“We did it,” Dex gasped as they all slowed. He bent over and pressed his palms to his knees, his back rising and falling rapidly.
“You did it,” Elle corrected, her chest heaving as she rubbed his arm. “That was quite impressive. We would all have been roasted within seconds if not for you.”
“Yeah, um, sorry about yelling at you,” Alissa said.
“Where’d you get burned?” Elle asked, turning to her with concern. “You said your ankle, and then … your hand?”
“I’ll be fine. I’m not as fragile as a human.” She grimaced. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that to come out condescending. It’s just … it is what it is.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Elle said, waving away the apology. “So you’re okay then?”
“Yes. We should get moving. We’ve got a steep hill to climb to get out of this valley.”
“And, you know, we don’t want to be standing here if those flames decide to start burning down the trees,” Astrid added, looking back over her shoulder at the crackling mass of flames.
“Definitely not,” Elle said.
They gave Dex another few moments to recover, then began the long ascent up this side of the valley, their conversation minimal as they chose breathing over talking. The hill seemed to go on and on, and Elle wondered if this was yet another test of the quest, or if she was simply weak and unfit after spending too much time confined in an attic.
She was just considering giving in to her exhaustion and begging the others for a break when the ground suddenly shifted beneath her feet. She toppled forward and landed on her hands and knees. “Not again,” she groaned, bracing herself for the motion of falling down another steep hill. But she remained in the same position, hard earth pressing against her knees and twigs digging into her hands.
“Hey, the ground is flat again,” Astrid said. “Like, horizontal flat.”
Elle pushed herself carefully onto her feet and looked around.
“It’s gone,” Dex said, surprise coloring his tone. “The hill. The valley. All of it.”
Turning slowly, Elle found that he was right. The Never Woods appeared exactly as they had before the ground first tilted and sent them sliding down toward the clearing: skinny trees growing a little too close together, mist hanging between them, and glowing orbs drifting slowly above their heads.
“That did happen, right?” Dex said. “The clearing, and the fire, and the magic I used to keep it from consuming us? Please tell me that wasn’t all in my head.”
“It wasn’t,” Elle assured him.
“Yeah, that definitely happened,” Alissa said, gingerly touching a spot on the back of her hand.
“These woods just like to keep confusing us, that’s all,” Astrid murmured. “So the sooner we get out of here, the better.” She looked around. “Anyone see a footprint anywhere?”
Elle’s eyes traced over the surrounding trees, but no footprint shape appeared on any of the trunks. “I guess we’d better start hunting.” She circled a few of the nearest trees, making sure not to stray too far from her companions. “Footprints, footprints, footprints,” she murmured. “Where are you?”
“Do you think this is why the quest takes longer for some people?” Astrid called out. “They lose sight of the footprints and end up going the wrong way?”
“Maybe,” Alissa answered. “But I feel like we were following them closely until the point the ground leveled itself out and that hill disappeared.”
“Just keep looking,” Dex said.
So Elle kept looking, checking some trees more than once, just in case a footprint had formed since the first time she looked. At the sound of footsteps behind her, she glanced over her shoulder, expecting to see one of her companions. “Did you find—”
Her words died on her tongue. She whirled around, a gasp catching in her throat. She wanted to scream but the sight of the person standing there regarding her with a malicious smile was enough to snatch her breath away in an instant. She took a hurried step backward and found herself backed up against a tree.
“Well, well,” her stepmother said, advancing slowly toward her. “Of all the places I expected to find you, my dear Estelle, this most certainly was not it.”
“What—what are you doing here?” Elle stuttered.
“You’re my slave,” Salvia said. “I came looking for you.”
“I’m not a slave. I’m—I’m free.” Elle took a deep breath, hoping Salvia wouldn’t hear the air quivering as it passed her lips. “You can’t do anything to me anymore.”
“Free?” Salvia laughed. “What a joke.”
