Rite of Passage: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 26) Read online

  “I understand.” He didn’t, not entirely, but that was all right. Everybody had to deal with their trauma in their own way, and he supposed there were worse ways than checking out of society with your favorite music and a metric arseload of weed. “Well, it was good to see you, Zachary. I should get going, but I wish you all the best with your painting.”

  “Thanks, man. You’d be surprised how much they bring in. I love the internet. Makes it a lot easier to hook up with folks who have the same kind of crazy you do. But right now, I got me some fish to catch. Later, dude.”

  Stone walked slowly back to his car, thoughts churning. He hadn’t thought about the Evil (or the Darkness, as the Harmony people called them) for a long time. He hadn’t had to—they were gone, and the small number of minor ones left on this side of the portals had long since settled into society and found ways to feed their need without causing trouble.

  But for people like the Forgotten, whose whole identity had been wrapped up in their shared susceptibility to the weird energy the portals had emitted, the Evil’s departure had been a mixed blessing. Mostly good, of course—nobody wanted extradimensional bodysnatching fiends who fed on negative emotions hanging around in the world, not even if they gave you cool powers as a side effect. But without that common tie to bind them, the Forgotten had returned to being what they’d been before: lost souls that so-called “normal” people regarded with distrust, pity, and disgust.

  A fair tradeoff, indeed—as long as you weren’t one of the ones on the wrong side of it.

  Nobody had bothered his car; he hadn’t expected them to. He drove back to Highland, trying to decide his next destination. By the time he reached the main street, he knew what it had to be.

  Decker’s Gap was the only other place that made sense in the area. If he didn’t find anything there, he’d have to start casting around at random. He could do that for a little while, at least, since he didn’t relish returning to the Bay Area and telling Kolinsky his search had come up empty. It didn’t make sense that some powerful magical force had appeared and disappeared that fast without leaving any trace.

  The problem was, he didn’t remember how to get there either. The only time he’d ever been there, he’d been accompanied by several of the Harmony people. They’d driven as far as they dared and then hiked the rest of the way in the snowy, dark night. Stone had been too concerned about what they’d find when they got there to pay much attention to how they’d got there.

  Once again cursing the fact that he didn’t have his real phone or his laptop, he headed to Highland’s tiny library. On the way, he made a mental note to contact Kolinsky to see if he could connect proper smartphones with his fake Mullins Holdings personas. That would make things a lot easier.

  But for now, he had what he had. He walked past the front desk, which was manned by a sour-looking older woman in a polyester dress and cat’s-eye glasses, and located the place’s small bank of public computers. There were only three, about a hundred years old in computer years. The one in the middle was occupied by a smelly man in an army jacket, who appeared half asleep.

  Stone, breathing shallowly through his mouth to avoid the man’s ripe stench, quickly called up Google Maps and tapped in Decker’s Gap, WV.

  Nothing came up.

  Ah, of course. Decker’s Gap had barely been a town when he was here last, six years ago. After the explosion, he doubted anyone had bothered rebuilding it. Instead, he centered the map on Highland and zoomed in, looking around for landmarks. Unfortunately, all he remembered was the general direction from Harmony Farm, but that wasn’t on the map either. He dug out the crude drawing from the coffee girl and compared it to the screen.

  “You lookin’ for somethin’?” the smelly man muttered, glancing his way. His breath was, if possible, even riper than his general aroma.

  “Er…” Stone swallowed hard. Over his years’ association with the Forgotten, he’d developed a much more understanding sensibility toward the homeless and their struggles, but this guy was bad even by their standards.

  “Yeah, sorry, I kinda stink.”

  That was like saying Stone himself was “kinda curious,” but he didn’t reply.

  “I been around here a long time. Tell me what yer lookin’ for and gimme five bucks so I can get somethin’ to eat, and maybe I can help.”

  Stone swallowed again, trying not to breathe. He supposed it was worth a shot, though. “Tell me first. Then I’ll give you the money. I’m looking for Decker’s Gap.”

