I don’t want to run. I want to stay. This place is perfect.
He tugs harder. “Run, Allette. I need you to run.”
“But—”
“Run!”
I jerk upright but can’t make heads nor tails of what I see. Rather, what Ican’tsee through the thick layer of black clouds stinging my eyes. I’m no longer in a soft, fragrant field but sitting on hard wood.
The shack.
Senan and I fell asleep in a shack.
And these aren’t clouds around me, they’re plumes of smoke.
Why is there so much bloody smoke? The acrid air consumes my lungs as I search the empty room for my prince, finding not a trace. I shout his name, but the only sign he had been here at all is his abandoned coat on the floor beside me.
“Senan?” I cough, waving my hands to try and clear some of the blackness from the air as I stumble toward the door. I have to duck to avoid the angry orange flames licking at the beams overhead. “Senan!”
Where in heaven’s name did he go?
Crack. Three steps from the bloody door and my bloody foot breaks straight through another bloody floorboard. This time without the protection of my bloody boot. Sharp, slicing pain shoots up my leg. Cursing, I yank and pull, but it’s no use. My foot is pinned in.
Another sharpcrackfills the air. One of the ceiling beams slams right down on the place I’d been laying only a few moments before, showering sparks across Senan’s abandoned coat.
The flames are growing too fast. If I don’t get out of here, I’ll be burned to a bloody crisp.
I pull and tug at my foot. Wrench and twist. Heat from the blaze leaves sweat dripping down my spine.
The floorboard groans but gives a little. And a little more. With one final tug, I manage to free my foot. Blood oozes from a wide gash across my ankle and bits of splintered wood protrude from my skin. It’ll need tending, but not until after I escape this inferno.
I hobble toward the door and shove the barrier aside, dropping onto the frosty grass right when the roof buckles and caves inward. Flames shoot into the dusky pink sky.
Tears prick the backs of my eyes, but I manage to breathe through the pain as I limp back the way we came. Where is Senan? Why didn’t he wake me?
A fresh set of footprints leads away from the cottage.
That doesn’t make sense. Did he leave without me? Perhaps he is still within earshot. “Senan! Hello?”
“Hello!” a deep voice shouts from the forest.
Oh, thank the stars. “Help! I’ve cut my foot, and the cottage is on fire!” Twigs and stones stab my feet as I hobble toward the incline only to realize the man who answered my call isn’t Senan at all but a light-haired stranger dressed in all black.
Two more men appear from behind the burning building. When they reach me, they come to a skidding halt, their faces pale as they gawk. What is their problem? Have they never seen a shoeless woman before?
“Fucking hell,” one of them whispers, his wide eyes darting to his companions. “Is this her?”
Her who? Can’t they see I’m wounded? “Can one of you please help me? I’ve hurt my foot, and my companion has gone missing. He’s about so high.” I hold my hand above my head. “Dark brown hair down to his shoulders.”Thanks to his glamour.
From between two trees, a flash of black catches my eye.
I step forward to get a better look.
It looks like…
Like a boot.
Not just one boot but two. Two boots attached to two legs. Two legs belonging to someone I know.