I watched as it paused and nibbled on tender shoots of grass, keeping perfectly still. He was so close. I dove for him, but my boots caught in the soft earth and I fell hard onto my chest. Not surprisingly, the rabbit darted ahead, barely out of reach, nibbling on a tuft of grass at the edge of a clearing. Looking beyond his pale, damp fur, I noticed an enormous castle surrounded by a waist-high maze of hedges.
Lightning forked across the sky, quickly followed by a deafening thunder boom. I knew it wasn’t wise to be out in such a storm, but where was a safe place? I knew not to shelter beneath a tree or stand in an open field, and the bloody beast was hopping right into the hedge maze. I needed to catch the hare. Like my idiot brother, it was trying to shake me from its trail. Not happening. Not after I’d followed him this far and in this weather.
“Get back here, you bloody bastard!” I fumed.
I chased him through the maze, specks of mud kicking up from the bunny’s feet and mine, sticking to my soaked dress. Not once did he turn into a dead end. No, the blasted rabbit was smarter than most humans.
He could be fae.
Right as the thought flitted through my mind, a loud crack came from behind and the stench of smoke filled the air, just before the top half of a tree split away from its trunk and fell toward me. The white rabbit dove beneath the hedges, tucking himself among the roots. I leapt over the bushes away from the falling treetop, and when it crashed to the ground, I dove and covered my head, curling into a ball.
The treetop crushed the hedge maze with a sickening crunch. Leaves and twigs rained down on me, but I was okay. Panting, I uncurled and looked beside me to see how close I came to being crushed. The impact was so close, a leaf from the tree’s top brushed my cheek.
The sky wasn’t finished. The storm kicked up a notch and began to roar, rain pelting down in heavy sheets, obscuring the castle and everything around it. Belatedly, I realized the damned rabbit got away. I had no other choice but to approach the castle and beg for shelter until the storm passed.
As I stood, pain jolted down my ankle. I could still walk on it; well, I could limp, so I picked my way through the maze, climbing over hedges and feeling my way past them when I couldn’t see through the rain. The castle can’t be far.
Somewhere in the deluge, the blanket I’d tied around me fell off and I lost it among the mud and bushes.
I was shivering by the time I finally found the steps and limped up to the door. Immense columns jutted into the sky while grotesque statues of unusual beasts stood guard over the castle’s façade. Twin creatures with wings like a bat, fangs like wolves, and wide bodies covered in fur, with stone tails that pointed toward the door knocker stared at me with a conscious awareness that sent a shiver up my spine.
Another clap of thunder shook the stones underfoot. I lifted the knocker, whose golden ring was positioned within the teeth of a matching gilded lion, and let the metal strike the plate beneath it. The sound echoed over the land, louder than the thunder above.
At once, the storm began to calm and an eerie mist flowed over the ground, shrouding the hedges like the desperate arms of a lover. With the last ring of the door knocker, not even an errant sprinkle fell from the sky. The clouds quickly thinned and then disappeared, revealing the familiar blue of the summer sky. Birds began to chirp noisily in the trees beyond the mazes.
It was over. If I’d known the storm would stop so soon, I wouldn’t have knocked. Maybe they didn’t hear the rapping at all. I made my way down the stairs. At the bottom, the cool fog licked at my ankles and curled around my calves as if it was pulling me toward it. A crow cawed loudly in the trees beyond. When the door swung open, I turned to apologize for disturbing them... but no one was there.
“Hello?”
I turned back toward the maze, but then behind me, I heard footsteps. I whirled around and couldn’t help the gasp that slid out when I saw the boy from the alley. His unruly dark hair fell across his unusual eyes, but what took my breath away was his smile. I hadn’t seen it before now… “What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I could ask you the same, but my guess is that you were seeking shelter. That was a terrible storm. Ruined some of the maze. The Queen will want the hedges replaced, and we’ll have to plant new roses. Red ones. The color is red, you know,” he chatted companionably as he walked up to me and offered his arm. He seemed awfully comfortable here, for having just arrived a few days ago.
Or was I in the forest longer than I thought?
“Well, are you coming inside?”
My brows pulled together. A tightness began to squeeze my chest and prickles ran up my spine, eliciting a shiver. This felt off.
“You’re freezing,” he observed. “You should dry off. I’ll make a fire for you and you can warm yourself by it.”
“Do you live here?” I questioned.
“I do the Queen’s bidding,” he replied simply.
“The Queen? Is this where the man in the purple coat took you?”
“I’m a hard worker,” he declared, proudly puffing out his chest.
Something was different about him. The genuineness I’d felt in the few minutes spent outside the tavern was nowhere to be found. It disappeared along with the ground fog. Was it all an act, or did I merely imagine, or hope, it was there all along?
“Come along,” he prompted. “The Queen loves guests.” He placed his hand at the base of my spine and propelled me forward. At his touch, the pain in my ankle completely faded away. Weak and worn out, I let him lead me up the steps and into the castle. He seemed hospitable enough. Getting dry, warm, and fed would certainly be nice. Once I rested up, I could leave this evening.
“So, you became comfortable here fast,” I remarked, trying to make small talk.
He didn’t even respond.
As soon as we crossed the threshold and the door closed behind us, the young man changed. His dark hair turned stark white, and his clothes transformed from the simple mud-stained ones he’d been wearing outside the tavern to much finer garments. The man standing before me now wore a vibrant waistcoat with tails in a color that would put the brightest ruby to shame. The tips of his ears shifted from curved human ears to sharp fae ones.
“Who are you?” I breathed.
He wiggled his nose like... a bloody rabbit. “Come, now. You’ve been trying to catch me for hours. Now that you have me, you want to turn and run back into the forest? How long will you last? Your lips are cracked and blistered, and I bet your tongue feels like a tuft of cotton. You need water and food. My queen wants to help you.”
“Why would she want to help me?”
“Because that is what good rulers do,” he explained, pulling a pocket watch from the vest inside his coat. The watch was bizarre, with white numerals against an ebony clock face and hands that spun so quickly, my eyes couldn’t keep up. “We mustn’t keep her waiting.” With that, he strode across the black and white checkered floor and turned a corner ahead.