Page 35 of Enchantra (Wicked Games #2)

34

IMPOSTER

The wolf’s pursuit was relentless as Genevieve tore through the forest, the sounds of Rowin and Sevin struggling against each other echoing behind her. Umbra was running parallel to her, checking behind them every so often to gauge how close Sevin’s Familiar was getting to their heels.

“The trees!” Genevieve shouted to the fox. “We have to get off the ground!”

Genevieve knew she could not outrun a wolf— especially a paranormally altered one—by any stretch of the imagination. But she could climb a tree. Had spent many days in the limbs of the live oaks in New Orleans. She scanned the thicket around her for one that had a branch close enough to the ground for her to start.

Just ahead to the right was the perfect specimen. Its lowest branch was nearly touching the ground, gnarled and easy to use as leverage to the ones higher up. Genevieve stepped up onto its rough bark, Umbra following, the Familiar’s golden eyes remaining trained on the wolf. Just as Genevieve began to pull herself up, her limbs still gelatinous from her and Rowin’s poorly timed passion, she felt a sharp-toothed maw clasp around her ankle.

She shrieked in frustration and kicked wildly at the wolf, trying to make it release her leg. Umbra was there a moment later, launching her lithe form right onto the wolf’s head and scratching at its eyes until it let Genevieve go with a vicious growl. Once Genevieve made it up high enough, adrenaline shooting through her veins like lightning, she peered down to search for Umbra. She did not save that little critter from piranhas to lose her now.

Thankfully, she found Umbra scrambling up the tree only a branch below. Genevieve leaned down and stretched out her arm for Umbra to cling onto, scooping the fox up into her chest as the wolf tried to climb up from below. Umbra nuzzled her cold snout against Genevieve’s neck affectionately.

“Yeah, yeah,” Genevieve grunted at the fox.

The wolf didn’t seem to be a great climber, which Genevieve was grateful for as she tried to catch her breath, but her peace didn’t last long when Sevin broke through the tree line moments later. He laughed when he spotted her standing on the branch above as he strode over to pat his Familiar on the head.

“Look at you go,” Sevin called as he hopped up onto the first branch and then swung himself nimbly onto the next. He paused to glance into a mirror embedded into the trunk on his level, frowning at whatever he saw there. “This room is creepy, don’t you think?”

“Yep,” she answered as she pushed Umbra up onto the next branch before starting to ascend once more.

“Sweetheart, I don’t think climbing higher is going to do anything for you,” Sevin told her, his tone genuine.

“Where’s Rowin?” she demanded.

“He’ll probably be here in a minute,” Sevin said conversationally as he pulled himself to the next branch. “He got away from me for two seconds, and I lost him in the shadows.”

“Why are you covered in blood?” she asked, hoping to stall him while she tried to work out what to do next.

As she scanned the rest of the forest, she spotted a rather large mirror in the tree parallel to theirs, but something about the reflection made her pause.

“Oh, right,” Sevin said as he looked down at himself. “I killed Remi. Accidentally caught him a little too close to his carotid artery. Well, maybe not accidentally . Since you two started getting all handsy in the corridors, I figured I’d need something special to win Favored. Plus he stole my entire fucking stash of suckers.”

Genevieve barely registered his words as it finally clicked what was so different about the mirror she was studying. It wasn’t mimicking her movements. No, the reflection of herself was watching her. As if it were waiting for her. Genevieve traced the length of the branch she was standing on, seeing that it angled down toward the branch just below the mirror on the other tree, only a small gap between the two of them. One that looked close enough to jump.

Sevin said something else, but whatever it was, she didn’t hear. She was already taking off; one foot in front of the other, she walked down the branch like a tightrope.

“ Hey ,” Sevin shouted as he climbed up after her.

Genevieve’s balance had always been better than most, aided by the fact that she wasn’t as tall as her sister. She wobbled a bit as the branch tapered toward the end, but she kept going. Sevin landed on the limb behind her, jumping a few times to try to make her lose her balance. She dropped to grip onto it with her hands before she fell.

“Keep moving,” Rowin’s voice rang out from below.

She leaned over to peer down at the forest floor, spotting him instantly in the shadows on the ground, his jaw clenched tightly as he watched his brother behind her. She took a deep breath and began to crawl forward, the delicate fabric of her gown snagging on the branch, her hands and knees scraping painfully on the rough bark. When she glanced over her shoulder at Sevin, she saw he had his hands shoved deep in his pockets, his stride seemingly unencumbered by gravity as he made his way toward her. She lurched forward, bracing herself as she made it to the end and leaped from her branch to the next tree.

“ Climb down ,” Rowin called to her, and she knew she ought to listen. To get back on solid ground where he was able to reach her. But something inside her was screaming for her to make it to the mirror she’d seen.

For all the strangeness of the other mirrors, they still reflected her own movements.

