Saffie flicked her hands and threw her arms up like she was conducting an entire orchestra. The Unseelie knights screamed as vines ripped through their chests, stomachs, and thighs. Purple blood splashed left and right, yet Saffie remained unfazed, unmoving. Those wings made of stars just flickered behind her back, her rage unwavering and unrelenting as she ripped them all to literal pieces with a smirk on her pretty face.

I just stared, my jaw dragging the ground. I barely knew Saffie. I’d known she was a Proctor though, and this calm rage was right up our alley. It was gloriously savage and I loved every second of it. She stood in one place and used her magic to tear the knights to pieces, to rip flesh from bone and fertilize the ground. Once there was nothing but purple blood flooding the blades of grass, Saffie shot into the sky on her starlight wings and vanished from sight.

For a few seconds, I didn’t move. There were other knights in Seelie, I’d watched them enter, not to mention the Prince, so I needed to be cautious. I wasn’t quite sure why my projection was different this time. If I wasn’t physically here, then I shouldn’t have been able to feel as much as I could. Right? Shit, I don’t even know anymore. I wasn’t any closer to answers on what was happening to me, and it kept changing every time I started to get comfortable with it.

I was headed for the entrance to Earth, the one we’d come through before. Except I wasn’t familiar with Seelie at all, which meant I had no idea if I was headed in the right direction. I’d only been here the one time and Tenn had flown me so I could watch my stones. Oh. Stupid, Frankie. Ask your stones.

Hi, stones. I wrapped my hands around my bracelet and pushed with my magic. Lead me home? Please?

The stones warmed beneath my fingers, it felt like walking barefoot on a wooden deck on a sunny day. It comforted me, as strange as that was. My pulse slowed to a normal beat and the knots in my stomach loosened. I took a deep breath, then that familiar pink arrow appeared in the air above my wrist. Without another moment of hesitation, I marched in the direction the arrow pointed without looking around. There were screams in the distance. Magic flashed across the purple night sky. If I couldn’t help Seelie, then I needed to get out of Seelie. I needed to get back inside my body so I could help, so I followed the pink arrow blindly as it wove a path through the most beautiful forest I’d ever seen.

“Lead me home, stones. Lead me home,” I whispered.