by Gina LaManna
I left Hettie to explain, turning my focus back to the pitch. I watched Zin as she leaned against the door, her face pained while an unseen battle raged behind her eyelids. To the left of her station stood Camden.
He, too, crumpled in front of his own doorway. Eyes closed, arms shaking in what I could only imagine was terror. Then his whole body began to tremble, wracked with shivers until suddenly—he stopped moving.
Goosebumps raced across my skin. He stood still, so still I couldn’t tell if he was breathing. I watched him carefully, the eerie stillness making me wonder if he’d become unconscious.
Then all at once, his eyes flashed open, revealing black pits in his handsome face.
My heart raced. My arm flew out and clasped Poppy across the chest. “Did you see that?”
“What?” Poppy tilted her head back, throwing popcorn into the air. “I’ve caught fifteen in a row. Don’t break my streak.”
Hettie stood abruptly. “I need to go. Lily, come with—”
A strangled cry bubbled in my throat. I lunged for the edge of the railing, my arm outstretched. The rest of the viewers in the box stared in mute horror as I leaned over the edge as far as I could go, screaming for Ranger X at the top of my lungs.
Everything happened fast. Too fast. Camden’s eyes dilated. His hands jerked with robotic movements, sliding an item from his pocket. He swiveled to face Zin, his eyes filled with the same hungry expression she’d described.
“Zin!” The cry caught in my throat.
There was no way she’d heard me. Her body sagged against the door, her eyes scrunched closed against the nightmares holding her captive as Camden marched swiftly toward her.
Ranger X broke into a sprint, his lips moving with unheard words. Camden flinched as X closed the distance, but the magic-free arena muted the effects of any spells.
Camden reached Zin before X. A glint of metal in his hand reflected sunshine. A knife.
“Lily, do something!” Poppy’s fingers closed over my shirt, shaking me. “He’s going to hurt her!”
Camden stood over Zin. Sweat glistened on her forehead while she lay on the ground, oblivious to the man standing over her. As he raised his arm, the tip of the knife flashed, then soared through the air and straight toward Zin.
Poppy screamed as panic erupted in the stands around us. My eyes remained glued open, fixed on the commotion below, watching as Ranger X dove toward the pair.
At the same time, Zin shifted from her human form.
Her sleek, jaguar body leaped for the doorway behind her just as Ranger X hurtled toward Camden. X missed the Candidate, but the distraction was enough to knock him off balance and allow Zin to crash through the doorway and onto the other side.
Camden recovered, lunging for her, but he was too far behind. Zin had already begun shifting back to her human form, a limp figure on the ground as X tore Camden away from her, pinning him to the ground.
My breath came out in a whoosh, and I shook Poppy. “It’s okay, they’re okay.”
Ranger X ripped the knife from Camden’s grasp and flung it to another Ranger. The rest of the Rangers had rushed onto the arena, now flanking the fallen Candidate. One of them clasped Camden’s hands in a pair of magic-proof handcuffs.
Zin stood on the other side of the door, her face pale. Her body trembled from head to toe as Rangers surrounded her. I couldn’t pull my eyes from her face, my mind plagued with thoughts of what if. What if Ranger X hadn’t been fast enough? What if Camden had struck one second sooner? What if…
“Lily,” a soft, male voice whispered in my ear. “Come with me—there is work to be done.”
I turned to find Liam’s arm grasping mine. The Companion who’d been situated near the rear of the box was no longer in sight, and I wondered if that’d been Liam’s doing.
A fury burned in his eyes. “This is a one-time offer, and it expires in ten seconds. If you ever want to find The Puppeteer, follow me.”
CHAPTER 16
“Where are we going?” I asked for the third time. “Nobody is around, you can speak, Liam.”
He marched ahead, ignoring my questions. The day after X caught me outside of the B&B, I had updated Hettie on my meeting with Liam. She hadn’t seemed surprised by anything he’d told me. Almost as if she’d known what he would say before he’d said it.
