A Trail of Echoes(53)

Amaya transported us to the nearest beach, where I began my tour of the island. I didn’t want to miss any part of it, and so I took my time. My witch companion might have been annoyed at the speed we were traveling if we had been in any other place, but even she appeared enamored by The Shade. I didn’t hear a single complaint out of her, not that she had a right to grumble anyway—she owed me a favor.

We were careful to avoid people as we traveled by foot—although The Shade was so large and spread out, it was not difficult. I was fascinated by how varied the landscape was. There were not only lush forests, filled with giant redwood trees, but also fields and meadows where crops were being grown, despite the lack of sunshine—something that could have only been the work of a witch. There were also lakes, and the part of the island that we had not gotten to yet—far in the distance on the opposite side, the great mountain range.

As we walked along a particularly wide path through the woods, I finally noticed what I had been dying to see since I arrived. Craning my neck upward, I found myself staring up at magnificent treehouses. The Residences. I had heard that was what they called this part of the island. They had once been home only to The Shade’s Elite vampires, but now it appeared that many more vampires resided here. As I gazed up at the penthouses, I couldn’t help but wonder which my father might’ve once inhabited…

Sensing Amaya less than a foot away from me, I whispered to her, “Wait here by this tree. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Stepping away from her, I launched into the air, aiming directly upward for the nearest veranda to me. Climbing up over its railing, I looked around, admiring the gorgeous residence up close.

Careful not to creak any of the floorboards, I walked silently toward one of the windows and peered inside. I found myself looking into a spacious living room. A dark-haired woman with blue-violet eyes sat in an armchair, a mug of steaming liquid clasped in one hand. I could tell in an instant that she was a human, and as my eyes lowered from her pretty face to her stomach, I realized that she was pregnant.

A human inhabiting The Residences? Strange.

It seems that much has changed in recent times.

Watching the woman for a few moments longer as she continued sipping from her drink, I left and moved toward the next penthouse along. I had to be more careful here not to be noticed. A couple sat around a small table on the veranda. Both of these were vampires. The man had red hair and a rounded, freckled face, while the woman had short black hair with an odd blue streak. As I listened in to their conversation, I gathered that the man’s name was Gavin. I didn’t care to stay longer to find out the woman’s name.

Moving on to the next penthouse, I peered through the windows of each of the rooms until I spotted a spectacled man—also a vampire—bent over a pile of books. He was in a study of sorts, and in one corner of the room was a massive black dog, apparently asleep.

I passed by several more penthouses before returning to the ground and arriving at the tree where I had left Amaya.

Sensing her proximity, I reached out and closed my hand around her arm.

“Let’s continue,” I said.

As we passed through the woods, our next stop was the Vale. Again, I found myself amazed at what they had managed to build here. Right in the center of this supernatural island was a bustling town filled with humans going about their lives. The Vale appeared to have almost been designed to feel sheltered from the rest of The Shade. The buildings were very differently constructed, and in general the architecture made it feel almost disjointed from the rest of the island. I wasn’t sure if that had been done intentionally, or it was just how it turned out. It seemed in any case that these humans felt very much at home.

My mouth salivated as I caught sight of a group of pretty young women chatting by a fountain. I tore my eyes away from them, and Amaya and I continued forward.

Once I felt I had gained a good enough understanding of the town, we returned to the forest path and continued in the direction of the mountains.

Walking on in silence, I recalled Nuriya’s warning to me before I left. She’d said that I wasn’t to harm Benjamin or River. I smiled to myself.

What interest would I have in harming them anyway?

They weren’t even alive the day my father was murdered.

But there were plenty of other people on this island who had been alive that day… It was a simple question of observing long enough to discover who was who.

As we reached a clearing at the foot of a mountain, voices echoed toward me from one of the forest paths. I stopped Amaya in her tracks. I stood deadly still, not wanting even the slightest crunch of leaves to interfere with hearing what they were saying.