Walking Shadow (The Darkworld Series Book 2) (25 page)

“I would advise you against going into the forest again. Take the bus back to the university from the station. It is best if you do not travel alone―nothing will attack you when you are surrounded by other students.”

Why?
I thought.
Surely you know that I’m the one attracting all the trouble?

The fortune-teller gave a tight nod of dismissal. “You had better leave. I managed to get past the harpies without being seen, but it was close. I dare not reveal myself tonight. You should know… the Venantium have me listed as a suspect for the ghoul summonings.”

“They
what?”
said Claudia. “Are they completely dense? If it wasn’t for you, they’d probably have overrun the town. I saw you,” she added. “Don’t pretend you haven’t been adding your own defences to campus.”

The fortune-teller nodded. “It’s true that I don’t have absolute faith in their protection. But they see me as a rogue sorceress out to make trouble. I have made enemies of too many sorcerers who have gone to them for protection.”

“How’d you manage that?” asked Leo. “Did you stand in the cemetery handing out leaflets saying ‘The Venantium Suck’?”

“It’s just ‘cos no one trusts a rogue sorceress,” said Claudia. “Closed-minded idiots. We’d better be getting back, anyway. Do you have anything else to warn us against? Any more of those Skele-Ghouls walking around?”

“I have scanned the entire town. There’s nothing. I would guess that the girl is still hiding in the woods.”

“Well, there goes my morning walk,” I muttered.

“Make sure you’re careful.”

I said nothing, ducking under the tent flap before I lost it completely. I couldn’t control the anger; it followed me like a cloud of icy fog.

“Holy shit, it’s freezing!” yelped Claudia. I realised I really
was
lowering the temperature. Thankfully I managed to stifle my instinct to apologise.
Moron,
I berated myself.
That’s the kind of careless thinking that’ll give you away.

I felt hyperaware of the presence of the Darkworld even as we walked out into the streets of Blackstone. The town didn’t look the same to me now, I thought as we waited for the bus, even though I knew that outwardly nothing had changed. The cobblestone streets and shadowy buildings, the Gothic cathedral and towering headstones in the graveyard had always looked vaguely sinister, but there was a new aura of menace to everything, now I knew that even here, in my once-safe haven, there were demons.

And that, really, was why I was so angry. Demons had invaded my private world, the only place where they’d never disturbed me before. Last term, all the crazy shit happened only when I was away from campus―at least, apart from Terrence and David messing with my head…

I wondered if David knew any more than I did about what was happening. Probably not. Judging from the Venantium’s leaflets, they were clueless, and could only “urge any sorcerers to be wary when using magic, as we will be policing the Darkworld surrounding the area closely.”

And a
fine
job they were doing of it. I might not have received the best impression of them, coloured as it had been by the others, yet I’d always implicitly trusted that
someone
was keeping the area safe from the demons. Now I knew that there was a creepy doppelganger running around, unchecked. Wanting to kill them.

“Ash, wait!” said Leo.

I’d unintentionally stormed ahead. I slowed down to let him catch up, breathing heavily half from exhaustion, half from anger.

“Look, I can’t stand seeing you all worked up like this. That doppelganger’s a menace. It makes me sick thinking of her walking around hurting people. The last thing I want is people blaming you for what
she
does.”

“I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already,” I said. “I mean, she looks exactly like me.”

“She doesn’t look like you. Not at all.”

A lump rose in my throat. “She’s stronger than I am,” I whispered.

“Like hell she is.”

Tears pricked my eyes. How could he put that much faith in me?

“We can kill her,” said Leo. “You can kill her.”

I shook my head. “She’s like a demon. She can make me see things that aren’t there. That’s one step away from mind-domination, right? She nearly killed me. It makes no sense that she didn’t.”

“You’re not gonna get killed,” said Leo, and he sounded so certain I wanted to believe it.

Wait. The doppelganger spoke to me in my dream. Had it
really
spoken to me? Had the dream been more than my own subconscious, but an actual encounter, on some other plane, with the demon? I vaguely remembered considering the possibility before―the idea that demons could manipulate the mind, even from the other side of the Barrier. Even here. Sleep paralysis and nightmares could well have been down to be more than my subconscious.

If demons could read my mind, could they control dreams, too? The thought made my flesh creep all over. Was I safe anywhere, even inside my own head?

he first vision happened in an English lecture.

One second I was scribbling notes on Victorian poets, trying to keep up with the lecturer―the next, a girl appeared in front of me so suddenly I almost fell off my seat.

“Hi, Ash.”

I recognised that whisper; it danced down my spine like an ice-cold finger, and suddenly I really, really didn’t want to look up.

But I couldn’t help myself. I raised my head to meet the doppelganger’s gaze.

The Ash-double smiled, violet eyes locked on me. It was
standing in the desk.

