“To put it around your neck,” he rephrased as he grasped the golden chain.
I reluctantly tilted my head down, and he slipped the chain over and onto my neck. I straightened and cupped the glittering metal in one hand.
“The button on the side opens the front face,” the stranger told me.
I pressed the button and unleashed the whirlwind. A fury of dust sprang out from the locket and swirled around us. I stumbled back, my vision clouded with dirt, and my mind filled with panic. My heel dipped over the edge of the dock, and I would have tumbled backwards into the cold water if a hand hadn’t caught my wrist. I was pulled away from the precipice and against the soft chest of the stranger.
We stood together in the middle of a tempest with the dust swirling in a tight circle. I still clutched the open locket as I looked up into the pensive, apologetic face of the stranger.
“Forgive me, Miss Holt, for what I have done, but I can see no other way to save myself.”
My heart skipped a beat as my eyes flitted over the sandstorm. “W-what’s happening?”
He brushed his free hand over my hair, and his eyes were full of pity. “Fate awaits you on a different plain.”
The sand spun faster and faster, to a dizzying speed. Our safe area inside the frenzy lessened as the maelstrom shrank. I tried to yank myself from the stranger’s grasp, but he held tightly to me. His words cut through the whirlwind as I shut my eyes against the storm.
“Find me.”
The duststorm struck us, rending my clothes and lashing the strands of my hair against my face. The force of the storm tore me from the stranger’s grasp and flung me into the wretched wilderness that was its body. My feet left the ground, and I spun in dizzying circles. I flailed about searching for a handhold, desperate even for the hand of the stranger.
What I found was a hard landing.
I was dropped onto my stomach, and the air was knocked out of my lungs with a hard wheeze. The world spun around me, and things didn’t improve with my vision. I lifted my head and blinked twice to prove I wasn’t hallucinating. There really was a forest standing in front of me where a river had once been.
I climbed onto my arms and gaped at the scenery. Large, old trees surrounded me, their leaves and limbs casting light shadows on the ground. A bright sun hung in the sky, which was dotted with a few wispy clouds. The scent of moldering forest permeated my nostrils.
What there wasn’t was any sign of civilization or the stranger. Every which way I twisted my head, there were trees and brush as far as I could see.
My turning caused the sun to reflect off something against my chest. I dropped my gaze there and beheld the locket the man had given me. Anger and irritation swamped my senses, and I wrapped my hand around the thing to yank it off.
Find me.
I froze as those words reverberated in my mind. The little glistening treasure was all I had of the man who had stolen me away and dropped me, well, wherever I was. I pursed my lips and tucked the locket into my shirt. All my thoughts turned to finding that evil man.
While he couldn’t be found, there was something else with me. Bushes rattled thirty yards off and to my right. I stiffened as something emerged from them.
The creature was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It stood on four long, spindly legs that ended in dagger-like points. Those limbs supported a somewhat flat and rounded torso, like an almond in shape, with the sharp tip at the back. The body and legs were covered in thin, short black hairs up to the fat neck. The head was attached to that neck, a hideous, elongated skull with a narrow snout. Glowing yellow eyes stuck out of its head above four rows of sharp teeth. It opened its gaping maw wide enough to fit my whole head.
And from the terrible growl that emanated deep within its throat, I had no doubt that’s what it intended to do. I definitely wasn’t in Kansas anymore. I was now in the Olympic sprinting competition.
Chapter 4
I scrambled to my feet and shot off into the trees to my left. The creature gave this bone-crushing scream, like that of a deep-throated hound with a sore throat, and took off after me. I soon learned it was much faster than I, being on four legs and with a stride much greater than mine.
My heart pounded in my chest. My lungs pleaded for air. My legs ached, and still I pressed on.
The trees parted in front of me, and a large meadow a hundred yards long stretched before me. Tall grass slowed me, and the uneven ground caused me to stumble. I lost my balance and tumbled onto the grass. The heavy stab of the ground made me roll over. The creature was almost upon me. Twenty feet. Ten feet. I flung up my arm to protect myself against those gnashing teeth.
The monster had nearly reached me when it let out a terrible scream and crashed onto its side. Black blood poured out of a wound in one of its front legs. The creature turned its crushing fangs on the wound and ripped something gray and shimmering from the depths. The thing spat it upon the ground, and I beheld it was something like an oyster shell.
I felt a tremble along the ground and twisted around to see a man riding toward me on a pure white horse. He wore leather pants and tall riding boots, and a cape flapped behind him. Layers of vests covered his upper body, and gloves hid his hands. The tails of his coat were lined in a glimmering yellow that reminded me of gold, and the front halves were likewise sewn with the majestic color.
He was handsome, with a face of about thirty, ringed with short black hair. Even from that distance, I could see his eyes were a dazzling green. His skin was soft, but not without tan from much riding.
Other horsemen soon emerged from the forest behind him, a half dozen of them. They were likewise attired, though their cloth wasn’t as handsome, nor their horses as swift.
One of the men at the head of the group stood up in his stirrups. “Your Highness!”