  The man’s brow furrowed. “I hearda that, maybe. Little help?”

  “It’s—well, it used to be, anyway—an abandoned town near here. They had some kind of explosion up there a few years back.” He racked his brain for any other relevant information. “It’s near a cave. They boarded it up to keep people out and protect the bats.”

  That did it. Light dawned on the man’s dirty face and he grinned, showing more missing teeth than present ones. “Oh, right right right. Gorley Cave.”

  “Yes!” Stone forgot to breathe through his mouth. “Gorley Cave. That’s it.” He wondered how he’d managed to forget that, given it was where the actual portal had been located. “Do you know where it is?”

  He considered. “Uh…hang on…lemme think. Right…you said an explosion. Oh, man, yeah. My buddy was there.”

  “He was?”

  “Yeah.” The man scratched his side, sending up a new plume of stench. “He was, like, one of the volunteer group that went up there to help out. Bad scene, man.” He leaned in closer. “You know what?”

  It took every shred of Stone’s willpower not to flinch away. As it was, he feared he might have to get a hotel room so he could take a shower just from being in the guy’s cloud. “What?”

  He looked around as if afraid someone might overhear him. “I don’t think that was no gas leak, up there. My buddy didn’t either.”

  “Oh? Why not?”

  “Dunno. Weird shit goin’ on that night. He was never quite the same again when he came back, y’know? Y’ask me, I think it was some kinda alien thing. Mothman or little gray guys or some shit. But nobody talks about it. I think the government’s coverin’ it up.”

  “Where is your friend now?”

  The man settled back in his chair and glanced at the computer screen, which was showing a Veteran’s Administration form. “Who the fuck knows? I joined the Army just after that and lost track of ’im.”

  Stone was fairly sure he wasn’t going to get much else out of the guy, so he focused on the important part. “So…can you tell me how to find Decker’s Gap?”

  “Yeah, sure. Lemme see…” He leaned in closer to Stone, so close their shoulders were almost touching, and lifted his arm to point. “See this right here? This is us.”

  Stone’s eyes were beginning to water, so he merely nodded.

  He pointed toward a small, twisty road leading out of Highland. “Zoom in all the way—the road’s tiny.” When Stone did, he picked up the pencil he’d been scribbling on a pad with and stabbed it toward an even smaller, even twistier road heading northwest from the other one. “Follow this up maybe seven-eight miles. It’s gonna be crappy, ‘cuz nobody takes care of the roads up there no more. Might have to walk a ways.” He tapped the pencil on a tiny feature that didn’t have a label. “See that right there? That’s Gorley Cave. Decker’s Gap’s right next to it—or what’s left of it, anyway. Which ain’t much, from what I hear.”

  Stone studied the map, doing his best not to be distracted by eau de roadkill. “I take it nothing’s labeled. No signs or anything?”

  “Doubt it. Place was hard to find even back in the day.” He twisted to look straight at Stone with one open eye and one squinted nearly shut. “Why you wanna go up there anyway, man?”

  “I’ve…got my reasons. Curiosity, mostly.” Stone clicked the button to print the section of map on the screen, then pulled a twenty-dollar bill from his pocket. “Thank you for your help. Get yourself a good meal.” And a l
ong, hot shower.

  The man brightened. “Hey, thanks, dude. You’re all right.” His eyes narrowed. “But be careful up there. I still think there’s weird shit goin’ on. If those aliens’re still up there, they’ll stick a probe right up yer ass if yer not careful.”

  3

  Before he left Highland, Stone paused to take another look around for magical traces, but didn’t find any. He wished Kolinsky had been able to narrow the anomaly down to a smaller area than the general Highland vicinity, but there was no point in getting frustrated about it now. He had the information he had, and that was all he was likely to get. If the mysterious flash of magical energy had appeared here, it was gone now.

