Jace immediately reaches over and smacks Paisley in the back of the head.

"Don't be an ass," he says. "I was just starting to like you."

"I don't give a damn whether or not you like me." Paisley's eyes flash in annoyance. "And I'm simply being honest. She says she can see now when she previously couldn't. Only Caster has the Shard and he's been stingy with it so far. I assumed she had to pay a fair price for it."

He shrugs unapologetically. "It’s a logical conclusion to make."

"No, it’s fucking not, considering she’s with Wolf now," Jace counters. "You just said that because you like to be mean."

"I’m not really with Wolf." I glance at Savannah while I say it but she like Jace is frowning at Paisley. I turn back to Paisley, and ask, "What's a Yellic Shard?"

"Why should I tell you?" is Paisley's response.

"Because owe me," Jace says. "Or did you forget?"

Paisley reddens. Now I'm also curious about what he owes Jace, but I'm still more curious about this shard that helps one see in the Dark Forest.

Paisley eventually sighs as if this whole thing is so stressful to him. "Are we going to pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about?"

"I truly have no clue," I admit and though he frowns, for the first time, doubt enters his expression.

"The King gave Caster a magic shard of glass. It's supposed to help him see in the forest or at least detect his way through. Caster broke off a piece for Brute during their last excursion and then one for me last night."

"Ah," Sav says. "I was wondering how that bastard could see me enough to knock me out."

I nod. Suddenly, a lot of things make sense, including Brute's confidence.

And here I was thinking that the King was going to let Caster suffer like the rest of us.

"That’s cheating," Jace burst out with. "He deliberately gave his son an advantage while the rest of us are here stumbling around like idiots."

"Cheating? At what point did you think this game was fair?" Paisley gives one of his humorless laughs, followed by a long-suffering sigh. "I can’t believe I’m stuck with you idiots again."

"You don’t have to be," Tia says. "Jace doesn't need you to see anymore so you can go off on your merry way."

"No," Jace responds to everyone's surprise. "As annoying as that one is, he’s going to come in useful."

"How?"

Jace thinks about it. "Well, his father is a Chief. So, if we manage to escape the Village, we can use him as leverage so they don’t hunt us down."

So Jace was thinking about running away too.

Tia frowns doubtfully. "If anything, us taking him along will make them hunt us down faster."

"You're both wrong," Paisley says. "My father won’t care about anything that happens to me."

"You're lying," Tia says.

"No, I'm not. How did you think I got stuck in a group that was sent on a mission that was probably supposed to kill you all? As far as hostages go, you've made the wrong choice. I'm sure the old man wants me dead probably more than you do."

We're all stunned silent for a few seconds.

And then Tia asks, "Why? What did you do?"

A bitter look fills his face, and Jace seems to realize we've crossed a boundary because he coughs awkwardly, "Either way. I still think he should come with us."

"I'm fine with it as long as he doesn't plan on irritating us the entire time," Savannah says.

"Adria?" Tia nudges me. "What do you think?"

My eyes travel from Jace to Paisley, and then back to Jace. He rubs his hand over his neck and his eyes avoid mine.

I get the feeling that there's something Jace isn't telling me.

But I decide to trust him regardless.

"So you can see?" I ask Paisley.

He shrugs. "Not clearly. It's more of a blur really, and vague outlines of things but it's enough."

"Would you like me to help you see clearer?"

He frowns. "Can you really?"

I slowly approached him but he still jerks when I put my hand on his stomach.

"Focus on your center," I say.

I thought he would complain or make another snarky comment but he reluctantly shuts his eyes and does as I say.

A few seconds later, his eyes fly open. "How did you do that?"

"I'm not entirely sure," I admit. I don't know if these new powers have to do with traveling back in time or with the voice in my head or with Wolf's technique. "Wolf taught me I think."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You really don’t have the shard?" he asks and I nod.

He suddenly looks uncomfortable. "I'm sorry I implied what I did."

"It's fine," I say and then decide it's time to move on.

"We’re getting out of here," I tell Paisley. "The King's task be damned. Do you know a way out?"

He slowly shakes his head. "I'm not even sure how long we've been in here."

"It feels like years to me," Savannah says.

"Days," Tia says

"A couple of minutes," Jace points out.

"Hours," I say.

"What on earth is going on?" Jace asks

"I think it's fair to say that the forest is playing tricks on us," I say. "Wolf said it could make you hallucinate, but I think it goes beyond that. I think we're experiencing time differently as though we're pulled into different time dimensions where time moves faster or slower."

"That doesn't make sense," Savannah points out. "Because if time moves that much faster for me, I would be dead by now."

"You kinda looked like you were on the verge of it when we found you," Tia points out. "And then after Adria did her thing, you looked fine."

"Yes but, to me it feels like at least a year has passed. No one goes without food or water for a year."

"I'm not sure how it works," I say. "It's just a tiny theory. Maybe when we find Wolf he can explain more."

"Explaining isn't Wolf's strong suit."

Tia snorts and I have to agree. Nevertheless, I'll drag it out of him one way or another.

"We marked our path here," I say. "We're going to keep going and see if we can find a way out. And also..." It finally hits me, the thing I almost forgot amidst all the chaos and finding my friends.

The True Heart Gem. I completely forgot to look for it.

In my defense, there are far fewer gems as we head deeper into the forest. I thought eventually the obsidian would give way to more types of gems, but no. Only more dark colored stones here and there. None of my friends can see them either for whatever reason. I don't know if it's because we're in a different part of the forest, but the floor of the forest looks completely normal.

