Page 46 of Wilds of Wonder
I was going to be as fearless as my little rabbit.
Chapter Twenty-Three
MAVERICK
Ishouldn’t have cared so much about this woman. I didn’t want to think about her. She’d murdered her husband. I clearly didn’t know her as well as I’d thought.
I stalked through the flowers, and every time one of them rustled or moved, I let my fire magic flare to life. I might die here, but I’d be damned if it was because a giant flower ate me.
I couldn’t say I was entirely surprised by this strange world. Annalee had prepared me for it, after all. Not that I’d believed her. I’d been too preoccupied with work, with getting a job at the academy, to pay her any time of day. Just another way I’d failed her. Another reason this was all my fault.
I reached into my satchel and pulled out her final note, staring at it before carefully folding it and putting it back. The field of flowers ended, opening up to a forest of blackened trees, all of them with branches in the shapes of... arms. Eyes peeked out from the darkness, but as I got closer, I realized it wasn’t random creatures lurking in the forest like I’d assumed. It was the trees. They had eyes, all colors of irises, staring, following my every move.
I had to blink a few times just to make sure this was real.
Oh Annalee, I’m so sorry for ever doubting you.
And now I didn’t even have the fucking bolt. Because of Emory. Without the bolt and its power, I didn’t know how I’d fare here. I did have something, though. I had Annalee’s stories. Everything she’d told me about this place when I’d actually bothered to listen.
The seeing trees and the singing flowers and the lake that told you your future and so much more.
And I’d brushed it all off as nothing but fanciful tales. Just like my parents had. Only I was worse. Because, in the end, I left her.
Now I was here, but I had no idea where she was in this spirits-damned land. She hadn’t prepared me for that part.
I entered the dark forest, the eyes all swaying in my direction. If I didn’t already have a mission to complete, I might stop and take the time to study these marvels.
Trees with eyes. Flowers as tall as mountains. Mushrooms the likes of which I’d never seen. I didn’t understand how a world like this was possible, how it had been created, or where it had come from. None of it made sense, and I wanted to get some answers. Maybe Annalee could supply them when I found her. If I found her. No, no, I did not come all the way here just to doubt myself now. I’d done the impossible. Made it to the Deadlands. I owed Annalee more than to doubt. I owed her everything.
“Looking for something?” a voice said.
I stopped, summoning my fire magic and letting it flow through me, alight in my palm. My magic wasn’t as strong here, but I was used to that having lived in the frost court for the last seven years. Elemental magic was always strongest in the court where you were born, tied to. At least my magic worked here at all.
“Who goes there?” I turned in slow circles, looking for the person speaking.
“Up here,” chirped the high, girlish voice.
My head snapped up to see a woman draped around one of the tree branches. I squinted. Not a woman. Not exactly. Purple fur covered her entire body, and whiskers sprouted from her human nose. Orange stripes slashed across her fur.
She smiled at me. “What’s the matter? Not used to seeing so much gorgeousness wrapped into one package?” She gestured to her body and dropped from the tree, landing in a crouch. She wore no clothes, her orange and purple fur providing enough cover over her human body. I had never seen anything like this before, yet I knew what she was. Because Annalee had told me about this catlike woman who had a penchant for mischief. Even with that knowledge, it was hard to believe what I was seeing.
The cat woman stalked up to me, using a long purple claw to lift my chin. “Well, you’re not very fun. I barely get any visitors, and now that I do, you can’t even talk to me?”
I eyed her and stepped back, the fire hovering over my palm.
“Does she know you’re here?”
“Who?” I asked.
“The queen of hearts.”
Just the name sent a chill down my spine. “I’m not concerned with the queen of hearts.”
The cat woman narrowed her yellow eyes. “You should be. She runs this place, you know. Doesn’t have a lot of tolerance for those who misbehave.” She stuck out her bottom lip. “She banished me to this forest.”
I wondered why but wasn’t sure that was a rabbit hole I wanted to dive down.
She wiggled her clawed fingers and slashed at the fire still in my palm. “You’re gonna have to put that away, or I’m going to use more than my claws.” She flashed a set of sharp teeth at me.
