"Is this good?" she asked.

  "Works for me. We're as far north as paved roads will take us, unless you want to drive straight into Rallsburg."

  She shuddered. "No thanks. I'm still creeped out by that whole story."

  "Me too." He shaded his eyes as they pulled off the road to a small turnaround bordering the forest. "Plus they're still cordoning the whole area. There's no way to get in."

  "That's not what I heard," she smirked.

  "Well, there aren't really any good places to take pictures there either. You're better off circling around north up the mountain."

  "Been out here a lot?" she asked, as she started navigating the rough dirt roads.

  "For work, yes."

  "What kind of work is out here that gets you shot?" she wondered aloud rhetorically. "Whoah!"

  "What?" Lani asked, looking up.

  He'd been glancing through his phone one last time before the signal vanished, getting the latest update from Jeremy. His partner was still up in Vancouver, working with his sister and a mystery partner on some huge project having to do with magic. Lani had considered going up to join them, but after hearing about the Diaries the night before… he knew he didn't have time to spare.

  Jeremy would have to wait. This was way more important.

  "I thought I saw someone…" She glanced around nervously. "Trick of the light, I guess."

  "I mean, it's possible. There's a lot of people heading this way."

  "Oh, right." She sighed. "Well, we haven't seen another car yet, so I'll call it a good sign."

  They didn't either, all the way down the road. They took a split off from the route to Rallsburg, going the opposite route further north and east. The trees got thicker, and the road got steeper. They wound through ridges and hills, climbing higher.

  "There!" she shouted, pointing out on the right side and nearly smacking Lani in the face. "You saw that, right?"

  "I saw something," he agreed.

  "Looked like a person, right?"

  "Definitely."

  She leaned on the gas, picking up a little speed. "I don't know why I'm so jumpy. I've done this a thousand times."

  Lani hesitated. "...Do you believe in ghosts?"

  She shrugged. "I don't know enough to not believe in 'em. I've seen some spooky things before, camping alone on top of mountain ridges for a week." A glance his way, and relief washed over him. It wasn't the concerned skepticism of Maddie, or the exhausted dismissal of Jeremy. She seemed genuinely interested. "What about you?"

  "I didn't for a long time. My family always talked about them though. You know, spirits and ghosts."

  "Didn't stick, huh?" She nodded. "My family and I went separate ways in our beliefs too."

  "Yeah. But after this year," Lani went on, "after everything I've seen, I don't think they were totally wrong."

  "Tell me," she prompted softly, when Lani fell silent for a bit. They were bumping along a particularly rough part of ground, and she had to fight with the wheel to keep it steady.

  "I've seen impossible things. People who were supposed to be dead, and people who could vanish into thin air. People who could make fire from nothing and knew things they shouldn't possibly know." Okay, so I didn't actually see the last bit. That's from Jeremy. But Jeremy isn't the type to make this stuff up. "I walked through Rallsburg not too long after the incident. I swear to you, I saw ghosts there. All the dead in that town, still rooted to the ground."

  "Wow…" She nodded. "I wish I could've seen that."

  "I wish I hadn't," he muttered.

  "How'd you get in, anyway?"

  "Part of my job."

  "Ah." She didn't ask any further. After another thunk as they crossed a thick section of roots, she spoke up again. "You're still alive though, even after seeing all that. So I think you're pretty lucky."

  "Yeah, I guess so."

  "I'm gonna break the rule a little, okay?"

  He hesitated. "What do you mean?"

  She smiled. "I kiiiinda lied to you a bit. I'm not just out here to take photos of the forest." She glanced around, as if worried they might be overheard — despite riding in a loud, four-wheel open-top jeep through the forest. "I saw the news last night too, same as everybody else."

  "So you're out here looking for it too?" he asked excitedly.

  He was rewarded with another laugh. "Hell yeah I'm looking for magic. I'm just lucky enough to have a good excuse. It got me through the airport without too many questions."

  Lani was about to ask another question, but they pulled out of the woods suddenly into open space. Totally open space.

  "Look out!" he shouted, but she'd already hit the brakes hard.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "Holy shit, I forgot how close that was," she panted. "You good?"

  His shoulder twinged again to disagree wholeheartedly, but he nodded. "Totally fine." He gazed out over the edge of the cliff, into the sea of gently sloping trees like waves of green in an ocean forest. "Wow."

  "I know, right?" She pulled the jeep over to the side and parked it. "I gotta get some pictures of this."

  "Definitely."

  Lani got out, and she was already heading to the edge of the cliff with her handheld camera. "Oh man, this is amazing!" The camera started clicking rapidly. "Hey, do me a favor," she called over her shoulder, since Lani was still leaning against the warm car to stave off the chill. "Get my tripod from the big bag. It should be right on top of the main pocket."

  "On it!" he called back, heading around to the trunk. He opened the main pocket, and sure enough, a tripod waited inside. He had to shift the bag around a bit to get it out, and as he did, he saw a long narrow wooden rifle underneath, alongside a box of ammo and a bag of equipment.

  "You like to go hunting?" he asked, rejoining her at the cliff's edge with the tripod.

  She shrugged. "Not really, but sometimes when you're out alone, it's necessary. Can't be too careful."

  "I guess so." Lani shifted uncomfortably, his own sidearm holstered inside his jacket. Luckily, it was so cold he had no reason to take it off anytime soon, but he wondered what she'd think about him carrying a weapon. Well, if she's got one, mine's probably okay.

  "Well, I think a good long exposure here should turn out amazing." She finished adjusting one of the larger cameras from her bag on top of the tripod. A few more taps through the settings and she stood up straight. "Want to head out? We still got plenty of time before sunset."

  "What about your camera?" Lani asked, glancing around. "What if someone comes up and takes it?"

