I had to rip my eyes away from him to keep my heart from racing. It hadn’t slowed down from earlier, and I needed it to—and fast.

  “So, I hate to be that person,” I said, “But do any of you have any idea where we’re going?”

  “Into the forest’s heart,” the Viscount said.

  “That’s great, but do you know how to get there?”

  “In theory. I will get us there.”

  “I hate to break it to you, big guy,” Rell said, “But you aren’t going to get us anywhere.”

  “No?”

  “No. This place is a maze built specifically to trick you and your kind. You won’t get to where you’re planning on going.”

  “I will find a way. I will burn a hole through it if I have to.”

  “Trust me, it doesn’t work like that. Lucky for you, you have a guide in your group.”

  “A guide?”

  “My people built this place. They built it as a weapon to use against you and your people. I can get you to the heart of the forest.”

  The Viscount stayed quiet. I didn’t think he’d liked what he’d just heard, but he had to have known, right?

  “Can you really take us there, Rell?” I asked.

  “I can. I’m happy to. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”

  “I thought you said your people built it.”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it here. I was running away when this lovely young Fae picked me up, remember? I’m not exactly liked around these parts.”

  I frowned. “Your people don’t like you?”

  “To the Fae, I’m a half-breed barely deserving of any kind of respect. To the Sprites I’m also a half-breed barely deserving of any respect. I’m hoping, if I ever find Drakes, they’ll take me in. Third time’s a charm, right? That’s what your people say.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Maybe the Sprites will change their minds about me one day. We’ll see. Point is, I know how to navigate this maze. All you have to do is trust me.”

  The Viscount looked over at Rell. “Trust you?” he asked.

  “Simple as that,” Rell said. “Or, you can take your chances by yourself… but I’m not sure I like your chances in here.”

  “Very well. I’ll trust you.”

  “Oh… just like that, huh?”

  “Just like that.” The Viscount handed my dress over. It was warm, and toasty—as if it had just come out of a tumble-drier.

  I gave them both a look that made them instantly turn their heads and look somewhere else. While they weren’t looking, I pulled my dress over my head, and then wrapped myself up in the furs I’d been given again.

  “We should probably wait until morning,” I said, “Spend the night in here… I don’t know about you, but I could do with some sleep.”

  “It’ll be too dangerous at night,” Rell said. “I agree, we should wait.”

  The Viscount seemed to consider what we’d said for a moment. I could see him thinking, trying to work out how he felt on the inside. I could see it on his face, the tiredness, the constant battle he was in. He needed rest as much as we did, but he was stubborn as all hell. When he looked over at me, I nodded lightly at him, offering a little silent encouragement.

  “Alright,” he said, “We will go at dawn.”

  Without another word, the Viscount put his shirt on, lay on his side, and turned away from us both. I shrugged at Rell, who hadn’t needed encouragement at all. He was already curling up into a ball of himself. I decided to follow them both, laying my head on the fur blanket underneath us and hoping I would live to see morning.

  CHAPTER 20

  Our makeshift tent had survived the night, and so had we. The Viscount, though… he hadn’t had a good night’s rest. I had heard him shuffling, twisting, turning. He hadn’t coughed, but not because he hadn’t wanted to. He had struggled to keep it all inside, to pretend like nothing was wrong.

  I’d wanted to comfort him, to try to help him, but I had been too scared to move. Too scared to speak. Not only were we in a dangerous place, trying our best to keep a low profile, but from what I knew about the Viscount, he would’ve rejected any offer of help. It would only have made things worse.

  So, I slept, and I didn’t get murdered in my sleep, but that only meant there was walking to be done. Come morning, we ate more of those awful dates the Viscount had brought with him, pulled the furs away from the tree we had settled under, and got going.

  I could see now, though, where Darkwood got its namesake. It was gloomy, and chilly, despite the Arcadian sun burning bright and warm in the sky. I could see better than I could last night, but not by much. Single shafts of sunlight struggled to break through the thickly knotted trees above, which created spots of light instead of full illumination.

  Still, it was something, and we needed every blessing we could find in this place.

  Rell had told us that this place was a maze of shifting trees and paths that turned in on themselves, and that we had to follow his senses if we wanted to make it to the heart of the forest. He was sitting in my arms as we walked through the woods. I couldn’t understand what it was about Arcadia and mazes, but that wasn’t the weirdest thing about this world, I supposed.

  I wasn’t sure how long we walked for, but we did it in silence. The Viscount was fading. I could see it in his eyes, the tiredness, the inner struggle. It was sapping at his energy much faster than if he had stayed in bed back at the mansion. Maybe there he would’ve had a few days, like the healer had said.

  I didn’t think he would last more than a few hours out here… we had to find that black rose, and we had to find it quickly. The other ingredient, lucky for us, was easy to find because it was everywhere.

  “There,” Rell said, pointing at a tree up ahead.

