She lifted one foot, pressing her lips together and keeping her head down, and moved it forward and let it fall to the ground. It made no sound as it collided with the dirt and fallen green leaves and vines and had been too close to the ground to send a shock wave up through her injured knee. Once the foot settled, she looked up.

Addison expected nothing. She had taken a step, but either this was all still a dream, or surely there would be someone standing by laughing at her gullibility. Yet there was no laughter, and when she looked for the fairy queen; the royal trickstress was gone. No one around at all, it seemed. She was on her own, just like she was told she would be.

It didn't really make her feel any better, especially since she wasn't sure what she was looking for; or how to go about looking for it. Not that far from when she was told to find her own way up the giant forsaken tree, and even fewer options to help achieve the goal. With no decision left but to go forward, she did.

Her other foot lifted and joined its twin.

The forest loomed around her. Distant sounds of something birdlike, and a breeze that she couldn’t feel — only see and heard among the branches. Life in the realm was continuing as normal, only disturbed by Addison, and the door she was supposed to find. There had been no information on how long it might take, or what she was supposed to do if it took her far too long. But it shouldn't have been surprising. As comfortable as the realm had been compared to the others, she had always been given small reminders that they had traded for her for a reason, and it wasn't to save her. This was her way out, but it was not a gift.

No way but forward and out, she thought, and forced the fog out of her mind. It wouldn't do any good for her to stand around and debate the merits of decisions she had already made, and paths she hadn't gotten to yet. What mattered was that she moved, and so she did.

She walked, and it didn't take long to fall into a rhythm. Her eyes scanned around as she moved forward, hoping they missed nothing along the way. There was nothing out of the ordinary for the first little while.

No obvious clues, marked trees, or glowing paths. No fancy birds that looked ready to take her to her destination. No fantasy here, although she walked among a fantastical realm. The Fae could be boring, and usually at the worst times. It seemed as though she would have to scour the forest to find some type of door.

She pictured it as she moved, amused at the image of a giant steel gate in the middle of the forest. Or maybe it would be pale wood, with a frame and window in the middle. Standing there between the trees, maybe a mass of the thick vines that crossed around the floors and wrapped around the trees beside her.

It would have a dark metal doorknob, tightly secured for eternity, because what else was magic for?

The image came in clearer with every step — each tree that passed her on the left, and each hidden thing that rustled on her right, she saw more details. The stained glass in the mirror would look like a blackened cauldron, too heavy for her to hold, and the colors would drip red and black. A collective thing of all the realms that stole her time and childhood away from her.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Addison smiled. The loneliness here felt better than she had expected it to. No demons laughing at her fragility, no old hag ordering her around, no Fae playing tricks. On the path that was flattening out underneath her, there were no demands other than her survival, and that was entirely up to her. With so little directions, she wondered for a moment if she actually would survive the trial at hand.

The question came and went round and round her head. Will I find the door before I starve to death?

Melodramatic, which is what drove it away each time, but she couldn't help its return every minute or so.

Just about the time her muscles ached, she came to something unexpected, and entirely on accident. The ground beneath her was beaten down into a dirt path, not even leaves landed on it as far as she could see. Several feet ahead of her, however, the path got even weirder, and it did something she'd never seen in the forest of that realm. It split into two perfectly level paths, each identical to the others and replicas of where she had come from.

The only thing that changed, as far as she could see, was the angles of the trees that arched over each piece of the fork. One was thin, with a handful of hidden flowers near the top, and the other was rounded at the bottom, and curved inward as it rose. It was a strange shape, almost like an upside cup, but when she blinked, the shape had disappeared.

There were two paths, and no sign that told her which to take. Which would lead to a door? And where would that door go? Addison took a deep breath and forced herself to toward the right, the image of the cup stuck in her mind.

Almost like a goblet, placed upside down to dry.

Doubt swarmed, but any other choice would lead into dense and viney forest, where magic grew in a different direction and wasn't likely to help her. Once she was past the arch and on her way to... somewhere, the doubt flooded back out of her thoughts, and she went back to envisioning the door. She pictured a swirl, somewhere in the middle.

Maybe on the opposite side of the doorknob, as if the wood split in half and one side got lonely. It created a shadow of the doorknob as if to trick someone someday. She laughed; the only nearby sound she heard since the queen had disappeared. It sounded strange, but she didn't mind hearing herself as much as she did most days. Rather than cringe at the sound of her own voice and childish laughter, she forced it out again.

"Ha! Haha!" she said, and real giggles followed. Her spirits were soaring, and again it didn't bother her. She couldn't pinpoint a reason, but it didn't matter. She felt good.

She could only hope that it would last awhile, rather than leaving as soon as it came.

Shaking her head at her own silliness and rolling her shoulders for a brief stretch, she paused. She arched her back, and let her neck to fall to one side, then the other.

When she felt a little more limber, she returned to her walk that had an unknown destination and noticed that the path was curving further into the forest, taking her farther away from the other fork in the road. It curved harshly, and for a moment she couldn't see beyond a foot in front of her. When it finally straightened out again, Addison gulped, trying to get rid of a sudden lump in her throat. There, in the middle of the path, was a door, and she had almost walked into it. It was the exact size and shape of the one she had pictured as she walked.

Her hand shook, unable to decide if the familiarity was comforting or terrifying.