The two were too mingled for her to name one or the other. But there was no other option for her, as far as Addison could tell. The way forward out of her messy life was through that door. There was a part of her convinced that if she tried to backwards, some fairy would block her way.

She had made a deal and was required to keep her end of it. The only hope was that it would as easy as finding the first door had been. With her mind made up, and nowhere else to go, she reached her hand out and turned the knob.

She closed her eyes and stepped forward without so much as looking at the other side. Her feet met with the ground for a couple of steps, one foot felt a ridge, and then she felt her gut drop to its lower limit.

A breeze flew past her face.

Fear attached itself still, making her too afraid to open her eyes and see what she has just done to herself. As if the deal was the ultimate trick; not one that saved her, but one that doomed her to some hell she couldn’t escape. And after her last visit with the demons — it seemed within the realm of possibilities.

Screw the witch and the fairies and the soul contracts. She would spend the rest of her dumb, short little life in a fiery cell to be laughed at. Jaw clenched tightly, she took in a deep, shaky breath.

Addison's feet clipped something hard, and not even a second later her body slammed into the ground, forcing the breath out of her lungs so fast it hurt.

Everything hurt after she landed. Everything all and once and she wasn’t sure for a second if she had survived it — that was until she opened her eyes and found herself not in heaven or hell. She wasn’t in a cage or a cloud.

She was in a forest.

A forest that looked far too similar to the one she had just come from, and with no impulse control left to her waking self, she screamed. As the sound came out the surrounding birds flew out of the trees, and a second later there was a returning yell from a voice she didn’t recognize. It wasn’t crackly or waspy or heavy, which were the only attributes she gave to those that flew around The Queen.

She had fallen from forest to forest and into another realm. If everything she had been told was the truth, and she was awake and alive… She was on earth. Regular human earth.

Despite the pain and lack of clues around her, she smiled, and the vision of a hellfire prison faded.

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

“…Lo!” the voice that had echoed her scream drifted through the surrounding trees.

Addison took a normal, uninterrupted breath in — exhaling it with ease and without pain, an action worth keeping her content smile, and stood. Her ankles and back protested quietly.

As if she had been tucked into a ball for a night.

Or landed hard on her feet somehow, she thought as she dusted off her legs, and tried to wipe off her back the best she could.

“Anyone there?” the voice came again. Much closer this time, much clearer.

Addison tilted her head, feeling a very vague feeling of familiarity. Her gut fought with the feeling, however, sending its waves of anxiety. People meant help, but they could also mean questions, and if the wrong people walked up to a vulnerable no-name alone in the forest, they could mean trouble.

The questioning voice sounded confused, feminine. Making the war inside her even more difficult.

To decide about something, she shifted her weight and did another sweep of her surroundings, eyes trying to touch every tree and every twig that littered the ground. Although the foliage was no denser than the old she had come from, there was no clear path. Not in front of her or any other direction.

There was nothing to direct her which way to take, and no direction that looked any easier to run in case her nervous voice got any louder; which it did as soon as something rustled to her side, just out of eyesight.

Frustration mounted, and a third decision was made. She would neither wait, nor not, but invited whoever the hell it was to her, and find her way to town even if it killed her.

“Hello,” Addison said, her voice shaky. She realized after the fact that her hand had waved above her head, even though the person she was responding to was unlikely to see it at all. She cleared her throat and tried again as it dropped. “Over here!”

Less shaky. A little louder. They didn’t sound like her, but she couldn’t pinpoint why.

The rustling came again, closer this time until she could see the leaves and trees shift directly to her right. She flinched, still half-expecting someone to charge. Or worse.

What emerged was a slender frame with a long brown ponytail that was attached to a very familiar face — one that she never expected to be out in the wilderness so casually. “I heard a scream, are you — ”

Lori cut off as her eyes grew widened. She had recognition written all over the face; it looked exactly the same as it did when she cut the middle of her greetings, every time that Addison entered the shop.

Addison rolled her eyes. “I fell.”

Lori crossed her arms over her chest, looking even ruder than usual. At least the shop counter hid half of her body language. One eyebrow rose. “Where exactly did you fall from? Were you following me out here? Trying to get to my stash so you didn’t have to pay me?”

The words cut. The last time she had gone to the store, Addison had even felt like they had shared a small moment, and otherwise, she did her best to remain level. Apparently, it hadn’t mattered for much. “I fell from…” she hesitated. It wasn’t like she could easily explain her living arrangements. “Stash? Don't you get deliveries”

Lori’s face contorted further, her eyes darting to one side before coming back as if they hadn’t moved. Silence sat between them. Like either wanted to give up the secret first.