“That’s not going to work on me.”
I slowly peel my eyes open and peer up at him. A smile spreads over his lips as if he finds my effort cute.
“Sit down. We don’t have much time,” he says with gentle firmness.
“The fuck I will,” I spit.
“I need to explain.”
“Explain what youdidto me?” I hold my hands up an inch from his face, but his grip doesn’t loosen. “What the hell is this? Where’s Tatler?”
“I am Tatler. It was a glamour.”
“Hah!” I bark. “Oh, it was aglamour? You think I’m an idiot?”
“I think you’re in shock and denial. But either way, I need you to listen carefully.” He holds me by the shoulders and locks me in an intense stare. I have no choice but to stare up into his warm brown eyes.
“In a few moments, you will be summoned."
“What the—” I mutter, but he plows ahead.
“Keep your eyes open and watch your back, wanderer. You won’t be alone.”
As he gazes down at me, black mist begins to materialize and curl around my ankles. The shadows kiss up my legs and begin to cloud the room until we are almost completely ensconced in darkness.
There’s no time to run, to hide, or to fight.
I watch as if my soul is detached from my body. I floatabove, seeing myself unable to move. The book glows brighter now—white hot. That is the last thing I see before the darkness engulfs me and rips me from all I know.
I’m falling.
Wherever I am now, it is not of this world.Myworld. I unleashed Pandora’s box when I spoke those words. And now I will pay.?*
Malevolent winds bite at me as I plummet, nipping at my face with fierce aggression. There is the feeling of something tearing inside of me. I am being ripped open from my very chest, where my heart lies. The pain is like nothing I’ve felt before, and somewhere during my fall, I thankfully lose consciousness.
I’m woken by the distant sound of rustling leaves and men’s shouting voices. As my eyelids flutter and I come back into my body, something warm and wet tickles my cheek. I crack my eyes open to find a furry-faced creature with a delicate black nose and familiar brown eyes licking my face.
The shouts grow closer as the animal nudges me, head-butting me with a sense of urgency. I struggle to my elbows, trying to recall how I ended up on the floor of this unsettling, whitewashed forest. Milky leaves crunch beneath me, blanketing the ground along with something else—something white, smooth, and hard. The jagged sticks of varying shapes and lengths leave impressions on my arms as I force myself upright. Trees the color of freshly fallen snow surround me, their barren branches reaching so high into thesky they disappear into the thick clouds. The growing sound of galloping draws me back to awareness.
Something is coming. Someone.Manysomeones.
An urgent call sounds from behind me.
“This way!”
I whirl just in time to glimpse the massive black horse racing toward me, with a dark armored soldier astride.
As he approaches, he casts out his hand in my direction. In the blink of an eye, I am wrapped in a large net. My legs sweep out from beneath me as the horse begins to drag me across the forest floor, threatening to take the skin off my back. My scream is silenced by the guttural sounds coming from the strange lupine creature that woke me. It has the narrow snout and fluffy tail of a white fox, only its size is that of a wolf. I’ve never seen anything like it.
But decoding this fox is very low right now on my list of figuring out what thefucking fuckis going on.
I watch as it leaps, razor-like fangs bared, and latches onto the rider’s neck with alarming accuracy. He topples as his horse skids to a stop. Grappling for one of the sharp sticks on the ground, I quickly saw through the net, tearing it wide enough to slip through. I break free in time to see four more dark soldiers galloping toward us. The soldier and the feral creature are still locked in a face-off, the lithe wolf-fox snapping his jaws at my opponent.
He's incapacitated. This could be my only shot to run. But I find myself unable to move, unable to abandon the odd animal defending me so fiercely.
A sharp yelp bursts from its mouth as the soldier knocks it back with the force of his heavy boot. He starts toward me menacingly, but the animal is relentless—scrambling between us with bared fangs as the other riders dismount and approachwith inhuman speed. Before I can react, my arms are pinned behind my back, and I am forced onto my knees.
“Don’t touch me!” I shout and am met with a sharp slap to my face. I don’t even see it coming. The force knocks me sideways. Pain blossoms across my cheek, and a metallic taste coats my tongue. But my forest friend is there, in front of me, growling like a rabid dog. Snarling in the face of the strangers, defying certain death.
