Then Wendy heard a faint noise, something she couldn’t quite make out, but it was growing steadily louder. Fingernails dug into her palms as she clenched her fists.
The sounds of breathing filled the air around her. It was like standing in a room packed with people she couldn’t see. She could only hear their breathing, could only feel it exhaled against her skin. Some breathed slowly, others erratically, all toppling over one another and only getting louder.
Wendy’s head jerked from side to side, desperately looking for where the noise was coming from, but no one was there. The breathing turned into indecipherable whispers.
Wendy grimaced against the sound. What was happening to her?
“ALEX!” Wendy shouted, trying to find his voice among the murmurs. Maybe if he heard her, he would call back. “ALEX, WHERE ARE YOU?!”
Something cold and wet slid across Wendy’s ankle.
When she looked down, something pitch black had seeped out of the ring of trees. Wendy stumbled back, but her feet sank into the muck, nearly knocking her off-balance. The whispers grew urgent and called out to her. Wendy tried to run, but her feet were stuck. Tendrils reached out and wrapped around her legs, ice cold as they traveled up. She was slowly sinking, being pulled down into the earth.
“No, no, no!” Panic seized Wendy. She tried to pull her leg free, but the shadows snatched her wrists. Sticky claws wound up her arms to her neck. Wendy thrashed as she sank to her waist. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she tried to pull it off her face, but it just stretched and oozed over her hands as it continued to make its way to her mouth.
As it started to curl over her lips, Wendy jerked her head back, sucked in a deep breath, and screamed for the only person she could think of.
“PETER!”
The blackness closed over her mouth. As it engulfed her, she had only one thought through her panic and searing fear: Was this what had happened to her brothers?
Just as the shadows slid over her eyes, there was an explosion of light. Suddenly, Wendy could see again. Gold sparks sizzled on contact with the blackness. A screech filled the clearing as the substance shriveled and fell away from Wendy in clumps of ash. The sparks disintegrated the blackness but didn’t hurt her.
A strong arm hooked across Wendy’s chest and pulled her free. She thrashed and fell to her knees. She scrambled back, frantically kicking away the last of the falling ash.
Ash, and a carpet of golden sparks that lit up the clearing. They danced and flickered around her. Was she dreaming?
Peter stood in the center. The sparks winked beneath his bare feet. He held his right hand at his side, palm forward in caution. In his left hand was a sword, but not a normal sword—not that Wendy had ever actually seen a sword in person. But this one was made of the same golden sparks that surrounded him. It looked solid and weighty in his hand, a shelled hilt that curved into a long blade. It sparked and glittered in his grip. The light caught in the deep lines of worry on Peter’s face. His eyes were intense as they searched Wendy’s. The light reflected and danced in them.
“Wendy, are you okay?” Peter took a step forward and Wendy flinched back. His gaze followed hers, which remained locked on the weapon in his hand. He cursed under his breath and, with a twist of his wrist, the sword disappeared in a shower of sparks.
It only made her feel a little better. She was in a daze, chest heaving up and down. All traces of that thing were gone.
“What was that?” Wendy croaked. She could see from the lights that whatever had attacked her was gone, but they were starting to fade. She didn’t want to be left alone in the dark again. Wendy scrambled to her feet, but her legs were shaky and fatigued. She stumbled, and this time she let Peter reach out and help her.
“Peter, please, we need to get out of here. There’s something in the woods,” Wendy pleaded, her voice hoarse and cracking. She tugged on his arm with her quivering hands. Her eyes dashed around wildly. They weren’t alone. Something was in there. It was going to take her. Tears blurred Wendy’s vision.
“Shh, it’s okay, it’s gone now,” Peter said, gently cupping her cheek in his warm hand, but his soft voice did nothing to reassure her.
Wendy shook her head violently. Her knees buckled under her. Their only source of light was fading rapidly.
She pulled harder on Peter’s arm. “We have to get out of here—we can’t stay here! I can’t!” She felt the woods pressing in around her. Any moment, fingers would reach out and snatch her up. She would be trapped and lost among the trees forever.