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  She groans and leans on me to slip off the gaudy things. With them tied to her belt, she takes the hand I offer and lets me lead her out into the storm.

  The unexpected iciness of the downpour almost stops us in our tracks, soaking us to the skin within seconds. Leila squeaks and pulls back, but I tighten my grip on her hand and force us forward, fighting against the wet jeans clinging to my legs.

  Tall grasses and weeds slow our escape, tangling around our ankles as we half-run, half-stumble toward the woods. It’s almost impossible to tell if we’re heading the right way. I’m running blind through the never-ending wall of the storm, squinting against the wind and icy spears of rain. At least Leila is still on her feet.

  That changes about ten feet later when her hand slips from mine. I stumble forward and almost face-plant in the weeds. When I turn back, I find Lei on the ground, struggling to free herself from an old rope tangled around her feet.

  “Are you okay?” It’s hard to hear my shout over the wail of the storm.

  “What idiot leaves rope laying out in the middle of a field?” Her voice is strained, her words rounded like her mouth is too cold to work right.

  It takes every ounce of patience I have not to yell at her to shut up and hurry. I drop to the ground next to her and shove her fumbling hands out of the way.

  A bright light shines nearby. At first, I brush it off as lightning. But instead of vanishing, it lands on us and doesn’t leave. My stomach drops.

  “Hey!” A booming voice carries across the field, the beam of the flashlight steady. “Stay right where you are! Don’t move!”

  I curse under my breath as I fight with the rope trapping Leila, who’s given up on helping. She wobbles as she twists to look over her shoulder, planting a hand in the mud.

  “Well shit,” she slurs, the flashlight bouncing as the cop heads toward us. “There goes the rest of my night.”

  A sharp tug on the rope makes her turn back around. “Focus, Lei. I need your help here.”

  She lets out a groan and shoves her wet hair out of her face in defeat. “I just want to go to sleep. Can I go to bed now?”

  The cop is closing in fast. My fingers hurt from the cold, the rope’s rough fibers scraping them raw. I can’t see the tangles with the rain running in my eyes.

  A few more yards and we’re done for. My heart surges, my throat choked in panic.

  “Lei—”

  The sky lights to the brightness of day as lightning strikes out in all directions, followed by ear-splitting cracks of thunder. The air around us becomes charged, every part of me tingling with the current as the lightning intensifies. Adrenaline spikes through me in a shivering rush, making the hair all over me stand on end.

  Lightning suddenly hits on all sides of us. Leila screams and grabs my arm as a deafening reverberation sounds, turning the world silent except for a ringing in my ears. My insides crush under a crippling pressure, stalling my breath in my chest. Everything moves in slow motion as the next strike engulfs us in blinding light, and my eyes wrench shut as I grab for Leila.

  Chapter Two

  The crushing pressure lifts from my chest, and I gasp to quench the burning in my lungs. A strange scent of countryside mixed with rain hits me, overpowered by a sweet and pleasant taste. The flavor doesn’t belong to the fir and cedar trees near the barn, yet it’s somehow familiar. A warm wave of peace washes over me, like a sense of being home.

  The roar of the storm is gone, replaced by the sounds of night. When I open my eyes to see what changed, there’s only static. Black and white pinpoints fill my vision, and I can’t stop panic from hitting me.

  Breathe—just breathe. Easier said than done. I suck in as much of the peculiar air as my lungs can take. One…two…three…four… Hold for seven. Release after another eight.

  The chirp, chirp of crickets help. I repeat the exercise twice before the static starts to fade, and with it the panic. The world remains dark, but the barn and field are nowhere in sight. Massive trees surround me, their crowns joining in a thick canopy, disappearing into the shadows above. Never have I seen its like.

  How did I get here? Did I black out or something?

  Not sporting so much as a headache, I check myself over to find my clothes soaked from the storm. And yet everything around me is dry. A soft breeze is the only disturbance to the utter peace of the night.

  Leila. I scramble to my knees and peer through the dark. She’s on the ground a few yards away. I crawl to her, looking around to make sure the cops aren’t nearby.

