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He flicked a Zippo to life and inhaled deeply to light the end of his cigarette. Then he let out a long, smoky breath and said, “Not afraid to walk in the woods with a handsome man now, are you?”
I took a step backward. Was this a gay bashing thing? How the fuck could he know I was into guys? Just because I had a fucking pashmina scarf and ankle boots? “That’s… a weird thing to say.”
He sighed and came back to the roadside. “All right, fine. Should’ve known you’d be skittish.”
“What?” I swallowed hard, heart thumping in my ears so loud, I really thought I’d misheard him. Again.
“You’re just a baby deer, aren’t you? All pretty and graceful and tender…” He inhaled deeply on his cigarette.
Which didn’t smell like a cigarette at all, now it was nearer to me. Or weed, for that matter. It smelled like something sweet, almost flowery. Like incense.
“And ready to run. That’s good, at least,” he added.
I shook my head.
“Fine.” He grabbed my wrist. “We’ll do it the boring way, then.”
Instinctively, I tried to jerk away.
He blew smoke in my face and I coughed, which just made me suck more of it in. My head began to spin. The trees blurred behind him and his eyes glowed like some kind of underwater creature.
He said, “Save it for the Greenwood, pretty little deer.”
My knees gave out beneath me. Right before the world went black, I heard him mutter, “You better be fucking delicious.”
Chapter 2: The Hunt
Cold seeped through my clothes, into my skin, all the way into my bones. Water lapped gently near my head. I shivered awake, blinking up at the cold blue sky.
I inhaled deeply, then coughed at the spike of frost in my lungs. I sat up and ran a hand through my hair; red, crackling leaves fell out of it. My legs stretched out before me, tingling as though they’d been asleep for hours, dotted with sticks and leaves of various colors. The back of my pea coat felt icy and heavy with damp. The pale palms of my hands were streaked with mud.
“There you are,” said Wulfric’s rough voice.
I glanced around quickly. To one side was a riverbank—
Wait, no. A small lake? Where the hell had that come from? A copse of venerable trees sprang up on my other side, thick-trunked and shedding for autumn. Again, on closer examination, I realized it wasn’t just a copse; the darkness beyond the tree line seemed endless. A forest.
The same forest Wulfric had tried to lead me into? But there was no road nearby, and this was all wrong.
I shook my head and more leaves fell from my hair.
“Good morning, pretty little deer,” said Wulfric’s apparently fucking disembodied voice.
I glanced around for him frantically, pushing up to my knees. They sank deeper into the mud, and I shivered as a new wave of cold ran through me.
He said, “I’ll give you a head start, just to make it sporting.”
I scrabbled in the mud and leaves for my bag, threw it over my shoulder, then staggered to my feet.
“Three…. Two….”
“Wait! Where—what’s happening?” I was on my way to find Amma, that much I knew. Because I needed her. Because I was pathetic. Because—
“One.” And then a low, rumbling growl that seemed to come from all around me.
I stumbled forward. Bent down to fix my boot. Swallowed my heart.
Footsteps behind me.