If I’d thought Liam had been emotional last week, it was nothing compared to now. Anger ran in his veins, radiated from his eyes. His words were short, piercing the air like gunshots. “I’ll explain when we’ve arrived.”
He’d taken me on a roundabout path outside of the arena, avoiding the stares of curious onlookers. We walked for nearly thirty minutes in zigzags until I finally recognized our location—Midge’s B&B.
“She keeps this route quiet.” Liam fished a key out of his pocket and unlocked the back door. “Private business matters, you see, so please don’t announce this entrance to anyone else.”
“I understand.”
Liam marched up the spiraling staircase that wound through the rear of the inn. When we reached the top, he stopped and turned to me. “I apologize in advance.”
“For what?”
In answer, he knocked three times on the door to the highest room in the building. It was the only room on the floor, and as I waited for something to happen, I glanced uneasily around the empty hallway.
“Nothing to be nervous about yet,” Liam said, a tight smile on his lips. “In fact, it might just be a pleasant surprise.”
Then, someone answered his knock, and the door opened from inside.
“Ainsley!” My heart pounded at the sight of my former assistant. “What are you doing here?”
She rushed to me, opening her arms wide and bringing me in for a long overdue hug. “Hi there, boss. It’s good to see you.”
A burst of happiness had me staring dumbly back at her. “What are you doing here? I heard about everything. You were working for MAGIC, Inc. the whole time?”
She nodded. “I’m sorry I couldn’t say anything to you sooner, but it was my job.”
“I understand,” I said. “When Hettie told me, I was shocked.”
On the day Hettie had invited me into The Core, she’d explained that Ainsley—my former assistant at Lions Marketing, Inc.—was a Guardian witch. The whole time she had been my assistant, she’d really been working for the paranormal version of the FBI, tasked to keep me safe until I reached The Isle.
She grinned that familiar, mischievous smile. She’d always been a little bit different; her hair boasted a streak of purple, her arm a sleeve of tattoos, and her sense of humor was a little off-color. She’d been my best friend. “I’ve missed you, boss.”
A blush of embarrassment crept so far onto my cheeks it might have reached my forehead. “I can’t believe I ever asked you to help me with expense reports!”
Ainsley waved a hand. “It was fun. Turns out I have a knack for marketing, I’m pretty sure.”
“So, what brings you to our lovely island?” I asked. “New assignment?”
“Nah. In fact, I’m funemployed at the moment.”
“You quit your job at MAGIC, Inc.?”
“I’m in between gigs,” she said, waving a hand. “I’ve started to use the term freelancer.”
My eyes widened. “Was it because of me?”
“Nah, I’m just kidding. You were my last target, and I haven’t been reassigned yet so I built in a little vacation to the island. You know, beaches and whatnot.”
“The beaches?” I raised an eyebrow. She didn’t seem like the beachy type.
“I asked her to come by.” Liam stepped forward. “I’m about to disclose incredibly dangerous information to you, Lily, and you’ll need help on your journey.”
“My journey?” I looked between the two. “What journey?”
“I am going to tell you the location where you’ll find the Witch of the Woods,” Liam said. “And I knew you wouldn’t ask for help. I’d also heard the two of you were g
ood friends, and when I asked Ainsley about it—”
“I said rock on,” Ainsley finished. “So, who’s the Witch of the Woods, and why are we going after her?”
“She is one of only two people in this entire world who thoroughly understands the power of mind bending.” Liam cleared his throat. “I know Camden personally, and I know his father. I was there in the stands today watching, and that… that monster in the arena wasn’t Camden.”
“The Puppeteer,” I said. “She’s back.”
He gave the subtlest of nods. “Camden’s family does not deserve to be disgraced in such a way. He’d never…” Liam paused to clear his throat. “Camden will never forgive himself once he hears what happened—I think it’s safe to assume he won’t remember anything after the Trial began.”
“You want us to set the record straight,” Ainsley said. “And the only way to do that is to find this Puppeteer.”