“It’s true,” Elle insisted. She reached with a shaking hand for the bottom of her pants. She pulled them up—and there was the gold chain-shaped tattoo that marked her as a slave. “What?” she gasped.
“Don’t you understand, Elle?” Salvia said quietly. “You will never be free.” Magic lashed away from her like a whip, catching around Elle’s arm and tugging her forward onto her knees. She cried out and tried to scramble away, searching over her shoulder for her companions.
“Dex!” she yelled. “DEX!”
“Your friends can’t help you now,” Salvia said, her face close to Elle’s. “I’m taking you back to your attic, and there you will stay forever.”
Elle shoved away from her and scrambled around the side of the tree, but Salvia was right. Her friends were gone. She couldn’t see a single one of them. She was alone in the Never Woods with her stepmother, and she would never be free.
“You’re coming with me,” Salvia hissed. Her hand was around Elle’s ankle, dragging her away across the dirt.
“No!” Elle shouted, kicking hard. She rolled over to face her stepmother—just as a snarl ripped through the air and Salvia vanished. Elle became aware of other sounds then. Someone screaming, and Dex shouting out for her, and a terrible growling, ripping sound. She scrambled onto her hands and knees before pushing herself up and stumbling around the side of the tree. And there were Dex and Alissa, backed up against another two trees, and a wolf—a wolf!
“Astrid?” Elle whispered, too stunned to take another step.
The wolf’s jaws were clamped around something white and wispy—a creature appearing to be made of dense mist. As the wolf tossed her head from side to side, silver droplets sprayed from the mist creature across the forest floor. After another few moments and one final shake, she let go of the mist. It hung motionless in the air, dripping silver liquid onto the ground.
The wolf moved back, shuddered, twisted, and began to change shape. Elle hurried to Dex’s side and grabbed his hand. She hung on tightly, her other hand over her mouth as she watched the wolf transform into Astrid. In human form, Astrid shuffled on hands and knees to the nearest tree, collapsed against it, and let her eyelids slide shut.
“Um, what just happened?” Elle asked.
Astrid opened her eyes. “What did you see?” she asked. “Before I became a wolf. Before I attacked. Did you see something—or someone—you’re afraid of?”
Elle paused before answering. “Yes. My stepmother.”
Astrid looked at Dex. He nodded. “I saw … someone.” He didn’t elaborate, but a quick glance at Elle told her she probably knew who it was. If she had to guess, Dex had just seen his father out here in the Never Woods.
“I saw something terrifying as well,” Alissa whispered.
Astrid nodded. “I guessed as much. The person I saw … it was the man who turned me.”
“You weren’t born a shifter?” Elle asked.
“No. I was born human. But there was this wolf …” She shuddered and shook her head. “Anyway, I was searching for that stupid footprint, and I turned around and found him standing right behind me. I ran and tripped, and for a moment, before you all disappeared, it seemed you were each focused on something invisible. Something … scary. I realized we were all seeing something different. Something we’re each afraid of.” She pushed herself up a little straighter against the tree and ran a hand
through her messy hair. “In animal form, we shifters see things differently. Our fears are different.” She let out a short laugh. “Essentially, we fear hardly anything. So I transformed, and immediately, I saw the creature for what it truly was. That strange wispy, misty thing.”
“Thank goodness that worked,” Elle said. “Well done.”
“Yeah, well, I was also expecting that it was my turn to get us past the latest obstacle, so I figured there had to be something I could do in this situation that would work.” Without another word, Elle walked closer, crouched down, and hugged her. “Oh, wow, okay,” Astrid said. “We’re on hugging terms now.” She patted Elle’s back awkwardly.
“Well you don’t seem to like it when I say thank you,” Elle said, “so you’ll have to accept a hug instead.”
“Fine,” Astrid grumbled.
“So each of you has done something to help,” Elle said as she stood, “which makes me wonder if we might be nearing the end of this ordeal.” She let out a quick breath of a laugh. “This is supposed to be my quest, and I haven’t actually done anything useful yet.”
