“Shit—the cars.”
The words explode out of me before I can think. Jace whips around, green eyes wide.
“Wait, what?”
“Oh my god.” Theo’s voice cracks slightly. “We left themrunning.”
Stellan’s voice cuts through the sudden chaos, flat and amused. “Keys are still in the ignition.”
And then we’re moving.
Jace takes off first, already laughing—that manic, breathless sound he makes when panic and relief crash into each other. “I’m gonna marry that car if it survived this,” he wheezes, dodging low branches.
Theo’s right behind him, muttering to himself in that way he does when he’s trying to process something his brain can’t quite catalogue. “It felt like the trees moved. And there was a fox. Or something fox-adjacent. Do foxesnormally—”
“Theo, run now, wildlife inventory later,” I call out, pushing past him.
Wes follows last, not rushing, like this is all mildly entertaining rather than potentially catastrophic. “I’m not saying I’d kill someone over that jacket,” he murmurs. “I’m just saying I wouldn’tnot.”
Gray half-runs, half-laughs beside me. “We leave running vehicles unattended next to magical forests now? Cool. That’s our thing?”
The sound of our engines grows louder as we get closer, and relief floods through me so hard my knees almost buckle. Still running. Still there. Stillours.
We burst into the clearing where we left them, and it’s like stumbling back into the normal world. Three cars, exactly where we left them, engines purring contentedly in the afternoon air.
I go straight to my truck, yanking open the driver’s door. Keys dangling from the ignition, doors unlocked—everything exactly as we abandoned it in our rush to follow her into whatever was calling.
Jace reaches his car and actually pats the roof like it’s a living thing. “Good boy. Who’s a good car?Youare. Yes, you are.”
“You’re embarrassing,” Wes observes, but there’s fondness in it.
Gray’s already doing perimeter—checking doors, mirrors, anything that might be wrong. Methodical. Steady. It’s what he does when the world stops making sense—impose order wherever he can find it.
Theo slows down, no longer worried about the car. He’s processing something bigger; I can see it in the way his shoulders haven’t relaxed, the way his eyes keep drifting back toward the forest.
“It’s not just her,” he says quietly. “The forest—it’s doing things.”
I look at him, not dismissive but not ready to dive headfirst into whatever magical theory he’s building either. “What kind of things?”
Theo’s eyes track the tree line again. “Like it knows us,” he says. “Like it’s been waiting.”
He goes quiet, breathing a little too hard. His gaze flicks between us like he’s hoping someone else will say it first.
Then he half-laughs—nervous, a little breathless.
“That’s weird, right? Like... forests don’t usually do that?”
Jace doesn’t miss a beat. “Cool. Great. Love that. Everyone still in their original bodies? Fantastic.”
I don’t answer. I’m too busy wondering if the forest reallyhasbeen waiting—and what the hell it’s waiting for.
Wes is already near the car when he stops short. Opens the back door.
He stares at something inside, just long enough for me to notice.
“Did one of you move my jacket?” he asks, voice low. Not angry. Just… off.
Gray looks up from the passenger side. “Nope.”
