One moment I was there, and the next I was gone.

The Shadows melted around my body with ease, filling the gaps of moonlight that shone through with impenetrable darkness. I couldn’t see a thing, couldn’t navigate my surroundings even though I’d been through this forest a hundred times before.

My body was no longer my own, stolen by an invisible force that tied its web-like threads around my wrists and ankles, stringing me along the way a marionette manipulates its puppet.

The only thing that remained my own was my thoughts. As panicked as they were, the only thing I could think about was Asher and my friends. Were they alive? Were they fighting Cassidy? Had they killed her already and rushed off to my rescue?

Each one went unanswered.

When the tendrils of darkness slithered away, no longer clouding my vision, I stood somewhere new. At the very back of the field was a rectangular brick building, dimly lit by the streetlamps that seemed so far away.

I recognized the building as the town