Page 4

What is this feeling?

Three

Nikolai

Itwassheerluckthat I stumbled upon a totaldaddyin the middle of the forest. His unkempt hair and beard were grey but bright, beautiful green eyes sparkled in the middle of that tangled mess.

After a trim and a shave, he would be a gorgeous silver fox. As much as I’d tried to prepare myself mentally for a night spent in the forest, I preferred this outcome. And this outlook.

Damn, those eyes!

Perhapshecould help me find the way back.

Probably not before the storm hits.

“Nikolai?” A tentative voice pulled me out of my head. It was much softer than it had any right to be.

“What? Oh, sorry.” I’d completely spaced out on the man beside me.

“I can’t get you to the labyrinth before the storm will be upon us. But my house is close by. You can wait there for it to pass, and then I will help you find the way back.”

“Okay, that sounds good. Thank you.” It sounded so weird, following this guy anywhere, but I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“It’s not far. Come on.”

He set off down a side path. I could not imagine that there was a house hidden anywhere in these dense woods, or that I would ever find the way out of this forest without his help.

After about a ten-minute walk the trees thinned, during which the threatening thunder over our heads got so loud that I was desperate to get inside. A gasp of shock escaped me when I first saw the house. I’d expected a wooden hut, a bit like the house Nate and Vee lived in. But a lot smaller and less well maintained, perhaps. I hadn’t expectedthis.

Amanorrose before us, made from white sandstone and living trees. It looked more like an enchanted castle than a forest hut.

Who the fuck lives there? Sleeping Beauty?

Blueberries, wild garlic, and plants I didn’t recognise covered the ground around it like a living carpet. And there were birds everywhere. The longer you looked, the more you spotted.

“Thisis your house?” Turning around to look at the old man, I stopped dead.

He looked not only years, butdecadesyounger, like he was way closer to my age now.

What the fuck is going on?

“Hang on, what happened to your beard?” I asked weakly.

Four

Jules

Ohno.

With Nikolai near and being weirdly…fascinated with the young human, I hadn’t paid much attention to my mask.

“I am sorry,” I breathed, prepared to watch him lose his composure and run away in terror. The way he stared at me reminded me of a bunny frozen before the snake.

The human—Nikolai—took a few deep breaths.

“We should get inside before we get drenched.” He gave me a small smile that I tried to imitate. Only now, after he mentioned it, did I hear the soft pitter-patter of the first raindrops on the canopy of leaves over our heads.

“Yes.” I led the way to my front door, only remembering my manners just as I was about to let him into the entrance hall. “Are you scared of animals? My pet, he can be a bit much. He gets very excited.”