I gave her a toothy grin. “It’s not too late to turn back and find a safer job.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure, and who will give me a reference if I leave you alone and you get eaten by a seelie forest?”
“Fair call.” I blew out a breath and glanced at my phone. Of course, there was no service here, but I’d made detailed notes based on my discussion with Aubrey.
“Apparently, once we step inside, we’ll see a path. I’m under strict instructions to stay on that path.”
“Noted.”
We gingerly advanced until we were at the edge of the forest. Then we peered at it in silence. It seemed like a welcoming, non-threatening kind of place.
I didn’t buy it. From the expression on Kyla’s face, she didn’t either.
A small, gray rabbit hopped out of the forest in front of us, whiskers twitching. Kyla showed it her teeth and I nudged her with my elbow.
“Hungry?”
“Hilarious. It smells like death.”
Awesome. “No point putting it off.”
I took a single step into the forest. When nothing jumped out at me, Kyla did the same. We both took a few more steps, and–as Aubrey had promised–a narrow dirt path appeared.
“Seems suspicious,” Kyla muttered. I shrugged. She wasn’t wrong. While the unseelie realm gave the impression that monsters were hiding around every corner, the seelie realm attempted to trick visitors into thinking they were safe when they were anything but.
The trees–oaks or something similar–towered over us, providing just enough opportunity for the sunlight to stab through the branches. The forest itself was eerily still. Still and quiet. There was no breeze. No birds singing or animals rustling in the undergrowth. My skin prickled with awareness.
Kyla had her claws out. I’d drawn my Nim Cub at some point without realizing it.
It was nothing like the forest in werewolf territory. In Nathaniel’s forest, I knew there were hidden predators continually watching me, all of them with incredibly sharp teeth.
Here, it was as if the trees themselves were watching us.
We continued down the path, both of us tense, scanning the forest as we walked. Wildflowers unraveled on either side of the path, encircling tree trunks and disappearing deeper into the forest. The trees themselves had thick branches made for climbing, but something told me they wouldn’t take kindly to us using them to avoid whatever predators were in this forest.
“Where are we going?” Kyla asked, her voice so low it was almost a whisper.
I glanced down at my phone again. The screen was flickering oddly, so I memorized the details as I read them aloud.
“Straight down this path until we hit a fork. Take the right, follow it to the next fork, take another right, and we should see her lair.”
Kyla nodded, and we walked in silence for what had to be half an hour. The further into the forest we walked, the more sunlight disappeared above us as the massive trees crowded together, creating a dense canopy of branches and leaves. The fork seemed to appear out of nowhere, just as the dirt path had, and we turned, following it until it forked once more.
“You think that’s it?” I asked.
Kyla shrugged as we both examined a huge tree. I’d never seen a tree that large in our world—even in pictures of the giant sequoias in our national parks.
The trunk shimmered, and we both tensed as a hidden door opened within the tree.
I swallowed. Next to me, Kyla’s eyes sharpened as she examined the opening. It could be a trap. If we entered the tree, there was no guarantee we’d be able to get out again.
“I’m going to shift,” Kyla said.
I nodded. She didn’t need to be able to talk, and her fangs and claws could dissuade anything that wasn’t fazed by my weapons. Plus, her nose was better in wolf form.
A few minutes later, Kyla had hidden the bundle of her clothes behind a bush. She scanned the forest and let out a low, warning growl, likely in an attempt to make sure her clothes were still there when we returned.
I slid my Nim Cub back into the sheath connected to my lanyard and switched to my Mark II. It was a better choice for cramped quarters. I bumped Kyla aside with my hip, stepping in front of her and through the door before she could do the same. Her snarl told me she was unimpressed, but I ignored her. If something grabbed me, she’d at least have a few seconds of warning.
