Page 122 of The Toymaker's Son

Devere was there.

I had to go back through the forest to get to the mansion.

Snow swirled outside. Of course it did. This was Devere’s dream, and here, winter reigned. It wouldn’t be easy, but nothing in his dream ever had been. He’d made it that way.

I opened the shop’s front door. A blast of wind tore in, wobbling the displays of toys and spluttering the fire. I’d done this journey once before. I could do it again.It almost killed me before. Devere saved me.I wasn’t thinking that. I had to get to him. Get to Devere. Stop Adair.

Wrapping my coat tighter, I pushed into the blasting waves of snow and headed out of town, toward the woods. This wasn’t meant to be easy. This world was my nemesis, designed to hurt me. But it wasn’t all Devere’s doing. Adair had twisted it, made it wicked. And I was going to end it. “I’m coming, Devere.”

Minerva’s streets were empty—not just empty from the storm, butvacant. All the windows in the houses were dark, the stores were shut, and even the Lost Penny stood in cold silence. Nobody was here. The town was filled with ghosts. Had any of them been real?

I found the path and pushed through deep snow, leaving the town behind. Snow fell softer between the trees, drifting aimlessly toward the ground. My every breath misted the air, and the cold tried to burrow beneath my clothes, into my bones.

I’d done this hike before. I was different now. Stronger. Aware. With my eyes wide open to the make-believe world. I’d get to the mansion, find Devere, tell him he was right—and wrong. I didn’t need reality. I needed him. Whatever we had to do to end this, we’d make it happen, together.

A wolf’s howl rose up somewhere in the forest.

It was fine. I marched on and blew into my cupped hands.

I’d tell him how sorry I was for doing terrible things back to him. We’d both been fools. Together, we’d fix things. Together, like we always should have been.

I should have told him I loved him then, all those years ago. When he’d kissed me in the long grass beside the weeping angel—I should have told him the truth instead of fearing it. If I had, none of this would have happened.

Another wolf’s howl pierced the quiet, much closer than the last.

I dropped my hand into my pocket and squeezed the clockwork bird.

If only I hadn’t dragged Elisabeth into my life…

I couldn’t think about it, not yet. There would be time to grieve later.

A growl boiled from the darkness in the trees to my right.

Don’t think, just run.

I hurried through the thick snow.

Laughter echoed among the trees. Adair. The dreamweaver. The fae who stole the dreams of others and made them monstrous.

I stumbled and almost fell, but I caught myself and waded on.

Had the wolves in these woods always been Adair? Had he been watching when the carriage overturned what felt like a lifetime ago? It seemed likely. Adair had made it so the mob had chased Devere. He’d made it so I’d been trapped in an asylum. He’d made the game begin again and again. Because he could not have the one thing he wanted. Love.

Get to Devere. He’d know what to do. He might hate me for what I’d done in the end. Like he’d hated me before…

No, he’d said he was sorry. He’d said he’d do anything to make us work. Those were not the words of hate, but of love. I’d been a fool. A desperate, angry fool. Everything was so clear now, so true. The dream didn’t matter, real or not. The only thing that mattered was love. And we both had that.

A blur of silver and shadow rushed from my left and struck me hard in the side. I toppled into the snow. Jaws filled with sharp white teeth clamped down on my arm. Yellow eyes burned. The wolf bit deep and shook its head, rattling my arm like a rag in its mouth. I scrabbled backward under it, heart slamming and thoughts blurring.

Hush sprang from my sleeve, dashed up the wolf’s snout, and burrowed into its eye. The beast yelped, let go, and clawed at itself, trying to dig the beetle out.

I rolled, got to my feet, and ran again, loping through snow and branches, lungs burning with cold, my arm throbbing.

Get to Devere.

That single thought kept me moving as the wolves howled their symphony. They were close. Their panting snarls were gaining on me.

Lights shimmered ahead, blinking through sentinel trees. The windows of Rochefort Manor, where I’d find Devere… if all was not lost.

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