The sky tears open. The pale gold above us pulls apart, and behind it is nothing, not dark, not light. Just blankness, like the world has been erased from behind the surface.
Grass surges to waist height in seconds. Vines thicken and spread, swallowing rock, bodies, and water. Trees harden, sprouting thorns as long as blades. The rivers slow, choke on plant matter, and lock into solid green ridges.
The ground heaves. Plains rise into jagged hills. The delta reshapes itself into something hostile. The clouds darken to bruised plum and sink lower, pressing down on the world.
Then the edges begin to bend. The landscape warps toward its center, folding in on itself.
Like it’s feeding.
"We are leaving," Peeble says. "Now."
I don’t move. All I can do is take in the chaos happening all around me.
The ground lurches. A vine as thick as a tree trunk bursts from the earth six feet to my left, and I’m dragged back to the present.
"Kaelren!" Peeble is screaming. Actually screaming, which they never do. "The pool! The pool is destabilizing! If we don’t go right now, we don’t go at all!"
I turn and run.
The seeing pool is churning. The dark water has turned to liquid light—silver and gold swirling together, throwing off sparks that burn where they land on the stone rim. The star reflections are gone, replaced by a whirlpool that leads somewhere. Anywhere. Whatever’s on the other side has to be better than here.
A vine lashes at my back. I dodge, feel it graze my armor, but keep running.
The pool’s surface is rising, bulging upward like something is trying to push through from the other side. The liquid light stretches into a dome, and through it I can see Jo’s garden—not reflected, butthere, as if someone punched a hole between here and home and the edges are already fraying.
"Jump!" I yell, raw and desperate. "Peeble, jump now!"
Peeble doesn’t hesitate. They fold their wings and dive headfirst into the light.
A vine snaps at them as they go. It catches the edge of Peeble’s left wing, just the tip, a quarter inch of iridescent membrane,and tears it clean off. Peeble shrieks, more offended than hurt, and disappears through the surface in a spray of silver.
I’m three steps from the pool when the ground beneath me cracks. The rock shelf we’ve been standing on splits down the middle, and I’m falling. Not far, just a few feet, but enough to put the pool above me now. I grab the stone rim with both hands and haul myself up, arms burning, corruption flaring in response to the strain.
Vines are coming. A wall of them, rushing across the delta floor like a green tide, consuming everything in their path. The fighters from Fourteen’s group are already gone, swallowed or fled; I can’t tell. The cathedral is still standing, but it’s growing, absorbing the collapse into itself, becoming the only structure left in a world that’s folding up around it.
I pull myself over the rim and throw my body into the light.
This time when I open my eyes, I’m on a cot in a small cottage. The cot sits beneath a window with white curtains billowing in the breeze. I look around and it's not much more than a little shack made of sticks, but it's homey. There is a small fireplace in the corner with a pot hanging within, obviously some kind of stew cooking. It smells amazing, and I realize I am ravenous.
I keep looking around and see little tinctures on a small table, some plants and herbs growing in pots placed around the open room. And in the far corner, at a large basin, a younger woman is washing dishes.
I freeze.
“Don’t worry,” she chuckles. “If I were going to kill you, I would have done it in your sleep. Would have been a lot easier.”
I slowly sit up in bed and rub the sleep from my eyes. “Where am I?”
“The Red Barrens. Northeastern portion of the realm. A dreadful place, if you ask me.” She turns, heading my way with a cup of something warm.
I balk, afraid it’s coffee. She laughs. I take a good look at her. She’s beautiful. Probably around twenty, long dark hair, emerald eyes full of that particular fae mischief.
“Don’t worry, it’s tea. Nothing poisonous. I figured it would help with hydration. When I found you out in the sand, you’d been there for who knows how long.”
Sand? I peek out the window. Sure enough, nothing but red desert as far as I can see. Crimson dunes glint in the sunlight.
“Who are you? Why are you helping me?”
“My name is Thalia. And I know who you are.”
