“Hurry, now,” he said. I’ll need your help getting through the gate. Do you happen to have the keys? You used to live here, didn’t you?”
I rushed and gave him a shove he didn’t expect. “I did live here, but you ruined it!”
Annoyance etched his face. “We’ll have to debate blame later. The hound will likely be closing in on us soon, so we must get beyond that fence to the portal.” He pointed toward the cemetery.
Momentarily distracted, I asked, “The portal is in the graveyard?”
“Between the tree and the pond.”
I hesitated. Why should I help him? He’d cost me everything. If the Cu Sith really was after him, wouldn’t it leave me alone after he found his prey? Maybe Puck was just using me to distract the hound.
“You’re on your own,” I said, jogging back to the car.
He caught me before I’d gone a few steps. Taking my arm in a steel grip, he spun and dragged me toward the cemetery. I kicked out to trip him, but only caused myself to fall. Without missing a step, he continued pulling me forward. “You’re coming with me,” he said in a voice that left no doubt he’d do whatever it took to make that happen.
“Why?” I yelled. “Why should I do anything for you? This is some trick of yours, I know it.”
He jerked to a halt. “What trick? For the love of all the stars, woman, getting out of this hell-hole will save us both!”
An unearthly howl stopped me from arguing. Puck let go of my arm as I tried to scramble to my feet.
“Go, now, and open the gate for me,” he shouted and sent a gust of wind that lifted me over the cemetery fence, and I landed in a roll that nearly cracked my head against a gravestone.
The hound opened its maw and with a gesture from Puck, loud music blared, drowning all other sounds. I stared in shock and Puck motioned frantically toward the graveyard entrance. I couldn’t hear what he said but could make out him mouthing “open the gate.”
Covering my ears, I ran to open the fence. Puck and the Cu Sith were in a grueling game of forward and back, where the dog raced forward and Puck blew it back, its gnarled green hair flying. I could see it was gearing up to bark again—did that make the third time?—and my fingers fumbled with the gate latch, the metal burning my hands. I’d forgotten I was allergic to iron. As Puck and the dog raced toward me, I shook my stinging hands and tried to send another blast of light toward the hound, like I’d done before.
Nothing happened.
I jerked my t-shirt over my hand and used it to open the gate. Puck knocked me over as he ran through and kicked the door behind him. It hit the hound in the face, and it yelped in pain. Pulling me to my feet, Puck sprinted toward the giant oak while the dog whined outside the fence. The music increased in volume every time it opened its mouth and I plugged my ears with my fingers.
Puck’s long blond hair shone silver in the moonlight and whipped around his head. It took me a second to realize the wind only blew around the two of us. Between the whistling air and the music, all other sounds were carried away. But that didn’t stop our green-haired, red-eyed stalker from prowling the edges of the fence, searching for another way in.
I tugged at Puck’s sleeve when it appeared the hound was about to try to jump. He sent a force of wind in that direction, and, to my surprise, a long stream of water jetted from the pond and splashed into the dog’s face.
I met Puck’s grin with one of my own and laughed. My laughter stopped when his warm lips contacted the side of my face. I jerked back but he pulled me closer and spoke into my ear. “You need to open the portal. I can’t do it.”
The movement of his lips against my earlobe sent a shiver across my skin, leaving me momentarily distracted from his words. I shook my head when he gestured toward the grass between the tree and the pond.
“What?” I tried to shout above the noise. I wasn’t about to put my lips next to his pointy, yet sexy, ear.
He moved in again and repeated his words, and the added punctuation of a lick across the curve of my earlobe sent shockwaves throughout my system. I pushed at him, hard, and he grinned.
From the corner of my eye I could see the Cu Sith trying to dig under the fence. “How the heck am I supposed to open the portal?” I yelled while panic-pointing toward the dog.
Puck rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. He appeared to be gathering strength, and with a wide flourish sent a blast of air so strong it uprooted a headstone that went through the iron bars of the gate and smashed into the beast’s head. The hound from hell went down and didn’t get back up.
“Why didn’t you do that before now?” I shouted as the wind around us died out, but the lullaby continued, albeit softer in volume.
“Takes a lot of energy. And I was hoping we’d be gone by now.” He sounded a bit breathless, and some of the cockiness was gone from his face.
“Okay, so what do you expect me to do?” I asked. “Why can’t you open the portal?”
“I’m an Entreater, and I suspect you are an Enforcer,” he said while keeping a wary eye on the dog.
“I have no idea what that means.”
His shoulders slumped, and his words came out clipped, as if he were annoyed to have to explain. “Entreaters ask, rather than command magic to conform to our will. Enforcers command rather than ask.”
“Still clueless.”
“Obviously.”
I glared but he kept talking. “Entreaters, like myself, bond to one or two elements, preferably ones that are fluid, like water or air, which are not stubborn like stone or metal, which is why I cannot open portals.”
“I still have no idea what this means.” My brows drew together. “But you just moved that headstone, so wouldn’t that make you an Enforcer?”
“The wind moved it.”
“Umn, okay. But what does this have to do with me?”
“I think you are an Enforcer since you created starlight.”
