The woods are dense, the thick canopy of branches swallowing all the light. Invisible rocks and roots trip me.
We haven’t slept, not really. My body wants to shut down. Shock, exhaustion, fear, cold—it’s all been working against me until it feels like my brain has stopped communicating with my legs.
“I’ve got you.” Callum wraps his arm around my waist, bearing more of my weight, and rather than stumbling like we’re in a lame three-legged race, our strides fall into sync. “That’s the way,” he murmurs. “You’re a braw wee hellcat, remember? You can make it. You’re close now.”
“We’reclose,” I correct him, but I can barely hear myself over my panting breath and the sound of our crashing footfalls. I repeat, “You mean we’re close.”
But either he doesn’t hear me or he’s ignoring me to focus on the trail. It winds perilously, and yet he manages to leap us over branches, navigating turns and switchbacks like he knows where we’re going.
The last time I was on a path this twisting?—
Dread sweeps through me like a cold fog.
“What is this place?” I try to catch glimpses, but thetrees whip by as we run. The deeper we get, the more claustrophobic the path becomes. “Where are we going?”
“To your home.”
Callum is too focused, too urgent, his grip firm but his touch strangely distant. He’s pulling me forward, but he won’t meet my eyes.
“Wait. What? You said we’re not ready yet. Until we can figure out a spell that works for both of us.” I try to slow down, but Callum is a freight train hurtling through the forest. “I thought we were going to hide out. We’ll get a boat, then we’ll figure it out together.”
I plant my feet in the dirt, forcing him to stop. Finally, finally, he turns toward me.
“Together, Callum. Right?”
Faint light shines through a break in the branches overhead, and it catches his face in snatches, highlighting a frowning eye, the ridge of a cheekbone, one tight corner of his mouth. His expression looks broken, like a puzzle that’s come apart.
“There’s no time,” he whispers. “This is the only way.”
“But the boat…and the island…” I keep waiting for this to make sense, for something to click. “We don’t have the right magic.”
“The strength of my will must be power enough.”
He leads us forward again, more slowly this time, and we grip each other tight. Him, pulling me forward. Me, tugging him back.
“Your will? What does that mean?” I’m waiting for him to explain how we’ll find a boat, live happily ever after.
He doesn’t answer.
He starts to chant.
“No. No, no, no.” My heartbeat stutters, likeI’m bleeding out with every beat. “Callum, stop. Tell me what you’re saying.”
There’s a break in the woods, and Callum stops walking. Stops chanting. “The bothy.” He points to an abandoned cottage. “It’ll serve.”
It has a sagging roofline. Broken boards dangle from gaps in the walls. Moss rises from the forest floor, covering the bottom half like it’s about to swallow the place whole.
“I don’t understand. That place? Serve what? Who lives there? It looks empty.” I hate the manic pitch of my voice, but dread is choking me. I can’t get enough air in my lungs.
An ancient forest.
A winding path.
This old cottage.
I dig my fingers into his arm. If I hold on tightly enough, if I don’t let go, we’ll stay together.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says with ghastly calm. “It’s your way home.”
