CHAPTER THREE（Untitled）Naomi

CHAPTER THREE

Naomi

Light surrounds me, infuses me, becomes me. Time stands still, and I dance through the heavens for a century or a second. Music and motion and freedom !

Gradually, everything slows, and I take on the familiar solidity of a body. A firm surface appears below me, and a breeze brushes over my skin, even though light still blinds my sight and music still fills my ears.

Then these too fade, the white globe separating to hover in front of me for several seconds before flying up, up, into the night.

I flop backwards, arms outflung, trying to recapture the feeling of movement, of being untethered. It takes a while for my vision to clear enough to notice the sky overhead is a deep purple dusted with winking stars.

I sit upright, my palms scraping across coarse rock. Darkness waits in all directions. It’s not scary. This is the heavy darkness of the forest on a moonless night, and I’ve gone camping in the woods around Ferndale Falls enough times to not be worried.

Only, it’s a full moon tonight. Dad circled it on the bookstore calendar, just as he’s done for my entire life—a habit picked up from Nana. “You should always be aware of the moon, peanut,” he always says, echoing her words.

So why can’t I see the moon? There’s nowhere on Earth it won’t be visible tonight with clear skies such as these. I crane my neck, checking all of the sky, puzzled all over again, because none of the stars form familiar constellations.

That’s when I realize how amazingly quiet it is. There’s nothing but the whisper of wind through branches and the occasional scurry of something small moving through underbrush. The scent of pine fills the air, but pine dialed up to eleven, as if everything I’ve smelled in the past was an imitation, and this is finally the real thing.

A flash of movement catches my eye, and I turn my head. Tiny dots of blue light zigzag in the distance, disappearing and reappearing as they pass behind what must be tree trunks. A new type of firefly, maybe?

Warmth tingles through me, and the crystal on my necklace lights up. Then more points of light start to glow in the stone I sit on. I lean over, squinting at the closest. It’s a crystal, hexagonal like my pendant, half embedded in the rock. When I touch it, a zip of electricity shoots through me, but it doesn’t hurt. Instead, it energizes me. I feel like I can… I can…

My hand reaches out, grasping for something I can’t yet define.

The lights around me dim as my necklace also darkens. The energy running through me fades, and I mourn the loss.

“Come on, Naomi,” I whisper. “How can you miss something if you don’t even know what it is?”

Logic aside, it’s nonetheless true.

I freaking ache for something I can’t even name.

Day finally comes after a restless half sleep, the bright chirping of birds filling the air.

It cooled off in the night, and I roll up to sitting, rubbing warmth into my bare arms. My sexy dress looks great, but I never imagined freaking roughing it while wearing it.

Time to figure out where I am so I can get home. I hop to my feet, my heels clicking on the gray rock.

“Whoa.” Forest spreads out all around, exactly as I expected. But what I didn’t expect is that I’m pretty high up.

I peek over the edge of the stone, and the ground is way, way below me. Too far. I’m not exactly the best with heights. “God, I want to be on the ground.”

My crystal necklace warms on my chest. Blink. I’m standing on the moss-covered ground, the pillar of rock rising above me. From down here, the heavy forest blocks my view of anything but the closest pines.

“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” Did I just… what’s the word? Did I just teleport ?

I look up. As scary as it was to be so high, at least I had a better view, more of a chance to figure out where I am.

As soon as I think it, my crystal flashes. I’m there, standing on top of the pillar again.

“Shit!” My arms pinwheel as I try to catch my balance, my heart pounding like a drum in my ears. As soon as I stabilize, I stand completely still, not daring to move.

“Think, think, think, Naomi,” I mutter. “You read paranormal romance. You got this.”

I’m not turning into an animal or craving blood, so shifters and vampires are out. But all of this does feel like magic. What if I’m a witch? That would be amazing, if I knew how to be a witch. All the different books have different rules. I need a mentor or a coven or something.

Instead, I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere, completely alone, with nothing but a distant flock of birds in sight.

“This is not what I meant when I said I wanted to see new places.”

Instead of scaring off the birds, my voice seems to attract them. They cry out, rough caws filling the air, and wheel around to fly toward me, their movements eerily synchronized.

