Unlikely Queen (Crystal Castle 1)

“Nothing you see is real. Remember that,” Tatiana says. “Let’s go. We need to get a head start and find somewhere safe to sleep.”

“How long will it take?” I ask, stepping up behind her.

“Judging by the distance, it should take four days to get to the other side that backs up to the Crystal Castle.”

“Four days,” I say, shaking my head.

We step into the tree line, and the power hits me straight away. It’s like a force that smashes into you, but you are helpless to stop it. You are blind to it. I can feel it, but I can’t see it anywhere. It weighs heavy on my chest, and I have to work hard to catch my breath as it assaults me with each step I take.

“Talia, are you okay?” Patrick comes up next to me.

“You can’t feel that?” I ask. He lays a hand on my shoulder, and I’m instantly relieved at the slight pressure.

“Feel what?” Tatiana asks.

“It’s like someone or something is pushing on my chest,” I say, managing to stand tall. Patrick removes his hand, and the pressure isn’t too bad now. I seem to have overcome the strength of it.

“Can you carry on? We can—” Tatiana turns back, and when she does, she stops talking. I spin around and all that’s there are endless trees, seemingly going on for what looks like miles and covering the entirety of the space behind us. It’s as if we didn’t just step through, because no other side can be seen. It’s as if we have been in here for days, when in reality, we have only just stepped inside the forest.

“What the fuck?” Patrick says while shaking his head.

“My thoughts exactly,” I whisper.

“Okay, we need to go. Let’s keep going straight.” She starts moving and we follow. No movement is seen or heard. It’s as if no one and nothing is here. It’s quiet, so eerily quiet, all you can hear is each footstep you take and your heart beating in your ears. No birds chirping, no wind rustling the leaves on the trees. Nothing.

“Are there no animals in here?” I ask Patrick, who’s looking everywhere as if he’s afraid something is going to jump out at us at any moment. Which could happen, I suppose, if there were any signs of life, that is.

“I can’t sense any, or hear any,” Patrick says as we continue to walk.

“Let’s just keep going, keep an eye out, and stay close together,” Tatiana says.

We do as she instructs and keep walking through the trees—the trees that seem to never end, and look the same. It feels like we are walking through the same thing over and over again. I’m not even sure we’re still going in a straight line.

Two hours pass quickly. We haven’t slept in so long, though, and I’m tired. When I glance at Tatiana, I see her rubbing her eyes.

“We should rest.”

“No, I’m fine. Let’s keep going.”

“You used power… you need to rest.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, something cold hits us, as if we’ve stepped into a freezer.

“You all feel that, right?” Tatiana asks, looking around, her hands hugging her chest.

“It’s ice,” I say through chattering teeth.

Tatiana reaches into her bag and throws me a warmer jacket. I put it on at the same time she pulls on one of her own. “We should keep moving and see if it follows.” They both agree and we start moving again. My black boots do a fraction of the job of keeping my toes warm. It’s cold. So cold that the air leaving my mouth looks like I’m smoking.

“Just keep going. If we walked into it, we are sure to walk out of it,” Patrick says. I step closer to Tatiana, reaching for her and sliding my arm through hers to keep warm. She smiles, but her lips are turning purple.

“We may have to stop soon and start a fire,” Tatiana says, focusing ahead.

“It’s too risky,” Patrick replies.

“No, we have to. Otherwise, we may freeze to death.” She stops and I do too, seeing that the forest seems to come to an end. Before us is a river, and beyond that are rocks, low and high with the running water in the middle. We step closer, and the river bursts into sound, as if it just appeared out of nothing.

“We can find somewhere there to rest. It’s been hours of non-stop walking and we need to sleep.” Just then, a loud noise is heard. It echoes through the forest, and before we can even look at where the noise comes from, something is behind me, claws digging into my shoulder, and I am lifted from the ground.

Tatiana drops her bag and reaches for my foot, stopping whatever it is that has me in its grasp from pulling me all the way up. I check and instantly wish I hadn’t. Its face is staring back at me, and it’s the ugliest thing I have ever seen. Large, sharp teeth with drool dripping from them, scaly, with snake-like skin. Claws the size of my feet dig into my shoulder, and I feel the blood dripping from my arm where it squeezes, maintaining its grip.