“I did what, now?”
“You created a tiny star to fight the hound earlier.”
It took me a moment to remember the light shooting from my fingertips when we first ran from my house. “That was a star?!”
“Starlight. Which we’ll need to open the portal,” he glanced at the hound, “and also to knock out that mangy mutt if it wakes before we leave, so I suggest you hurry.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Frustration pitched my tone higher. “And why can’t you do the gravestone trick again?”
“I have already used a great deal of energy, and it’s going to deplete more quickly the longer we stay here surrounded by iron bars. As will yours.”
Great. So, no pressure, then. I still had so many questions, but if time was short …. “Fine. Just tell me what to do.”
He put his hands on my shoulders, positioning me so that I stood in front of him, facing the space between the tree and pond. Can you see that shimmer, just there?” He pointed in front of us.
I squinted but saw nothing. “What am I looking for?”
His heavy sigh ruffled the hair around my neck and my skin pebbled.
“Let your mind go, and just look in the spaces between,” he said.
Sure. Easy-peasy. Look at “the spaces between.” Whatever the heck that meant. I tried squinting, softening my gaze, and giving the tree the side-eye, but still no shimmer.
“It’s not working.”
“It has to work,” he insisted.
“Maybe you’re wrong and I’m not an Enforcer.” Though I secretly liked the sound of it. Made me sound like some sort of bad-ass soldier.
I could feel him considering. “Well … sometimes lightworkers are Entreaters, but it’s rare.”
My face was next to his when I turned. He hadn’t moved his hands from me, and I’d been so distracted, I hadn’t even noticed.
It had nothing to do with the fact that it felt good.
“Move back. How can I concentrate if you’re crowding me,” I complained.
He snickered softly as he stepped away
, and my shoulders missed the weight of his hands.
“How could we tell if I’m an Entreater?”
“Try moving the wind,” he suggested. “It’s the element most of us manipulate the easiest.”
“How?
He sighed again. “Just meld with it, feel it move within you, then direct it where you want it to go.”
Right. Right.
I did my best, and still got a whole lot of nothing. A groan by the fence brought both our heads around. The hound was stirring but not yet risen.
“What were you thinking when you hit him earlier? How did you feel?” Puck asked quickly.
“I don’t know, I was busy running for my life!”
“Well, you will be doing that again soon, provided you don’t lose your life if that beast barks when it wakens.”
Well, nothing like life or death stakes to light a fire under you.
I inhaled deeply then let it out slowly as I flicked my wrists a few times. ‘I can do this,’ I lied to myself, and tried to recreate the sensation of light shooting from my hands as I pointed toward the air beside the tree.
Disappointed after two more failed attempts, I shut my eyes, allowing the darkness of the night to bathe my closed lids. Would I die here tonight? Would Puck? I could hear him muttering urgently, entreating either me or some deity to come on. When I opened my eyes to apologize, the hound growled.
And I fell into a whirlpool of light.
Chapter Five
I spun through a tornado of blue and white light, my screams echoing around me. After a second that lasted an eternity, I landed with a thump on cold, hard ground, naked pines and a lavender sky spinning above me. Head still reeling, I tried to sit up, and was relieved to see Puck pulling to his feet next to me. A line formed between his brows as he took in our surroundings.
“Where are we?” I moaned.
His hesitation increased my anxiety. “The Shivering Wood.”
That sounded right. The gray, naked trees rising from the barren landscape trembled as if shivering in the cold air. It sent ice down my spine as well. “Will the Cu Sith follow us?”
“Unlikely. If it were an Enforcer, it would have used its abilities before now.”
I accepted Puck’s help to stand and rubbed my arms against the cold. “What are those abilities, again?”
“Using magic to force stubborn elements like stone and metal to conform to your will. Also, light.”
After considering what he’d said earlier about fluid elements, I had to ask, “Wouldn’t light be considered fluid? I mean, waves and all?”
“But it can also be particles,” he said. “It transmutes, and can, on rare occasions be used by either an Enforcer or an Entreater. However, it has never responded to me.”
It was clear he hated to admit it, and I tried to not feel smug. And failed.
“Stop smiling. You could barely do it,” he grumbled.
“But I did do it. Twice.” I grinned, still amazed that I had managed anything at all. My smile faded when I considered Puck was able to use other portals, and obviously, the Cu Sith had, as well.
“Umn, but couldn’t our green buddy come through here in another type of portal?”
“Even if the hound returns to the fae lands, it wouldn’t guess to come here. There’s no way it would expect you to have chosen such a dangerous place.” The look on his face said he was surprised too. And a little disturbed.
“What do you mean? I didn’t choose this place,” I protested.
“You opened the portal; therefore, you chose our destination.”
“I wouldn’t have even known a place to pick!”
He gazed at me, considering. “Then the portal chose the place that best matches the nature of your heart.”
I huffed in disbelief, taking in the cold, gray landscape with its barren trees and eerie sky. “Your portal’s perception of me isn’t very flattering.”
He nodded and laughed, though the laughter seemed tense. “The Shivering Wood is one of the most dangerous places within the fae realms. It digs deep into your mind, finds your greatest shames and fears, and forces you to relive them.”