Were the gems I saw an illusion? Or is this an illusion now?

Ah. It's all so confusing. And the forest has been suspiciously silent for some time. It's giving me a bad feeling.

"Let's go," I say finally.

As we continue our journey, Jace fills us in on how he and Paisley paired up.

"After the monster attacked, I ran and grabbed who I thought was Tia at the time," he says. "Turns out, it was Paisley's dainty little wrist."

Paisley groans and Jace chuckles.

"Anyway, after we'd gotten some distance away and the adrenaline cleared enough for me to hear what he was saying, I realized I grabbed the wrong person. But it was too late by then, and I also learned he could see so I attached myself to him."

"How did you realize he could see?"

"Well, I nearly walked off a cliff before he told me to watch my step. That's when I figured it out."

"A cliff?"

"Yes, we thought it was simply a steep hill at first, but then Paisley says it was most definitely a cliff."

That's confusing. A cliff didn’t make sense for the geography of the forest It was supposed to be gentle hills leading up to the Elfen mountains and the Griffin lands.

Where did a cliff factor in?

Or was the forest much larger than I thought?

Or was Paisley lying?

Why would he? Just to mess with Jace?

I glance at Paisley and he gives me a tight smile.

As the group continues, I hang back with Savannah to speak privately.

"Wolf and I …" I say. "There’s nothing. Besides a friendship. He helped me out and I'm deeply indebted to him but that's all."

"Is that so?" She sounds more amused than offended.

"Yes. And if you doubt me then I’ll be happy to–"

"It’s not that I doubt you. I’m just wondering why you’re going through the trouble of telling me this."

"Because you and Wolf are...meant to be." Did she not hear me the last time I blurted this out?

I know in my past life Wolf and Savannah were fated mates, the type that were irrevocably bound together. A witch, who was an actual Seer, told me. I'm fuzzy on the details of how exactly they got together, whether it was before or after Sav broke Wolf out of the King's dungeon.

All I know is that, as they spent more time together, they realized how much they meant to each other, and formed that special bond that even I couldn't completely understand.

But right now, Sav snorts in response to what I said.

"Look," she says. "Wolf and I have been playmates since we were little. Our mothers were friends and so I was kind of forced on the awkward mute kid who wouldn't play nice with others. I followed him around just out of curiosity at first, but then realized how lonely he was." She turns her gaze upwards as though she can somehow see the sky through the thicket of branches. "Later, I found out that it wasn't that he deliberately drove people away. It's just that he didn't know how to talk to them without scaring them. He had a tendency to share things that he shouldn't know, like if someone was lying or if they smelled 'sick'. He was also really bad at hiding his true feelings. And then after he started getting ostracized, he kind of accepted it and remained alone. Without me, Wolf had no friends and I was worried while I was gone that it would always be like that." She watches me thoughtfully. "So I'm glad he's not alone anymore. I'm glad he has someone like you, in case I'm not here."

"Oh." I've never thought about Wolf's history like that. I've always assumed Wolf simply didn't like people and that was why he stayed away.

I never thought that was because people rejected him first.

But what does Savannah mean by in case she's not here? "Do you plan on leaving the village again?"

But she doesn't answer the question, simply smiling wanly.

Eventually, we all sit to stretch our legs, even though none of us are really all that tired. We start talking to defeat the eerie silence in the forest and maybe to prevent dying from boredom.

"I miss my mother," Tia says unprompted. "I probably should have listened to her and not joined the trials in the first place."

"I miss my mom too," Jace says. "Particularly her fruit cake."

Savannah groans. "Speaking of which, do you guys remember the duck they served after the second trial? That was divine. I miss that. I was hoping they would give it to us again before sending us to our deaths."

"That was good," I interject fast so as not to ruin the mood by dwelling on death. "But I miss Wolf's meat soup most."

Jace sighs. "Yeah, me too."

Paisley doesn't say anything.

Jace prompts him. "Come on Paisley. Tell us who you miss."

He stands abruptly and heads off.

"Where are you going?" Jace calls.

"I don't care. I just need to be away from you."

"Don't go too far." And then to us, Jace says, "Ignore him. He's just going through a lot."

"How do you know?" Tia asks.

Jace thinks about it and then adds, "I think he tried to throw himself off the cliff."

"What?"

"Yeah. Right after he told me to watch myself he tried to throw himself over. I caught his hand at the last minute."

"Are you sure? Maybe he just didn't see it?"

"He did. And he was kind of annoyed that I saved him. I think his family life is very complicated."

"Are you sure there was ever a cliff?" I ask. "The forest can cast illusions."

"I don't know," Jace says. "But I do know that a part of Paisley really wants to die."

We all fall into an uncomfortable silence. No one knows quite how to respond to that, except now I'm remembering how Paisley casually told us that he was allergic to fish and how he said he was unfortunately really hard to kill.

Is it the first time he's attempted to die? I think he mentioned trying to kill himself before, but I thought he was just making a dark joke, never expecting someone liek Paisley to be actually suicidal.

No, don't care about him now Adria. You really can't afford to care for too many people.

Still, I hope Paisley took Jace's caution to heart and didn't wander off. I don't want to have to look for him again.

As I scan my team I can't help but wonder:

How long has it really been?

How long can we keep going like this, without food or water or sleep?

I don't feel hungry or tired but that's wrong because I should feel those things.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes and try to center myself. I think of Wolf instead, and where he could be. I also think of Pearl and where on earth I can find the True Heart Gem.

And then a roar shakes the earth.