“These matters should not be discussed in a hallway.” Liam pushed past us and into the room. “Close the door behind you.”
I’d expected the room to be Liam’s, but once I stepped inside, I realized it belonged to Ainsley. A funky suitcase sat on the bed, her clothes spilling out of it. Pink frills lined every surface of the room, complemented by airy yellow walls—the exact opposite of everything Ainsley stood for with her dark hair and tattoos.
“Sit anywhere,” she said. “Make yourselves at home. I have wine or more wine. Midge really stocked the room for me.”
I passed on the wine, as did Liam. A small desk was pushed against the corner—old school and antique looking, and it was the perfect height for me to lean a hip against. Ainsley plopped on the fluffy white comforter draped across a bed accented by pastel pillows.
Liam stood next to the window, staring out over the water while we got situated. The anger he’d carried into the room seemed to have burned away, replaced by a glimmer of uncertainty when he turned to face us. “It’s not too late to say no. That goes for both of you.”
I folded my hands over my lap. “Zin is my family. I won’t stand around and watch as the Candidates are picked off one by one.”
“I’m not the beachy type.” Ainsley eyed the bottle of wine, and then turned her attention to Liam. “And anyway, vacations are overrated. Tell us what to do.”
“You may want to write this down,” Liam said. “I will only explain the instructions once.”
I dug in the old desk, finding a quill and a piece of parchment inside. The top of the paper was decorated by a letterhead that read Midge’s Memos. “Ready.”
“Through the trees and to the peak,
Where you must find the will to speak
To the Witch of the Woods who rules this place,
If the test is passed, you’ll find her embrace.”
Ainsley snorted. “Really, Liam? Rhymes?”
“He always does rhymes,” I said. “He did this last time he sent me into The Forest, too.”
“Directions through The Forest are liquid,” he said. “Poems are like music—they may use the same notes over and over again, but each time they’re played something is a little bit different. An accent here, a trill there, a tiny, itsy bitsy breath that wasn’t there before. Just like The Forest.”
Ainsley held out her hand, and I tossed her the notepad. She read the directions over. “I have no clue what this means, but I suppose we’ll figure it out. Can we get a few snacks to take with us? We might get lost.”
Liam’s face paled. “I can’t believe I’m sending the two of you into The Forest. Together.”
“Come on, Lil,” Ainsley said. “Let’s go before Liam changes his mind.”
“I’ll catch up with you in a second,” I told Ainsley as she bolted for the stairs. “I forgot one thing.”
Once her footsteps had disappeared and her low murmurs with Midge in the lobby floated up the staircase, I faced Liam. He’d resumed staring at the lake beyond the window.
“Hey,” I said, taking soft steps toward him. “Is everything okay? I’ve never seen you like this before.”
When he turned back, his face was a mess of frustration and anger and sadness. “I hate asking you to do this, to find the Witch of the Woods. If I thought I could do it, I would, but I don’t have the skills.”
“I asked you for this information. You’re hardly forcing it on me.”
He looked down and stared intently at the floor for a long while before speaking. “We’re dealing with dangerous magic, Lily. I don’t know what will happen. I don’t have the right answers.”
“Nobody does. That’s why we have to work together and figure it out.”
“I am never emotional. Never. That’s why I’m good at my job. It’s the same reason my business has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, and it’s the reason that I can keep a secret. I care about neither fame nor glory. I don’t even particularly care for money, so long as I have enough of it. I don’t—”
“Liam, stop.” I cut him off and moved farther into the room, closing the door behind me. “What do you care about, then? What’s making you so upset?”
He inhaled, long and slow. Obviously stalling. “I don’t know.”
“Guess.”
“I broke down just now and gave you directions to someplace you should never have to venture. For the wrong reasons—because I was angry, upset at what’s happening to the Candidates. Raymon didn’t deserve to die. Neither does Zin, and Camden… none of them deserve what they’ve been put through. It has to stop!”
I remained silent for a long second, the aftershocks of Liam’s frustration fading into the air.
