When best friends Claire and Jo wake up trapped in a fantasy romance novel, Claire thinks it's a dream come true while Jo knows it's her worst nightmare - especially after they are almost killed by a monster and end up on the wrong end of a handsome...
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WHILE IT WASN'T exactly freezing yet, the air held a crispness to it that settled over my skin the way the changing of the seasons always did. It made my veins tingle as the wind rushed through the leaves clinging onto the trees, and stirred a lightness in my chest from the stark, cloudless sky. At least that was one familiar thing about this place, and that was it. Even from the first time I saw it riding through the city on Sir Nico's horse, the capital city of Norcrest itself had changed.
The streets were overtaken by brightly colored tents, streetlamps were wrapped in gold and orange ribbons, and more banners of the same colors shuddered in the delicate twilight breeze. They spanned between close-knit buildings like spiderwebs, set against the backdrop of a brilliant orange sunset. All of the city had been consumed by the sky and its fall festival.
A group of townspeople gathered in one of the many streets that broke into a roundabout, hoisting up a heavy-looking archway. It was adorned with even more streamers, fresh-cut fall flowers, acorns, pinecones, dried berries, and bare branches. Two people stood on either side, and one person stood in the middle, but despite everyone else standing around them, those three people were the only ones doing anything.
Then I realized why, when the person in the middle – an older woman – bent at her knees and held her hands out. She slowly folded her hands over themselves, over and over again, before straightening up. Out of nowhere, they collected a yellowy golden glow. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Magic. She was going to use magic.
I waited for the soft humming feeling that would come with it. Whenever Lady Heathwood described using her magic, she always said her body would buzz and tingle. The sensation was close to how the floorboards would feel when an orchestra struck a chord. The woman using the magic was across the roundabout from me, and so many people were talking, but...
There.
I stopped breathing. The sensation was faint, but soft, like the final note that hung in the air once that perfect chord was hit, and it warmed something in me.
It felt familiar.
When the woman straightened up, the glow in her hands leaping out and wrapping around the archway in thin flowing tendrils. "And heave!" she shouted.
The two men on either side of the archway did as she said, pushing against both ends of the archway to help stabilize it while her magic pulled the entire thing up. What would've probably taken a bulldozer and five men in my world, only needed two people and one sorcerer. My fingers tightened against my shawl, pulling it closer around me as the archway stood upright while the men anchored it in place with ropes and stakes. The people cheered as the visible traces of the sorceress's magic faded out of sight. The feeling and warmth came to an abrupt stop, and I was left shaking from more than a sudden chill.
"The festivities are complete!" a random man shouted, which made everyone cheer even louder.
I hung back while they shuffled off, probably back to their homes. To the places they knew they belonged. I waited for them to disappear before I approached the arch.
