The top page lifted at the bottom, then slapped back against the others. Almost as though it were trying to say it knew she wanted to find her sister.
Her skin crawled with the magic that made these pages come alive. She couldn’t stand the thought that they were listening to her. Or that they could somehow help her, even though they should have just been dormant. They should be still like real paper and not as though they were alive.
Hands shaking, she reached for the top page and lifted it up into the sunlight. The words at first made little sense. Then she realized she was looking at a map.
It was the forest around their hut. Written in her mother’s hand because of course she’d been keeping track of the magical things that happened around her own home. She’d been trying to do that for so many years, and here it was. The map of all magical things in the forest surrounding Woolwich.
Freya tilted the map, rotating it in her hands until she was looking in the right direction. There was the town on the bottom left. Their hut was in the bottom right. And then the entirety of the forest spread out like the ever reaching arms of nature.
Her mother had made a few marks. Some of them made sense. A magical pool that must be avoided because kelpies lived within it. A couple spots where she’d seen sprites making away with honey and wine from the village.
But in the very top corner was a marking that didn’t make sense. A little square box with lines like the rays of the sun.
“What is this?” she asked.
The pages shifted again.
Without thought, Freya picked up the next page and read what her mother had written.
“While wandering the forest, I found the most fascinating of doors. It stands between two rather impressive old trees. At first, I thought someone was playing a prank on wanderers like myself. But when I opened the door, I realized there was another world beyond it. This is a portal into the Faerie Realm and must be avoided at all costs. I tried to cover it, but no matter how many sticks I placed, when I turned around they were gone. Magic protects the door.”
Her mother had drawn a picture of it. The wooden door was unremarkable, but the trees were older than most in the forest. She’d even taken care to draw moss on the bark.
Tears built in Freya’s eyes. Her mother had found a portal, marked it on a map, and then buried the knowledge so no one would ever mistakenly go through it.
And Freya was about to do exactly what her mother had taken such precautions to prevent.
It didn’t matter. She had to get Esther back because who was she without her sister? A nothing, a nobody. Just the strange girl in the woods who didn’t know how to talk to other people because her sister had always done it for her.
Freya could see her future as though she looked into a crystal ball. She would end up alone and the forest would grow in around her. Eventually, she wouldn’t be able to keep up with all the things that had to be done. She would disappear into the moss just like the rest of the hut. The villagers would talk about the strange forest woman who they thought was a witch, and that rumor would spread.
The villagers would no longer want a witch on their land. She would be an old woman by the time they decided she had to be taken care of, and the younger people wouldn’t see her as a person anymore. She would become a mythical, magical creature who needed to be removed.
None of these fears would come to light if she had her sister, however. Esther would know what to do.
Standing, she raced to their home and grabbed her leather pack off the wall. She shoved as much food as possible into it, a canteen for water, a few pieces of clothing to change into. A second pair of boots. The sides bulged until she was certain that was all she could carry in it. Unfortunately. Now, she just had to start the journey.
Freya threw the pack on, tugged on her thick boots for walking, and threw a plain brown dress on top of her chemise, and raced out the door.
The sun was already halfway across the horizon, and she had a long way to go. The door was at the far corner of the forest, farther than she’d ever traveled with her mother.
Branches slapped at her face, scratching her arms and digging through her clothing to her shoulders. The forest fought back as she advanced through it. Almost as though even the trees didn’t want her to find the door.
“What were you searching for in the forest?” she muttered to the spirit of her mother. “I don’t understand.”
She’d never quite understood why her mother had been so set on finding something in these woods. She’d looked every week for something new. Something magical. And then she’d write it down in her books, or perhaps on the map she found and move onto the next. She had instilled within Freya a deep fear of the magical. So where had this obsession come from?
The sun was setting by the time she made it to the far side of the map. Freya stopped in the dim light, peering down at the pages and looking around at the trees. This was the spot. It should have been, at least.
“Where are you?” she called out as she turned in a circle.
The door could easily hide itself from anyone it didn’t want to open for. Magic could do a number of things. All she had to do was find it now.
“Come on,” Freya muttered. “Show yourself.”
As if those were the words the door was waiting for, it was right behind her on her second turn. Hidden between two trees. The trunks had grown around the solid wood door, pressed against the sides like they were parts of a wall. Leaves crowned the top and spilled over the frame.
A door to the faerie realm, just like her mother had said. All Freya had to do was reach forward and open it, then she would be able to save her sister. Or at least start the journey.
Doubt clouded her mind. Why did she think she could be a hero? How could she save her sister? She was just a mortal who knew nothing about goblins, faeries, or sprites. The only knowledge she held was told to her by her mother, who had hated the dreadful creatures.
“Faerie magic clouds the mind,” she said. The words were her mother’s, and she knew in this moment, magic was making her think terrible things about herself.
She was strong. She was capable. And nothing was going to stand in her way in saving her sister. This door. Magic. Nothing could ever turn her mind away from what she had to do.
There was no other choice.
Light glowed from underneath the door. Freya reached out her hand and settled it on the golden doorknob that was strangely warm to the touch. She took a deep breath and told herself everything would be fine.
Then she turned the knob and stepped into the faerie realm.
Chapter 5
Freya stepped through the door, and the ground shifted beneath her feet. It rolled as though she had somehow stepped onto a wave. She stumbled, then fell onto her hands and knees where the earth tumbled beneath her.
She let out a startled shriek, but the sound didn’t stop the magic. Instead, the ground churned up and down until it spit her out. Ejecting her from the tumultuous game it had played, as though she weren’t interesting anymore.
Freya pressed her palms into the dirt and tried to get her bearings.
Her head was spinning. A headache bloomed between her eyes and pressed against the front of her skull.
She lifted a dirt smeared hand and pressed it to the ache. The blistering pain didn’t stop, but perhaps that was the price of magic. She should have known walking through a magical door wouldn’t be easy.