Then I took a chance and stepped forward. Liam didn’t have an opportunity to move before I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight to my chest. He didn’t return the embrace for a long time, until finally he relented, his shoulders relaxing.
I didn’t know what it meant, or why I’d done it. All I’d known was that Liam needed someone to lean on, and I was there to help. I said goodbye, brushing an echo of a kiss against his cheek.
“Everything okay?” Ainsley asked as I joined her out front a few minutes later. “I don’t know Liam all that well, but… he seemed upset.”
I nodded. “I think he’ll be fine.”
“Then let’s find this Witch of the Woods.”
CHAPTER 17
“How do you know all of these things?” I asked, not for the first time, as Ainsley knelt against the forest floor. “I’d have been lost a hundred times already if it wasn’t for you.”
“Stuff sinks into my brain over time.” She fingered the petals of a leaf, her face scrunched in thought. “Okay, we’re headed in the right direction. I’m assuming that ‘the peak’ in Liam’s stupid poem is the top of the volcano. These Fire Bird flowers can only grow if there’s heat under the ground. We follow these, and we’re good to go.”
I looked down at unique flowers that I’d never seen before, neither on The Isle nor on the mainland. They looked like miniature roaring lions—the mouth of the flower opening and closing as Ainsley pinched the base of the bloom.
“Watch this,” she said, holding the mouth of the flower open. “Watch closely, don’t even blink.”
As she squeezed the lip of the bright red flower, the tiniest noise erupted from it. Like a garbled hiccup. At the same time, a tiny blip of fire shot out of the flower and blossomed into the air above it.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or look amazed.
“Cool, huh?” She stood up and didn’t look the slightest bit unnerved by the fire-breathing flower. “Really handy to know if you’re ever lost in the woods. If you find one of these guys, you can use it to get your bonfire going. Most people are scared of ’em, but if you treat them correctly, they just might save your life. Anyway, they grow near volcanoes. I think we can continue on this way.”
“So, how have you been since…” We walked in silence for a moment. “Well, since I left?”
“Oh, I’ve been good,” she said, her smile falt
ering a bit.
“C’mon, Ains. You worked next to me for years. I can tell when something’s on your mind. Spill!”
She grinned. “There’s a boy.”
“I knew it! Tell me all about him.”
Ainsley filled me in on a long, drawn-out story about a human policeman who’d accidentally knocked Ainsley right off her new broomstick. From there, it’d been love at first sight. Sort of cute, in a strange way.
“It’s just challenging because he’s a mortal. There’s always a bit of a learning curve when you break the news to a human about being a witch and whatnot. I mean, you know the drill. Anyway, is island life treating you well? You look great, all tan and stuff.”
“There’s a boy for me, too,” I said. “His name is Ranger X—”
“Okay, I knew about the boy,” Ainsley said. “He’s a hottie. I approve.”
“Who told you?”
Ainsley gave me a skeptical glance. “Lil, when you snag the hottest, most unavailable bachelor on the island, people are gonna talk.”
The back of my neck burned. “Oh.”
“Don’t be embarrassed; it’s all good talk,” Ainsley assured me. “Plus, how sweet is it that he changed laws that were hundreds of years old just so you could be together? Hello, Romeo.”
“He is wonderful,” I said, but when I smiled, it was forced. “Sometimes, I think he’s too good to be true.”
Ainsley stopped to burp another Fire Bird, this time lighting a strange little cigarette. I’d only ever seen one like it in Ferrah’s hand, the fairy who’d greeted me during my first visit into The Forest. “Why the long face? Of course you deserve him! Is there something you’re not telling me?”
I hesitated. “I can’t say.”
“Is it about The Core? If so, I know about it.”
“What?” I stopped walking. “How? When? What?”
She winked, plucked a Fire Bird, and put it behind her ear. “Your grandmother met with me this morning and filled me in on everything. She invited me to join, and of course I accepted.”
“Seriously?” My jaw dropped. “She’d hinted about a girl joining The Core, but I never once thought it’d be you!”
