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“Which way do we go?” Bear asked. “There are paths in every direction.”

“It’s ‘The Crossroads’,” Alex said. “That’s what Raelia means, remember?”

“Choose your path,” D.C. whispered, almost too low to hear.

Alex noted the strange tone of her friend’s voice. “Dix, are you all right? You’re really pale.”

D.C. looked at Alex, her eyes haunted. But then she blinked and the emotion disappeared. “I’m fine. Just nervous, I guess.”

“Don’t worry, Dix,” Jordan said. “I’ll protect you.”

He flexed his arm muscles and wiggled his eyebrows at her. D.C. smiled and tried to swat him away, but he grabbed her around the waist and threw her over his shoulder.

“This is for the caveman comment earlier,” he said.

“Jordan! Let me go!” she squealed, laughing madly. “You’re molesting the princess!”

“You say molesting, I say assisting,” Jordan corrected. “Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenic view.”

“Of your backside?” D.C. said dryly. “Believe me, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

There was silence in the clearing for a moment before all four of them burst out laughing. Jordan had to set D.C. back on her feet because he was laughing so hard.

“I didn’t mean…” D.C. tried to explain, but she couldn’t get the words out amid her own laughter. She inhaled deeply and tried again. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that!”

Jordan’s eyes were sparkling. “I think we’ve underestimated you, Princess.”

When they all calmed, D.C. said, “We should probably be careful what we say out here. There’s no way to know who might be listening.”

“Dix is right,” Alex agreed. “We need to figure out where we are before we drop our guard too much.”

“Why don’t you ask the Library which way to go?” Jordan suggested.

“I can try,” Alex said. “But we’re not in the Library anymore, so I don’t know if it’ll do any good.” Hoping no one else was in hearing range, she raised her voice and called out, “Excuse me, Library, can you please show us which path to take?”

Nothing. No helpful knights, no spotlights, no moving trees, not even a rustle of the wind.

“I guess we’re on our own,” Jordan said. “I vote we pick a route and see where it—”

THWACK!

“What the—” Alex cried, ducking to avoid being hit by a second arrow that whizzed by so close to her head she felt her hair move from the air it stirred.

“DOWN!” Jordan bellowed, urging the others off their feet.

Alex heard three more whistling noises accompanied by woodythwacks, and realised they weren’t being targeted so much as warned. But warned about what, she wasn’t sure.

“Terin mortalis saes fiora en Raelia?” came an angry female voice.

Alex lowered her protective arm from her head and looked at her friends with wide eyes. When none of them responded to the voice, their attacker repeated the question, sounding even more irate, if that was possible.

“Terin mortalis saes fiora en Raelia!”

“How do you feel about fielding this one, Alex?” Jordan whispered.

She sent him a look that told himexactlyhow she felt. But they needed to know what was going on, so she carefully—and very slowly—rose to her feet, hands raised in surrender.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t understand you,” Alex called out, feeling like she had a big red target painted on her forehead. What if she was wrong about the earlier shots being warnings?