  It was dark, its bark cracked and broken in places, and clawed up in others. Crawling around it, though, were thick, silvery vines. They grew up one side of it, spreading like veins along its trunk. As I approached, I realized I could see the veins throb, and pulse, and writhe as they worked their way up the tree. It was happening quickly, as if someone had hit the fast forward button on these things.

  “Why is it doing that?” I asked.

  “Don’t question it, just cut it there—at the top.”

  I looked up to find the highest tips of the vines. I watched the silvery vein move, like a worm that only grew longer, and longer. It was shiny, and wet, and glistening—and very much alive. Careful not to get too close, I aimed my ax at the tree and took a swing at it.

  The head of the ax bit hard into the tree and into the Dagger Vine, breaking a bit of bark and the silvery head of the vine clean off. It fell to the wet ground below with a thud that kind of surprised me. I hadn’t expected it to hit the ground with so much force.

  Crouching, I poked at the dead vine with the tip of my ax, and I heard a click like metal on metal. The silvery vein had turned hard, and stiff. I picked it up off the ground and it was cold, like steel, but it was dripping with silvery goo.

  “Quick, put it in a cup,” Rell said.

  “I don’t have one,” I said.

  “Here,” said the Viscount, and he handed a small jar over to me.

  It had a little water inside, but not much. I took the jar and dropped the Dagger Vine into it. When it touched the water, the little metal thing began to dissolve, turning the water into something like mercury. I closed the lid and handed it back to the Viscount, who stuffed the jar into one of his pockets.

  “That’s it?” I asked.

  “I need no more than this,” he said.

  “Shouldn’t we get some more? Just to be sure?”

  “Dagger Vine is extremely dangerous. Once we release it from this jar, it will begin to grow again, and rapidly. It will take a skilled healer to contain it so that it can be used for its medicinal purposes.”

  “Please be sure to let me know when that’s happening so I can wait outside, then.”

  The Viscount’s eyebrow arched, but he didn’t say anything else. I could tell he was in pain just by looking at him, at the pallor of his cheeks, the tightness of his jaw, the strain in his eyes. We needed to keep moving.

  “This way,” Rell said, as if he had heard my thoughts.

  “Do you really know where you’re going?” I asked, as we set off down the path again.

  “No, I’ve been lying this whole time.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past you. You’re tricksy.”

  “Sure, but I don’t want this big guy to chop my head off, so I’m trying to be good… even though I could trick you so easily.”

  “I’d rather you didn’t.”

  “I can’t help myself sometimes, but I’ll do my best.”

  I looked up and around at the light falling through the trees. There were birds up there; silent, watchful birds that barely moved, but would occasionally whisper, and squeak, like they were talking to each other about us. I wondered what had happened to the eyes that had been watching us from across the river, why they hadn’t moved in on us in the night, what they were.

  “You know,” I said, “It’s kind of nice, here.”

  “Nice?” Rell asked.

  “Yeah. It’s not as loud as the edge of the forest was. Plus, we haven’t been attacked by a huge monster in a while.”

  “Were you expecting more?”

  “I don’t know. Everything here is huge, so I figured I would’ve had to contend with a giant ant or something at least.”

  “The edge of the forest is a prime hunting location for those big beasties. They stalk near it looking for travelers who wander too close.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “You’ll like it far less when we have to get out,” said the Viscount.

  “If we ever get out,” Rell muttered.

  “Alright, that’s not cool,” I said, “You’re supposed to be our guide, you can’t go around saying shit like—”

  “—stop!” Rell called out.

  I stopped in my tracks, but my heart leapt into my throat. “What?” I hissed, but Rell didn’t have to answer. Something was moving through the trees. Something huge, and something fast. And whatever that something was, it was heading right for us.

  “Tell us what that is, sprite,” the Viscount barked.

  “I would love to,” Rell said, “But first, we should get the hell out of its way!”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Run, you idiot!”

  The disturbance was heading straight toward us, so I decided to duck left and move off the path so it would skim past us instead of ploughing through us. I could hear the trees rustling and cracking, an awful sound that grew louder as the thing got closer. I ran, and I didn’t stop running, but no matter how far I moved, that sound only got more and more intense, quickly drowning out all other sounds.

  Lucky for us, Rell was a telepath.

  “That’s enough,” he yelled in my head, and even though it took me a moment to register what he’d said, I started slowing down. Whatever it was had charged right through the spot we’d been standing in a moment ago, and it was rapidly pushing away.

  “I jinxed it, didn’t I?” I asked, panting from the panic. “That was a giant ant, wasn’t it?”

  “Not quite,” Rell said.

  “Not quite? That thing almost killed us, and it was huge!”

  “It wasn’t a thing, it was the forest.”

  I looked over at the Viscount, who looked just as confused as I was. “I don’t understand,” said the Viscount.

  “The forest is a shifting maze. I told you this. That was the forest rearranging itself.”

  “Wait, wait,” I said, “So, that wasn’t a giant monster… but the maze we’re in just changed. Oh, great. For a moment, there, I thought we were screwed.”