“You okay, Ash?” said Sarah.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t take my eyes off the apparition. It wasn’t there―at least, not quite. The doppelganger was semi-transparent, like a dark space, or a demon. But that wasn’t possible. Not here.

I looked down out of habit, but the pendant was hidden beneath my shirt. It wasn’t burning. I’d have felt it.

“You’re not dreaming this time,”
said the demon, as if she’d read my thoughts.
“I can, Ashlyn. Your head is like a window to me.”

Stop doing that!
I thought back, hand clenching around my pen.

“But it’s in my nature, Ashlyn. If you could read minds, wouldn’t you use it to your best advantage?”

No. I’d respect people’s privacy.
Strangely, the more I talked to the demon, the less she sounded like me. She might look like my exact double, but her mannerisms and way of speaking were different enough that even without the mind-speak, it should be obvious that we weren’t the same person.

“You’re such a fascinating character, Ashlyn. You still try to deny it?”

I’m not like you. You’re a mind-meddling soulless bitch.

“Soulless? That I can’t deny. But I thought you didn’t even believe in souls, Ashlyn.”

Stop reading my thoughts!

“I know everything about you, Ash. No one understands you better than me.”

Something inside me snapped.
Fuck off.

My hands were shaking. I’d almost forgotten I was in the middle of a lecture theatre; had she been solid, I might have hit her.

“You can’t hide from me, Ash. I am you.”

And she faded away.

I breathed out, unclenching my fists. I heard a faint crunching sound as I did so, and quickly hid my hands under the desk before anyone asked why they were covered in ice.

Was I hallucinating, or had the girl found some way of manifesting in spirit form? Whatever it might say about my mental state, I hoped against hope that it was the former.

Like I’d be let off that easily.

She kept appearing. Silent as a demon, she came out of nowhere, always when I least expected it. I walked back from lectures with Alex and Sarah―avoiding Conrad―and there she was, hovering over the quadrangle, waving at passers-by. My blood ran cold.
Don’t look up,
I told the universe in general, but as no one pointed at the sky, I concluded that she only intended to freak me out. It worked.

Back at my flat, I turned the key in the lock to see her materialise right out of the door. I couldn’t hold myself back from jumping, which startled Alex and Sarah.

“You okay, Ash?”

“Yeah. Um, thought I saw something. No matter.”

“Just your sanity breaking, Ashlyn,”
the doppelganger whispered.

Go away.

Alex and Sarah stared as I slammed the door on the illusion.

Great. Now I’m the freak that stares at nothing. Again.

I spent the evening in my room. As we had more deadlines, and everyone was busy―Sarah with her new job, Alex with her new boyfriend―no one really questioned it, but I’d forgotten about the Literature Society General Meeting. Alex knocked on my door when she got in to tell me that they’d voted Tombstone Hill as the location of the Halloween trip―
that night
. Like I needed anything else to worry about. I had no idea so many people were so keen on the idea of spending a cold winter night on the floor of an empty old house.

They can’t go there. It’s where Mr Priestley died. I can’t let them go there.

My mind whirled. How could I deal with this? I thought about texting Leo, but he had enough to worry about already. Still, I couldn’t leave this alone. My two lives were colliding and I hadn’t a clue what to do.

My phone buzzed in my hands and I nearly dropped it.

“Crap,” I whispered.

It was a text from Leo. “Mr Melmoth’s body’s been stolen. The Ghouls came to the catacombs today. I’m going.”

No.
He couldn’t go there. Not alone.

I made my mind up. I’d run after Leo. We’d both go to the fortune-teller. She knew how to do Influence on a major scale. She could stop my friends going near that house, and help Leo find out who’d stolen his guardian’s body.

There I was, putting all my trust in her again. But what else was there to do?

“I’m coming. Wait for me,” I texted.

I got lucky. I ran out of my flat at the same time as Leo crossed in front of my block, and caught up with him, panting.

“Ash, you really don’t have to come.”

“I’ve got-to-do-something.” I gasped. “My friends are idiots and have voted on spending tonight at Tombstone Hill.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“It was meant to be the LitSoc Halloween trip, but it got postponed. For some reason they want to spend the night in a haunted house,” I said.

“What, on Valentine’s Day?” said Leo.

“Is it?” The thought hadn’t crossed my mind; I’d been so preoccupied with everything else. “Sorry. I know it’s shit timing. But I’ve got to talk to the fortune-teller. She can stop them. I know she’s got better things to do, but I can’t let them go to that place. The doppelganger… she’s been turning up everywhere. Like waking visions.”

“Shit, really?”

“I’ve never heard of a ghoul being able to manipulate someone from the other side of the Barrier like that.”

“That makes two of us,” said Leo. “I’ve gotta go, anyway. Cy texted me, I think he’s already there. The
venators
are being totally useless about it.”

“Then we’ll talk to the fortune-teller.”

“Not sure she’s been much help, but all right.” Leo sighed.