being pulled into a different world and living in a palace of lies. A manipulative aunt, a man who betrayed you, and… snakes.” She closed her eyes, trying to make herself believe the words. “You can survive whoever is outside this tent.”
A crash of thunder made her jump, sounding like it split the sky in two. If the fae world cracked open, would it let her return to the safety of Ohio corn fields, where the biggest danger was psychiatrists overanalyzing everything and mean kids at school?
At least none of them had swords.
She fingered the hilt of the knife, wondering what any of the kids she’d known would think if they saw her now.
“I need you, Myles,” she whispered. She pulled the blanket around her as if it could protect her from this world. “I really hope you’re alive.”
And if he was, she’d see him again. In all of Griff’s stupid promises, he’d never been able to give her that hope. How could he even keep all of his promises and lies straight?
She couldn’t go back to Griff, not after everything.
Kicking the blanket away, she stood and crept to the tent opening, peering out into the storm.
Two guards stood nearby, seemingly impervious to the rain in their leather armor. Tents sat haphazardly around the small clearing with cypress trees looming as shadows overhead. Were they still in the marshes?
Voices came from the guards. “We can’t stay here forever,” one of them said.
The other didn’t respond right away. “We have our orders. The girl must be awake for the journey. And we cannot leave until given the order to march.”
“What if she doesn’t wake up? We don’t know what happened to her out there.”
The second guard shrugged. “We will deliver her to the palace whether she lives or not.”
Lives or not. There words were so cold, Brea realized they must mean to bring her back to her aunt. After everything, she refused to go back there. What would they do to her after she ran?
She’d made it this far. Neeve’s words came back to her. “Don’t stop until you reach Eldur.”
She couldn’t give up now.
Sparing one more glance for the tent flap and the guards beyond, she pulled her knife free and scooted across the bed to the back of the tent. Gripping the thick material in her shaking fingers, she stabbed the tip of the blade into it and sawed, cutting a line down the tent.
When the slit was big enough, she stuck her head through. Water wicked into her eyes as it streamed down her hair into her face. She glanced up at the stormy sky, hoping the deluge would hide her escape.
She couldn’t make out her surroundings and didn’t know which way to go, but she’d figure that out once she was away from these Fargelsian soldiers. Gripping her knife tightly, she slipped through the opening and jumped to her feet. Pumping her legs, she sprinted as fast as she could for the trees.
Shouting erupted behind her, but she didn’t stop no matter how much her burning legs ached for it. Weakness vibrated through her, but she didn’t give into it. She couldn’t.
Solid ground turned to mud underneath her feet. As more soldiers shouted for her to stop, she had to keep going, wading into the swirling goo. It rose up around her legs the deeper she got, refusing to let her go. By the time the mud reached her thighs, she couldn’t move.
A cry left her lips as she tried to free herself, only managing to get deeper into the mud. A snake slithered by her legs, and she stabbed at it with her knife, flicking it away from her. It hissed and left her alone. This was it. She was going to die stuck in mud in a foreign world as soldiers chased after her during a storm.
She lifted her face to the rain as it broke through the tree cover. “I’m sorry, okay? Whatever I did to deserve this, I didn’t mean it.” She slapped her arm. “Brea Robinson, if there was ever a time to wake up, this is it.” Some small part of her still hoped this was a nightmare, a horrid and all-too-real nightmare.
“Don’t move!” a voice boomed out of the dark.
“Good thing I can’t, then!” she yelled back. “You’re lucky I’m stuck in mud or you’d have never caught me.”
In reality, her escape was doomed from the start. She was a half-human girl who only ran when being chased, not for