He shuddered, and so did I.
“If there is any consolation to be had here,” he said, “it’s that your mother’s home is relatively nearby.”
I perked up, but Puck’s worried face curbed my enthusiasm. “Define ‘relative’.”
He shrugged. “Hard to say. We can but pick a direction and travel.” He pointed to an area in the distance that had smaller trees. “I suggest we start there. The Woods will let us know when we can leave.”
“How?” I was afraid of the answer, so when he took my hand to begin walking, I let him.
“Soon, the Woods will test us.”
“Test us?”
“They’ll send us visions. We’ll either give into them and be used as fertilizer by the tree roots, or we’ll move past the trauma and be spat out somewhere. There’s no telling exactly where, only that it’ll probably be better than here.”
Our hands were still clasped after what must have been a half hour of trekking through the bleak woods. The waiting was the worst part and, I surmised, part of the torture. Would we be tested? When? Was it going to wait until the forest line ended then grab us there?
I flinched and moved closer to Puck with every rustle of twigs, every rattle of pebbles dislodged as we made our way across the seemingly endless gray land.
““You’re only making this harder,” Puck snapped, and I jumped.
“What am I supposed to do?” I snapped back. “I don’t know this place. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Since you’ve apparently been through it before, why don’t you give me some pointers?”
“I never said I’ve undergone the trial of the woods.”
Surprised blink. “But … you seemed so unnerved by it. It sounded as if you’d been through here before.”
His face tightened. “I’ve heard tales of it. Seen those who’ve come out of it; and heard of those who didn’t.”
“Are you sure they were telling the truth? Maybe they were just messing with you. Maybe someone started rumors about this place to conceal—”
My words died when I saw Pastor Jim.
“What are you doing here?” I broke free from Puck and ran toward my former foster father. “Did you come through the portal too?”
His face registered surprise then anger. “You! I should have known.”
My outstretched arms dropped to my side. Had I accidentally pulled him in with us?
“What have you done now, Meghan? How are we here?”
I turned to Puck for help, and as always in these situations, he’d disappeared. Pastor Jim would never believe me without proof. “Damn you, Puck, you bastard! Show yourself,” I yelled.
“Language, Meghan,” Jim scolded, familiar reproof and disappointment seeping through his words.
“But he was here, just behind me.” My shoulders sank when Jim’s nose wrinkled in disgust.
“I suppose you’ve stopped taking your medication. You always were a hopeless case.”
“Why are you being so cruel? I haven’t even needed medication in years.” Well, at least I didn’t think so. And wasn’t the fact that we were in this land together proof that I hadn’t lied about the weird things I had seen?
“Look around you.” I gestured to the bleak forest. “Where do you think you are? How did you get here?”
“You must have done something.”
“Even if I did, isn’t that proof that I wasn’t lying before?”
“Once a liar, always a liar. And what happens to liars, Meghan?”
A woman’s voice came from the woods. “They burn in Hell!”
Pastor Jim’s wife, Helen, stepped from behind a tree and moved next to her husband. “Looks like they’re coming for you now.” She laughed and pointed to the inky black pond upon which a hollowed, broken log floated.
I followed her gaze and what I’d thought were white
pieces of bark began to writhe. The maggots within the log multiplied and swarmed off the wood into the lake. Rather than sinking, they swam toward us.
I turned back in panic, but Jim and Helen were gone, and only their mocking laughter echoed in the trees.
Confusion and fear sent ice through my veins. I knew there was something important I needed to see there, but my brain was still in shock from the mass of maggots. They had moved from the pond to the ground and were quickly heading toward me.
I tried to run. I’d made it a few feet before tripping over a tree root. My hands scraped the cold earth and a few sharp rocks as I unsuccessfully tried to catch myself. A thin scream dislodged from my throat when something tickled my ankle. Scrambling backwards, I shook my foot and flipped over. The bandage of my injured leg raked up dirt and debris, sending pain through my calf.
“Here, let me help you,” a woman’s soft voice called behind me.
I turned my head but didn’t see anyone. When I looked forward again, the maggot swarm had moved closer. I tried to pull to my feet, but my leg had somehow caught in a vine. I reached to pull it free but jerked my hand back as thorns caught my flesh.
“I’ve got you,” she spoke again, sounding closer.
Moving my head slightly so I could keep one eye on the wriggling, yellow-white worms headed my way, I tried to find the other woman. The forest was darker in that direction and the trees denser.
Were they like that before?
“Damn you, Puck!” I yelled.
“Puck? Did you say, Puck?”
I gasped when a brush of silk slithered across my arm. How had she come upon me so suddenly?
A tall woman stood over me, auburn ringlets shielding her features. Her pale blue, gossamer dress swept the ground as she bent to peer at my face. And that’s when I saw she had none of her own. Only a blurred white oval where a face should have been.
Her taloned fingers gripped my chin. “What is your name, child?”
If snakes spoke, I imagined they’d sound like that. A serpent’s whisper across a butterfly’s wings. Soft sibilance that chilled my flesh and blood. My mouth opened, but no sound came out.
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