  Out cold. Her pulse is easy enough to find, and I check her for injuries. When I can’t find so much as a scratch, I shake her shoulder.

  “Lei, can you hear me?” No response. I shake her with a little more force. “Come on Lei, wake up.” I’m contemplating slapping as an option when she lets out a low groan. A cool wave of relief flows through my chest. “Hey, you okay?”

  She groans louder and reaches a hand to her forehead. “Ev?”

  “I’m here.” Not that I have any idea where here is. Another glance around. Still alone.

  “Evan.” Her voice is less groggy this time. Her eyes open to a squint. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know.” My gaze lifts to the canopy. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  Her gaze follows mine. She frowns. “When did we get in the woods?” She shifts to her elbows and looks down at herself, fingering her empty belt. “And where the hell are my shoes?”

  “Probably fell off in the field.” Another look around us. “Wherever it is.”

  Lei groans. “Damn it. Do you know how much those cost?”

  “Too much?” She glares at me and I add, “Consider it the price of getting out of an underage.”

  “I’d rather take the ticket.” At least her eyes are focused now. It takes her some effort to sit up. When she manages to prop herself on her hands, she takes in our surroundings. “What part of the woods is this?”

  “No idea. We must’ve come in at a different spot.”

  We stand and Leila’s legs are shaking. She steadies herself with a hand on my arm, and the other flies to her head.

  “You okay?”

  “My brain feels like it was stepped on.”

  “Straight to hangover, huh?”

  “Bite me.” She presses the heel of her hand to her temple, then frowns and sniffs the air. “What’s that smell?”

  The breeze picks up behind us, carrying the scent of water and seaweed. It wraps my hair around my throat as I twist to look through the trees, but the shadows are too heavy. The peaceful sense of calm falls over me again.

  “Come on. We should find the car.”

  Leila groans and rubs her head. “We don’t know where in the woods we are.”

  “That’s what Google is for.” I tug my bag in front of me and dig through it, feeling under the Sahasrara Orb. A cold thread pierces my stomach when I come up empty-handed. “Do you have your phone?”

  Leila reaches behind her and frowns. “What the hell?” She checks the other side. “It’s gone. I had it buttoned into my back pocket.”

  “Did the button rip out?”

  “No, it’s still there.” She groans. “If someone stole it, I’m going to be pissed.”

  So much for GPS tracking. I scan our surroundings. We’re in an alcove of some kind, the tangled vines of the trees blocking every path between the trunks, save for one.

  “Let’s try this way. Maybe we’ll come across a road or something.”

  We pick our way through the tall grass, guided by a faint light in the distance. Before long we emerge into a clearing that slips into a black, glassy lake.

  The inky surface ripples in the breeze, its edge lapping at the long grass along the bank. The brilliance of the stars reflects in mesmerizing undulations that capture and release the glittering, milky haze spreading across the sky, twined with vast ribbons of purple and blue. In the distance, a jagged cliff overlooks the lake as it stretches around a bend of tree
s and disappears. A fortress of unbroken forest rises on all sides.

  “Ev…where are we?”

  The sight of the lake renders me speechless, though not for its beauty. I’ve never seen this place before in my life. And yet the strongest sense of déjà vu has my skin prickling in goose bumps. Leila grabs my arm, and I realize I’ve started walking along the bank, transfixed.

  “Where are you going?” Panic belies the agitation in her voice. “Do you know this place?”

  My thoughts stutter in confusion. “No, but—”

  “Then how the hell did we get here? I know I blacked out, but there’s no way…”

  Her sudden silence pulls my gaze from the lake, compelling me to look at her.

  Her face has turned ashen, her mouth hanging in horrified disbelief. “That wasn’t real, right?” She searches my eyes, her panic surging to the surface. “Tell me that didn’t happen.”

  That? What “that”? Then it hits me. My stomach falls, like I’m on a rollercoaster.

  The lightning.

