Stunned, scared, he lowered her to the rug. She was breathing, he could feel her breathing, but shed gone pale and cold as ice.
“Come back. Dana, damn it, you come back.” On a spurt of panic, he shook her. Her head rolled limply to the side.
“Where did you take her, you son of a bitch?” He started to haul her up, and his gaze landed on the book that had fallen, open, on the floor. “Oh, my God.”
He picked her up, clamping her against him to warm her, to protect. He heard the voices out in the hall and fumbled the door open before Flynn could knock.
“Dana.” Flynn grabbed for her, ran his hands over her face. “No!”
“Hes got her,” Jordan spat out. “The son of a bitch pulled her into the book. Hes got her trapped in the goddamn book.”
SHE felt him take her. Hed wanted her to, shed known that immediately. Hed taken her with pain so she would be sure to know he could. Hed ripped the consciousness from her body as gleefully as an evil boy rips wings off flies.
After the pain, there was cold. Bitter, brutal cold that shot straight to the bones, seemed to turn them brittle and thin as glass.
She was torn from the warmth and the light and thrust into the cold and the pain, through the damp, hideous fingers of the blue mist. It seemed to wrap around her, binding arms and legs, strangling her until she wheezed for even one breath of that cold air, wheezed for another even though it was like inhaling iced blades.
Then even the mist was gone, and she lay shivering, alone in the dark.
Panic came first, made her want to curl up tight and whimper. But as she sucked in air, she tasted… pine, autumn. Forest. She pushed to her hands and knees and felt, yes, pine needles, fallen leaves, under her hands. And as the first edge of fear eased, she saw the sprinkle of moonlight coming through the trees.
It wasnt so
cold now, she realized. No, it was more brisk than cold, the way it was meant to be on a dear fall night. She could hear the sounds of night birds, the long, long call of an owl, the hushed music of the wind soughing through the trees.
A little dazed, she braced a hand on the trunk of a tree, nearly wept with relief at the texture of the rough bark. It was so solid, so normal.
Fighting a wave of dizziness, she pulled herself to her feet, then leaned against the tree while her eyes adjusted to the dark.
She was alive, she told herself. She was all in one piece. A little light-headed, a little shaky, but whole. She had to find her way back home, and the only way to get there was to move.
Which way, that was the question. She decided to trust her instincts and move forward.
The shadows were so deep, it seemed she might stumble into one and fall forever. The light that struggled through the trees was silver, the dull tone of unpolished swords.
The thought passed through her mind, absently, that there were too many leaves on the trees for so late in October.
She stepped on a twig, and the sound of it snapping under her heel was like a gunshot that had her stumbling forward in reaction.
“All right, its all right.” Her own voice echoed back to her, had her pressing her lips together to prevent herself from speaking again.
She looked down to check her footing, then simply stared, puzzling over her shoes. She was wearing sturdy brown hiking boots, not the dressy black leather pumps that shed pulled on for the evening.
Shed wanted to dress up because… The thought faded in and out of her mind until she bore down, grabbed it. Shed wanted to show off her ring. Yes, shed wanted to look fabulous to match her engagement ring.
But when she lifted her hand, she wore no ring.
Her heart jumped, and every other terror faded to nothing at the idea of losing Jordans ring. She swung around, raced back through the woods, trying to find the place where shed fallen.
Wakened?
And running, searching the ground for a glint of gold, she heard the first sly rustle behind her, felt the bright chill sprint up her spine.
Shed been wrong. She wasnt alone.
She ran, but not in blind panic. She ran in a headlong rush to escape and survive. She heard him coming behind her, too arrogant to hurry. Too sure he would win this race.
But he would lose, she promised herself. Hed lose because she was not going to die here. Her breath whistling, she burst out of the trees and into the shimmering light of a full white moon.