Page 17 of Magical Mayhem
“What are you?” I whispered, brushing dirt from my skirts.
The mushroom pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat, before settling again.
I scrambled to my feet, dusting off my hands, my heart thundering. “Nope. Not staying to find out.”
But before I could take another step, the voice came again.
Maeve.
Closer this time.
Right behind me.
I whipped around, breath sharp, but again…no one.
The forest swayed, trees bending as though exhaling a secret, and the spores from the mushroom caught the air, glowing brighter.
This time, I didn’t hesitate. I followed.
Branches whipped against my arms as I pushed forward, deeper into the trees. My sandals slipped over moss with twigs crunching beneath me. The pull in my chest grew sharper and urgent, dragging me faster to nowhere.
I barely noticed the way the woods changed around me. Mushrooms lined my path in larger clusters, their glow brightening the deeper I went, lighting the way like lanterns. The vines braided themselves into arches overhead, framing my every step.
Maeve.
The voice floated through the hush, closer, softer, tender, and terrifying all at once.
My breath caught, my throat dry.
“I hear you,” I whispered hoarsely. “But who are you?”
I stumbled over another mushroom cluster, caught myself on a tree trunk, and kept moving, breath ragged.
The trees parted suddenly, opening into a clearing I’d never seen before. The mushrooms here glowed so brightly they painted the air crimson, their caps huge, some as wide as dinner tables. Moss carpeted the ground in thick, luminous green, soft as velvet.
And there, at the far edge of the clearing, half-hidden in shadow…
I froze.
My breath locked in my lungs.
Because what I saw stole every word from my tongue, every thought from my mind.
The voice came again, right from that shadowed shape, curling into me with unbearable familiarity.
Maeve.
Chapter Six
The voice faded into the hush, leaving only the thunder of my heartbeat and the glow of the mushrooms all around me. I stood frozen in the clearing, unable to take another step forward, my breath shallow and ragged.
“Maeve!”
A woman’s voice that was sharp and familiar cut through the silence.
I blinked, the spell of the clearing cracking.
“Maeve, where are you?” another voice called, lighter but urgent.
