I shivered. “I don’t suppose there’s a different Enchanted Forest? Maybe we can try that one first?”
“Or perhaps you can think of a better way to free your power?” Henri looked hopeful.
“I can’t.” I sighed, knowing in my heart that was a fact. “Let’s go find this caterpillar.”
The rest of the morning, we were silent as we trudged across the expanse of meadow leading into the woods. Actually, since we’d seen the bandersnatch, our group had been quieter than normal. If I was trying to be optimistic, I would say it was because we were exhausted. But I was neither a natural optimist, nor delusional.
We were terrified, every single one of us. And for good reason.
The moment I stepped through the tree line, the cold seeped into my skin as a foreign magic weaved through my hair, into my lungs, flooding my veins. To top it all off, the midday sunlight diminished, leaving us in darkness that only appeared to deepen as I stared into the woods.
The general who’d enchanted this forest had been strong—very strong.
“Stick together,” Hatter warned, as if anyone needed a reminder.
If nothing else, the disturbingly accurate images of a thousand eyeballs staring at us as we walked through the woods would keep me from straying. The pixies clearly felt similarly. They were flying so close to my face that their wings acted like fans. Henri walked in front of me only far enough so I wouldn’t trip him by stepping on his heels.
“Any idea when we can expect the first . . . experience?” I asked.
Hatter shrugged. “No two people have left the Enchanted Forest with the same story.”
“You sure know how to make a girl feel better,” I muttered under my breath.
Carefully, we proceeded onward, everyone so silent that I swear I could hear Hatter’s heartbeat. Soft sounds of the forest surrounded us, but nothing strange or abnormal. Just animals and the passing of wind through leaves. Still, the trees themselves were so unnerving, and the unnatural darkness so all-encompassing, that I jerked and startled with each noise, until about a mile or two in, when I finally relaxed a little.
Maybe people were just being dramatic? Perhaps the legends of this place were worse than actually being here. It wouldn’t be the first time—
A figure side-swiped Hatter to the ground and released an eerie screech.
Dee let out a scream, and Dum buried her face into my teal braid. I fell upon Hatter’s assailant, only to find it was no longer there. He’d disappeared, as if made of air.
I scanned our surroundings and saw nothing. Not even the slightest movement of trees or leaves.
I inhaled a steadying breath. “Henri? Are you okay?”
His face turned to me, white as a sheet. Hatter was most definitely not okay.
“What did you see?” I extended my hand to help him up.
“Nothing . . .” he replied cagily. “Let’s get going.”
So we did. We kept weaving our way through the forest filled with tree trunks that glowed like ghosts. The story Hatter told rang through my mind over and over. I couldn’t help but feel like each tree wasn’t just grown from the bodies of the soldiers, but that they were theactualsoldiers. Troops reincarnated to stand strong and tall in the place of their death. The idea alone raised goosebumps on my arms.
Why I insisted on creeping myself out when there was no way to know if my theory was true was beyond me. But I knew one thing was for sure. Faerie felt different from the human world. Magic was in the bones of this place, the air, the soil, and every inhabitant. While the same sensation permeated the Enchanted Forest there was also somethingmore. Some strange, artificially dark, and unexplainable force.
Unexplainable, but also vaguely familiar.
The trees thinned, and we found ourselves in a large clearing with two paths stemming from it, one tracking right, and the other, left.
I gestured to the trails. “Which way?”
If there were footpaths, there had to be a reason. Perhaps the caterpillar had a walking routine—or crawling routine. Whatever a caterpillars’ locomotion was called.
Hatter diverted to the right trail. I went left to check out the other side. Dee and Dum were in the air, scanning every which way from their heightened position.
I peered down the trail before me. “I don’t see anything—”
My words died on my lips as a tall, slender woman dressed in red appeared out of thin air. She glared down her aquiline nose at someone I couldn’t see, as if she was ready to tear them apart.
