Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

Ellery

I stood back as Tucker opened a portal and walked into it. He'd told me to stay here, but everything in me screamed to go after him.

If he went alone, he wouldn't return with Ryker; I was certain of it. Ryker wouldn't be as sympathetic to my plight as Tucker, and I had to talk to him myself. Even if he said no, I'd know I'd done everything I could to save my mother before going to the palace… with myself as a sacrifice.

Tucker had started to disappear when I dashed into the portal and emerged only a few feet away from him. When he turned to close the opening, he spotted me and grimaced. "I told you to wait."

"I couldn't. He won't come back with you."

He crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at me. "I'm doing you a favor."

"I have to talk to him face-to-face."

His expression told me I'd incinerated my tiny bridge with Tucker, but Ryker was my last hope, and I wouldn't let it go without a fight.

Tucker continued glowering at me, so I focused on the stone building behind him. Judging by the ghosts floating by, it was in the Revenant Woods, but I'd never seen it before.

While I'd spent a lot of time in this forest and knew it better than most, there were still thousands of acres of land I'd never explored. I'd never seen anything like this building anywhere else in the woods, and it was entirely out of place amid the towering trees surrounding it.

The branches overhead creaked as they swayed in the warm breeze. Summer had arrived, and while the days still weren't muggy, the sun had warmed enough that the animals were mostly quiet as they napped in the shade.

Despite never seeing it before, the building appeared old, as some of the stones in its walls were chipped and broken. The paint on the door beyond Tucker was a faded red, and chunks were missing from its thick, wood surface.

No windows broke up the monotony of the gray stones, and no sounds came from within. I couldn't tell if this place was abandoned or full of hundreds of amsirah.

Most amsirah spent their entire lives without ever wandering into the Revenant Woods because of the death it often delivered. Those who did enter usually stayed on the outskirts, away from the worst of the monsters, but the trees and brush surrounding the building were thick, and I didn't hear anything to indicate we might be near a town.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"That's none of your concern."

I turned to look behind me, but there were only more woods and ghosts floating through the trees. Fifty feet away, a poltergeist perched on a rock; he flipped a knife in his hand while watching us.

While I knew many poltergeists, I didn't recognize him. For the most part, poltergeists were simply nuisances, but they were dangerous when they had weapons.

"I would tell you to stay out here, but that would be pointless," Tucker said. "You're not going to like what you discover inside."

"I'm fine with that."

Tucker set his bow and quiver down near a tree. That was when I noticed various other weapons scattered throughout the woods.

"Leave your weapons here. All of them. They're not allowed inside."

With that, he turned and stalked over to the red door. I gulped at his warning and the idea of leaving my weapons behind; despite my desperation to see Ryker, my feet remained planted.

This was it; this was what I'd spent days searching for, and beneath my desperation, excitement also pounded through my veins. It had been weeks since I last saw Ryker, and I'd missed him every one of those days.

The memory of what it was like to be with him, to kiss him, to feel the warmth of his arms had been buried these past five days beneath my terror for my mother, but it was all flooding back to me. I was afraid that when I saw him, I'd run into his arms and bury myself there, and he'd most likely shove me on my ass.

This was a mistake. I never should have come here.

You can't turn back now.

Both of those things were true, but uncertainty paralyzed me.