  “Sarcasm?” Rell asked. “Really?”

  “Someone has to do it.”

  “Will you relax? I can find the path again, just give me a second.”

  Rell shut his eyes, turned his red snout up at the air, and sniffed it. The Viscount, meanwhile, shook his head and looked around the area we were in. We were off the beaten path, surrounded by dense trees, foliage, and who knew what else. He was getting impatient, and that impatience was radiating from him like an aura.

  “We don’t have time for this,” he finally said, and he drew his ax up like he was getting ready to smash through the bushes.

  I placed a hand on his arm. “Stop,” I said, “Okay?”

  He looked me dead in the eyes, and with a look I hadn’t seen on him before—a mix of dread and desperation—he said, “I am running out of time, Avery.”

  I nodded slowly. “I know. But we’re going to get that rose.”

  “No, you don’t understand… I can hear it. In my head.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The parasite… it is getting closer. It taunts me, from within the recesses of my own mind. I fear I don’t have more than a few hours before it takes over, and if that happens, the potion will be worthless.”

  “I’m not going to let that happen.”

  “You mustn’t, because if that parasite takes over… there is no telling what it will unleash.” He grabbed the dagger he had strapped to his boot and handed it to me. “Before that happens, you must swear to me you will end my life.”

  “I… what?”

  “Do it. Say the words.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t… I won’t.”

  “But you have to. If I give you the command, I want you to summon the hatred you feel toward me, visualize the gratification you will feel once you get your revenge on me—do whatever you must do, but plunge this dagger into my throat. I will not stop you.”

  I was shaking. My hands, my arms, my chest, all of me. “Viscount, you don’t know what you’re—”

  He took my ax, placed the dagger in my hand, and closed it. “My name… is Silvan.”

  “Silvan…” the word fell out of my mouth. I swallowed the ball in my throat. “Wow.”

  “Wow?”

  “I guess, I don’t know. It suits you.”

  “Touching, guys,” Rell said, “Also barf. Can we get moving, please? We have a schedule to keep.”

  “Did you figure out which way we have to go?” I asked.

  Rell gestured off to the side with his snout. Looking across at where he had pointed, I noticed not only that the trees seemed to have parted to create a perfect little path through them, the dark dirt between the trees had also been patted down. It looked like an invitation.

  “That wasn’t there a second ago,” I said.

  “You’re welcome,” Rell said, “Now, let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 21

  The way to the heart of the forest was guarded by magic; Sprite magic. It was insane to even consider where I was, what I was doing, given that last month I was back in Seattle dealing with normal, not crazy problems. Finding a clean shirt for the gig, for example, was pretty common, as was picking a different flavor of ramen, and deciding which reality TV show I wanted to binge-watch that day.

  That was my life, back then.

  It wasn’t glamorous, it wasn’t pretty, and if you looked at it from the outside, you’d probably feel a little sad for the person living it… like I did, right now. But at least I wasn’t being chased by monsters several times my size, or running through a maze of shifting trees in a dark forest, or somehow attracted to the man that had kidnapped me from my home and brought me here.

  Who’s the one with Stockholm Syndrome now?

  Rell tilted his head up to glance at me, his eyes narrowed, and he grinned. Who indeed, they asked. He didn’t have to say the words. I knew what he was thinking, even though I didn’t have the same psychic abilities he had.

  Smug bastard.

  Rell’s grin widened. “Don’t hate,” he said.

  The Viscount—Silvan—frowned. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t have telepathic conversations around me,” he said. No one had spoken, not aloud anyway, for some time. He knew we were talking around him.

  “Sorry,” I said, “We weren’t. He’s just nosy and he likes to read my thoughts.”

  “He can do that?”

  “Apparently. I try not to question it because I don’t understand it.”

  “It’s easy, really,” Rell said, “I don’t even have to try.”

  Silvan shook his head. “Enough of this,” he said, “How much further?”

  “I’m not sure, but we can’t be far now. Have you noticed how it’s getting darker? That’s not nightfall.”

  “I had noticed that,” I said, “I’m starting to have a bit of trouble seeing anything. Can you help with that?”

  “Me? How?”

  “You breathed fire last night. Can you make a torch or something?”

  “I could, but do you want us to advertise our location to the entire forest?”

  “That’s irrelevant,” Silvan said, “We’re already being followed.”

  I stopped and looked around. “How do you know that?”

  “Because my senses are sharper than yours. They have been following us ever since the paths changed earlier.”

  I couldn’t see anyone. No shapes, no glowing eyes, no moving shadows. I could hear the wind brushing through the trees, and there was another stream somewhere, but as far as I could tell, we were alone in this neck of the woods. Then again, I didn’t have the Viscount’s sharpened senses, and I also didn’t have his strange, Fae dark vision.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Sprites,” Rell said, and he sighed. “I was hoping they wouldn’t have followed us from the river, but...”

  “Do you know what they want, or who they are?”

  “How am I supposed to have the answers to those questions?”