Siena
Siena stepped forward as he called her name again.
She instinctively knew this darkness was a he. This was not the first time they’d met. She’d felt the insatiable curiosity inside her once before, when she was in the tunnel that had led her to the other cabin.
She needed to understand what he wanted. If she didn’t, something inside her would blister and peel away. She knew this instinctively, too.
She was used to studying landscapes at their present stillness. Mountains and valleys were temporary. But he, in this hovering onyx form, had always been here, floating, stiller than any mountain or rock. Older than Earth. Than time. Just like this forest.
He wanted her to know all this. And he had so much more to say, if she could just...
Siena stumbled backward, spinning and careening into Emmett’s chest. He’d followed her.
Emmett dragged her away from him as she emerged from her stupor—his spell—and her mouth opened in a silent scream.
Emmett threw Siena in front of him. “RUN!”
She oriented herself and ran toward Isaac, who stood at the edge of the thicket. He stared past her shoulder, at him, face deathly pale and eyes heavy with recognition. Isaac’s lips moved around words Siena couldn’t hear, and when she reached him, she cried his name and grabbed his arm, dragging him along with her.
The cabin wasn’t far. Siena emerged from the thicket with Isaac in tow and sprinted until she reached the porch. She threw open the door and stumbled, slamming into the floor in front of the couch.
As soon as the other two were inside, Emmett rammed his shoulder against the door to shut it and yanked the lock. Siena scrambled backward until she was flush against the wall near the hallway.
“What the hell was that?” Emmett hissed.
Isaac wilted onto the couch. He sweated profusely, his chest rising and falling so rapidly that Siena pushed herself to her knees in case she needed to catch him if he passed out. “You’ve seen it before, Emmett,” he said. “Don’t pretend you haven’t.” Isaac pressed a hand atop his chest, the crescents of his fingernails dark with dirt. “What led you to the tree, and the tunnel.”
“Is that true?” Siena asked. Emmett was already storming down the hall as she turned toward him. A few moments later he reemerged with the rifle, approaching the window and lifting the edge of the curtain to peer outside.
“Does it—does he have multiple forms?” Siena asked Isaac. “I’ve met him once before, I think.”
Isaac’s throat bobbed as he looked at her, frowning.
“Do you remember when I found that passage beneath the tree? I told you all about the other cabin, and the man there. I don’t know what he looked like. He wore a gas mask.”
Isaac’s eyes widened in bewilderment. “I’d forgotten about that. No. No, he’s not...” He tensed and shook his head. “You shouldn’t have met that man. It’s too early.”
You shouldn’t be here.
The hair on the back of Siena’s neck prickled.
Emmett unhooked his attention from the window. “Too early for what—”
The light in their universe extinguished before an umber glow erupted from outside, outlining Emmett’s silhouette.
“Sen...” Emmett called to her.
The floor vibrated. Still kneeling, Siena pressed her palms to the wood. She’d experienced California earthquakes dozens of times.
This wasn’t an earthquake.
The sensation beneath her fingers swelled, like the bedrock was taking a deep breath. The earth could not move like this—not without terrible repercussions.
“Hold on,” she uttered.
The words hadn’t left her mouth before the cabin floor dropped out from beneath her.