They took a much wider route through the forest than Jeremy expected. He still remembered roughly where the Greywood should be, even with the trickery which prevented people from stumbling upon it accidentally, but they were giving a wide berth to something while reaching the Greywood's real location. After another turn away, Jeremy finally moved up to the front to ask Cinza about it.

  "We are being followed," she said simply.

  "The fuck?" He glanced around. "I don't see anything."

  "Look up."

  Jeremy did, and sure enough, a helicopter was far above, steadily tracing their path through the woods. "...Goddammit."

  "They watch everything, and they are desperate to gain an advantage over what they do not understand." Cinza shrugged. "I almost pity them."

  "So what's the plan?"

  "Lead them somewhere they cannot follow."

  "Why don't you just turn us invisible or whatever?"

  Cinza shook her head. "I know they have not yet devised the ability to detect it, and I do not wish to give them more data, particularly when they are already watching us. In fact, I believe that's what they expect, and exactly why they are following us so carefully."

  "So how do we get rid of 'em? Another spell?"

  "In a manner of speaking."

  Jeremy rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. He knew Cinza wouldn't do anything too stupid, and he still needed to keep watch. After all, Brian's people might have been repelled, but they were still in the area. The Guard was watching every direction they could out of the southern forest, while more helicopters and troops were on their way to start from the north and begin a pincer movement. Every unit of the Washington National Guard had been engaged… except, of course, for their one helicopter still hovering far above Cinza's group, flitting between the canopy of the treeline.

  "Alden?" asked Hector, a few steps ahead of Jeremy and Jackie. "Do you… sorry, do you know anything about what happened to Natalie?"

  "Hector," said Cinza firmly, glancing back. "Remember, Brian's people could be nearby. We must not use her name."

  "Oh… sorry. Uhh… Linnethea."

  Alden shook his head. "I don't know what happened. She stopped talking to me, back in October. Right around… the bar thing in Tacoma."

  "Me too…"

  "That's when she got hurt," said Tyler.

  "Huh?"

  "Something happened to her that night," said Kelsey, slapping Tyler lightly on the back of the head. "But we're not gonna tell you. It's her secret."

  Cinza looked oddly pleased. "You are a loyal friend. I admire that."

  "I don't admire you," Kelsey shot back in a loud voice. "I think you're crazy and mean. Riley didn't deserve that at all."

  "Trust me kid, she deserved every damn word and more," grunted Jeremy.

  "It's over, isn't it?" asked Hector. "Can we just not talk about it?"

  "It's not over. Lani and Riley are out there all alone. What if they get killed? Just apologize to each other."

  "Listen—" started Jeremy, but Cinza suddenly stopped walking. The whole group halted to match her.

  She spun around and strode right up to Kelsey. The younger girl was actually taller than her, but still, Cinza's hard expression spoke volumes—far more intimidating than simple height or strength. Her voice, still echoing as always, was quiet and firm, with far more concern and sympathy than Jeremy expected.

  "Kelsey, you are a strong person. I wish I had been as smart or brave as you when I was your age. Your willingness to give everyone a chance is an ideal I wish I'd kept in my life. There are relationships which I have damaged almost to the point of breaking more than once in my life, and I would love to repair them. Friendship is one of the most powerful and important forces in the world, but there comes a point where it cannot be regrown." She pointed to the dirt below them. "Do you know what the phrase 'to salt the earth' means?"

  "...No," said Kelsey, visibly a little uncomfortable. Alden looked about to intervene, but Makoto held him back. Jeremy waited, curious to see where Cinza was going with this, while Ruby and the others continued to watch the perimeter.

  "When armies of old would invade, they burned farms and villages. To prevent the locals from using the land, they would spread salt on the soil, believing it could prevent regrowth of crops and food." Cinza nodded toward Jeremy. "Lani was his partner, and the woman Rook—whom you know as Riley—was someone who lived among us in Rallsburg and in the Greywood. We took them into our trust, into our homes, made friends with them. When someone that close to you betrays you, it is beyond repair. The earth has been salted. Nothing more will grow."

  Cinza pointed forward, ahead of the group. Jeremy squinted, and in the semi-darkness cast by the lights Ruby maintained around them, he could barely make out a strange patch of ground ahead—a perfect line cutting through the trees, clearly separating two parts of the vast forest.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "Ahead of us lies such ground. There is a region of this forest which has been salted by a ritual too powerful to contain, and I am responsible for it. This place is damaged beyond repair, and it was by my hand. I come here to remind myself of the permanence of such actions. Some things cannot be taken back."

  Kelsey squinted ahead as well, as did the whole group. Cinza strode forward, taking Ruby's hand as she walked. They followed in silence, Cinza's last words still echoing in their heads. The last few trees passed by on either side. Jeremy felt a tingle under his skin, like a faint pull. Something was in the air all around them, though what, he couldn't tell.

  The whole section of the forest was eerily quiet. There seemed to be far less wildlife around. The air got cooler, the crickets and frogs were further away, and even the wind seemed to flow in wrong directions. For a moment, Jeremy assumed they were in another maze like the one around the Greywood, but this place wasn't misleading at all. If anything, it was too straightforward, too open.

  "This," said Cinza quietly, gesturing ahead.

  She took a few more steps forward, and suddenly, they were looking out over a dark rolling carpet of trees. A valley lay before them, and even in the dim moonlight, Jeremy could see the perfect, wide circle outlined on the land. It wasn't dead, exactly, but something was still wrong about it. He couldn't make out more details, but his brain stubbornly insisted something was off, something about it was unnatural.

  "When our ritual failed, I pushed it away. You cannot imagine how much power flowed through my body. This was the combined magical energy from four of the empowered eight. I wielded it as best I could, but in that final moment, I had to act."