As they get closer, their bodies are no longer a solid shadow against the lighter sky. Inky-black feathers cover them, but their eyes, beaks, and claws are bright splashes of blood red.

Again, moving as one, they dive toward me, clawed feet extended, beaks open on terrifying screeches.

I throw up my arms to protect my face, and pain flares in my forearms. The damned things bit me!

“Oh, hell no!”

In a blink, I’m on the ground.

And I’m no longer alone.

A green elf runs out of the trees, all pointy ears and fangs that stick up from his bottom lip. He’s drop-dead gorgeous with a sharply chiseled nose and cheekbones for days. Tall and muscular, he’s dressed in tight brown leather pants—major yum—and a light-blue shirt.

Then he pulls a sword—a freaking sword with a blade so sharp it glints in the sunlight—and bellows angrily.

He leaps past me, slicing a bird in two. The body parts fall, dissolving into nothing before they even touch the ground. Again and again, his sword flashes through the air, cutting the birds trying to get around him.

Trying to get to me.

He touches my arm, and a sharp snap twangs through my chest. What the hell?

“Oh, hell no. I appreciate the save, and you’re really hot, but no.” Whatever any of this is, I don’t want it.

I want to go home.

In a blink, I’m standing in the middle of a different clearing, the trees surrounding me covered in blue leaves. What the hell kind of tree has blue leaves? It’s a campsite, complete with a crackling fire and a circle of tan leather tents.

And a hell of a lot more of the green elves.

They leap to their feet, all talking at once in a language I can’t understand, and a deep voice answers from right behind me.

I whirl around.

It’s the guy from the stone pillar! He reaches for me. He’s put away his sword, but something else flashes in his hand.

“No! I want to go home!”

Another blink.

I’m standing in an open area in front of some of the strangest trees I’ve ever seen in my life. They’re huge, with wide, rounded trunks even bigger than redwoods. But unlike redwood trees, these don’t soar to the sky overhead. They only grow to about fifty-feet high, their tops sprouting multiple branches all covered in large, heart-shaped leaves.

The bottoms of the trunks might not have branches, but they do have doors and windows set into them!

They’re houses made out of trees!

More of the green elves pour out of them, all of them talking and pointing. A unicorn trots from behind one of the trees—a freaking unicorn!—their coat so white it almost gleams silver in the sunlight.

The deep voice speaks from behind me again.

I spin, already knowing who I’ll find, but my mouth drops open, because a Whirling Swings ride fills the area behind the green elf, the tall central column covered in brightly painted scenes, the swing chairs dangling on chains from the wide disk mounted to the top.

Stunned laughter bubbles up as I shake my head. “Yep, it’s official. You’ve lost your damned mind, Naomi.”

The elf says something, sounding concerned, and steps closer.

I retreat a few feet, but I can’t go far, because the other people now surround us.

I want to go home!

Blink. I’m back at the pillar of rock, the place this all started. Instinct makes me press both palms to it. When I first got here, the crystals in it lit up in time with my necklace. Maybe they can help.

The birds scream overhead, and the sound of a sword being drawn comes from behind me. The elf came with me.

I close my eyes and press my hands harder against the rock, focusing on one word and one word only.

Home. My real home!

Pressure squeezes on me from all sides. All of the past times I teleported were completely effortless. This time’s the opposite. Sweat trickles down my face, down my back, and tickles between my breasts. I strain harder, my muscles shaking, my face scrunching.

Home. Home . HOME .

HOME!

With a huge pop, something rips.

I fall to hands and knees, scraping my skin on asphalt. But I don’t even care, because it’s familiar old asphalt, turned gray with age, and my hometown’s most hated pothole sits only a couple of feet away.

Strong hands wrap around my shoulders, pulling me to my feet, and Main Street comes into view, the dusty windows of the closed ice cream parlor right in front of me.

I did it! I’m home!

I turn, ready to thank whichever of my neighbors just helped me up. Only, it’s not one of them. Shock freezes all of my muscles as I suck in a startled breath.

The green elf stares down at me, his dark eyes wide and wild. “By the goddess, what did you do?”