“Tell that to my corpse,” Tenn said. He gritted his teeth and stared into the horizon. He didn’t want to die here. It wasn’t self-preservation, but the need for revenge. He wasn’t prepared to take on Matthias.
The army appeared like a black stain on the far edge of the field, darker and faster than shadow, and as it neared, Tenn could feel the army as the earth trembled beneath its feet. In any other situation, he would have forced them all to let go of the Spheres, to run and hide and vainly hope the army might pass them by. But they had already lost the element of surprise. The best they could do now was try to fend them off from a distance.
He opened his mouth to give the orders when a branch snapped behind him. He turned around, ready to kill any creature lurking in the shadows.
A little girl stepped out from the depths of the trees. She was in jeans and a wool sweater, her dark hair pulled to the sides in long pigtails. She couldn’t have been older than twelve.
“Are you the ones who sent up the signal?” she asked. Her eyes surveyed them, then took in the approaching horde without even the mildest hint of concern.
Devon nodded.
“Follow me,” she said. Then she headed back into the trees.
“But the army—” Tenn began, only to be cut off by her response.
“Won’t be an issue if you do what I say. Stay close.”
Tenn looked at the twins, but if there was any uncertainty between the two of them, they didn’t show it. Without even glancing to the army behind them, they followed the girl into the woods.
Tenn spared the field a glance, just briefly. The horde was still a mile or so away, but it would arrive within minutes. They didn’t have a chance against them no matter what, but in the forest, their probability of survival dropped dramatically. In here, the trees would hide friend and foe alike. He glanced back to the retreating forms of the twins, the white of their coats blending into the woods like ghosts.
“Fuck,” he whispered. Then he bounded in after them.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“WHERE THE HELL are we going?” he whispered to Dreya. The strange girl was only a few feet ahead of them, and she walked through the woods with a quick, assured step. He could barely see her in the deep shadows.
No one answered.
Even with Earth pulsing in his gut, he couldn’t feel anyone else stirring in the woods. Just the four of them, moving deeper and deeper into the wilderness while the approaching army roared toward them.
“The first line is coming up,” the girl said. She paused and held out a hand. “I suggest you hold on from here on out. It can be difficult to follow the path if you’re not accustomed to the way.”
Devon didn’t hesitate. He took the girl’s hand and Dreya took his. She held her hand out and raised an eyebrow at Tenn. If that wasn’t an admonishing glance, he didn’t know what was. He took her hand. His pulse was a panicked throb in his ears. Here they were, holding hands in the woods while their imminent death was minutes away. And yet, the girl was about as unconcerned as was humanly possible, and the twins weren’t much different.
A few steps later, the girl disappeared. Devon appeared to be holding his arm out to thin air. Another step and Devon vanished into the night. Another step and Dreya was gone, though he still felt her hand in his. Something washed over him, a tingle that swept through his gut like vertigo and nausea and that sick feeling from spinning around too fast. It passed in an instant, leaving him feeling as though he’d just stepped off a ship to dry land. The girl and the twins were visible once more, the chain unbroken.
He glanced around as they moved forward. Something unsettled him, something in the very pit of his gut that just felt wrong. He looked behind him. Had they gotten turned around? He started to release Dreya’s hand. Surely he’d left something behind...
“Don’t be fooled by your instincts,” the girl said. “We’re approaching the second line. Just follow me.”
Dreya gripped his hand even tighter.
This time, although he was prepared for it, he nearly yelped when the girl disappeared from sight. His grip on Dreya’s hand was tighter than death as every fight-or-flight nerve in his body began to fire. He was going the wrong way. If he kept walking, he was going to die. The little girl wasn’t one of the Witches—she had been sent to capture them. To kill them.
Devon disappeared.
Tenn knew if he stepped through that invisible wall, he’d be torn apart. Fear welled up in his throat, fluttered in his chest as Dreya disappeared, as that blankness came for him.
Another step.
A wave of nausea rolled over him, stronger this time. The forest churned around him, sloshing from side to side as he stumbled. Even the twins were unsteady on their feet, staggering as the girl led them onward.
“Only one more,” said the girl. She walked calmly, smoothly. “This is always the worst.”
There was no mistaking it now. He needed to turn and run. He couldn’t go another step, and yet the girl dragged them forward. On the other side of that invisible veil was Matthias, waiting to burn them alive. He could practically hear Jarrett’s voice in his head, yelling at him to stop, to turn around, to flee. Dreya’s nails dug into his skin.
The girl slipped from sight.
Then Devon.
No.
No.
No.
Dreya vanished.
He closed his eyes and bit his tongue to keep the screaming in, to keep his heart from exploding in its frantic beat.
Electricity rolled across his skin in a tingling wave. Pleasant, almost. And when it cleared, the panic was gone. He opened his eyes and gasped.
The trees had given way to a clearing roughly the size of a city block. A stream split it down the middle, and campers and trailers radiated out from a central bonfire like spokes on a wagon wheel. The crackle of fire and scent of wood smoke filled his head, along with the murmur of conversation. He paused. How the hell is this possible? He hadn’t sensed any of this from the outside.
The girl didn’t give them any time to ponder. She released Devon’s hand and turned to them.
“Mother will see you now. You’ve kept us waiting.”
Then she turned and walked toward the trailers.
The three of them paused. Dreya looked to Devon and took a deep breath. Devon nodded and squared his shoulders, looking for all the world like he was about to go into battle. They began to follow, but Tenn reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Dreya’s coat. Although the panic from before was gone, there was still the gut-deep fear that came from knowing that, at any moment, the forest was going to be overrun by Howls and necromancers bent on their destruction.
“Are you sure we’re safe here?” he asked. And the unspoken question: Are they safe from what we’ve brought toward them? He glanced back to the trees. He fully expected to see shadows darting through them, for people to start screaming as the nightmares leaped forth. But the woods were silent.
“We can trust their magic,” Dreya said. She gestured to the trailers. “They have clearly been living here for some time.”