She began to climb again.

Rowin cursed. “ Damn it , Genevieve, now is not the time to give me trouble.”

Sevin laughed. “Don’t listen to him, sweetheart. He secretly likes being defied. It gets him off.”

“I promise that is not a secret,” she told him as she heaved herself up just as Sevin jumped across.

He was only seconds away from catching her now, could probably already have caught her if he was really trying, but he didn’t seem to think there was anywhere else for her to go. When she turned on the branch to fully face the mirror, her heart began to race at the spine-tingling feeling it gave her. There she was, inside the glassy surface, not a detail out of place except for the fact that the reflection seemed to have a mind of its own. Genevieve lifted her hand toward the surface—the mirror version of herself watching her actions intently but refusing to follow them—and placed her fingertips against the cool glass.

The surface rippled and she gasped, the warm feeling of magic buzzing over her skin as she pressed her hand forward— through —until she was completely sucked inside.

There was a high-pitched ringing in her ears.

Genevieve was standing in an eerily quiet version of the forest she’d just come from. The silence was the first thing she noticed. How there was not a single thing to sense around her. The smell of leaves and petrichor was gone, the slight breeze winding between the trees nonexistent. Even the tree she was standing on, a direct replica of the one from a moment ago, was somehow a lesser version of itself.

And then there was her .

The imposter made Genevieve’s skin crawl. Her stare was the same cerulean as her own, but it was blank. Like there was not a single thought behind her eyes.

“Hello?” Genevieve whispered.

“Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?” the imposter parroted.

The piercing sound in her ears became worse.

“ Stop ,” Genevieve pleaded as she plugged her ears with her fingers.

“ Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. ”

Genevieve lunged forward, meaning to clap her hand over the imposter’s mouth to make it stop talking. But the moment she touched its skin, the nightmare truly began.

She watched in horror as the imposter’s exterior began to flicker in and out, revealing a monstrous shadow creature below its surface. As the replica of her own face melted away, the faceless creature made a low keening sound that made her flesh prick with terror. Its new form looked nearly transparent, like some kind of Apparition.

Time to go.

But before she could whirl back to the mirror, something crimson flashed within the monster’s chest cavity, between the shadows writhing over its form.

The token.

She gulped as it solidified into a stone shaped like a black heart. This would be the second time she’d risked her life for a chance of a day’s immunity from the game.

But what a great birthday gift it would be to have a day off.

Damn it.

“Here goes nothing,” she muttered.

As soon as the words fell from her lips, the creature let out a monstrous howl. She gritted her teeth against the sound and dove forward, plunging her hand into its chest and feeling around until she grasped the token. The moment it was in her grip, the creature became solid once more.

The monster clawed at her face, sending a slicing pain through her right eye as her vision went completely dark on that side. She let out a cry as she ripped the token from its chest, through slimy sinew and crunching bone.

The imposter began to burn away into a cloud of billowing black smoke. Her chest heaved as she clutched at her face, her good eye blurring with tears. She found the mirror and rushed toward it, not caring that Sevin was likely waiting on the other side. She was in too much pain.

When she stepped through the portal, however, she found that she had not arrived back in the place she had left. No, she had stepped out of a completely different mirror. The one right in front of the exit that would lead her back into Enchantra’s upper corridor.

“ Genevieve. ”

She spun, still clutching her eye with one hand, her other cradling the token to her chest protectively.

“What happened?” Rowin demanded as he reached her, brushing her hand aside so he could assess her injury.

“I found the token,” she sniffled as she dropped her hand away and allowed him to prod at her face.

His expression didn’t give her any sign as to how bad the damage was, but by the explosive pain still radiating through her head and the almost imperceptible way his pupils tightened as he looked at her, she didn’t think it was good.

“Ellin isn’t going to help us this time,” he told her, tone regretful. “But I’ll do what I can, alright? We need to go back to my room.”

“Don’t we have to wait for noon to come?” she choked out. “And where is Sevin?”

“How long do you think you were gone for?” he asked, cautious.

“Minutes,” she told him. “Why?—?”

He winced. “You’ve been missing for hours here. It’s already afternoon. I’ve been pacing this forest since you disappeared. Sevin and I were in a standoff for hours before he gave up on trying to catch me and decided to hunt the others. I tried to go after you, but as soon as you went through, the mirror went completely black .”

A sob caught in her throat, her chest tight as she tried to slow her breathing.

“Hey, you’re here now, it’s okay,” he told her, smoothing her hair back from her face. “You got the token. You did perfect.”

Her breath hitched at the compliment, and she let her eyes flutter shut as she leaned into his cool hands. “Rowin?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for waiting for me,” she whispered.

His only response was to lift her into his arms by the back of her thighs, wrapping her legs around his waist. Tucking her face into the crook of his neck as blood and tears ran down her cheeks.