Her words died as I revved the engine and shot out of the barn only stopping to close and lock the doors behind us.
We had a two-day hike to get to the last location her friend had been. We were lucky in a way that one of the ranger stations was on the way.
Destiny’s grip on my waist tightened as I maneuvered up trails in the direction of the pass where we’d leave the four-wheeler behind.
The familiar evergreen scent smelled like home. Air gusts from our ride blew up the dead leaves littering the ground. The sound of the machine drowned out any other sounds and sent the animals scurrying out of our way. Three hours in, I slowed to a stop.
“Why are we stopping?” she asked.
“To stretch our legs and drink some water. The last thing I need is for you to get cramps in your limbs from dehydration. The underbrush is going to get thicker from here on out.”
“Right. Good call.” She nodded and climbed off the vehicle while I dug through my bags, seeing what supplies my sister had packed. Pulling out two water bottles, I handed her one, along with a granola bar, before opening my own.
“You have a reputation,” Destiny said before taking a swig of her water.
“I doubt that, considering you still sought me out. If you’d asked anyone who really knew me, like my family, they’d tell you to run the other way. I don’t play well with others.”
She smiled, and her eyes sparkled even though a shade of concern still lay beneath the mossu hue. “It wasn’t your family that told me that. It was Monique.”
Damn. I could have gone the rest of my life not ever hearing her name again.
Destiny watched me almost as if she’d enjoyed throwing out that little bomb to get a reaction. I didn’t take the bait.
“I haven’t heard that name in ages.” I couldn’t even imagine where they might have met.
“She sends her apologies about leaving you in the middle of the night. She said she was young and stupid back then.”
“Yeah, well…” That was all I said. “So, this colleague you’re hunting… what’s his story? Knowing it might help me figure out where he’s going or where he’s been.”
“Nice deflection,” Destiny chuckled. “Monique said you were good at that anytime she brought up the idea of a commitment.”
“And you haven’t answered my question,” I retorted.
“Putnam was after a ghost or something,” she answered and raised her brow. “I think.”
“Come again?” I asked, almost spitting out my water.
“Well, he said he was trying to debunk a local legend about some strange occurrences on the mountain.”
“Strange how?”
“Sounds. Feeling like you’re being watched. Haunted woods or maybe even a government experiment gone wrong. Hell, he mentioned he might even find some evidence of witches playing with magic or UFOs.”
“He wasted his time,” I said, recapping my water and tearing into my granola bar. “I’ve spent my entire life on this mountain. If there were something here, I’d know it.”
“Is that right?” she asked.
“Afraid so.”
She pulled out her phone and punched in some numbers before turning it around for me to see. “Then how would you explain that?”
“Where the hell did you get that?” I slipped the phone free from her grip to get a better look.
A sheer apparition stood in the tree line without outlines of other trees behind her. The lady in white was one I’d seen often. A harbinger of deathly warnings to some, but not to me. I’d seen her several times throughout my life. She was like my personal guide and when she wasn’t helping me hone my soul-radar locating skills, she was helping to scare the poachers.
The first time I’d seen her was the day my brother went missing, and the others and I were out in the woods searching.
“An unknown informant sent it to Putnam as a tip to investigate. That’s all he shared with me.”
