Blogtober 2025, Day 22: Defiance

 

Lucy's Path: Chapter Twenty-two


They spread the map across the hood of Mark’s car, its paper yellowed and brittle as onion skin. The lines were hand-drawn—crooked, looping through the woods in a spiral that ended at a small mark shaped like an eye. Scrawled beside it, in fading ink, were six words: Place the amulet at dusk. Give what cannot be replaced.

Tyler frowned. “That’s not a map. It’s a warning.”

Sarah traced the spiral with her finger. “Or an instruction. The Lady’s rules always sound like riddles.”

Mark folded the map carefully, tucking it into his jacket. “Then we follow it. If it gets Emily back, we do it.”

“Or it takes something worse,” Tyler muttered. “What does that even mean—what cannot be replaced?”

No one answered.

By dusk they stood before a different tree, massive and pale, its bark smooth as bone. The amulet throbbed faintly in Mark’s hand, reacting to the place like a compass finding north. The air around the oak shimmered, and deep within the trunk came a low, patient heartbeat.

Sarah stepped closer, chin lifted. “If she wants something from us, she can say it herself.”

The branches creaked overhead, bending toward her voice as though intrigued by her defiance. A whisper coiled through the air, ancient and almost fond.

“Ask,” it breathed. “And the forest will decide what you are willing to lose.”


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