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I waited for the magic of the stairwell to connect with me… but nothing happened. “Let’s keep trying—”
Talia’s scream tore through the forest. She yanked her hand out of Grant’s hold and pointed deep into the forest. “Something’s happening! And it’s not good!”
My stomach dropped out of my abdomen when I saw that the forest was shrinking. The ground seemed to disappear as trees inched closer to one another. Fortune Fairies fled their roost in the treetops, and their beautiful lights instantly dimmed. A gust of wind swept through the forest, kicking up dying embers that lay scattered on the ground. Dead leaves ignited, and flames began to spread across the forest, creeping quickly toward the dead log we’d been sitting on earlier.
“We fucked it up!” Grant cried. “The pocket universe is collapsing!”
“Everybody back to the stairwell!” Lucas screamed.
Talia clutched the Seer Wand tightly, and the five of us took off running, Cooper following close behind. Our path ahead narrowed, and branches snapped overhead as trees collided with one another. We raced past the large boulder where we’d buried Cooper’s bones. The boulder connected with a nearby tree, and a huge snap sounded.
“Look out!” Cooper yelled.
Lucas grabbed me and yanked me out of the way of the falling tree. All around us, trees began to groan and topple over.
“Faster!” Miles screamed. “The whole forest is going to come down on us!”
I ignored the ache in my joints and pumped my arms faster. Relief overcame me when I saw the archway to the stairwell up ahead. But my relief quickly turned to panic when I noticed that the archway was shrinking, too. Within moments, it went from a tall, open doorway to barely taller than I was. We had to get there fast, or we wouldn’t make it through.
“Quick!” Lucas shouted to the others. “The doorway is closing.”
I’d never seen my friends move any faster. We dodged around trees and falling branches. The door grew inches smaller with each passing second, and I feared we wouldn’t make it.
We’d made a horrible mistake…
I had one last chance to save my friends. I drew my wand out of my pocket while I ran and aimed the end toward the shrinking archway. With every ounce of magic I had in me, I thrust my power toward the doorway. Blue magic shot out of the end of my wand and collided with the stone arch. The shrinking stopped for a mere second, but we still had twenty yards to cross until we made it there. I gathered as much energy as I could from my surroundings—from my friends, from Cooper, from the magical plants and the Fortune Fairies. It wasn’t a feat I could normally pull off. I had to overpower each and every one of them. But I was desperate, and nothing could stop me when the fate of my loved ones was at stake.
I screamed as the magic surged through me. It felt as if the power was going to rip me apart, and I wasn’t sure I could contain it. My ears rang, and the edges of my vision blurred.
That’s all I processed before the ground fell out beneath my feet.
CHAPTER 15
LUCAS
Igrabbed Nadine around the waist and tossed her over my shoulder.
“GO!” I roared. My friends scrambled through the shrinking passageway.
The ground swayed beneath us. I tossed Nadine through the opening, then dove in behind her. The stones scratched my back as I squeezed through. The opening closed around my ankle, but I yanked it free at the last moment. I landed on the cold stone. The stairwell was dark, but someone cast a witch light and hovered it overhead. A single Fortune Fairy fluttered into the stairwell behind me before the archway closed completely. The sounds of the quaking forest vanished, and silence filled the stairwell.
The forest was gone.
The Fortune Fairy fluttered over to Nadine and landed on her shoulder. I got to my knees and shook her until her eyes focused. I helped her sit up, but she must’ve been in pain, because she could barely lift her head. “Tell me we all made it,” she begged.
I looked around to see Miles and Grant getting to their feet. Cooper appeared nearby, looking horrified.
“We’re all safe,” I told her.
“Where did the forest go?” Grant asked. “If it’s part of the same pocket universe as the stairwell, why haven’t we been crushed?”
“Nadine must’ve stabilized the stairwell with her last spell,” Talia theorized. “How did you do that?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I just had to, you know? I don’t know if it’s something I could do again.”
“You saved us all, so thanks,” Miles said.
I helped Nadine to her feet, and she sagged against me. I practically had to carry her up the stairs; she was so exhausted. No one else moved much faster than us, though. We were all so tired and hungry.