  "I thought you said it wasn't permanent," said Alden slowly.

  Cinza shook her head. "I hoped it wasn't. The effects on the outskirts certainly weren't. But the center…"

  "Holy shit…" muttered Jeremy. "Rallsburg's nowhere near here. The thing was that big?"

  "Power you can't imagine," Cinza echoed, her voice shaking a little. She took Ruby's hand more firmly. "Do you feel it?"

  "So I'm not imagining that…" murmured Jackie. "Thought I recognized it…"

  "The very same." Cinza looked back out over the wide expanse of trees. "What you feel is the same magic which killed Rallsburg, and which nearly killed me. The land here, and the sky above it, is permanently marred by our conflict. Look," she added, pointing at the helicopter, which wobbled a little as it flew forward. After a moment's hesitation, it turned aside, taking another path around the wide expanse.

  "...No fuckin' way…" gasped Jeremy. "But, we searched this area. I know we did."

  "Would you have noticed?" Cinza shrugged. "The effect is quite subtle at such heights. Your helicopter likely assumed it was a choppy patch of wind. As for anyone on the ground… well, who can say? None of my people knew this existed, and we travel the forest regularly. Only Ruby and Makoto ever accompanied me here."

  "There's so much in the air," murmured Alden, lifting a hand as if feeling for raindrops. "It's incredible."

  A faint smile creased Cinza's lips. "Admirable, that you might find a positive here."

  "So…" Kelsey started, her voice far more subdued than before. The other two kids in Natalie's little group were huddled together, like a herd protecting itself from predators. "What they did to you guys is… like, as bad as this, but ten times over?"

  "To me? Yes," said Cinza. "Trust is the strongest, most valuable thing in the world. I trusted them and brought them into my home, and they betrayed it." She glanced back over their shoulders, toward the long-departed camp far behind them. "Think of your friend Linnethea. You trust her, and she you, with your lives and so much more. If she were to suddenly break that trust, to put your lives in harm's way while she ran to save herself, could you ever bring her into your life again?"

  "She'd never," said Tyler fiercely. Mitch nodded.

  "I agree," said Cinza. "And Jeremy felt the same way about Lani. Yet… here we stand, in the salted earth."

  Fuck me… Jeremy shook his head. This whole damn metaphor has gone way too far. Lani stabbed me in the back for a girl, simple as that. Yet, Jeremy's eyes had welled up nonetheless. Cinza had spoken the words he wanted to, except he wasn't as eloquent as she could be, nor did he have the same dramatic imagery to pull out of nowhere. You're right, Cinza, and fuck you, Lani, for makin' me feel this way.

  Jackie noticed him shaking, and put an arm around him again. Kelsey stared out into the huge forest, shivering. Alden pulled off his coat and laid it on her shoulders, to which she clung gratefully.

  Kelsey's voice shook as she spoke. "She'd never," she repeated, just as firmly as her friends, but in her eyes shone new understanding. Kelsey had finally gotten the weight of such a betrayal through her mind, and how it might never be repaid.

  "Hold tight to that friendship," said Cinza. "We'll see her again soon."

  She turned, and steadily, with Ruby supporting her steps down the slope, made her way back to the east—finally turning toward the Greywood once more. The rest of the group followed, immersed in the tingling magic filling the air. It may have permanently damaged a huge swathe of forest, but the land wasn't truly gone as Cinza described. There was still life, reduced and altered though it might be. It continued, in a different form, but never totally gone.

  Maybe she's wrong. Maybe I can forgive him someday. Lani's a kid compared to the rest of us. Fuck, Rook's like ten years older than him if I got the right record out of the Marines. Assumin' she didn't lie about her age, anyway…

  Fuck. No. They burned those bridges. Fuck them.

  "You're stewin'," murmured Jackie, still walking close to him.

  "Remember when the most excitin' fuckin' thing in our lives was the day Maddie was stupid enough to walk into a hostage negotiation?" Jeremy sighed. "What the fuck are we doin' here, Jackie?"

  "Our goddamn jobs," she replied.

  Jeremy nodded. "Fuck it. Right. We're doin' our goddamn jobs."

  "And fuck the rest," added Jackie. She pulled out her hip flask and handed it over. Jeremy drained the rest of the whiskey in one go. "So what now?"

  He cleared his throat. "Now I get back to what I was supposed to be doin'."

  "Which is?"

  Jeremy lowered his voice. They were already at the rear of the group, but still, he didn't want the word leaking back to anyone else yet—particularly not a certain thirteen-year-old with godlike powers. "Trackin' down the man himself."

  Jackie lowered her voice to match his own. "How the hell are you gonna pull that off?"

  "Well, two things, and I thought of the second half just now." Felix told me to give 'em a call when I was ready. I'm ready. Jeremy pulled out his phone and found the right contact. "Will?"

  "...Mr. Ashe?"

  "I've got a crazy fuckin' idea, and I need your help to pull it off."

  "...What do you... need me to do?"

  "I'm gonna get Brian Hendricks to invite me back to his camp. When I do, I'll use one of the stones exactly eight times in a row, and you'll know exactly where the motherfucker is."

  "Ashe, the hell are you doing…" muttered Jackie, looking shocked. Jeremy barreled on, feeling reckless, crazed, desperate to act.

  "You call it in to Cinza, she nukes the whole fuckin' place." Fuck the rest, Jackie. They just killed dozens, again. He's only gettin' stronger. He's a goddamn terrorist, they're all goddamn terrorists, and I'm fuckin' done here.

  "What about—"

  "You got it?"

  "...I got it."