The force of our crafts careening past the trees rocked the tiny birdhouse-like homes. I worried about the inhabitants inside—it had to feel like there was an earthquake shaking them. A launch pad, much like the one on top of the castle, came into view. It was in a clearing between the crowded trees. Panic fluttered my stomach.
“Straighten to stop,” I reminded myself. The craft was so fast that I sat up too quickly and too late. The vehicle dropped and landed hard in the clearing. It tipped over on its side and slid across the pad until it bumped up against a tree.
Bastien landed his craft and it hopped a few times over the ground before stopping.
A green-skinned man with bat-like ears hurried over to me. “You hurt?” His voice was deep and scratchy.
I rolled off the seat and lay unmoving on the ground for a second, dazed. My shoulder throbbed, but nothing seemed broken. “Surprisingly, I’m fine,” I finally answered.
Removing his helmet, Bastien ran over to me.
The man offered his hand, and I grasped it, letting him help me to my feet.
“We need to hurry. Arik is not too far behind us.” Bastien unstrapped the two boxes from my aircraft, opened the lid, and inspected the contents. “Only three broke.”
Only three? That meant we couldn’t save three Mystiks. Three souls might die because of my accident. Three souls would suffer as Dag had. I wanted to kick myself.
“You follow me, please,” the man said, pulling me out of my funk.
I had to forget about the broken vials. I couldn’t fail the others. There were so many more I could still save.
Bastien handed me the boxes, and I slipped the straps of both over my head, carrying them as I would my messenger bag. He retrieved his, and we followed the man into the woods.
I leaned close to Bastien and whispered, “What is he?”
“A goblin.”
The goblin stopped at a tiny sandstone building the size of a coat closet. “This is it.”
“Wait,” I said. “This isn’t the same way we entered the realm.”
“This is a secret portal.” He pulled a handle beside the door, and it slid open, dust puffing into our faces. “The Sentinel following you will exit the other one. This way is quicker.”
“Is the other Sentinel close?” I glanced behind us.
“The woods sent me a message. He isn’t far behind.” One long, green finger pointed at the entrance. “Now, you go.”
“Thank you for your assistance,” Bastien said, following me inside.
It was dark in the building, so I ignited a light globe. A whoosh sounded behind us as the door closed. In front of me was a wall with folded corners.
As I stepped closer, the wall moved, the corners pushing up and out. “We’re in the pop-up book.”
The paper rustled and popped until we faced the back of a gate that slowly opened. I held the straps to the two boxes crossing my body and stepped through first, then Bastien. The page folded back and the book shrank to its normal size.
I turned and walked backward, watching The Secret Garden float over to a nearby shelf and slide into a gap between two books. “That’s so wild.”
“We’re not in Edinburgh.” Bastien pivoted on his heel, taking in our surroundings, the boxes he carried bumping against his body, the vials inside clanking against each other.
“Careful,” I warned. “We don’t want to break any more.”
He grasped my hand, and we crossed the carpet to the middle of the room. My palm in his felt as natural as breathing. That was, if breathing came along with tingles and a heightened awareness of his skin against mine.
We were in a library I recognized. Fake trees reached to the ceiling, one of them with fall leaves, its roots hugging plaster replicas of books. A large sculpture of a book canopied the entrance. Little creatures, one of which was an owl, peeked out of holes in the trunks of the wooden pillars that held up the structure.
My gaze touched all the fantastical murals, trees, woodland animals, and the many book sculptures dominating the walls.
“I know this library. I’ve been here before. We’re in the Brentwood Library in Tennessee.” Nana had brought me to the city for one of her conventions when I was twelve. Going to the library was my reward for surviving the boredom of sitting in a room with old women talking about herbal cures. Now that I think about it, it was probably a witches’ convention.
Jumping through the gateways, I’d never ended up in a modern library before. The Fey were always changing the entrances into their realm, so it made sense they’d branch out to newer places. The library was a children’s fantasy. I wanted to sit down on one of the large, stone books like I had five years ago and enjoy all the magical artwork around me.
“This must be a secret exit,” he said.
“I hope there’s a gateway book in this library.” I adjusted the straps to the leather boxes crisscrossing my body. “Sei zero sette periodo zero due DOR.” I spoke the charm for calling the gateway book and listened for any sound that would lead me to it.
A fluttering noise came from just outside the children’s library.
“Is that a bird?” Bastien let go of my hand and marched toward it. “It’s the book.”
“Oh good. It’s not tied down.”
Bastien followed the book as it passed him and flew to me. I caught it and thumbed through the pages until I came to the Abbey Library of Saint Gall’s photograph. I gripped the book tight at the memory of Bastien and me being sucked into a trap there and dumped into a barren Somnium. We could have died, but luckily, we had escaped when I’d thrown my globe at the trap. But I’d also released Conemar from his prison, along with tons of Mystik convicts.
Bastien placed his hand on my back. “Are you okay? Your knuckles are turning white.”
I loosened my hold on the book. “Yeah.”
“Don’t be frightened.” His voice was soft and soothing. “It won’t happen again.”
He was right. It wouldn’t happen again. I’d broken all the traps and released the Somnium’s creatures into the libraries. It took weeks and a few human lives before every one of them was captured.
I placed the opened gateway book on the floor.
“I’ll go first in case there’re guards in the library,” Bastien said. “They won’t suspect me. Give it ten minutes before you leave.”
He clutched the straps to the boxes and jumped into the book.
I paced as I waited. It had to be the longest ten minutes ever before I plunged into the gateway. There was a slight tug on the leather boxes as I went, but then they slacked and sped along with my body. The black coolness of the gateway engulfed me. I stretched my arms out. Fresh, cold air rushed over me and filled my lungs.
The strap on my right suddenly loosened. I pushed against the wind trying to reach the strap. The box tore away before I could grab it.
No, no, no.
Panic caused me to lose my balance, and I tilted forward. I quickly righted myself.
Think, Gia. You have to catch it. But how?
I created a light globe to search for the box. It was behind me and too far away to reach. Air resistance. The flat bottom and sides of the box were slowing it down. I’d reach the exit to the library before it would… All those cures. All those people. I couldn’t let it crash into the library. I had to stop myself.