by Evelyn Avery
Unless I stopped him now.
Shoving at a chest harder than a rock wall, I glared up into his mercurial eyes. “Let me pass.”
He sighed as if disappointed. “As you wish.”
Glass fractured behind him as if struck with something heavy. I winced as shards flew in every direction, bracing myself for the stinging pain that never actually came.
Blinding light reflected off the shards of glass, filling my gaze with painful brightness. The room spun around me, making me dizzy and disoriented. I felt Chloe’s arms come around me as the glass between us shattered.
The last thing I heard before I passed out was the Erlking’s laughter.
“I think she’s coming around.”
“She’s been out for a while. You don’t think she has brain damage, do you?”
“I am not sure what you mean by damage to the brain. Her head appears to be quite intact.”
“No, that’s not—you know what, never mind. Izzy, it’s time to wake up. I can’t deal with this nonsense on my own.”
I heard the familiar voices distantly as if they came from a million miles away. My head ached and my eyes already burned even before I opened them to greet the light. I was completely over passing out if it meant waking up still in the Underground.
A dark shape moved over my vision, blocking out the low sun that hung near the far horizon. It took a few minutes for me to realize it was a person and that I hadn’t so much passed out as gone temporary blind and deaf.
Chloe’s face coalesced first as she leaned over me while I slumped on the ground. “Oh, thank God.”
We wrapped our arms around each other in the kind of hug you have when you’ve survived a near-death experience. I only let go of her to push up on my knees.
Puck leaned over me on the other side, a cheeky grin on his face that almost distracted me from his black eye and the scratches along his face. “Don’t stop on our account.”
I struggled into a standing position as the world tilted around me, waving off their hands when they tried to help me up. That was when I noticed Tamlin standing a few respectful feet away, cheeks stained pink as one hand rested on the pommel of his sword.
“You’re alive.” I groaned as I forced myself to my feet. Every part of my body ached like I’d just been hit by a Mack truck. Looking around me, I realized that we were no longer inside the Mirror Maze or even the fairgrounds. Behind us was a darkened building that looked vaguely like an abandoned warehouse. “I was so worried.”
“Those werewolves were no match for us.” Puck grinned widely, then immediately winced in pain. “You should have seen it.”
Tamlin was considerably more circumspect. “They had little interest in us. As soon as you escaped, we were able to evade them.”
I didn’t want to think about the werewolves or anything else that might possibly be imagined into this world by an errant thought. “We need to get moving. How much time has passed?”
“Too much and also not enough.” Puck held up the end of the lariat, the third stone from the bottom glowed a bright blue. “Less than three hours left.”
Nearly out of time.
I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the overwhelming nausea that made me wonder if I was about to throw up. That only reminded me that I hadn’t eaten in hours, although it felt like significantly more time had passed. As if perfectly timed, my stomach rumbled loudly.
Tamlin turned to me with a concerned expression. “Are you alright?”
“She’s hungry,” Chloe grumbled, rolling her eyes. “And so am I, for that matter.”
“We can’t eat anything here,” I told her as I took a step forward and stumbled, catching Puck’s arm to steady myself. If I was a different sort of girl, I’d be asking him to carry me. Okay, I’m definitely that sort of girl, but I needed to keep it together right now. “If you do, then anything you try to eat back in the human world will turn to dust in your mouth, and you’ll eventually starve to death. Everyone knows that.”
She rolled her eyes with a patient sigh. “You should really stop saying that. Some of us didn’t spend our entire lives reading fairy tales.”
“If we get out of this alive, you and I are paying a visit to the local library.”
“We should get moving.” Puck’s gaze squinted at the horizon, where a too-bright sun hung low in the sky. The cycle of sunrise to sunset clearly didn’t follow the same pattern as they did in the real world. The moon had been out when we entered the memory palace. “We have to reach the waters that surround the Erlking’s castle before the sun sets.”
“Or what?” I asked, even though I probably didn’t want to know. It was hard to decide which was worse, the anticipation of what might be coming next, or the reality of knowing just how bad it would be.
But Puck only sighed. “The waters should not be sailed at night, let’s just leave it at that.”
I got serious Wizard of Oz vibes as we started down the path and away from the abandoned mirror maze. It was amazing how much less terrifying it seemed now that we were outside of it. But I was more than happy to put it behind us. The Erlking’s words echoed in my mind.
You’ve always known that world wasn’t meant for you.
Because that was always how I’d felt. Even as a child with barely any self-awareness at all, a deep malaise overlaid everything I did. I had to be the only toddler who finger-painted exclusively in the blue and black colors of clinical depression.
As if sensing the direction of my thoughts, Chloe fell into step behind me with an unreadable expression on her face. “What did the Erlking say to you before he copped a feel?”
How the hell was I supposed to respond to that? Playing for time, I asked. “You didn’t hear any of it?”
“Uh, there was a six-inch wall of glass between us that appeared there by magic, so no. I didn’t hear anything.”
