Isla gasped as the forest stilled around her. But this wasn’t how she felt when she was thrust into another memory.
No...it was as if something had reached out to keep her from hurtling into the past, tying her down to the present.
She whirled, bracing herself against the coming onslaught from the entire army of wood-women.
But they were all frozen in place, some close enough to touch. A bark-carved dagger was just an inch from her chest.
Isla suddenly remembered Lark, who was still standing next to her, eyes unseeing in her trance. One of the wood-women was held in thin air, caught mid-leap and angling to tear out her ancestor’s throat.
How—
A light shined in the distance, past the frozen woods-warriors. The light grew and grew until Isla could make out a woman walking through the woods, an orb of energy around her.
She had silver eyes, and silver hair, reminding her of Starlings. But Isla did not recognize this woman. She was beautiful, radiant, and just slightly older than Isla.
She had no weapon. But Isla could feel the power radiating off her. She suspected this woman didn’t need a weapon becauseshewas one. With a simple flick of her hand, the wood-warriors all scattered, rolling through the woods like sand being brushed away.
Only then did the woman look at Isla, curiosity glimmering in her silver eyes.
“Who are you?” Isla asked, blinking.
The woman did not answer. She just offered a hand and said, “We don’t have much time.”
Isla only looked at it. “Time for what?”
All she said was, “Close your eyes.”
Isla’s rational mind was screaming that this was a stranger and she couldn’t trust anyone on this world. But this silver woman had saved her from the warriors. And more than that, Isla knew in her core that she didn’t mean her any harm. The opposite, really. For the first time since landing on Skyshade, Isla felt at peace.
She closed her eyes. She saw nothing but darkness there.
“Open them.”
Isla did and saw she was still in a forest, in the center of a wide clearing. The trees at its edge were taller than the others, thicker, more ancient. The breeze from before had been ripped away.
And a silver pool of water sat in front of her, between the size of a pond and a puddle.
Isla spun around. Lark was gone. “My ancestor, she—”
“Will be fine. For now,” the woman said.
She needed Lark. She should go back. But how had they even gotten here? Had they somehow portaled? “Who are you? Why did you help me?”
Again, the woman did not answer. She just said, “You came here for answers, did you not?”
Isla frowned. How did this woman know anything about her? “I came here to save my world. I came here...to change my fate.”
The woman looked upon her, gaze fixed on all the cuts and bruises she had managed to get in the day or so that she had been in this world. “I’m not doing a great job of it,” Isla admitted. The woman didn’t respond and continued her examination. Isla felt as though she could see through her skin, right into her very soul.
“Your prophecy,” the woman finally said.
That word was enough to make her blood still. “You know it?” How was that possible? They lived worlds away...
“Your prophecy is older than you can possibly imagine,” the silver woman said. She walked toward the pool. “It’s good that you found yourself here, in the Forgotten Forest. It only invites certain people inside—those who need to remember...” The woman paused, turning back to Isla. “The forest never forgets.”
Isla frowned. “What—”
“To fix your future, you must understand your past. You must understand what brought you here. Because, make no mistake, every one of your actions has led you to this very moment.”
