we’ll see.”

We followed Jack into the cottage, and I stopped, taking it all in. The fine hairs on the back of my neck had risen as soon as we crossed the threshold.

There was definitely a feeling of presence here that had nothing to do with the darkness or the thick, lacy veils of cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. If the walls had eyes and were staring at me, that was the sensation that crept over me now.

And with the exception of a stone well in the center of the room, there was nothing else here. No furniture, no shelves, just the blank-eyed windows with tatters of cloth hanging from them, and that creepy covered well.

Gwyn and Jack circled the well, each getting a handhold on the wood cover and pushing it aside. A thin shriek filled the room as wood and metal scraped over stone, then a gust of musty air spilled out. It smelled like wet stone and dirt.

Ceri rose up and looked over the side, his nose going wild as he took in whatever was down there.

Noctifer and I peered over the well’s side, and found a rickety wooden ladder leading down into the pitch black hole below.

“Well…I’ll be honest, I regret this a little bit,” I said, taking a step back. Sure, I’d been in the Undercity before…but that had been the lived-in portions, where foot traffic was common and the solitary Fae made their homes.

This well felt like it led to a place where there was no coming back.

I caught the look on Gwyn’s face and held up a hand, heading him off. “Don’t even try to tell me I can stay behind. It’s just…really, incredibly super creepy.”

“It is.” Jack examined the ladder. “This well was the first entrance to the Undercity ever dug. Many Fae lost their lives here as they began to chart the caverns.”

Lovely. Wild magic and ghosts, my favorite combination.

“There’s no souls here,” Gwyn reassured me. “I’ll even go first.”

I hated to hang back like a scared little girl, but in all frankness, I really,reallydidn’t want to be the first one to go down there.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, and I braced my hands on the smooth stones of the well’s side, watching as Gwyn began to climb down the ladder.

It groaned under his weight, but a few minutes after he descended, we heard him yell up. Ceri had simply shifted into his ghostly form and drifted down after him.

Jack went next, and then it was my turn. Noctifer refused to go and leave me up here by myself.

“I’ll join you soon,” he told me with a smile as I clambered over the side.

I gritted my teeth and climbed the first few rungs down. It felt like sinking into the mouth of an enormous creature. “Don’t take too long, Dad. I don’t want any of us separated for long.”

The last thing I saw before I descended into darkness was my father’s beaming grin.

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