Astrid climbed to her feet. “Maybe all you’re supposed to do is survive. You’re the only one who doesn’t have any magic yet. That’s the point of the whole quest.”
Elle nodded. “I guess that’s true.”
“Hey, is that a footprint?” Dex said.
Elle looked to where he was pointing. “That definitely wasn’t there a few moments ago.”
“No, it was not,” Alissa said. “Which I guess means we’ve successfully completed this part of the quest. Time to keep moving.”
They began following the footprints once more, far more subdued now than they were at the start of their journey. Elle suspected they were all quietly reliving whatever terrible moments the mist-like creature had made them experience. That was certainly where her mind was, and more than once, she stopped walking to quickly lift the bottom of her pants and check that the slave charm was well and truly gone from her skin.
She was about to check again—just once more, she told herself—when the urge to hurry forward overwhelmed her. “There’s something there,” she murmured, walking faster, leaving her companions a few paces behind. The light mist gave way to another clearing, and at its center sat a still, clear body of water. A shiver of anticipation skittered across Elle’s skin. “This is it,” she said to the others as they reached her side. “The lake at the center of the Never Woods. It’s the right place. I can feel it.”
Movement caught her attention at the edge of her vision. Her eyes darted to the side as a unicorn, pure white with an elegant silver horn, walked across the clearing and stopped in front of her. A shiver passed through the creature. Then it shuddered, a more violent motion, and Elle took a startled step backward. Then, just as Astrid’s wolf form had done earlier, the unicorn began to change shape. She shifted quickly, and within moments, a woman with silver hair stood before Elle. “Correct, young human,” she said. “This is the right place.”
“Wait a minute,” Elle said. “Since when do unicorn shifters exist?”
“Outside of the Never Woods,” the woman said, “we don’t.” She looked around as if trying to see past the others. “You’re here of your own free will? This vampire is a friend of yours? She isn’t forcing you into this?”
Elle frowned. “No one’s forcing me. Well, I suppose you might say the Godmother is forcing me into this, but that’s a different story. These three are my companions, and none of them are forcing me to be here.”
The unicorn woman smiled. “Good. That is the way it should be.”
“Hang on,” Dex said. “So when all those abducted humans were forced through this quest just so that vampires could take their magic from them afterwards, you knew about it?”
The woman’s expression turned downcast. “I saw it, yes.”
“And you couldn’t do anything to stop them?”
“No. I am bound by the quest to direct any human who comes my way. That is my life’s task.”
“So you’re going to tell me what to do now?” Elle asked.
“Yes. Do you see that boat?” She stepped aside, and Elle watched as a boat faded into view at the edge of the lake. “Take the boat to the center of the lake. Stand up and reach for the brightest star. Close your hand around the light and take it.”
“Take it? How? Isn’t it millions of miles away?”
“Yes and no,” the woman said with an enigmatic smile. “You’ll be able to take hold of it. You’ll see. It will form a jewel in your hand. Crack it open and let the magic spill over you.”
“Like a wish?” Astrid asked.
The woman looked at her. “Where do you think the fae came up with the idea to store wish magic within a gem?”
“So, do I do anything else after that?” Elle asked. “Or is that the end?”
“The quest will be complete when you break the mirror. That action will transport you out of the Never Woods.”
“There’s a mirror?”
“You’ll see it.”
Elle took a deep breath. “Okay. Anything else?”
The woman smiled once more. “This was never a quest that was meant to be completed alone.”
Elle nodded. “I understand. I never would have made it this far on my own.”
“Well then. If you understand that, then it should be easy for you to finish the quest.”
“Okay.” Elle looked past the woman. She pushed her shoulders back and took one more steadying breath. “Time to finish this.”
She took a step forward—and Dex, Alissa and Astrid all slumped to the ground. “Wait, what’s happening?” Elle asked, fear coursing instantly through her body. She crouched beside Dex and shook his arm, but all he did was mumble something unintelligible. “What’s wrong with them?”
