Which way?Damn it, she should have told Christien she was going for a walk instead of wandering away by herself.Don’t panic, this is the twenty-first century.You’re not in the middle of some medieval forest.Eventually you’ll run across someone.
The skin on the back of her neck prickled and she went still.Her muscles tensed.Slowly she turned her head to the right, then the left.Except for an occasional red squirrel rooting through the bushes, no one else seemed to be in the woods.She blew out a slow breath to calm her racing heart.
She was being paranoid.Nothing there.
But the feeling of being watched persisted, so strong the small hairs on her arm stood on end.She felt eyes boring into her back, making her skin itch like a thousand ants crawling up her spine.
Heart pounding, she pushed away from the tree and peered through the dense forest.
“Christien?”Had he followed her?Was he even now watching over her?
No answer.
Maybe he was angry at her for pushing him away and didn’t want to answer.In her heart, though, she knew that wasn’t true.Christien wouldn’t act like a petulant child, but even so she said, “I’m sorry about this morning.I just needed to get my head on straight.You can come out.I won’t bite, I promise.”She smiled, but the smile slowly faded when her only answer was the frantic beating of a woodpecker’s beak against an unsuspecting tree.
She started walking, deliberately slowing her steps when all she wanted to do was run.She would not give in to this paranoia.
Straining to hear any sound other than the normal forest sounds, she picked her steps carefully, trying not to make much noise, but she didn’t do a very good job.
The farther she walked, the more intense her fear became.She had no idea in which direction she was heading.
The crunch of leaves behind her had her whipping her head around on a gasp of fear.A shadow flitted behind a tree.Lainie stilled, her eyes darting around, her heart beating so hard she barely heard anything above it.Her fingers twitched in a burst of adrenaline and she had to consciously tell herself to remain still.
She waited for what seemed like a long time but was probably only a minute.The birds were still chirping.That was a good sign, wasn’t it?Didn’t birds sense danger?
She started walking again, looking over her shoulder every few steps.
A few minutes later she stumbled upon a small clearing that didn’t look at all familiar.How long had she walked?How far was she from the castle?
A shadow stepped out of the trees in front of her.Lainie froze like a rabbit caught in the crosshairs.
Run,her mind screamed, but her legs remained stubbornly still.
“What are you doing here?”she managed to ask.
“Oh, I think you know.”Usually perfectly coiffed, Giselle’s hair hung in greasy clumps around a face pinched with hatred.
Lainie’s heart thundered.She swiveled on her boot heel and took off running, her legs pumping, her arms swinging.She had a chance if she could make it to the trees.She’d hide in the shadows, use the underbrush for cover.She’d climb a damn tree if she had to.
Suddenly Lainie was yanked back by her hair.Pain erupted in her scalp and she screamed, the sound quickly cut off when Giselle’s hand pressed over her mouth.She tasted salty skin and dirt but it didn’t stop her from clamping down on the fleshy part of Giselle’s palm and drawing blood.
Giselle swore.Efficiently, and embarrassingly easily, she swept Lainie’s legs out from under her.Lainie landed on the soft pine needles with anoomph.The breath rushed out of her, leaving her panting on the ground like a fish out of water.She groaned.Her tailbone felt as if it’d snapped in half.
Giselle loomed over her, a manic light in her eyes that had Lainie’s terror skyrocketing.She dug her elbows and heels into the soft dirt and scooted back.
Giselle planted her hands on her hips.“You couldn’t stay dead, could you?”
Lainie rolled onto her hands and knees.She screamed Christien’s name as she lunged to her feet but Giselle’s body slammed into hers, knocking her over, cutting her screams short.
“Damn you,” Giselle hissed into her ear.“Every time I get close to what I want, you appear.Whatisit with you?”
Lainie gasped, her lungs paralyzed, fighting to function again.Giselle lay on top of her, her weight pressing Lainie down.
“You were only meant to be a diversion,” Giselle said.“Yet you couldn’t even do that.No.”She drew the word out and not for the first time Lainie wondered at Giselle’s sanity.
“I can’t help that I was reborn,” she gasped, Giselle’s weight suffocating.
Giselle laughed, the sound manic.Her mind has finally cracked.The thought scared Lainie more than anything.
