Page 92 of The Girl in the Forest

Laura walked behind me. I listened to the soft scuff of her rubber-soled shoes. Levi circled through the kitchen, holding up a hand gesture to say all clear.

Go down the hall... find the closet… open the door.

Leave the rest to Levi.

Laura will follow you.

The hall was darkly oppressive. I slid my hand along the wall, found the door handle. The click when the latch slid back was dull and heavy.

Pull outward, fold the door against the wall. Laura will brace it if she finds something. Keep moving regardless.

The runes prickled, but so did the goose bumps rising on my skin from the cold, and I focused on the steps leading down. Dry, not wet or slippery, a small comfort. Laura breathed behind me. I thought she sounded tense. My palm dragged along the rough wooden railing and I worried about splinters.

No sounds other than those we made. The arctic chill meant our breath puffed in ghostly streams. I couldn’t imagine a wounded girl surviving long at this temperature. My heart sank because no white puffs distorted the air, other than those Laura and I made. I pressed my palm against the wall, pulling in heat until a tiny orb of light danced off my fingertips.

Standing in the chilled basement, I slowly circled, chasing the shadows but seeing only a dirty mattress. A discarded blanket. Laura stood beside me. Then, in the walls, archways opened like waking eyes and chaos flowed through. Laura screamed. Overhead, Levi was swearing. What registered was his excruciating pain, followed by a thud that jarred my entire body.

I spun, dragged energy up from the floor and surged it toward the menace rushing toward us. In the semi-dark, streams of flaming light became exotic feathered whips, wielded as if I was an angry demon, and in the ruby illumination, I saw men. Gorgeous, deadly men. Laura was writhing on the floor. Her hands were protecting her face, and it made no sense until the air became thick and choking. Bitter powder coated the back of my throat. Accumulating as if it would suffocate me.

I swallowed, coughed. Fell to my knees.

My fingers clenched around the black sigil.

It felt cold.

CHAPTER 29

Noa

Throughout my childhood, nightmares had always plagued me, and the worst came from the fear of being faille. The fear that—if I wasn’t careful—I could bring something terrifying and evil into the world.

I’d since learned that many monsters ran loose in the world that I’d wanted to protect. Monsters I never would have known about if I wasn’t one of them.

And I was back in the nightmares, in the dark, a night so impenetrable it crushed. Each time I breathed, the stench of rotting things grew more unbearable. Claws were digging into my back, hooking my clothes, ripping and cutting. But I was sane enough to hover on the edge of hysteria. Hover and not fall because the dark always wanted fear. Craved it.

Fear fed the monster.

Open your eyes, Noa.

I refused, needing to thwart the dark. Needing to work through the events that brought me here. I was on my stomach, clenching my fingers in what I thought was dried grass. But the texture was thick, sharp against my palms, with tiny, crackling paper-cut edges slicing into my cheek when I moved my head.

From several feet away, a furtive rustle sent goose bumps racing along my arms, and I knew the sound was meant to alarm me. To force my eyes open. Make me watch as danger approached.

Open your eyes…

My lids fluttered as if my lashes were weighted. Objects swam into focus. I was lying on a hilltop. A woman stood nearby. Her black hair was streaming—silver glinting in the sunlight. Red lips pulled back in a feral smile. She raised her hands and destroyed the people surrounding me, my friends, my found family. My love.

Puffs of blood and ash.

I cried out.

“Noa!” Another voice. A hand pressing against my lips. Someone leaning close. “Please. Open your eyes. Look at me. See me.”

The nightmare snapped out, but the straw beneath my cheek remained. I gagged on the urine stench. Gasped at the red-hot pain in my back, down my left arm. I was feverish while chills locked my muscles. Drool gathered behind my lips, leaked from the corner of my mouth, and I couldn’t stop it.

“Breathe, Noa. Chew these.”

I recognized Laura’s voice. She held a small leaf. My lips parted; she pushed it onto my tongue. Then a second.

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