  Realization must show on my face because Leila starts shaking her head in short, jerky movements. “No—it’s not possible. It can’t be. If it was, we’d be—”

  Her eyes go wide and she starts to hyperventilate. She takes a staggering step back, her grip slipping from my arm. A muted thud sounds when she hits the ground, her hands scrambling through the tall grasses around her. Through the high-pitched wheezing of her breaths, I almost can’t make out a word she keeps repeating. Dead.

  My chest is on fire as I drop to my knees in front of her, pinning her legs under me and grabbing her shoulders. Her gaze falls on everything but me.

  “Lei, look at me.” When she doesn’t seem to hear me, I take her head in my hands. “Leila!” Her focus snaps to me and stays. “You need to breathe, Lei. Come on, deep breaths.”

  “Dead…” The word comes out on a shallow inhale, and her hands come up to snag my wrists in a death grip. Tears stream down her face, wetting my hands.

  “Follow my breaths; breathe with me.”

  After a few failed attempts, she manages to take a deep, shuddering breath. A minute passes before she matches my rhythm. Her grip on my wrists loosens a little.

  “You need to calm down, Lei.” My gaze holds her steady. “We’re not dead.”

  “We were hit”—deep breath—“by lightning…we should…be dead.”

  “But we’re not. Do you feel this?” I pinch her arm.

  “Ow, stop it!”

  “You wouldn’t feel that if you were dead, right? Physical pain doesn’t exist after death.”

  She frowns. “How do you know?”

  “I just do.” It sounds right, anyway. “Trust me.”

  Another deep breath. She hesitates, then sags back, looking exhausted. The tall grass cushions me as I shift off her and focus on relieving the burning in my chest.

  A long minute of night sounds pass between us. Crickets chirp in the grass as the lake continues its quiet lapping at the bank. Most of the noises are familiar, but some I don’t recognize. Muted whistles, like the singing of crystals, fill the air over the lake, and the whisper of hollow reeds floats along its edge. As one, they’re the music of the night, playing a melody so hypnotic, I could sit here all night and still feel rested by morning.

  “So if we’re not dead,” Leila breaks the music’s hold on me, “then how did we get here?”

  A crazy thought pops into my head, but I swallow the scoff it brings up. The brilliance of the night sky guided our path through the dark of the forest. Now in the open, it’s difficult to see beyond the trees twisted in shadow. It’s almost like their interlocking vines are guarding something just out of sight.

  “I think we need to figure out where ‘here’ is, first.”

  “There isn’t a lake like this within fifty miles of home.” Apprehension haunts her eyes. “What if someone brought us here? There are stories about kidnapping all the time online, and they always—”

  Her sudden quiet has me expecting another panic attack. Instead I find her staring into the trees next to us. “Lei?” She doesn’t answer and I follow her gaze.

  Between the trees is a tall figure, almost invisible in the pale light of night. After several breathless moments, I realize the figure is a statue, as motionless as the trees surrounding it. It must belong to one of the native tribes that first inhabited the area. It looks misplaced, or maybe lost to time like a long-forgotten secret. Maybe it’s here in memory of a brave warrior, or in honor of a great ruler in commemoration of his leadership—or to serve as a warning to those who would trek into a forbidden place.

  “Lei, it’s okay. It’s—”

  Torches blaze to life a few feet from us, and we jump to our feet. The sudden brightness makes me squint, and I find we’re surrounded by half a dozen people dressed in rough leather, pelts, and crude, woven fabrics. Despite the ruggedness of their clothes and long dreadlocks, they’re clean. They regard the two of us with hard eyes, their jaws clenched. Out here, it’s like they’re cut off from the rest of the world.

  “Evan,” Leila whispers, her voice laced with panic.

  I look to her, then back to the statue she’s still staring at. A sharp inhale and my heart skips a beat before slamming into overdrive. The figure before us isn’t a statue at all. He is most definitely flesh and blood.

  The most unsettling thing about him isn’t that we didn’t see or hear him until now. It isn’t his intense, unblinking stare, his long, dreaded hair, or his strong, lithe body covered by nothing but pale leggings. And it isn’t the large scar slashing through his left brow and onto his cheekbone.

