Artemis's Arc

Chapter 1 of 9

Artemis stepped over the same mossy root for the third time that morning. He knew it by the split in the bark. The Whispering Woods were bending him back to the same small clearing, the way they bent anyone who walked in carrying a wanted face in their head. His was a woman with dark hair and light eyes, and a laugh he had been chasing since childhood. He sat down on the flat stone at the center and admitted, out loud, that he was lost. That was when he saw it near his boot — a curved, jewel-bright pedal he had dropped on his first pass through, now glowing faintly in the leaf litter. He picked it up. The trees went quiet. A narrow path opened between two trunks that had, a moment ago, stood shoulder to shoulder. Artemis stood, pocketed the strange thing, and walked through before the woods could change their mind.