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They must
have talked about their plan before they left our world.
    "What do you know about it?" I asked. "The
Underground?"
    She shrugged and swallowed. "Not much, I guess.
Just that it's deep under the surface and that magic can't be
tracked down there. Some kind of shield blocks it from the upper
world," she said. "Jackson said we'd be safe there for as long as
we needed to stay. I just hope they let us in."
    "Did he tell you that they don't like
humans?"
    "Yeah," she said. "But only because they've
never really known any humans that weren't a part of the Order. I
think they'll warm up to us pretty quickly. Especially after they
hear about what we've done to fight back against the Order."
    I nodded, but I was worried. What if we'd just
traded one miserable life for another?
     
     
It Really Is You
    Miserable or not, there was no turning back now.
Jackson and Lea decided on a route that would take us to one of the
Underground's portals. They were used to traveling fast by demon
form, but using their magic would set off warning signals to both
the Order and Lea's father. It was too risky. Especially if Lea's
father had already realized she was here. He might already have his
Sentinels out searching for her. We would have to walk it.
    By the time Mary Anne felt well enough to walk
on her own, the first sun was already setting. Walking in the dark
made me nervous, but Lea said we would do better under the cover of
darkness anyway. Since one of Jackson's many talents was that he
could see in the dark, he led the group up the side of the steep
cliff.
    My feet argued with each step I took on the
black rock. I tried to maneuver to the smooth places, but every
once in a while, I would hit a jagged part and the pain would shoot
through my entire leg. In a way, I almost didn't mind the pain. I
felt numb after hearing Jackson's news, so the pain in my feet was
a reminder to keep moving forward.
    I kept one hand on the cliff wall at all times.
Somehow, we all made it to the top. When I stepped out onto the
blue-green grass of the nearby field, I realized just how tense I'd
been holding my body. My shoulders were practically attached to my
ears.
    I took a deep breath in and out, letting the
panic melt away. No amount of breathing could get rid of my fear
and sadness, though.
    "We're heading toward the Obsidian Forest,"
Jackson said. He pointed off to the east. "See there?"
    In the far distance, I could see a wall of
trees, black as night and thick as any forest I'd ever seen.
    "Ominous," Mary Anne said.
    "We should keep moving," Jackson said. He was
all business. "Stay close and be as quiet as you can."
    "Yes sir," Mary Anne said. She followed close
behind Jackson, but the way she limped made me wonder if she was
really up for this trip. Lea had offered to carry her part of the
way, but she'd refused and said she was fine.
    I hung back from the group a little bit. Being
too close to Jackson right now just made me ache.
    The grass slid under the bottom of my feet like
oily snakes. Had it rained here? The ground squished with each
footstep, and I had small seeds snuggling between my toes.
Definitely an improvement over the solid rock, but I kept glancing
down to make sure there were no bugs crawling on me.
    Soon, though, the second sun began to slip under
the horizon, leaving nothing but darkness and the light of a single
amber moon that rose slowly above the trees of the Obsidian
Forest.
    No one spoke as we walked, and unlike home,
there were no crickets or frogs to sing into the night air. The
only sound in my ears was the sound of the light wind as it hissed
across the tips of the grass. I let the steady rhythm of each
footfall lull me into a kind of hypnosis. I wanted to forget the
horror of the attic at Shadowford. The nightmare of facing death.
The heartache of forbidden love.
    Walking here in the grass under a foreign moon
might be my last real taste of freedom for a long time.
    I opened my heart to it, letting myself be
vulnerable