"Andy!"

Pain raked across my face.

"ANDY!"

Burning throbbed across the other.

"Ursfstat!" I mumbled, words struggling unnaturally.

"Andy?" The voice shrieked again.

My brain rattled in my skull as hands grasped at my shoulders, launching my body backwards and forward like a ping-pong ball.

As my eyelids cracked open, it felt like my eyes were made of sandpaper. I was then met with the urgency of huge eyes, dishevelled hair escaping a green scarf, and a slender hand hovering at the ready to slap again.

"Willow?" I gasped out. She nodded frantically, lowering her hand in a flourish.

"What the hell, Andy?" Her voice was hoarse and several pitches higher than usual. "When I heard the forest scream out, I came as fast as I could, but..." She gestured about the clearing, and her voice broke as she choked out pained words. "Where did the trees go?" She sounded scared. Ash softly floated to the ground, coating a layer of smouldering, blackened debris.

I tried to sit up, but my muscles spasmed unhelpfully. Being less than gentle, Willow assisted me to an upright position with an exasperated sigh. The forest that had once boasted a golden canopy now housed a perfectly spherical, flattened space of earth, of which I lay in the centre. The air vibrated with magic, but the power remained a flat hum in the undertones of my hearing.

Goblets of red, bloody orbs floated, unable to obey gravity and trapped in the pulsating magical discharge. We both watched as another trickle of blood rose from the ground to join it. Willow tentatively reached out a hand, but she jumped back as I grabbed her sleeve, shaking my head.

It was followed by pockets of ash that seemingly gathered and swirled as it travelled the energy pathways. The hairs on our arms stood on end, crackling with static.

Pulsing pain enshrouded my arm, and it all came rushing back. "The necklace!" I cried, twisting my wrist, wincing at the pain. We both gasped at the mangled sight of my hand, dried bloody wounds around my wrist, and the welts throbbed mercilessly. The gold was long gone, its coiling pattern burnt into flesh.

That didn't nearly concern me as much as the gem.

I stared into the deep, crystallised faces now embedded in the middle of my palm, the scabbed skin entombing the unnatural element inside of it. Mockingly, the gem shimmered as my heart began to thrum, sweat gathering on my brow. Surely, I was seeing things. It couldn't seriously be stuck in my hand?

"Is that an amulet?" Willow wailed, grabbing my fingers in her own twigged ones. Startled as pain shot up my arm, I snatched it back with a cry, pulling it into my chest and cradling it softly, raggedly fighting to slow my breaths and comprehend anything but the little voice in my head swearing loudly.

With another hesitant glance, realising it was still there, I admitted, "I messed up." My voice sounded strange, and the thrum of power still rang in my ears.

Willow grabbed my shoulders again, shaking us both softly and a little harder when she couldn't think of a reply. Her features were beginning to distort as her level of panic rose.

Biting my lip, I continued, "I messed with Leofstan's magic."

Her eyes were wide, and her human disguise slipped past her fingers as patches of her skin became bark. She continued to rock softer. "Swear on Mother Nature," she begged calmly, "that I did not see that thing stuck in your hand!" Her nails pressed sharply into my shoulders.

Snapping back before I thought about it, my voice was irate. "Well, I sure as hell couldn't get it out," I snapped as her eyes widened and her grip tightened. It burrowed in there," I shrieked, testing whether my fingers could make a fist around it. While it didn't encroach on the movement, it didn't feel pleasant.

Willow rocked back on her heels, leaves sprouting from her hair. "It hurts?" It was unclear if she meant it as a question.

"I... I don't think so?" The burnt flesh ached, but it wasn't creating any new waves of pain. Opening and closing my hand a few more times, my brain finally began arranging some cohesive thoughts.

"Have... have you ever seen anything like this before?" I asked.

"Oh yes, all the time, actually."

"Really?" I sat up straighter, turning towards her.

"Fuck no! That is messed up."

My face must have said it all. She flung her hands up apologetically. "I just thought that might make you feel better?"

I would've warned her to start running if I could feel my legs. As it was, laughter burst out instead. The sound was odd amongst the silence in the forest amidst the magic buzz. Willow offered a wan smile, gazing around. Her eyes did not match the rest of her expression. Tears were gathering in the corners. "The forest cries in pain here."

We had a slow walk back to my house. For most of the journey, she supported my weight as I fought to gain control of my muscles. It felt as though alien interference wriggled its way under my skin.

The sun began peering over the horizon, dipping through the trees and warming patches through the branches; we grew slower.

Willow had become more tree-like with every passing second, the damage in the forest heavily impacting her. In the end, it became apparent she was leaning on me more instead of the other way around; she could not maintain a glamour as we gained ground towards civilisation. She repeatedly murmured about this and that, so with a quick hug goodbye, she stalked away into the last shadows of the forest, leaving me to navigate out of fae territory alone.

Unlike when I entered, the eerie sense of being watched from the shadows accompanied me into the early morning hours. Trying to pull magic for a simple glamour to hide my injuries felt sore, and any reserves I had held were non-existent. Unconvinced that I could glamour anyone into looking elsewhere, I didn't try, and I simply didn't care. It felt as though I'd gone several rounds of being hit by a truck, only to follow it up with jumping off a cliff.

Covered in dirt, burns, blisters, ash scabs and old blood, all I wanted was to collapse where I was and sleep. The only thought powering each footstep was of the blissful cotton sheets that awaited instead of the cold, muddy ground.

It wasn't meant to be. The buzzing in my head, heavy eyes, and persistent muscle aches meant I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been. By the time I noticed a rather bedraggled Leofstan propped against my door, he had already spotted me before I could turn in the other direction. His hair was tousled, his shirt was sweaty, and one of his trouser legs was torn. Sweat cascaded from his brow as he panted, body shaking. When he saw me, he pushed off the wall, stumbling slightly before marching rapidly in my direction.

"What," he growled, his voice low at first. Did you..." His tone sharpened, rising in anger. DO?" He roared, grasping me by the arms. He was unsettlingly rougher than Willow, especially as he shook me back and forth in what had become the new customary greeting for the day.

"Ouch." I croaked in protest as my brain rattled, but without the energy to back the complaint.

After a few awkward seconds, his grip tightened and grew heavier, and his hold on my arms kept him standing. His skin had taken on a greyish pallor.

Mildly curious, I enquired, "What happened to you?" He shot me a scathing glare.

"I think you know full well what happened." His eyes grew more intense. I didn't, really — he could've run into zombies for all I knew. My teeth began to clatter, only for me to realise his shaking hands were the cause. Leofstan was trembling so violently that it was rattling me. As I raised a hand to push him away, his gaze suddenly snapped into focus, locking onto the mangled, bloody flesh.

Ah.

He grabbed my arm with surprising speed, yanking it into the light. I hissed in pain and tried to pull away, but it was too late. Whatever colour remained in his face drained away completely.

"How." His voice was almost impossibly quiet, barely a whisper on his breath. He tilted my arm back and forth.

In hindsight, channelling power into the gem had been a terrible idea. Now, I had to explain how I'd blasted the gem he'd given me — using raw power the council insisted I wasn't meant to have — let the magic spiral out of control and somehow allowed the artefact to melt into me.

Yeah, that wasn't going to go down well. "No idea," bitterly spurting the words, "I think your spell went wrong."

"How?" He repeated in a rushed whisper, his eyes meeting mine. I could see them flickering, examining my face. Calculating.