Page 92 of Kingdoms of Night

He turned back toward the hill. “Idalno?”

She’d vanished. A loud splash followed.

He ran to the top of the hill and peered over the edge, wolves at his side.

The hill disappeared in a sheer drop of more than twelve feet, into a massive lake of murky water dotted with lily pads, swirls of thick reeds, and something like kelp. A frothy ripple disturbed the surface, probably where Idalno had fallen. Just as he prepared to jump in after her, her head popped up and she gulped in a breath.

“Idalno, are you all right?” he called down to her.

She treaded water, frowning until she looked around. Her brow creased. “I’m fine, but—but this doesn’t look right.”

He blinked. No, it really didn’t. Where had this lake come from all of a sudden? More magic? It was as if the very air shimmered around him, humming in his ears.

He took a step back. The hill and forest appeared to continue without interruption, all rich greens dotted with bright flowers.

When he moved to the edge of the hilltop once more, it transformed, as if someone had taken a great knife and sliced the hill in two. The lake appeared to curl around the hill itself, and everything around it had gone murkier and darker. Large bald cypresses and strangler figs sprawled together, forming a dense and unnerving tangle.

“Can you swim to shore?” he called down, leaning forward.

“Yes.” She started to the left.

“I’ll help you out.” He headed in the same direction, but as soon as he moved away from the hilltop, the dim forest with the murky waters vanished.

The wolves whined.

He blinked.What is this?

It’s one of the places that doesn’t make sense,Buttercup said.It shouldn’t be here, but it is.

Not really helpful.Puck, you sick bastard.

Idalno cried out again, the sound more frustrated than pained.

He ran back to the hilltop, his head buzzing as he reached the edge.

Although he’d seen her swimming toward the left with his own eyes, Idalno now treaded water almost exactly where she’d begun, her teeth gritted and the pack still strapped over her shoulder. “Why did you go back?”

“I was swimming toward the shore, and my feet had just touched the bottom when it pulled me back here! Right back to where I started.”

Even though she’d swum toward the shore, just when she’d almost reached it, she’d been brought back to the start. Had they strayed too far from one another? It felt like he’d been able to get much farther when they’d been in Lambton.

This had to be some more of Puck’s mischief. The sick bastard was probably watching this somewhere and cackling in amusement. They needed to get to the castle before Puck’s curse reduced him to carrying Idalno on his shoulders like he did with Annette.

Water dripped down Idalno’s face, trickling from her styled and pinned braids. Her heavy eyeliner ran, seeping into growing black stains.

She froze, her eyes widening until the whites showed all the way around. “Something touched my leg.”

A dark shape moved in the water near her, long and lithe.

The wolves barked, then growled, raising their hackles.

Another long dark shape moved in the water.

No more time to make sense of this.

He set the teapot down and leaped off.

Cold waters engulfed him. He plunged down into the depths until his boots scraped the bottom. He kicked up, pushing through slimy kelp, half-expecting sharp teeth to puncture his leg or tear into his torso.

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