Kenna

I hold my breath as I run through the dark, my cloak billowing out behind me like a crimson curtain. The tunnel of gnarled, bent trees is longer and tighter than I anticipated, and I have to crawl on all fours toward the end.

But the tunnel doesn’t drop into the inky dark underground as expected. I trip, falling down a shallow ledge and land hard on my knees.

The tunnel entrance is a few feet above me, hidden in a tangle of heather and bramble bushes, but I’m still wholly in the forest.

But it’s changed. The dense woods I’d just been in with Evander and Sydney give...