Ashes to Ashes

Kenna

I hold my breath as I run through the dark, my cloak billowing out behind me like a crimson curtain. The tunnel of gnarled, bent trees is longer and tighter than I anticipated, and I have to crawl on all fours toward the end. 

But the tunnel doesn’t drop into the inky dark underground as expected. I trip, falling down a shallow ledge and land hard on my knees. 

The tunnel entrance is a few feet above me, hidden in a tangle of heather and bramble bushes, but I’m still wholly in the forest. 

But it’s changed. The dense woods I’d just been in with Evander and Sydney give way to sparse trees and a rolling, hilly landscape of soft green grass. 

I’m past the wards. 

I can’t feel the strain of my dad’s magic on my shoulders any longer. 

I look up at the tunnel and can barely see the entrance through the glare of the morning sun. 

‘Ev