Sam didn't answer, only looked at her with those glittering, tawny eyes. His grim expression was answer enough. There was a faint rustle, a snapping of twigs, and they both tensed. But it was only the wild woman, Gwedonlin, who peered out at them from behind the stump of a rotted tree, her eyes flashing in the dull light.

"I see you've got a head start." Sam started toward the forest, and after a moment of hesitation Natalie followed him. It was either that or remain beside the black mountain, waiting for the threshers to come over the top.

"This place is creepy." She kept her voice hushed. It seemed like a respectful thing to do, as if the forest really was a body. As she stepped past the husks of dead branches and shriveled leaves, it felt a little like she was trampling over bits of bone. Corpses that hadn't been buried.

The deeper they entered the more the dread settled in the bottom of Natalie's stomach, a heavy iron weight. The trees were black, gnarled shapes stretching up, their branches sharp and jagged. If trees could look desperate, these ones did, like they were bowed under the weight of the knowledge of their own deaths. Or hunched over in pain.

"What happened to this place?" Natalie whispered.

For a long moment Sam didn't answer. There was only the dry crunch of dead things under his boots, and the howl of the wind from the mountaintop. When he finally spoke his voice was bitter. "She happened to it. This is our new reality." He paused abruptly, as if he were about to say more and had stopped himself.

She stumbled over a root in the trail, and felt it crumble beneath her shoe, but she was too preoccupied. She stared at Sam's broad back. "Who is she? And this place...I mean...where is it even? Are we..." she trailed off, her mouth tasting sour. She didn't even know what she wanted to ask. Are we on earth, maybe? But that seemed like such a ludicrous question.

Sam glanced back at her. "You don't know where you are?" In the dark his voice sounded incredulous.

"I have no idea. I was being chased...I—my mother..." again she stopped, not sure how to explain. She shivered and rubbed her arms. The forest seemed to suck all the warmth away from her skin, maybe because hardly any sunlight got through. Again she stumbled over something in the path.

Sam cursed under his breath. "I forgot your eyesight isn't going to be up to this."

When he turned, she was startled to feel his hand close over her wrist. Instinctively she jerked back, but he held on firmly.

"You want to fall on your face?"

She pressed her lips together and shook her head. It was humiliating to be lead around by the hand like a child, but she didn't have much choice. The further into the dead forest they went, the harder it became to even see the path in front of her.

"Just follow me," Sam's voice was hushed. "But stay quiet. We're going to try not to attract attention."

Again she only nodded, shivering, though this time she wasn't sure if it was the temperature, or the idea of what sort of attention they might attract. And from what. The image of the threshers loomed in her mind. She didn't want to imagine what else might be in this place. Silently, she trailed after Sam, trying to figure out exactly how much she wanted to tell him. He didn't press her for more details, but several times he darted a look over his shoulder at her, eyes shining in the darkness.

She wasn't sure how much she should say about her mother. And about the pendant. She still clearly remembered the way that Pirate Pat had stared at the necklace, the greed in his eyes. And the way that the librarian had reached out toward it, the way he'd leapt at her. Somewhere deep down she was afraid that Sam might be like that too. If he saw the necklace, he might want it as well.

Her mother had clearly been involved in something very strange. In fact, though things were still overwhelming and terrifying, the longer they walked in silence through the forest, the more she began to think about things clearly. Her mother had owned the necklace. Her mother had disappeared. She, Natalie, found the necklace. She had...disappeared?

And ended up somewhere surrounded by strange, alien territory. Traveling with people that clearly weren't human.

The answer, the impossible, ridiculous, improbably answer to all of this, was that the necklace had taken her someplace new. A place she'd never heard of, and was willing to bet not many other people had either.

Sam still had a firm grip on her right hand, and she glanced up at him, furtively, making sure he was still facing away from her. Then she slipped her hand into her pocket and ran her fingers over the charm. The metal surface was only slightly warm. It held none of the glowing heat it had earlier. She'd been crouched in the forest one minute, wishing herself anywhere but there...wishing herself away. And then she was here, and the necklace was hot.

If she was right about this, it was little wonder that people wanted it. Though, looking around this place, at the dark forest full of corpse trees, she wasn't sure why anyone would want to come here. Perhaps though, people here would want to leave. Perhaps that was why they were looking for the necklace.

There was another snap of branches from up ahead, and Sam's grip on her wrist tightened. Then a pair of shining eyes appeared, suspended in the air several feet above them. The same tawny gold as his.

