give them the choice. Did we bring her back? Or did we give her a chance?
Imogen
I went into the forest because it seemed like the smartest thing to do. There were lots of creatures in the forest, some of them like me, and some of them so ancient their names were long forgotten.
The forests of Tuatha Dé Danann were...risky. I could as easily meet a red cap as a water sprite. Both were dangerous, and both could kill me.
But, if I paused before going in, then so would anyone looking for me. And I had an advantage over Brina and whoever else came from NP. This was my turf. I was home, and I was the banshee for this kingdom. If I was lucky, they’d be as frightened of me as I was of them.
The sun filtered through the leaves, dappling the forest floor. Lifting my chin, I stared up at the ancient oaks and ash trees. It was so beautiful here.
It smelled good, like earth and wet grass. I’d missed so many things about home, but that one detail had escaped me. Now, I wondered how I’d ever forgotten it. All it would take was one inhalation of citrus-scented cleaning fluid, and I’d immediately think of NP.
My feet squished into the moss and mud. With so much shade, the floor never really dried out. I was grateful for that, because it was masking some of the noise I made.
It had been a long time since I’d come into this forest, and every sound made me jump. I held my hand over my heart, like I could dampen the sound of my racing heart. The steady thump was loud in my ears, and it didn’t slow no matter how deep I went.
Not safe. Not safe.
The back of my neck itched, and I slapped my hand against it. Something was either biting me or watching me.
Glancing down at my bright jumpsuit, I sighed. Here I was worried about walking too loud when my prison jumpsuit was an eye-burning shade not found anywhere in nature.
A branch snapped and I hit the ground, belly first. Air huffed out of me as I elbow-crawled to a fallen log. Son of a biscuit. The thing wasn’t big enough to hide me. I burrowed down, doing my best impression of a badger. Dig. Dig. Dig. I heaped leaves around and over me, hoping it would do the trick.
Birds erupted from the trees over my head, but they didn’t fly away. They swooped down, zeroed in on me. Their talons caught in my hair, yanking the strands, and I covered my head. It didn’t stop them. Sharp nails and beaks cut into my skin as they dove and plunged.
One screeched in my ear, the sound something between a wail and a caw, and it suddenly hit me.
Sluagh.
These weren’t birds; they were malevolent spirits who traveled in a pack.
Hunting.
Shh...iskadoodles. They could be from NP, or they could just have been waiting for something—or someone—to happen by. People often lumped me in the same category as sluagh, but we were very different. For one, I wasn’t purposefully trying to harm anyone. Banshees were messengers only.
Sluagh, on the other hand, could only be called messengers if they were announcing their intentions to kill the poor idiot they came upon.
To wit—yours truly. The idiot.
I had to get out of here. Their screeching was going to attract too much attention, and there were worse things out here than sluagh. I guessed I was lucky I hadn’t been found by a caorthannach, a fire-spitting demon.
Getting my legs under me, I started to crawl away. My attempt only angered them. They got louder and more aggressive. No longer content with dive-bombing, they began to flap around me, scratching and digging at me. Blood ran from my forehead into my eyes, obscuring my vision, but I kept crawling. If I could find a pond or a big enough log, I could hide until they gave up.
Razor sharp nails raked my throat, and I knew my time was almost up. They were going for the kill.
With no other choice, I curled into a ball and covered my head with my arms. Their cries drowned out all the other sounds of the forest except for the flapping of their wings.
And, then, suddenly—they were gone.
It was as if someone had thrown a blanket over me then lifted it into the air so I could breathe.
Carefully, slowly, I shifted, moving my arms away from my face to see what