Page 101 of Mud

Together, they continued down the branches without bothering to even look at their surroundings until they disappeared from my sight completely.

The animals, whether magical or not, seemed to find the players all on their own, jumping off branches andrunning to get to them. The next I saw was a rabbit—but it must’ve gone through some kind of mutation because it had horns in front of its long ears, and they looked very unusual on his light brown, almost honey-colored fur.

The rabbit hopped and passed two other players I saw in the distance, and just like me, they stopped and looked at it and waited, wondering if it was meant for them, but it wasn’t. The rabbit chased another player—a Whitefire who’d been coming through behind me since that snake killed that man, though he kept a good distance and never said a word.

His hair was cropped short, his face clean shaven. He wasn’t bulky but he was tall, possibly over six five, with light blue eyes and white leathers on his person. Every time I looked back at him, we made eye contact and my instincts insisted that he was…okay. Not harmless, but he wasn’t going to attack me even if he knew I was Mud.

Now, the rabbit ran under the branch we were walking on, then came up between us, right in front of him. They were barely fifteen feet away from me, so I saw it all in detail.

The animal stopped and stared at the Whitefire for a good second before it began the process of rising in the air and shimmering and letting out those small green lights—which were meant to show the level and intensity of magic it possessed.

In the real world, that’s where the process ended. The animal showed what it could do for the mage, and if the mage found it sufficient and compatible with his own energy, he would then choose to do the bonding ritual.

Here, though, it was different. The player had to show the familiar that they could match its magic, that they were compatible with it, and the familiar then chose to bondwith them. It most probably wouldn’t last outside of this game—it’s all a game still—but for now, those animals, whenever they bonded, seemed to lead the players to wherever they needed to go to find the key.

And this Whitefire had enough magic for the horned rabbit’s liking. The creature was absolutely smitten by the man, hopped around him and jumped on his body, sniffing and licking, tickling him in the process. The man laughed, just like the others who bonded. He laughed, and when he turned to look at me for a moment, his whole face had brightened up. He looked like a different person—more youthful, more handsome, just plain…happy.And I could have sworn he told me with his eyes to justhang in there,that this was coming forme, too.

That’s just because he had no clue that I was Mud.

He nodded at me with a wide smile, and I nodded back.Good luck,I thought.

Then his rabbit led him to the other side of the branches, probably to his key.

I was sweating like a pig by the time I saw another two bondings—and a tiny squirrel, no bigger than my hands, kill a Bluefire woman by effortlessly slicing her throat with its sharp little claws when she couldn’t match him.

There was nothing that I nor any of the other players on various levels of the tree could do but watch. These animals pretended we didn’t even exist if we were nottheirplayer, and so all we could do was keep walking and waiting and hoping we could match whatever came for us.

Well—that’s whattheywere going to do, the other players.

As for me, I was pretty sure the time had come to accept the fact that I was going to die.

Impossible to run from the animals—they were toofast, both the bigger and the smaller ones. There were those who tried—they never made it. Impossible to trick them—they were very single-minded from what I could see.Match my magic, and we’ll be the bestest of friends. Fail to do so and die.There was no in-between.

Minutes or hours must have passed, and I held on tightly to my guns, hoping they would, at least, give me a fighting chance. I saw a lot more mages bond with animals big and small, and a lot more still wandering about the trees, searching. Waiting.

I’m going to die at the claws or the teeth—or the tail—of an animal. There are worse ways to go.

At least it wouldn’t be at the hands of Madeline. Anything else I could handle.

My thoughts went chaotic again in no time. I was angry and desperate and so, so afraid I hated it. Fear made me feel weak. Physically I felt even worse, even though my leg barely throbbed. But I’d run and I’d fought in that ghost festival, and I’d thrown up that sandwich I’d eaten near the puddles of blood, so now I felt empty.

I really needed food.

And while we were at it, I needed a bath, too. I was covered in blood and sweat, and?—

A growl filled my ears and vibrated throughout me. I stopped dead in my tracks, and even my heart stopped beating.

With every fiber in me I prayed,please, Iris, no,even though I already knew that it was ayes.

That growl was coming from right behind me.

Chapter 22

Rosabel La Rouge

Present day

My face was so sweaty I could have dipped it into water. My hands, my entire body shook as I slowly turned around to see, praying still that my eyes told me my ears were fucking liars.

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