My pulse quickened. I looked down to find I was kneeling in it. That telltale scent of metal tinged the air, burning my nostrils. I leaned back on my heels, wiping my blood-soaked hands on my dress—my eyes widened. I had no idea where I was in time or on a map, but I knew I’d dropped into the middle of a war. Or perhaps the end of it. The air was thick with smoke and ash. Little glowing embers floated in the breeze. The sky was black but all I saw was the reflection of bright orange flames in every direction.

I pushed my hair out of my face with the backs of my hands and glanced around. I was in some kind of desert with small hills of sand all around. All of it blood stained. The splotches of black demon blood were not a surprise, I didn’t even register the scent of maple syrup. But the purple blood splattered made my heart pound. Unseelie blood was purple. Though what turned my stomach was all the red blood. There were bodies everywhere. All of them lying motionless in the blood-drenched sand. Some of them had wings and pointed ears sticking out beneath black hair. A few close to me had fangs sticking out from their mouths. The other bodies . . . I didn’t want to look too closely at those. I didn’t want to see this.

I squeezed my eyes shut and breathed through the nausea bubbling in my stomach threatening to push out all of the food I’d ever eaten. Why am I here? Why am I seeing this? Think, Frankie. What did the prophecy say? There was a line about first. Then it hit me, the words whispering through my ears.

But first a soul to seek in dire need,

Relieve the hole then take his lead.

That didn’t make sense to me, but I suspected it would in hindsight. A soul to seek in dire need. Okay, magic, what do you feel out there? Feel a soul who needs me. Electricity shot through my wrist, forcing my eyes open. The runes on my bracelet were glowing gold. I frowned. All right, Lassie, what do you see?

The flashing gold runes changed to pink and then that familiar pink arrow appeared in the air. Good, Lassie. Lead the way. I pushed to my feet then trudged forward through the sand. The blood made it thick like mud, so it took me a minute to hobble up and over a small hill. On the other side, down the bottom of the hill, I spotted the shoreline. There was no way of knowing if that was a lake or an ocean, not at night and not without knowing the geography, but the waves gently rolling onto the sand were soothing to my runaway pulse either way.