Anwar doesn’t respond. He just squeezes my hand again, like I already know the answer. Perhaps I do, I think, as I step away. Grabbing Cleo’s backpack, I give Anwar one last look from the doorway…

But he has already nuzzled his face back into his pillow.

The walk through the woods takes longer than any of us expected. Not necessarily because of the distance, but because there was no actual “trail” to follow. We had to forge our own path every step of the way, over rolling roots and around enormous trees and through rocky dirt. Somewhere along the way all three of us lost cell service, but luckily Cleo’s map app still got us where we needed to be.

We now stand in front of a wooden structure in the woods, built in a low valley between two hills. It’s not big enough to be a cabin, but it’s probably too big to be a shed, plus it has windows and a greenhouse-style roof. Not that we can see anything inside—the entire structure is completely unkempt, overgrown with moss and vines. It looks not unlike something out of a fairy tale, warm and inviting but likely hiding something grim inside.

“Well, the door is ajar,” Cleo says, pointing. “But I so do not want to be Hansel or Gretel in this scenario.”

Chase looks equally hesitant, so it falls to me to lead the charge.

“It doesn’t look like anyone has been here for a long time,” I say, striding forward. I force myself to take a breath as I approach the door because, truth is, I have zero idea what I’ll find on the other side. After all we’ve been through, literally anything feels possible.

Still, with Chase and Cleo standing behind me, I slowly push open the door. Unexpectedly, my first thought is that it feels weird being only three of us—unbalanced somehow without a fourth. My next thought washes this away, however, as the door swings open.

Inside the shack, we see only color. My eyes struggle to take it all in. Nearly every inch of the space is filled with flowers. One corner is devoted to roses, thick-thorned stems with white and red blooms. Another corner houses a hydrangea bush blooming light blue and pink. To our left, I’m stunned to find an actual pond, brimming with lilies.

The middle of the shack has a wooden beam that stretches across it, but it’s barely visible. Pots of flowers and succulent bulbs hang from the beam, which is also covered with twisting vines and rows of herbs. Perhaps most breathtaking, however, is what sits underneath this beam, in the center of the room: an arrangement of flowers and plants in tiers, like something you’d see at an opulent wedding. Just behind this floral altar I spot a platform that is shaped, rather appropriately, like a pentacle.