Page 40 of Wilds of Wonder
We raced after the bone collector and the beast. The wolf bounded through the tunnel. All the while, the magic was alive and moving across the walls, the floor, the ceiling, in constant motion, slinking everywhere I looked but not attacking us.
I tore my eyes from it to focus on the wolf, which barreled far ahead into the distance, the bolt clutched in its mighty jaws. Maverick reached out his hand, fire snaking along the ground toward the creature, but the wolf was too fast, and his magic couldn’t reach it in time.
A silvery light bled into the tunnel, and I realized I was looking at an opening ahead. A way out of this place. Thank the spirits. I pumped my arms, eager to break free of this cave and figure out where we’d fallen and what in the bloody frost was going on. The wolf leapt through theopening, his howl echoing around us, and Maverick stopped at the entrance, bending over, clutching his sides. Both Driscoll and I reached him, stopping on either side, the wolf nowhere in sight.
But somehow, a ginormous white wolf stealing our bolt after falling hundreds of feet wasn’t the most shocking thing I’d seen today.
I gaped at the world around us.
“Whoa,” Driscoll said, voice full of awe.
It was like our world but not like it. Everything twisted, different, familiar yet not...
Trees peppered the ground around us, the size of my hand. Flowers stretched up as tall as trees, their petals all varieties of bright colors. Mushrooms spread across the ground, same height as me, bright orange with red spots, lavender with blue spots, fuchsia pink with black spots. Hills punctured the distance, the grass covered with a black shimmery dust that I could not make sense of. Wind picked up and lifted the dust so it swirled around us.
I rubbed my eyes. “Are you both seeing what I’m seeing?”
“So we are dead,” Driscoll said, swallowing thickly. “We’re in Galaysia. Or the Underearth.” He swallowed again.
“No,” Maverick said, voice hard as he stared out at this strange world. “We’re not in either of those places.”
I threw a glare at him. “Then please enlighten us, O Wise One. Where are we?”
His gaze didn’t waver as he brushed past me, stepping outside the tunnel. “We’re in the Deadlands. Welcome to the star court.”
Chapter Twenty-One
EMORY
Aroaring sound filled my ears, and my vision went hazy. Maverick had said the Deadlands. We were in the Deadlands. That couldn’t be true. No one went to the Deadlands. Not after it had been closed off all those years ago after the horrors of the Shadow War.
My heart hammered in my chest so hard it ached, and I was having a hard time catching my breath. I faintly heard the sound of a body thumping to the ground, of Maverick grumbling to himself, but it was hard to focus on anything but his words echoing in the empty chambers of my mind.
“Welcome to the star court.”
“Will you help me, for spirits’ sake?” a voice yelled, distant, hard to focus on.
“Welcome to the star court.”
If we were in Shiraeth, then we’d never leave. We’d fallen through a hole to get here. A hole we wouldn’t be able to climb back up. I whirled around and my vision cleared as I saw the entrance to the tunnel we’dcome out of closing, vines and ice and fire and water all mixing to create prison bars that looked impenetrable.
“Welcome to the star court.”
“Help me get him up, damnit!”
Everything snapped back into sharp focus. Maverick knelt on the ground next to Driscoll, who was unconscious, his head bleeding. I ran to him, lifting his head, parting his coiled hair to look at the wound on his scalp, a bloody rock next to him that he must’ve fallen on.
“It’s not deep,” I said. “Just a superficial cut. He likely fainted from shock, not blood loss.”
“I told you not to follow me.” Maverick glared at me from the other side of Driscoll with those coppery brown eyes that held so much passion, so much ire. All directed at me.
“I told you this wasn’t one of our games,” he continued. “Why wouldn’t you listen? Now you’ve made a complete mess of everything.”
He shrugged off his coat, revealing his white button-up with those damn fitted trousers and suspenders that hugged his muscled arms and chest.
“Me?” I placed a hand on my chest. “I’ve made a mess of things? You’re the one who had to drag me into your office and question me.”
“I saved you.” He scoffed. “If I hadn’t insisted you come with me, you’d be at the frost castle right now, likely being arrested and thrown into the ice prisons.”
