Page 51 of Wilds of Wonder
“You know when I said this grass was pretty normal?” Driscoll asked, then pointed behind us.
Maverick and I both turned.
“Well, I think I was wrong.”
A door stood in the middle of the field. Plain brown with a round silver handle.
Something poked me in my butt, and I jumped, shrieking as I turned to realize it was the white wolf’s cold, wet nose.
Maverick smirked.
“Jealous?” I asked.
His smirk turned to a glower, and Driscoll whistled low.
I hadn’t meant to say that. It sounded so flirtatious. Something I had no interest in doing when it came to the bone collector. Actually, I’d flirted with the bone collector many times and enjoyed it a little too much. It was Maverick Von Lucas I had no interest in flirting with.
Driscoll strode toward the door. The white wolf lifted his head and howled, and Driscoll stopped in front of the door, then took three steps around it and peeked his head back out. “And it gets weirder,” he said. “Something I didn’t know was possible after seeing trees with actual eyes.”
I tugged at the ends of my hair. “What does the wolf want us to do?”
Maverick stalked ahead of me. “I’m guessing he wants us to open it.”
“Go ahead.” I flung out an arm. “Be my guest.”
Driscoll came back around and crossed his arms. “Let me guess: he’s going to open the door and then it’ll fall on him. Or he’ll try to open it, but it will actually trigger an explosive that will blow us all to pieces. Or maybe?—”
“Can you turn him off?” Maverick said over his shoulder, stopping in front of the door and leaning down to inspect the handle.
“He doesn’t have an off button. Otherwise, trust me, I already would have tried it.”
Driscoll looked between us, frowning. “You know I can hear you both.” He glanced at the white wolf and shrugged. “At least you’re coming around.”
The white wolf flashed his fangs.
“Never mind,” Driscoll mumbled.
Both of us came to a stand behind Maverick, peering over his shoulder.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked right as he was about to turn the handle.
“No, I’m not sure about this, but I don’t think the wolf is giving us many options.”
Driscoll swallowed, his throat bobbing.
Maverick grasped the handle, and he slowly twisted it, the door swinging open.
I blinked several times. That wasn’t possible. The door opened to a completely different place. All stone and rubble, the wind whistling with an eerie tune.
Driscoll raised a finger. “I vote we stay in the field.”
Before any of us could respond, the white wolf crashed into me, propelling all of us straight through the opening. We stumbled into the new world, and I whipped around to see the door slamming shut and disappearing.
My pulse spiked, all the hairs on my arms raising.
I stood with Maverick, Driscoll, and the white wolf on some kind of stone... building? Temple? I couldn’t tell. Piles of stone had toppled over. Statue heads and other concrete limbs were scattered across the area. Pillars lay on their sides. Hills surrounded the stone structure, all different colors of the rainbow.
“Why did he want us to come here?” Maverick asked, glancing at the wolf, who just stared with its red eyes.
