I lock eyes with Ruse, she dips her head and soon the puppies fall in line behind us.
As we make our way toward Amis, a faint burning hits my chest. Reaching inside my shirt, my fingers lock around the smooth amulet. The purple stone shines in the fading light and as I’m about to tuck it back into my shirt I’m hit with a thought.
Use the magick.
I stop, letting the wolves proceed ahead without me. Taking a long breath, I glance to the wolves and to Amis. To the forest and the trees and the moon fighting its way through the dark sheet of clouds.
“Get to the Onyx Guild.” Alaric and Ruse look at me, and as I bring the stone to my lips, Ruse rushes forward. “Don’t stop until you’re there.”
I close my eyes and picture everything I can remember about the Wicked Wood, reaching out for the magick I know is trappedinside. Something in here must be able to help me. Get me to the Wicked Wood?—
On the next breath, I’m somersaulting through the air. Darkness encompasses me, my head spins so fast I think I might throw up. Or at the very least scream, but there isn’t any time before I’m crashing to the ground.
Sitting up, I rub at my eyes then the stiffness in my joints. The sky has darkened, but it’s not much later given the moon’s position. My arm jolts forward as something nudges me.
Not something.
Someone.
Ruse.
“What are you doing here!” I scurry to my feet as the massive wolf snarls. “So, you come all this way and you still give me that face?”
Shaking my head, I touch the amulet again. The burning has stopped, but the power trapped inside makes my entire body buzz. I tuck it in my shirt. “Let’s get on with it, then.”
I roll my eyes, and Ruse follows. She must have jumped with me at the last minute. After a few tense steps, my stomach drops.
The Wicked Wood are exactly as they were the last time I saw them. Dark and terrifying. Empty yet overflowing. Full of lost souls trapped in the trees. Full of broken dreams and hope long lost. Ruse keeps close to my sides as we take a step in.
Then another.
And another.
“Just like last time,” I whisper to myself. Perhaps to Ruse. “We’ll get out, just like we did before. Right, Ruse?”
Her gaze is fixated on the trees before us. The darkness shifts, gray and purples swim together and at the end of the tunnel a figure forms.
Grawgeth.
No.
Elora.
She moves closer, the moss at her feet parting with her every step. Her face contorts as she comes fully into view.
Do you see me, love?
Her skin is patched with moss and bark across her breasts and down her abdomen. She cocks her head to the side, the glow of her golden eyes now flat and dull.
Please, see me, love.
On a deep breath, I take a step forward. Vines and leaves and thorns stretch before me. Crawling, wrapping themselves around my ankles and up my legs, pinning me in place. The thorny vines draw droplets of blood from my legs and arms.
Elora closes the distance between us, her vacant eyes scour my face. Sharp nails run down my jaw, leaving burning scratches. “Why have you come to my Wood,” she hisses and her voice is not her own. It’s not one, but many. Just as Grawgeth’s had been. An orchestra of all the souls trapped here.
“I’ve come for you, love.”
She grips my jaw tighter, her nails digging into my skin.
