Page 24 of How Does It Feel?

It began a high-pitched whine. All the while, his amber eyes continued to look frantically between me and the small clearing.

I stepped around him in a hurry, quickly walking toward the mystical hole in the middle of the forest where thousands of moonlit green wings flapped and fluttered a song all of their own.

I tripped and fell, quickly collecting myself, but not before I realized the fox had lain on my feet, whining with long, painful cries. It was incredibly eerie and unsettling.

“Okay, one thing at a time,” I mumbled, quickly scooting away and walking toward the open circle.

I just needed to get a better look at what was going on. Then I would see how I could help the shimmering fox. The fox that was probably a figment of my imagination anyway.

I dodged him as he went for me, faking right and going left like a trained football player. I ran until my body brushed the circle of trees. I felt a slight pinch where the fox had broken the skin at the back of my calves.

“You turd face, you got me,” I hissed at the edge of the clearing, lifting my bare leg to look. Sure enough, there was a small bite.

Crap.

“You better pray to your forest gods that you don’t have rabies you . . . you . . .” I angrily murmured as I turned to face the orange bandit, but he was gone. “Geez. What kind of luck am I having today?” I mumbled, turning back to the open space and trying to make sense of everything.

It was nearly a perfect circle of moss and dirt resting inside the large ancient trees. Hundreds, if not thousands, of luna moths fluttered and clung to the trees surrounding it. Golden flashes from the lightning bugs lit the air like magic.

When I didn’t think I could ever see anything more magnificent or magical, I saw them.

In the middle of the mossy floor lay another perfect circle.

A complete and perfect ring of destroying angel mushrooms. The clean white flesh of the mushroom caps lit brightly under the moon’s silvery glow.

I sucked in an amazed breath. The scent of pine and earth filtered through my nose, and I heard only crickets and a distant high-pitched whine.

I took another step into the clearing. The thick moss gave way under the pressure of my black high heels.

Then I felt it.

I tightened my arms around myself as if that could protect me from the feeling.

It was the same grim vibe in the forest with Earl. Only now, it felt intense, like we had only sampled a taste earlier, and this was the entire feast.

Goose bumps bloomed across my arms and legs as the hairs on the back of my neck rose.

I had the immediate urge to scream and run. To get as much distance as possible between me and this weird circle of mushrooms.

But that was stupid. These were moths and mushrooms, not demons or something wild.

. . . Right?

Needing to show my courage, I took a few more steps into the space until my feet nearly grazed the large circle of mushrooms.

How could they form like this? I’d never seen anything so perfectly uniform. Moths fluttered around the small space, soaring in front of my face. Were these mushrooms causing me hallucinations?

Flashbacks of my childhood incident flashed in my mind. I looked at the small scar on my hand. Was it in the air, the toxins? Is that why I thought I saw a glittering golden fox? Would this explain the wild things Earl had claimed to have seen?

I picked up my leg to step into the mushroom circle and stilled, remembering Earl’s warnings of the mushroom rings being portals into the fairy realms. It couldn’t be true.

It was the toxins causing a hallucinogenic effect. It had to be.

If I proved that to be true, that the toxic chemical in these mushrooms was what caused our hallucinations . . . then it would mean I had imagined the fairies all along. I stepped back from the ring of mushrooms and held tight to everything I thought I knew.

Did I want that?

Of course I wanted to know what had really happened . . . I let out all the air in a defeated sigh.