I notice the first sign of the troubles that wait ahead not twenty feet away from the church.
The night grew too silent, and my skin crawls with a phantom sensation that I associate with magic. Some of it, I think, is just Zeke's unnatural aura, but some comes from outside. It's a very subtle feeling, one that I detect only because my entire being is on edge now.
Zeke stops me by raising a hand.
"The first one was so courteous to spare me the chase," he says.
His voice spooks whoever was in hiding. There's a movement ahead.
At first glance, I mistake it for a clump of grass—another shadow in the darkness of the night. But then I hear the telltale *click* that could come only from an Ascended—a way too nice name for the disgusting, grotesque blend of a man and an insect.