He cursed again, softly. "Gwendolin, stay close this time. I can't babysit the girl and you at the same time."

Natalie's cheeks flushed hot, and she had to resist the urge to yank her wrist out of his grip. It was frustrating to have admit to herself, but if she did that she'd be stranded in these eerie woods. It had grown dark enough that she could only see the dim outline of Sam in front of her. If he were to lose patience and abandon her she would be stuck here.

Maybe that was what had happened to her mother. Maybe she had used the necklace and landed somewhere like this forest, with no one to help her out. Maybe she'd been eaten by threshers, or fallen off the side of the black mountain. Natalie shuddered.

But then, how had the necklace been returned? How would it have been in the attic with her mother's things? No, it didn't make sense.

It seemed like forever that they traveled through the Deadwoods. Natalie wasn't sure if that's what they were called, but it's what she'd dubbed them in her mind. With zero way of seeing where they were going, and the fact that even with Sam leading her she would stumble and trip over every root and rock in their path, it seemed to take hours. Sam said nothing the entire time, and the presence of Gwedolin on the trail before them was almost as unnerving as the thought of whatever might be lurking out there. The wild woman kept looking back at them, nothing more than a slender black silhouette, her eyes like two lamps in the heavy darkness.

Sam broke the silence for the first time, his voice short. "Wait. Hold still."

He stopped so abruptly she almost ran into the back of him. There was something in his voice that sent a thrill of terror through her, a chill that dropped down her spine. He sounded tense, but there was a note of fear in his voice too. She didn't want to imagine what an incredibly muscular, six-foot-tall supernatural being like Sam was afraid of.

His grip on her wrist tightened as he tugged her forward, and then she felt the roughness of bark beneath her fingers. "Stay here, keep your hand on this tree. Whatever you do, don't move. Understand?" He said it all in a low voice near her ear, as if he were trying to avoid anything overhearing him, and Natalie shivered and nodded sharply. There was no way she was moving.

Sam released her wrist, and she squinted through the dark over her shoulder. She could make out the dim shadowy pillars of trees all around them, and she could see his silhouette moving between them, moving away from her. Toward...what?

Moments later a soft, low moan came through the darkness, guttural and inhuman. Natalie jerked in surprise. The noise had come from out of the darkness nearby. Close enough to raise all the fine hairs on the back of her neck.

Several feet away a pair of yellow eyes snapped open, and Natalie's heart kicked into a gallop. But it was only Gwendolin, creeping closer to the tree Natalie was holding onto, her eyes flashing.

"Stay very still, no matter what happens." Her voice was low and husky, as if it hadn't been used in weeks, and Natalie blinked at her, surprised. Then the woman whirled away, skipping forward into the darkness. The light of her eyes vanished.

Both of them must be facing outward, Natalie realized, away from her and toward the creature that had made that horrible sound. A moment later there was a metallic rasping sound, and she could picture Sam drawing those long knives from the leather sheathes on his back.

Another low moan, closer this time. Now she recognized the note of hunger in it, the longing in the rasping growl at the end. Whatever it was, it was hungry. Whatever it was, she, Natalie, was probably food to it.

There came the crash of underbrush then, as the creature moved into the small clearing, and a moment later a wall of stench hit her. Natalie pressed one hand to her mouth, trying not to gag. It was horrible, a mixture of rot and dead things.

She had been picturing something like the threshers, thinking that maybe it was one who had run ahead of the pack. But whatever this creature was, it wasn't on all fours. The silhouette stood on two legs, much like a bear, though a bleary, shapeless mass stretched out on either side of it. Natalie couldn't understand, until there came a flapping sound, and the stench washed over her, even stronger this time. She pressed her fingers over her mouth and held her breath. Wings, she realized, it had wings. And every time it pumped them up and down the scent of the creature rolled forward.

Though the creature was clumsy and loud, Sam and Gwendolin were not. They were deadly silent as they crept forward, eyes flashing in the darkness. The creature shrieked, lashing out with one of the black masses—its wing—trying to knock Sam off balance. Sam rolled backwards, coming up on one knee. Gwendolin was already darting forward. She must have found a weapon somewhere, because there was a loud thwak as something connected with the creature's skull.

It staggered back with a pained cry, and then Sam was on it, his knives a blur in the dark. They must have made contact, because it screamed again, the sound full of pain, and staggered backwards. One of the wings lashed out, buffeting Gwendolin. The wild woman flew back several feet, slamming into a thick tree trunk before coming to rest on the ground. She was still, and Natalie hesitated. Should she go see if she was alright?