"You survived your trial."
I sit up. I'm neither falling nor splattered in a million pieces.
I'm back at the bridge where Panther-man and the Red Knight found me. I clamber to my feet.
"Omigod. Is it over? Can I go home?" I ask, wringing my hands. I search my surroundings frantically for a door back to my world.
A woman laughs.
I turn, recognizing her. Any hope of this being a trip home smashes to the ground. The long dead warrior queen of Black Moon Draw is petite, with an exotic tilt to her brown eyes and skin the color of honey. She wears a crown on her head, a simple, elegant string of gems with one of them dangling down her forehead.
"This is a dream," I whisper. I'm in the dress I woke up in when this nightmare started, standing in the knee-high grasses.
This time, there's no fog on the Black Moon Draw side of the bridge, and the trees' branches overflow with green leaves. The forest is alive. It's a beautiful, sunny, clear, warm morning. Birds sing happily in the forest nearby and the scent of flowers is thick upon a light breeze.
"It is," the warrior queen of Black Moon Draw confirms. "This is where I came through, too."
I frown. "If this is a dream, then . . . are you real? Because I'm really confused about what's going on right now."
"The battle-witches leave each other messages in the form of dreams, the ultimate way to pass a secret with no one finding out. My creation," she says proudly. "When I was little, my parents took me to Disneyland, and I swear I dreamt of that place for a year after. It seemed so real . . . I thought it was a really good way to ensure certain messages were passed down to women like us."
"Women from the real world."
"Every book is its own world. They're all real, if you believe in them."
"No. I can't handle that."
"You'll understand," she says gently.
"Is there a way home?"
"You gave your life for the Shadow Knight and want to go home?" she asks curiously. "You don't love him?"
"Love him?" I laugh. I can't help the heat in my cheeks or the way my heart skipped a beat at the thought. To know the love of a man that fierce and protective . . . I shake my head. "I barely know him and he despises me. Says I'm the worst battle-witch he's ever heard of. He's also engaged to another woman. I figure I'm invincible so why not swan dive off a fortress if it helps him?" Is she buying it? I'm not sure I am. No matter what my hormones say and the way I'm drawn to him, there can be nothing between us. It's simply impossible.