Excerpt: Red VII

“A relief. I can’t believe I fell asleep here,” she muttered, casting a look about. “This place…is just scary.”
“Because you can feel most of it. Lucky boys don’t have an ounce of magic in them, birth or otherwise.”
Storm let herself laugh. Annabel was a further way out, mumbling to herself. The twins had taken up station on either side of Ian, whom had just finished drinking. Storm suspected that the trio would soon be inseparable from each other.
“Lucky boys,” she echoed. ”They can’t feel the souls here.”
Mage nodded. The foggy tunnel of the abyss around them teemed with the energy of lost souls, most of them passed and waiting to move on.
“Didn’t know if you could feel them. Definitely are there though. Saw them last time I was here.”
“You’ve been here before?” Storm asked in shock. She hadn’t thought this was the sort of place one would ever set foot in willingly again, or speak of so easily. “Why come here again then if you’ve seen this place before?”
“The Prophecy demanded it,” Mage answered quietly. Storm could feel the woman’s age projecting from her. “There are five places I never wish to return to again, and this Prophecy has taken me into two of them already. I have no confidence in how things will finish if I am being honest.”
Storm followed after Mage toward the men. Some questions, the young woman thought, were better off left unasked.