An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,77
calm. I think it’s a good sign.”
“A good sign of what, exactly?” I scoffed, motioning around us. “Look at what happened here. How is any of this okay?”
Soul chuckled, irritating me with his calmness. “None of this is okay, but the fact that Isabelle’s clone isn’t here, coupled with Stan and Ollie’s relaxed demeanor, should tell us something. I’m willing to bet she’s with Thayen and the others. I think they came back for her; otherwise, our ghoul buddies here would be fidgeting and snarling and whatnot.”
I realized that he was almost certainly right. “You’re right,” I said, then looked to the ghouls. “Did the clone leave with Thayen’s crew?”
They both nodded, their lips moving as they hissed and struggled to make their thoughts understood. I caught snippets of what they were trying to tell us—they’d lived as mindless beasts for so long that they lacked Herbert’s eloquence, though we could still communicate, albeit in simpler terms. I gave Soul an alarmed look once Stan and Ollie were finished with their choppy account.
“Clones galore,” I sighed, then pointed to the clone’s room. It was intact—the only thing to have survived the inferno that had swallowed this place whole. Redwoods had been burned to a crisp, reduced to piles of ash. Smoke was still rising from the embers, and there were throngs of footprints scattered all around. I walked over to the edge of the charred disk, analyzing a piece of burnt wood. “The fire that caused this was at a very high intensity. We’re talking dragon flames,” I added.
“Probably Jericho. And I’m guessing that thing over there was a dragon clone,” Soul replied, pointing to the opposite edge of the blackened area, where a smoked pile of bones had survived the scorching blaze. “I mean, it looks like a dragon from here, but his species is supposed to be immune to fire. Considering the clones aren’t all perfect, maybe their maker didn’t know about the flame-retardant capabilities… I don’t know, I’m just guessing here.”
“No, no, no, you’re onto something,” I murmured, rushing toward the dragon corpse. The closer I got, the clearer I could see its skeletal features, its wing bones shattered from the high temperatures of Jericho’s fire. “You’re right, and the ghouls confirmed it. A real dragon would never die from… well, dragon fire. Just like the water fae can’t drown. Creatures of one element can’t usually be killed by that element.”
“That, in turn, tells me that whatever went down here ended with Jericho and his group escaping,” Soul said, while Stan and Ollie nodded once more. “I don’t see any drag marks, just a whole bunch of confused traces. Hordes of clones probably spun around here, trying to figure out what to do next.”
“Still guessing?” I chuckled, giving him a sideways glance. Meanwhile, Stan and Ollie got to sniffing the entire area, all the way to the burnt edges where fresh grass was still growing. “Hey, what put the fire out? I don’t see any wet patches anywhere. No trace of water.”
Soul shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“Maybe. If the clones are capable of putting out a dragon fire, then why’d they bother? Why didn’t they just let it spread and burn?” I replied.
My question seemed to trouble Soul, but he didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know.”
The ghouls moved toward the center of the burnt clearing, their deformed nostrils flaring, their black eyes darting in different directions as they registered every scent that had been left behind. There was something wrong about this place. The pieces of the puzzle weren’t clicking in the right spots. We were missing valuable information, and I loathed making assessments with incomplete knowledge.
“Soul, it’s worth asking this question, though, don’t you think?” I said, eyeing him curiously.
“What question?”
“About putting out the fire. If Thayen’s group managed to get out of here, likely on Jericho’s back, then why did the clones bother to stop this place from burning to the ground? Why not just go after them?”
“Maybe they did go after them,” he said, and Ollie growled softly in support of his argument. “See? They went after them.”
I sighed deeply. “Yeah, but time would have been of the essence. Especially when their target was flying. I’m sorry, I’m repeating the same issue, I know… but it’s bugging me.”
“We’ll figure it out eventually. For now, I’ve got a better question for you,” Soul shot back, hands resting on his hips as he walked toward me. “Where’d everybody go? The originals, the clones… where are they?”