“He was just taunting me.” I stared into the barren crop of trees ahead of us, looking for a distraction that I knew I wasn’t going to find. “Just trying to get me to give up because he knows how close we are to making it through this.”
“The Erlking is known for his deceptions.” Tamlin’s solemn voice washed over us from where he walked a few feet ahead, sword out and at the ready. He always looked ready for battle, seeming almost disappointed with every moment that passed in which we weren’t attacked by something. “I would give much to see him defeated.”
The Erlking had turned him to stone and forced him to guard the diverging entrance to the labyrinth. But I hadn’t asked him anything else about it. Whatever story he had to tell would make a great distraction from Chloe’s questions.
“Will you tell us what happened?” I lengthened my stride to catch up with Tamlin, while Chloe followed me, and Puck ambled along behind. “Why did he turn you to stone?”
Voice like tumbling stones, Tamlin spared me the smallest glance from the path ahead as he spoke. “The Erlking discovered that I had defied his direct orders and helped someone that I should not have. His precise words were something along the lines if you can’t be of any use to me as a man, then you might as well be made of stone.
I waited a beat for him to tell us more, but he remained silent. “What did you do?”
His stoic face gave nothing away, so expressionless, it could still be made of stone. “I am forbidden to say.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out who was responsible for that. “The Erlking is a dick.”
Tamlin shrugged, even as the barest hint of a smile touched his lips. It was the closest I’d seen him to showing any kind of amusement. “The Underground is his domain. Everything here must bow to his whims while he still rules.”
“And that’s all you’re going to say about it?”
“Indeed.”
“But he hasn’t always ruled here,” I pointed out. “Kings can be overthrown.”
“Dangerous words,” Tamlin murmured. “It is true that there have been challengers for the throne before and may be again. B
ut there are more destructive forces in the universe than the Erlking. We should speak no more on the subject.”
I had the feeling that he would have said more if it weren’t certain that the Erlking was listening to us.
Puck skipped to catch up with us. The movement would have been childlike if not for the daggers still gripped in his hands. He seemed like the type to leap into battle with a smile on his face, eyes shining with mirth while he wielded a blade with deadly intent. But when he spoke, there was a note of gravity in his voice that I’d never heard before.
“The Erlking has always been difficult to please, but nothing compares to his rage at the fall of his kingdom. Few have displeased him as much as we have and survived to tell the tale.” Sharp teeth glinted in his feral smile, and his eyes simmered. “I can only imagine what his reaction will be when you arrive to challenge him. It will be epic.”
“And what did you do?” I asked, genuinely curious. “I know you were his jester. Did you tell him all about himself without getting a laugh?”
Puck’s smile was grim, but his gaze grew hooded. “I witnessed the escape of one of his prisoners. When he demanded to know which way they had gone, I refused to tell him.”
It surprised me that he would stick his neck out that way. “Why?”
He quickened his pace so that he was ahead of me, and I could no longer see his expression. There was a tense set to his shoulders. “You have never seen what the Erlking does to his prisoners.”
Which only made me think about Vaughn and what kind of shape he’d be in when we finally found him. And I was the dumb bitch who let the Erlking feel her up while her closest friend suffered unimaginable torture.
The surroundings had only grown more desolate as we’d gotten closer to the Erlking’s castle. I knew we’d seen the last of the manufactured realities he created from our minds, and this was the true nature of this realm. Dead trees and overgrown brush surrounded us as we walked a path that was full of broken, jagged stones. We had to be close to the seat of his power because this was a land that appeared to be dying from the inside out.
I found it so difficult to make sense of what I saw of this place and what I thought I would see. My fantasy was like an overlay or augmented reality, but the images never quite matched up.
Chloe had fallen quiet on my other side as she listened to the conversation. Her gaze moved over our surroundings with wary curiosity, making me realize that she hadn’t seen much of it before we found her.
Hopefully, this wouldn’t be the last thing she ever got to see.
The salty smell of the sea burned in my nostrils, and I heard the splash of lapping waves. We’d come upon what looked like a long river, but it smelled of a briny ocean. I could see the spires of the Erlking’s castle off in the distance. Close enough to feel that we were almost upon it, but much too far to swim.
A dock made of rotting wood swayed precariously on the shore with the volatile blue water lapping against the rocks surrounding it. Broken boats with their rigging half-submerged and upside down hulls floated around it. Only one ship appeared to be even remotely intact, although that word was a stretch. The thing creaked loudly as it rocked against the dock with wooden sides that had been bleached by the sun. It didn’t look like it could withstand a strong wind, much less a trip across those dark and turbulent waters.
The sun sank slowly in the sky, the lowest part of its curve dipping just below the line of the distant horizon beyond the Erlking’s castle. I remembered what Puck had said about the danger of crossing the sea at night.
“This can’t be the only way across,” I said, though I knew it had to be. Even as I looked around us, the nearly setting sun made this desolate place seem somehow even more unnerving. I imagined that I saw hundreds of beady eyes peering at us in the brush, glowing faintly in the quickly dimming light. Dark shapes moved under the water that I could barely make out. I just knew that whatever twisted creatures remained as this world died would come out to play once night fell. “Are you sure we can’t just go around.”
