I’m beyond weak, and everyone knows it. I can’t even carry Raven anymore—Kingsley had to do it. Watching him hug her against his chest like she’s the most precious thing in the worlds—which she is, but still—is nearly shredding me up from the inside out. It’s also weakening me even more, my witch powers barely a dim light inside my chest.

While I hate that my magic abilities came from the queen, right now, I need them, especially if we’re ambushed again. Although Harper insists that won’t happen, that even though Nadine knows our general location, no creature wishing any harm to us will be able to find us. I don’t know, though. I like Harper and everything, but she’s a little out there in la la, what-the-hell-is-she-talking-about land. And so far this safe place she’s leading us too seems to be nonexistent as we journey further and further into the trees.

“How much farther is it?” I brace my hand against a frosted tree trunk to give my legs a rest.

“Only a few more steps actually,” Harper replies, taking a few more skips before coming to a halt. Then she turns in a circle, staring at the ground while tapping her finger against her lip. “Let me see… Where is it… Come on, don’t be shy.”

Okay then… I arch a brow at Kingsley.

He grimaces, warily eyeballing the pixie faerie that I’m worried may have lost her marbles because of the possession. It’s been known to happen sometimes.

“Um, Harper,” Kingsley starts, but she shushes him.

“Don’t talk or you’re going to scare it away,” she hisses, holding up a finger. “And then we’ll have to wait for another moon cycle before it returns.”

Kingsley elevates his brows, like okay.

Sighing, Dex sinks to the ground and Aeribella climbs onto his lap. “I have a feeling we might be stuck here for a while.”

“That makes two of us,” Kingsley mumbles, moving to sit down.

Harper raises a finger. ‘Would you three shut up and be patient. These things take time.”

“We might be able to be more patient if we knew what was going on,” Kingsley tells her, standing back up again.

Rolling her eyes, she continues to turn in circles with her eyes glued to the ground. “I’m getting us to a safe place, like I promised.”

Then she keeps spinning and spinning, searching for something in the snow. I’m about to give up and tell Kingsley we should just keep moving when something pops out from the ground.

“Greetings Land of Moonlight visitors.” A shimmering blob of what appears to be a faceless, iridescent, six-inch tall winged faerie announces while throwing glitter into the air. Then it rubs its chin and glances toward Raven. “And moonlight creatures, apparently.”

“Yes, she’s of moonlight decent,” Harper declares with a nod of her head.

“But she’s not the same creature you came here with last time,” The blob says. It’s not a question. Just a mere statement.

“Oh, Sparkles? Yeah, he went off the deep end again,” Harper explains with a dismissive flick of her wrist. “So we’re taking a little break from each other. I mean, I like him and everything, but there’s only so much crazy I can deal with, you know.”

The blob bobs its head up and down. “I completely understand, sweetheart. Sometimes you gotta focus on your own crazy, right?”

“Yep.” A smile lights up Harper’s face. “I do need to still come in there, though. And we’re very pressed for time so if you could make this a speedy transport, that’d be super great.”

“Anything for you, beautiful,” the blob winks at her. “One speedy transport coming right up.” Then the blob dives back into the snow.

Silence stretches between us.

“Okay, then,” Dex finally says, jumping to his feet and brushing the snow off his jeans. “Did anyone else see a shimmering blob of goo hitting on Harper?”

“Oh, Shiny wasn’t hitting on me. Trust me.” Harper dismisses him with a wave of her hand. “Shimmer Blobs are just natural flirts. They don’t even mean to do it most of the time.”

“Shimmer blobs?” The snow crunches under my thick boots as I step toward her. “What the hell is that? Because I’ve been around for a really long time and I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“That’s because you’re knowledge has mostly been limited to the creatures of Mystic Willow Bay and Shimmer blobs originally came from the Land of Reflective Light. But when their government started to collapse because the king got a little too handsy with all the wives and even some husbands, a lot of them relocated here,” Harper explains, plopping down on a chunk of ice. “It’s not your fault, though, that you don’t know this. The curse has sort of limited your traveling abilities and distracted you from a lot of what’s going on in the worlds.”

True. But that still doesn’t mean I’m on board with some odd sparkling, flirty by nature blob of goo knowing Raven’s location.

“How do we know we can trust it?” I question. “And what the hell does it even do?”

“It’s going to transport us to the safe place,” she states matter of factly.

“I know, but how?” I bite back my annoyance the best that I can, but she keeps talking in circles. “And where are we even going? Because you’ve never clarified that either.”

“You’ll see when we get there, because telling you before we get there would mean that we might not be able to go there.” She’s starting to speak in riddles, a pixie trait.

I give up, turning to Kingsley. “What do you think we should do?” I lower my voice. “I mean, I’ve never heard of a shimmer blob before and this whole thing seems weird.”

“I know.” Kingsley flicks a glance in Harper’s direction. “But I think I trust her.”

“Really?” Doubt rings in my tone. “Because usually you don’t trust anyone, except for her.” I graze my fingers along the shirt covering Raven’s face.

“I know.” That’s all he’s says before sinking into silence.

Something’s bothering him—I can tell. I’m about to press when the ground begins to rumble and shake, the icicles dangling on the tree branches above us clinking together. I reach for my sword, but before I can withdraw, the ground lights up, and a large iridescent puddle bleeds through the snow beneath our feet.

“What the hell is that?” I shout as I struggle to keep balance.

Harper grins from ear to ear. “That, my friends, is our speedy transportation.”

Before anyone can say anything else, the ground opens up and I’m swallowed by iridescent light.