I pick up my cloak and hook the clasp. Then, without another look back, I grab my bag and walk outside. The door slams shut behind me and I wait and listen until I’m certain Daisy has locked it. Then I glance around to make sure the monitors are gone. Once I’m satisfied, I take off down the road.
I have a long walk ahead of me.
IT TAKES ME NEARLY an hour to get out of Dark Village. The vampires sleep during the day, so it’s the best time for me to get away. I’d rather travel entirely under the cover of darkness, but that holds its own problems.
It’s not very fair.
But that’s the world I live in.
Outside of the village, there is a long, winding road that leads through the Forbidden Forest, through Dark Town, and finally, to Dark Falls. It should take me a few hours on foot. If I can get an enchanted rug or some other form of transportation, I should be able to get there much more easily. The problem is that enchanted transportation is totally banned from Dark Village and getting out of the city isn’t as easy as it seems.
That’s because the forest that surrounds the city is filled with monsters and ghouls and demons. You’d have to be crazy to go through the forest.
It’s amazing what I’ll do for love.
When I reach the edge of the Forbidden Forest, I’m not surprised to see someone step out from behind a tree. A wolf. Obviously, it’s a shifter. He stares at me and I stare right on back. My wings threaten to come out, but I’m not going to do that. If he sees them, sees the dark shade of my black wings, he’ll definitely attack me.
Dark fairies aren’t allowed anywhere: least of all Dark Falls.
After a few seconds of staring, the wolf shifts into a tall, lean woman.
“Fancy seeing you here,” she says.
“Hello,” I say, because I mean, what else am I going to say to a random lady outside of the forest? She really should put boots on. It’s cold and muddy and there’s no way she’s comfortable wearing nothing at all.
“I take it you’re traveling through the forest,” she says.
“I take it you’re good at stating the obvious,” I retort.
“It’s 40 gold pieces to travel through the forest,” she says.
I laugh.
Seriously, what the actual hell? 40 gold pieces? She’s out of her mind. That’s more than most people make in a month. I’m certainly not paying her 40 gold pieces. That’s not even for “safe passage,” as I’m well aware of. She’s not going to accompany me through the forest. She’s not going to ensure that I stay safe.
The woman’s eyes narrow as she glares at me.
“40,” she repeats.
“I think not,” I tell her.
Pulling out the amulet, I spin it in a circle until the woman’s eyes glaze and she shakes her head before looking around. She looks down at herself, obviously confused that she’s in her human form, and quickly shifts back to being a wolf. The amulet doesn’t make me disappear. Instead, it makes me unnoticed. She might be able to see me, but she won’t notice me.
Once she wanders off, I sneak by her and start walking down the forest path. In the daylight, it’s easy to navigate. The trees are far enough apart that streams of sunlight pour down into the space and I easily step over the brush ahead of me. There are monsters that lurk in the forest, but somehow, the amulet seems to give me strength. My mother loved this amulet and wore it every day. She said it gave her luck.
Today, we’re going to see if that’s true.
It takes me an hour to cross through the forest. I only see a couple of goblins, but they’re preoccupied with eating and hunting and don’t even look my way. The woods continue on for miles both East and West, but this portion of the forest, the portion that leads to the North, is the narrowest. There’s a worn path that leads straight through, so I follow it closely, cautious and careful to watch out for anything that might come my way.
It’s not until I’m just about to exit the forest that I finally come across a creature.
This time, it’s a lion.
Considering I’m nowhere near a zoo, I think it’s safe to say it’s another shifter. This time, I don’t wait for it to shift and speak to me. I spin the amulet again and once more, it works. The shifter is confused and wanders off, which allows me to walk out of the forest and down the path once more. This time, I realize something.
These shifters have to be getting to the woods somehow. Surely, they didn’t walk here. Surely, they don’t live here in the midst of the darkness. Not near the demons. Even shifters aren’t known for having a fondness for demons. Nobody likes the demons. They’re almost as bad as fallen angels, but at least the angels stay far away from everyone else. They’re too good for Earthlings even when their wings are cut off. Go figure.
Instead of heaving directly out of the woods on foot, I look around for a few minutes until I find a carefully hidden deep blue carpet amongst the shrubbery. The shifter is nowhere to be seen as I hop on, get my balance, and start moving.