“This sea stretches from one end of the realm to the other. It must be traversed to reach the Erlking’s castle.” Tamlin’s voice was matter-of-fact, facial expression neutral, but I knew that his stiffness hid his apprehension. “Boat is the only way to reach the castle.”
Chloe crossed her arms over her chest, shivering as a cold wind picked up and blew in from the water. “Someone should let the city planners around here know that bridges are a thing.”
“It’s further than you think,” Puck replied flatly. “And if you had any idea what lies beneath those waves, then you’d know that no one is going to build a bridge anytime soon.”
I fucking hated boats.
A comforting hand came to rest on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Tamlin’s reassuring smile. It was only then that I realized I had grabbed his arm and was digging in hard enough with my nails to leave marks on a normal man. The lariat draped partially over his chest, where it had caught on the plate of his armor. All but two of the stones glowed brightly, taunting me in dramatic and beautiful color with how little time we had left to escape this place.
Barely two hours left to cross the sea and enter the Erlking’s castle.
I couldn’t let fear get the best of me.
“I hope one of you knows how to sail,” I grumbled
“The boat navigates on its own.” Puck tried to sound reassuring as he said it, but nothing about that idea made me feel any better.
We were just going to have to trust the magic boat to take us where we needed to go and not straight to the bottom of the sea. Something splashed in the water nearby, and I quickened my steps, climbing up the gangplank as it swayed underneath me in a way that made me nauseous with fear.
I really hated boats.
Its name was written in chipped white paint on a wooden slat nailed to the side, just above the line of the water. The Bittersweet Lament.
“That’s not ominous at all,” I muttered to myself, wishing I was anywhere but here. It wasn’t as if I loved heights, but I almost would have rather flown over this stupid sea than sailed across it. Something about being stuck on a floating piece of driftwood out in the middle of that dark water, with no knowledge of what lay beneath it, terrified me.
Onboard, everything stank of salt and rotten fish, with a nice overlay of rotting wood. I wondered how long it would take for mildew to start growing on my dress from all the fetid moisture in the air. I looked down at myself for a bare moment, unsurprised to find that the white silk and pale lace were untouched by dirt or grime, as pristine as it had been when the Erlking first magicked the dress onto my body.
I could probably rip the thing away, and before I even laid eyes on my naked body, the dress would be back in place and perfect. If it weren’t for my audience, I might actually try it.
The moment all of us were aboard, the gangplank disappeared. I couldn’t say if it fell into the water without a splash or simply vanished into thin air. Either way, when I looked back over the side, it was gone. I had to hold onto the rail to avoid tipping over into the water as the boat suddenly lurched to the side and away from the dock, sailing toward the center of the vast sea.
Faint luminescence shone in a winding path on the water, like a trail leading us to the center of the sea where the Erlking’s castle stood. My gaze followed it to the distant shore that I could just barely make out through the shadows cast in the pattern of dense trees by the setting sun.
“The journey should take about an hour.” Tamlin spoke from where he stood at the helm, which moved on its own as if guided by invisible hands. “You should try to rest while you can, I will stand guard.”
Exhaustion made me dizzy on my feet, although I knew it would be impossible to actually get any sleep. I was alert with fear and anticipation. For a moment, I found myself staring at the distant castle, its spires just barely visible in the growing shadows. The Erlking waited there, sat up on his throne of thorns while he imagined
just what he would do to us if I let him win.
I couldn’t let him win.
Puck came up behind me, hand brushing my waist so lightly that I barely felt the touch. “You look like you’re about to fall right over. There’s a sleeping berth here at the stern. Come lay down.”
There was no point in arguing, even though I found it hard to tear my gaze away from the castle. I imagined that I could see inside of it, straight to the center where the Erlking awaited us. Some force connected us, drawing a line from my soul to his that drew tauter the closer I got to the seat of his power. I wanted to believe that this link was simply malevolent, more evidence of his manipulation, but a small part of me wondered if it was something more.
Firm hands on my shoulders guided me away from the rail and toward the rear of the ship, where a small shelf had been built into the wooden wall along the far side. Thin blankets had been shoved into a haphazard pile, and I forced myself not to think about how long it had been since they were last washed.
Puck climbed in first, tucking his long body against the wall to make room for me. He held out his arm with a gentle smile on his face as I crawled in after him. His arm came down around me and tucked me even further against him, his chest at my back. He bent his other arm under my head, so I could use it as a makeshift pillow, the position far more comfortable than it should have been given the tiny space.
Soothing warmth rose from his skin, wrapping around me in a way that encouraged a relaxation just short of slumber. It made me feel secure and comforted, even though I knew the feeling wouldn’t last long. But this was a nice reprieve, like the calm before the storm.
Across the boat, Tamlin still stood at the helm with his hands at his hips as he stared off into the distance. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would remain in that same position for the entirety of the voyage, like a sentry prepared to respond to any threat. It made me wonder if the remnants of his position as a stone guard would fade with time or if he would always be this way.
