“Three, give or take.” Lafayette moves from somewhere and takes a seat across from him.

I lose my balance and stumble off the rock, falling flat on my face. Scared he’ll catch me, I immediately jump up and peer through the grass.

“Did you hear that?” Gabriel stands, looking in my direction.

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“I’m pretty sure I just heard someone…” He walks toward me, peering through the grass, nearly spotting me, but a raven darts above his head and flies around him.

“It was just a bird,” he says, turning around.

Relieved, I step back and head toward the camp.

Don’t run yet…Not yet.

A sickening harmony in the distance catches my attention when I’m halfway there.

It’s nothing more than a faint whistle, but every note is unnerving and grating. I can’t help but follow its ugly tone.

I hide behind a tree each time the tune dies down, quickening whenever it begins again.

Glancing up at the branches as I move, I hope to catch a glimpse of whatever bird is responsible for this cacophony, but I see nothing.

After several stops and starts, the whistling slows and reveals its worst harmony yet. The crackling firewood seems to have silenced it.

I peer around a trunk and see a man in tattered clothing, dancing as if he’s drunk. The wayward whistles are falling from his lips, not a bird’s, and I spot something familiar hanging from his neck.

My mother’s locket.

Enraged, I slump to the ground and grip the handle of my new dagger, determined to make him give it to me at any cost…

Making Haste

Gabriel

The shortest route to the Eighth Kingdom stares at me from the ground in all black. Perfectly outlined on blanched sheepskin, it winds and weaves through the most treacherous parts of the woods, but it leaves space for stays at my former castle.

“Perhaps I should design an alternative option?” Lafayette looks down at his work, swallowing. “Maybe we can find an option that bypasses The Dead Dragons’ Lair.”

“Why would we want to do that?”

“Because, you know, some men may not want to cross a sea of dead dragon skeletons.”

“The skeletons belong to the men they’ve burned over the centuries, Lafayette.” I crouch down and run a finger over their cave symbol. “The dragons are very much alive.”

“Yes, well...” He wipes a handkerchief over his brow. “I’m afraid of them, sir. I don’t want to die.”

“So, now you’re okay with remaining like this?” I ask. “Wandering around the woods and slipping into kingdoms you don’t belong to for all of eternity? Never getting to see your wife and children again?”

He looks away from me, shaking his head.

“I thought so.” I step over the map and place my hands on his shoulders. “The two of us are cursed to live forever, Lafayette. Along with Sola. We’ll never truly die.”

“What about everyone else?”