  It’s the bow he holds with two arrows notched, trained right on me and Lei.

  His aim adjusts as I pull Leila behind me, his only movement. There’s no doubt in my mind he’ll release the bowstring if we make a wrong move.

  “You don’t need that.” I raise my hand, surprised by how steady it is. I ignore Leila’s fists as they start balling into my back. “We’re not here to cause trouble.”

  Silence stretches for several moments before the living statue speaks. “Who are you?”

  I’m thrown for a second by the timbre of his voice and the odd lilt to his words. “Evan.” Unable to break the intense eye contact with him, I reach back to stop the hands digging into my spine. “This is Leila.”

  The statue assesses me, his stare unwavering. “How have you come to this place?”

  My voice is unsteady as I take a deep breath to calm my racing heart. “We don’t know.” He shifts, the movement striking me as impatient. Not good. “We were in a field during a storm and got hit by lightning. When we woke up, we were in the woods. We’re just trying to find our way home.”

  One of the women in the group catches the statue’s attention with an odd whistle. His hard gaze shifts, and I peer over my shoulder, seeing her use some form of sign language. I studied sign in school, but this is nothing like it.

  A frown mars the bowman’s imperfect brow. It’s the first real expression I’ve seen him make, and I’m hit with a sudden, curious urge to see him smile.

  His focus returns to me, the frown still in place. From the slight tightening at the corners of his eyes, I get the impression it’s about more than what the woman signed.

  “Not likely,” he replies. The woman gives a few more signs, and his tone darkens. “Regardless, she is a stranger to these lands.”

  “It is possible,” she says, startling me. She moves closer, using her torch to get a better look at me.

  The statue studies me with a look of intense deliberation. Without a word, he lowers his bow, his frown softening a little when he removes the arrows. He steps forward, surveying me from head to toe. My chest tightens. His eyes return to mine, his expression giving away nothing. He returns the arrows to the quiver on his back.

  “The elders will decide.”

  With that, he turns to the trees and moves into the darkness. The rest of the group converges on me and
Leila, directing us to follow the scarred man. He leads us through the forest toward an unknown destination.

  Chapter Three

  The bowman moves through the trees with the quiet ease of a jungle cat attuned to its surroundings. His steady pace pulls us along, forcing me to watch the ground to avoid tripping on roots and branches.

  “Ev,” Leila whispers from behind me, “what’s going on?”

  “They’re taking us to see someone.”

  “How can you understand them?”

  I step over a large jumble of roots. “What are you talking about?”

  “You and the half-naked hottie exchanging gibberish.”

  The path is clear for the next few feet, so I risk a glance back. “Are you still drunk?”

  “No,” she replies, glaring daggers at me. “I didn’t understand a fricking word you said.”

  I turn forward again in exasperation to find the statue looking right at me. My steps falter and Leila bumps into my back. His gaze releases mine as he turns back around, and I whisper over my shoulder, “Later.”

  After a few minutes of walking in silence, firelight seeps through the trees ahead. Unease blooms in my stomach as the path enters a large, open circle. It’s ringed by the same tangled trees that surrounded us in the alcove, but here the canopy opens wide to the night sky. With the light from an enormous bonfire sitting in the circle’s center, I’m able to get a better look at them. I almost stop walking when I realize what they are: banyan trees.

  I saw one a few years ago when Dad took me on vacation to Hawaii. These are different, though. Taller, with more roots hanging down to the ground from the heavy branches. When those roots take hold of the dirt, they’ll grow into thick trunks and become indistinguishable from the rest of the tree. Banyans can spread over large areas; just one tree can turn into a forest if left unchecked. Judging by the connected branches and trunks surrounding the circle, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re all part of the same tree.

  Sections of the tree ring cluster together, as if housing something within, separated by paths leading away into shadow. A massive band of trees sits at the far side where the circle opens wide. That’s where we’re heading, and as we pass through the circle a loud whistle pierces the quiet of the night. Within moments, people pour from the paths and surround us.