I sat and watched the flames gutter until only glowing embers were left. Those tiny sparks of heat were all it took to change my life, to steal it away. I realized I hadn’t thought about Steven or Jodi or getting back to my old life for over an hour. The draw of the Slaugh was a sneaky one; if I wasn’t careful, I would be like a mortal trapped in the Shide and all memories of my human life would be forgotten. I blinked rapidly, shaking my head to clear it, and got to my feet. Gwyn had disappeared somewhere. I looked up into the sky and realized the moon hadn’t moved even an inch since I last looked at it. “What?” I whispered. How could that be? I last looked at the moon at least six hours before, so how could it be in the exact same position in the sky? Was it perpetually night there? Or did time stand still? Was there a difference? I closed my eyes and shook my head again. That moon was just another thing that would distract me from my goals. I started walking. I didn’t know where Gwyn had gone, but the encampment wasn’t endless like that forest had been.
