AI My boots crunched against the frost-covered grass of Richmond Park, the sound deceptively loud in the heavy, unnatural silence . The Heartstone pendant nestled against my sternum felt like a live coal, pulsing a rhythmic heat that thrummed in time with my own racing pulse . I tightened my grip on the delivery bag, the strap digging painfully into my shoulder, but the weight of the forgotten Golden Empress meal felt secondary to the biting apprehension crawling up my spine.
"Should have stayed in the flat," I muttered, my voice swallowed instantly by the vast, suffocating dark.
Ahead, the ancient oak standing stones loomed like jagged teeth protruding from the earth. I halted. The air changed, shifting from the crisp chill of a London autumn to a thick, humid stillness that smelled of rot and crushed jasmine. Fae-touched. The border between my world and the Grove stood just inches from my nose.
I reached out, fingers brushing the rough, lichen-covered surface of the central monolith. A static charge danced across my skin, raising the fine hairs on my arms.
"Rory? Is that you?"
The voice did not come from the clearing. It came from behind me, echoing from the dense, tangled thicket of the outer woods. It sounded like Eva. Exactly like her. The same airy cadence, the familiar stutter she used when she was nervous .
I didn't turn. I knew better.
"Eva’s in Islington," I whispered to the cold, dead air.
"Stupid," the voice replied, closer now . "Islington is a long way to go for a ghost."
A shadow detached itself from the gnarled roots of a nearby yew tree, elongated and wrong. It lacked the jagged edges of a true silhouette. Instead, it draped over the ferns like spilled ink, shifting with a fluid, liquid grace that made my stomach churn . I backed away, my heel catching on a protruding root, and I barely caught my balance before plunging into the inner circle of the stones.
The transition hit like a physical blow. One second I stood in the manicured, familiar territory of Richmond, and the next, the world exploded into vibrant, impossible colour. Wildflowers that shouldn't bloom in October carpeted the earth in bioluminescent blues and violets, casting eerie, dancing patterns on the white stone.
I wasn't alone.
Shapes darted between the trees, pale as bone, quick as dragonflies. They stopped just at the edge of my peripheral vision, hovering, waiting. When I snapped my head toward them, the clearing sat vacant, filled only with the scent of damp moss and the low, throbbing hum of the earth itself.
The Heartstone pendant scorched my chest. I pulled the silver chain out, staring as the crimson gem flared with an inner, violent light. It beat rapidly, a panicked metallic rhythm.
"Looking for this?"
I whipped around. A man—or a creature wearing the shape of one—stood by the entrance stone. He wore a sharp, charcoal-grey suit that looked borrowed from a boardroom, but his skin was the colour of wet slate, and his eyes were voids, lacking even the hint of an iris. He stood perfectly still, his hands clasped behind his back, watching me with a predatory intensity that bypassed every logical defense I had.
"The stone belongs to the messenger," I said, my voice steady despite the way my hands trembled inside my pockets.
"The messenger is late," he chirped, his head tilting at an angle that suggested a broken neck. "The Empress doesn't like cold food, Carter. Or broken promises."
He moved. It wasn't a walk; it was a blink-and-you-miss-it blur. One moment, he stood at the perimeter, the next, he loomed over me, the smell of damp earth and metallic copper radiating from his pores. He didn't touch me, but the sheer malevolence of his proximity pulled the breath from my lungs.
"Give it to me," he commanded, his voice a chorus of overlapping whispers .
"Eat the noodles first," I spat, shoving the damp takeaway container toward his chest.
He stared at the cardboard box, his features twitching. A flicker of genuine confusion crossed his faceless visage. He reached out a long, obsidian-tipped finger and traced the grease stain on the lid.
"Garlic," he murmured, tasting the air. "You brought us... garlic."
"House special," I lied, stepping back until my shoulder blades hit the rough stone. "Take it, or I leave it on the grass. Your choice."
"You are bold for a human," he said, stepping closer, his presence expanding to fill the clearing. "Did you forget where you are, Aurora? The Grove doesn't care for laws. It doesn't care for lawyers. It feeds on the things you’re too afraid to say out loud."
The ground beneath us vibrated . I glanced down. The vibrant blue flowers were wilting , turning black, sinking into the soil to reveal pulsating, vein-like structures beneath the surface. The Grove didn't just exist here; it lived. It was hungry.
"I’m not afraid," I lied, my voice shaking just enough to betray the truth .
"Then why does your heart flutter like a trapped moth?" He laughed, a dry, raspy sound like autumn leaves skittering over pavement.
He lunged. I threw myself to the side, my shoulder slamming into the stone. The impact sent a jolt of ice through my arm, numbing my fingers. I scrambled along the base of the monolith, searching for a gap, for anything that didn't end in a wall of rock.
The Grove reacted to his movement. Branches whipped down from the canopy, hooking into the ground like gnarled claws, forming a barricade between me and the exit. He hadn't just cornered me; he had invited the forest to participate in the meal.
"The pendant," he rasped, his hand darting out to grab my wrist .
His grip felt like iron bands, cold and unforgiving. I looked down at my wrist, at the small crescent scar from my childhood, and saw his fingernails biting into the skin beside it. The Heartstone flared, blindingly bright, and a searing wave of heat travelled up the silver chain.
He recoiled, his hand smoking where it had brushed the glowing gem. He shrieked—a sound like metal tearing against stone—and the entire clearing shook in sympathy.
"Dirty relic," he snarled, backing away as the flora turned toward him, thorns elongating into barbed needles as the Grove shifted its focus. "You don't even know what you carry, girl."
I didn't wait for him to recover. I scrambled to my feet, my breath hitching as the ground began to heave. The stones groaned, the ancient oak anchors grinding against the shifting earth.
"Rory!"
The voice returned, but this time it wasn't behind me. It was everywhere. It echoed from the stones, from the swaying boughs, from the very air I inhaled. A hundred versions of Eva, all screaming, all pleading, pulling at the threads of my focus.
I stumbled toward where the entrance should have been, but the trees had knotted together, creating a seamless wall of bark and shadow. A low, guttural growl vibrated through the soles of my shoes. Something large, something that made the ground tremble with every shift of its weight , began to push through the undergrowth behind me.
I looked back. The man in the grey suit was gone , but in his place, a mass of shifting, impossible limbs spilled from the treeline, a tangle of ivory bone and dark, glossy fur. It lacked a face, save for a singular, vertical slit that pulsed with the same crimson light as my pendant.
The Heartstone felt heavier, pulling me toward the earth. I grasped it, my knuckles white, and turned to face the encroaching dark. There was no way out. The path I’d taken had vanished, replaced by a dense, suffocating wall of thorns.
The creature stopped. It tilted its head, mimicking the man’s gesture, and I felt a cold, invasive pressure press against the walls of my mind. It wasn't speaking ; it was projecting . Showing me images: a burning flat, a silver key, a name I’d spent years trying to scrub from my memory.
"Evan?" I choked out, the name tasting like ash.
The creature’s slit widened, revealing row upon row of needle-thin, translucent teeth. It took a slow, deliberate step forward, the earth shattering under its weight . Everything went silent. Even the wind stopped, leaving me alone in the absolute, crushing dark of the Grove with something that remembered exactly what I was trying to forget.