  One thing he’d noticed after he’d got himself away from the aromatic man in the library and taken several deep, cleansing gulps of fresh air outside, was that the other ley line in the area was out in the middle of inaccessible wooded territory. It was still several miles away, but close enough to Decker’s Gap that it couldn’t be a coincidence.

  He thought back to six years ago, when he’d spent many hours holed up in Zachary’s cabin trying to work out how to close the Evil’s portal. He was embarrassed to admit that he hadn’t even considered ley lines at the time. It hadn’t been until they were trying to locate the second portal in the desert outside Las Vegas that he’d even taken them into account. Portals didn’t have to be on ley lines, but they were generally both easier to build and more stable if they were.

  A chill crept up his spine now as a new thought struck him: was the area’s proximity to a ley line relevant now? All of the rifts, so far, had been near ley lines. If a new one had appeared and was the cause of the energy surge, that could be the likely location.

  The chill intensified. What if some vestige of the old portal had remained after all these years? No longer connected with the Overworld or the Evil’s dimension—he was sure of that—but if some small shred of energy had persisted after the portal blew up, was it possible it could have interacted with a newly-formed rift and created…something else? Something powerful but transient?

  He hadn’t gone up there at the time to check if anything had been left behind. He’d been injured in the explosion, and had remained unconscious for a few days afterward. When he’d awakened, all he’d wanted to do was get the hell out of there. It hadn’t even occurred to him to go back to Decker’s Gap—and if he was being honest with himself, he doubted he’d have done it even if it had occurred to him. The things he’d seen when he’d gone inside that portal still occasionally haunted his nightmares even after all this time.

  Stone shook his head as he kept his eyes on the road in front of him. There was no point in speculating about anything until he got up there. Right now, the best use of his time was to watch for darting deer and scan the roadside for a turnoff which might not even be visible anymore. There’d be time enough for the rest once he found the remains of Decker’s Gap.

  It took him half an hour to find the turnoff, even after he was sure he was in the right place. He was correct: it wasn’t visible anymore. The trees and underbrush had completely overgrown it, and the only reason he finally found it was because he got out of the Jeep and walked back and forth along the road, using magic to poke at the brush until he finally revealed a heavily rutted, weed-strewn track. There was no sign; he remembered even back when the Evil had taken over Decker’s Gap, they’d removed any attempt the road people made to put one up. After all this time, no one would bother anymore.

  He had no idea if he could get the Jeep up the road, but he gave it a try. According to his map, the town was two miles ahead, so it was well within walking distance if it came to that.

  It soon became clear it would have to be. On the plus side, it was light out and the weather was much nicer, but he’d barely guided the Jeep up the narrow track for a quarter-mile when a series of thick, fallen trees blocked the way.

  Stone got out and studied the blockage. While it was possible he might be able to nudge the trees out of the way, it would take a lot of magical energy to do it. Most of them were of manageable size, but one was nearly three feet in diameter. Even though his magic was a lot stronger now than the last time he’d been up here, moving something that heavy would be pushing his luck—and his power. He didn’t want to be exhausted if there did turn out to be something up there he needed to deal with.

  He paused, switching to magical sight to check again for traces, but still saw nothing. Maybe this whole thing was nothing but a wild-goose chase. He’d get up there and discover only blasted buildings and an impassable cave, and then he’d have to hike back down the hill to the Jeep. It was already late afternoon, so it would be dark by the time he got back to Highland.

  With a sigh, he left a magical tracking beacon on the Jeep, then levitated over the fallen trees and pressed on. “You’re going to owe me a dinner, Stefan,” he muttered as he touched down on the other side.

  The road continued for another mile, twisting back and forth as it wound around boulders and other topographical features. Sometimes it was hard to follow where it was supposed to be, since the weeds and underbrush had grown thick enough in the last six years to completely obscure it. A couple times Stone had needed to levitate above it and scan the area until he spotted the right way. He didn’t relish the idea of doing this in the dark on the way back. At least he’d been smart enough to leave the beacon. As long as nobody took the Jeep, he could always rise above the tree line and home in on it.