  "It's chained up," she pointed out. He hadn't noticed, but she'd tied a security wire from the tripod to the front of the jeep. "Unless someone comes up here with a blowtorch, it should be good." She grinned, hurrying back to the jeep and grabbing up her long bag. "Come on, we've got a whole haunted forest to explore!"

----------------------------------------

  She held out her hand from the steep climb, and Lani grabbed it with his good arm.

  "There you go," she said, and with a grunt and sharp heave, she helped him up the next ridge. "Hoo, you're lighter than I expected."

  "Thanks?"

  She laughed. "Sorry, that came out weird, didn't it?"

  "I think you're just really strong."

  "Thanks," she smiled. "Come on, let's keep moving. I want to see this ridge you kept talking about."

  It was only a few more minutes hike, after the couple hours they'd passed since leaving the jeep. She had a set of GPS tags she used to keep track of it, and a heavy-duty device that would lead her right back to their base camp if they got lost. They emerged through a thick wall of trees and suddenly, the whole town was laid out in front of them.

  They were still miles and miles out, on one of the staggered hills north of the town. In front of them, they could see the twisted wreckage of the cell phone tower, completely lifted out of its foundation and curled in on itself. Past it, the main streets of Rallsburg formed a small grid twisting through the trees. Collapsed buildings lined the roads. They could already see nature beginning to encroach upon the outskirts, as grass and weeds sprouted up wherever they could push through the old pavement.

  Only the huge library still stood, with its half-destroyed turrets and imposing stone walls — a gravestone for the town proper.

  "I wonder why no one's cleaned it up yet," she wondered aloud, as she started taking pictures again. "It just looks so abandoned."

  "Nobody can agree on who's supposed to, or even if they're allowed to," Lani answered, taking a seat on a nearby log while she kept shooting. He took a long drink from the water bottle she'd lent him before continuing. "Plus they aren't sure if it's still a crime scene, especially with new evidence showing up every couple weeks now. There were a few construction companies bidding on the land, but then they had to figure out if there were any Price family relatives that might inherit it, and then the Governor decided to reclaim it for the state, and so on."

  "So it's bureaucracy as usual," she sighed. "And after what actually happened out here… I mean, it's magic, right? Real magic?"

  "Real magic," Lani agreed. "And apparently anyone can use it. Somehow."

  She shivered, and it wasn't from the cold. Setting her camera down, she took a seat next to Lani on the log and leaned forward, elbows on her knees. "All those people…"

  "Yeah…" Lani's heart sped up slightly. He adjusted his seat slightly, very conscious of how close she was sitting.

  "Why do you think they did it? You know…" She trailed off, not willing to say it.

  "No idea," he murmured. Jeremy hadn't explained everything on the phone, just the basics about magic and how it was tied to Rallsburg. Lani could make some educated guesses, but it was drilled into him not to ever jump to conclusions aloud. Too many investigations got screwed over by loose-lipped agents without all the details.

  "Well, if we run into some golems or whatever out here," she went on, "just so you know, I don't think my rifle's gonna help much."

  "I don't think we will," Lani reassured her. "We went all over this place for a month, never saw a thing."

  She turned to look at him with a funny expression. "What if magic did it to them, though? Like, all these people who supposedly have it. What if it makes them crazy?"

  Lani shook his head. "No way. It's magic. It's gotta be better than that."

  "You really think so?"

  He nodded, smiling. "They gave it to us."

  "Who's they?"

  "The… well, the ghosts, I guess. The spirits of this place."

  She nudged him. "Careful, you'll end up following in your family's footsteps."

  "I think they were right," he went on, gazing over the town, a familiar eerie feeling creeping back into his skull. "I think that's probably what magic actually is. The spirits of every tree and every rock, every atom and particle in the world. People with magic just learned to talk to them directly, ask them to do things..."

  "...That sounds really nice, actually," she murmured. Lani felt a weight on his good shoulder, as she leaned against him. Her eyes drooped slightly. "Better than people forcing the world to change because they made a deal with the devil or something."

  "Yeah."

  Lani kept watching the town in silence while she fell asleep, listening to the faint chirping of birds. The trees were green even deep into November. The only real difference in the landscape from when they'd first trekked out in May was how far down snow covered the slopes of the mountain ridges.

  For a brief moment, Lani felt connected to everything. Like he was just a tiny part of the massive forest, no different from any other tree sprouting out of the ground. He felt content and calm for the first time in ages. No more rushing around trying to solve cases, or getting shot at in the wilderness in Canada. Just a peaceful outcropping on a hill overlooking a sea of green, alone but for the brave, adventurous, exciting woman resting on his shoulder.

  Which meant, of course, that about half an hour later, Lani had a desperate need to pee.

  He resisted it as long as he could, but after another half-hour, he couldn't wait any longer. As loathe as he was to break the quiet, comfortable moment, he had to get up.

  "Hey," he murmured.

  She snapped awake instantly. "What?" she spluttered.

  "Whoah. Nothing, I just—"

  "Oh god, I'm sorry," she apologized, sitting up straight and looking embarrassed. "I didn't mean to—"

  "It's okay," he said. "It was really nice."

  "Really?" She looked confused. "I'm not used to this, I…"

  Lani smiled. "Honestly, if I didn't have to pee, I'd have been fine staying there another couple hours."

  She laughed. "Got it." She looked around. "Oh man, I almost missed sunset. Go do your thing, I got more shots to take." Sure enough, as Lani walked back into the woods, the clicks of the camera were in full rapid return.

  He walked a fair distance away, feeling self-conscious, and found a good spot with a fair amount of privacy. He relieved himself, cleaned up — and then he saw it.

  A ancient-looking piece of parchment paper, caught on a branch high in the tree above him.