“They’re falling asleep,” the woman said. “If you don’t complete the quest soon, they’ll never wake up.”
“What? Oh, come on, seriously? Hey, Dex!” Elle shook his arm again, but he barely responded.
“You’d better hurry, young human. This is your moment. You’ve relied on them to get you this far. Now they have to rely on you to complete the quest and save them.”
“Okay, okay.” Elle rose quickly and hurried toward the boat. “Get in the boat, row to the middle, take the starlight,” she muttered. “I can do this.” She climbed in carefully, noting that even though the boat rocked gently in the water, no ripples disturbed the lake’s surface. “This place is so weird,” she muttered as she sat and reached for the two oars. She’d never rowed a boat before, but she knew what to do, so she clumsily got started. She dipped the oars into the water and pulled. Dip and pull, dip and pull, and soon the boat was sliding through the water away from the lake’s edge.
Then it stopped. Elle kept rowing—pulling harder with the oars—but the boat remained perfectly still. “What in all the stars?” she muttered. She paused, looked over the edge of the boat on both sides and behind her. But if there was an obstacle, it was out of sight, beneath the boat. She rowed back a bit, maneuvered past the area where she guessed the obstacle to be, and tried again. But it was like the kind of nightmare where she was trying to run while her feet were stuck in place. No amount of effort moved her forward any further.
“Ugh!” With tears of frustration burning her eyes, she dropped the oars into the boat and turned to look at the unicorn shifter. The woman was still standing near the lake, watching Elle in silence. “What the hell is the point of all this if I get so close to the end, I follow all the instructions, and it doesn’t work?” she shouted. “Did the person who came up with this stupid quest just want to have fun watching other people suffer?”
The unicorn shifter smiled her infuriating smile. “Of course not. The quest is simply a reminder of the way the world should work.” And with that, she slipped between the trees and disappeared.
“Ugh, that is not helpful!” Elle shouted after her. She let out a puff of air, rested her elbows
on her knees, and pressed her hands against her cheeks. “Come on, think. Just think. There has to be a trick here somewhere. I have to row to the middle, reach for the starlight, crack open the gem, break the mirror, and then we’ll all be out of here. The gem comes from the starlight—” she turned her gaze to the night sky “—and then the mirror …” She looked around, then down near her feet in the bottom of the boat. She turned and looked at the small section of boat behind her, but there was no mirror there either. “No mirror. No mirror, no mirror.”
Then her eyes fell on the lake. With no ripples, it formed a perfect glassy surface. “Of course,” she murmured. “That should have been obvious from the start. The lake is the mirror. So I have to break it somehow.” She lifted an oar again and poked it into the water, but still the surface refused to be disturbed. “I have to break the mirror,” she said slowly. “Like … my actual body? Do I have to jump in?” She looked around, but the unicorn woman didn’t reappear to answer her. “If I jump in and break the surface, then I’ll leave the Never Woods. But … I’ll be alone? And the others will still be here?” She looked toward them, lying motionless on the ground not too far from the water. “Which means … they should jump into the water with me?”
This was never a quest that was meant to be completed alone.
“So maybe that’s why the boat isn’t moving,” Elle said, grabbing the second oar. “I’m not supposed to be alone.” She rowed back to the lake’s edge as quickly as she could, then climbed out and began the difficult task of dragging each of her companions toward the boat. “This would be so much easier if I had magic already,” she grunted. “Oops, really sorry about that,” she added as she bumped Dex’s head against the wooden seat after finally managing to get his heavy frame over the edge of the boat and into it.
She was breathless and her arms were aching by the time all three of them were lying squashed together in the bottom of the boat. But fear that she was running out of time—that Dex, Alissa and Astrid might remain asleep forever—kept her moving. Trying not to stand on any of them, she positioned herself on the seat and began rowing. “Stars above, you guys are heavy,” she groaned. “Okay, come on, Elle. You can do this. You can do this, dammit!”
The Starlight Quest Page 6