  He wondered if there would even be anything left of the town to find. There hadn’t been much before—only a few scattered buildings, the largest of which had been a central church. Jason and Verity had told him the explosion, which hadn’t been a typical explosion at all, had blown down the buildings, and even some of the trees, but they hadn’t come back up here either. They’d got their information from the news media. All he knew for certain was that a lot of people had died. Was it even possible Gorley Cave might not have been destroyed completely?

  The only way to find out was to keep walking, so he did.

  When he rounded the last bend leading into what was left of Decker’s Gap, he stopped. “Well…” he murmured. “Looks like at least some of the place escaped destruction.”

  The main street wasn’t a street anymore, covered completely with six years’ accumulation of weeds, brush, and even a few small trees. Even so, that didn’t prevent him from spotting the steep, pitched roof of the church, and another building farther up the road. He couldn’t see the other one clearly, but from here it was clear the church hadn’t escaped the explosion unscathed. All its windows were gone, a big chunk had been torn from the rear side, and even from here Stone could see several holes in the roof.

  He scanned it with magical sight, but saw nothing from where he stood.

  “We’ll check you in a moment,” he told the church. If anything up here had been the cause of a magical anomaly strong enough to catch Kolinsky’s attention, his money was on the cave. He’d check there first, then head back down and take a look at the other buildings.

  He had no trouble remembering the route to the cave, even though the pathway was completely overgrown. It started behind the church and led up a steep hillside, and he clearly recalled walking it as the Evil’s prisoner when they’d finally decided to try fixing the portal. This time he didn’t walk, but instead levitated above the underbrush until he reached the top.

  As soon as he got there, he knew if something had happened inside the cave, he wasn’t going to find it.

  Someone had replaced the original UNSAFE, KEEP OUT, etc. sign with a newer one that read DANGER. ENTRY FORBIDDEN. Stone wondered why they’d bothered. When he poked his head through the rotting boards that had blocked it the last time he’d been here, the first thing he saw was a solid wall of jumbled rock only a few feet in. It didn’t surprise him—given that the explosion had been centered on one of the cave’s chambers further in, it made sense that the whole thing had come down. Even if there was a l
ey line close enough and he tried the same trick he’d used to get into the chamber under the Surrey house, there was no guarantee there were any spaces big enough for him to land. And, no offense to Kolinsky, he wasn’t going to risk getting stuck under a mountain to learn the answer to a question that might not even have an answer.

  Stone hated questions without answers, though. He had no doubt Kolinsky had seen something, but the dragon himself had said he’d had no way to pin it down to a specific area. As far as Stone knew, it could be anywhere in this general location. Even if he confined his search to spots where a ley line intersected, that still meant a lot of ground to cover. The only reason he’d chosen Decker’s Gap at all was because of what had happened here six years ago, but it didn’t seem any traces of that had lingered after all this time.

  Fine. He’d check the church and the other intact building, poke around a little with magical sight, and then head back to the Jeep. He could return to Highland, spend the evening regrouping, and decide by tomorrow if he wanted to pursue any of this further. Damn Kolinsky anyway for not having a phone, so he couldn’t even call him and discuss it. He supposed he could use the ley line in Morgantown to return to the Bay Area—even though the other one was somewhat closer, he’d have a hell of a time finding it—but he didn’t think he was ready for that yet. He preferred to have something a bit more definitive to discuss before he presented his findings.

  He spent a few more minutes scanning the cave area with magical sight, but still found no traces of energy. If anything happened in there, it was either far enough in, or it had faded so completely, that he’d never find it. Maybe Kolinsky could, but Stone couldn’t picture the elegant dragon tramping around in the wilderness.

  That’s what scions are for, he thought dryly

  He levitated down the hill toward the church. The sun was going down now, which meant he’d only have an hour or so to look around. With any luck, he wouldn’t need it—he’d either find something, or quickly realize he was looking in the wrong place. At this point, he’d take either of those options.