“Seriously, let’s go back. Please? I’ve never gone this close to the edge before.”
Fear clung tight in her voice, and Kallia nearly faltered over how well she knew it. Had bottled it, all these years. “Come with me.”
“What?”
“Come. With. Me.” In a sudden rush, Kallia grabbed both of her wrists. “Mari. There’s nothing more for us here. We could leave this place.” The idea instantly warmed her, to find her way through a world unknown with a friend. To not have to say good-bye.
Mari couldn’t have looked more slapped in the face. “Kallia, we have no supplies, no money. And we’d never survive that journey without a horse.”
Kallia gave a frustrated huff. Trying to gather supplies would give Jack every opportunity to stop her. She couldn’t risk it. “There’s no time.”
“Then I … I’m sorry, Kallia. I can’t leave. None of us can.”
In the stilted silence, Kallia felt her heart crack, and only she could hear it.
She dropped Mari’s wrists and stepped away, simmering. “People leave all the time, why can’t we?” she countered, blinking hard. “You know what? Fine. You can stay, but I won’t. I can’t. I—”
“Stop, Kallia.”
Just before the forest edge, Kallia whipped around, breath locked in her throat. Jack.
Except Jack wasn’t there.
And neither was Mari.
The wind howled in her ears. No way the girl could’ve run so fast back to the House. “Mari?” Her lips trembled. “Mari!”
“She’s gone.”
A hand brushed over her shoulder. Kallia’s heart became a cold, shivering thing. She shuddered away, and instantly buckled to the ground.
Jack stepped into being and stood in her path to the Dire Woods. Rising over her, as if he’d always been there.
“What did you do to her?” she whispered. “Jack, what did you do?”
“You always bring them too close to the forest,” he spoke, sadly. “Its power drowns out any magician’s. Kills even my most well-crafted illusions, so it can raise its own.”
Illusions. Her blood turned to ice. “Wh-what are you talking about?”
Where was Mari, she wished to ask, but feared the answer.
“You learn so fast.” Jack raked a hand through his hair. With the blinding gray sky behind him, he was only a shadow. An omen, looming. His step forward sent Kallia crawling back on her hands, her pulse crashing with a panic both foreign and familiar—
Her nightmare.
The realization seized in her chest. How many times had she dreamed of this, of backing away from some beast while clawing through the dirt? Unable to do anything more than scream?
No. Biting back a sob, Kallia forced herself up from the ground to run. So often her own mind had given warnings she couldn’t understand. For the reality was just as terrifying as the nightmare. The truth as poisonous as the lie.
“I’m sorry, firecrown.” Calm iced in his voice at her back. “This part of the game is not my favorite, either.”
The last thing Kallia heard was the snap of fingers as she fell back to the ground.
And the thrashing trees above her blurred everything to black.
4
“Miss Kallia?” A deep voice sounded as she came to, scattered and cloudy. “Miss Kallia, wake up…”
Kallia’s head rang, a bit sore. Little by little, her senses returned. The cold press of the dance floor at her back, the brightness of the day reflecting off the high walls of mirrors.
Warmth radiated from the three concerned faces above her, clearing in her vision. A redheaded girl in a loud blue dress to her right, Jack standing center, bearing a troubled expression, and an older, paunchy man to her left lightly pressing beneath her jaw.
Scowling, Kallia jolted back from his touch. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Checking your pulse,” he replied jovially, drawing back. “Seems there’s no need for that anymore, though.”
“Oh, thank goodness!” the girl exclaimed on a fluttering breath and kneeled closer. “Don’t do that again, Kalls. You had us worried sick. Even the doctor.”
“No, I kept telling you she’d be fine,” the older man rejoined with an eye roll. “Seamstresses. Have to add flair to everything.”
It took effort summoning the girl’s name. A seamstress. Somehow it escaped her. “Wh-what happened?”
“Oh, nothing too serious.” The doctor patted her arm. “You took a small spill, is all. Something about headstands, according to Miss Lucina.”
Lucina.
Kallia searched for the name in her mind, finding it familiar. Like the feel of a new pair of shoes she’d only begun to break in. Yes, Lucina. Her closest friend. It all clicked into place—the faint taste of floral tea on her tongue from the post-show breakfast they’d shared that