deep breath and wanted to kiss the ground when we exited the path.
As we approached a steep mountain of a hill, the expression on my face told Cheng I was so not looking forward to this. He just chuckled and handed me a bottle of water.
We had to stop a couple of times and shake off our backpacks to catch our breath, but I had to admit the scenery was beautiful.
“How much further?” I said, out of breath.
“We’re almost there,” Cheng said from ahead as he paused and waited for me to catch up. “Here have a drink. It’s just over that hill and then we’re there.”
“You think Lucian took this same route?”
“It’s the only path that leads to the Acker Woods, so yeah, he took exactly this same path.”
I looked around again and closed my eyes. My footsteps were taking the same path his had a couple of months ago.
I looked at the end of the hill again and took a big sip. Then something else flashed through my head. The view was different but it was the same. I coughed and water flew out everywhere as I realized where I was.
“Elena are you okay? You should swallow.” He tapped my back hard and the coughing stopped. “What is it?” He followed my gaze.
“Nothing, it’s just, I know this place.” I sounded like a crazy person.
“How could you, you’ve never been here?”
“Weird,” I looked at Cheng. “Right.”
I picked up my backpack again and carried on walking. I couldn’t stop thinking about whether or not it was the right place. I kept looking over my shoulder trying to make sense of it, but I knew it was the hill from my dream. It felt like déjà vu the closer I came to the top and my heart pounded because I knew who used to wait for me at the other side of this hill. Would she be there this time? I hoped not because Cheng would definitely have a heart attack which would mean that I would have to carry on alone.
My feet slipped on some loose turf and Cheng helped me to climb further. He reached the top first and pulled me up with him.
I took in the view before me of row upon row of tall trees. They were big and nasty. In my dreams they had suffocated me so many times and here I was in real life. This wasn’t a dream anymore and there was no turning back or waking up this time.
Why on earth did Queen Catherine want me to come here?
“Elena, you okay?”
“Huh?” I snapped out of it.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He laughed. “I know it’s intimidating, especially with those tall trees.” He smiled again and started running down the steep hill and toward the forest.
I followed him and skidded off on my bum. My shoe got caught on a rock and I tumbled over and landed flat on my face.
Cheng laughed again as he tried to help me get up. “You seriously are the worst Rubicon I’ve ever seen.”
I laughed with him. “Tell me about it.” I sighed again. “I just don’t know about this, Cheng,” I finally admitted as I stood up.
“Elena, we’ll get out. I promise.”
I nodded. Then I remembered what Lucian said that night. When I told him about George and Becky going on this trip. He got upset that it wasn’t me, implying that I should be the one to do this.
What was inside that forest that both these ghosts wanted me to find?
E FOUND A path and I couldn’t stop watching the top of the trees swaying high above my head. I felt tiny, like a fairy with these gigantic trees surrounding me. I was waiting for a huge animal to run into our path any minute, but nothing came.
Huge roots forced the two of us to climb like one would on a wall, and as we climbed the more the forest welcomed us, and I had to admit, it was beautiful.
Cheng found a tree and stopped.
“You think that’s wise?” I asked.
He smiled. “We found the tree, Elena.”
“What tree?”
“The tree that looks like an old lady’s face. See.” He showed me and I looked up at the entire picture. It sure did resemble the face of an old lady. An old ugly lady.
“Now what?”
“Now we wait for a while, until the sun reaches her nose. Master Longwei said it will show us the way to go.” He took out a map. “The rest is easy