Allie POV The sound of birds chirping at an obnoxiously loud level woke me from one of the deepest sleeps I’d had since entering the forest. My bladder was screaming at me and I realised there was a heavy weight across my abdomen.  By the looks of it, I must have cried myself to sleep in Josh’s arms. Just add it to the tally of my embarrassment. He had rolled onto his stomach and was facing the opposite way, but one arm still draped across me, holding me tightly against his side. I didn’t want to move him, but peeing my pants while lying next to him would propel me from embarrassed to utterly mortified. I lifted his arm and wriggled out, then let out a groan when I remembered we were up in Aspen’s tree. I was going to have to call out to Aspen and wake Josh up anyway.

Allie POV Up ahead was a ring of large stones in a tiny clearing. I walked over and took a seat on one of the lower rocks while I caught my breath. Moss covered most of the stones, and a gap in the tree canopy overhead cast rays of green sunlight into the centre of the circle.  It was stunning, but I made sure to avoid touching the standing stones. The entire scene looked like something from a movie; knowing my luck, I’d end up time travelling or something if I dared touch them.  My lungs were on fire, my left arm throbbed, my right shoulder was even more painful, my head was pounding, and my heart just… ached. Josh.  Annoying, impulsive, chaotic, wonderful Josh. I’d never thought he would deliberately hur

Allie POV My feet ached, my legs ached, everything ached. After being on the move all day with Josh, I’d now been walking through the night without rest, too. I wasn’t tied or chained, but there was also no room for escape. The trolls had encircled me as we walked, and they looked like giant walking boulders.  I was in a walking prison. The only distraction I had from the pain my body was in was my thoughts. And they were just as painful, if not more. The trolls spoke their own language, and it was unlike anything I’d heard before.  Their voices were deep and gravelly. They chatted among themselves and pretended not to understand me when I spoke, but I knew very well that they could. The smallest one was on my

Allie POV **Trigger Warning: Briefly mentions pregnancy loss. Skip chapter if you do not wish to read.** “We’re going to deliver these,” said Gladys, holding up a stack of clean linen. “We’ll be back soon.” It was just Mulberry and me, and in the silence, I slowly managed to calm my breathing. It wasn’t as quick as when Josh was helping me through it, but I did it on my own. “How were you captured?” I asked quietly. Mulberry took a deep breath before replying. “I was out hunting with my father and grandfather. My father is the chieftain of the Ivory elves and my grandfather is one of the elders of the elf community,” she said, lifting her head as she said it, the pride showing in her voice.

Allie POV Mulberry and I were in a dangerous predicament. We needed people to help us when the time came to break free, but we also couldn’t risk telling the wrong people–people who might dob us in.  For now, we’d decided to stick with the Ivory elves, as most of them had already established a sense of respect for Mulberry because of her lineage to the chieftain. We had let some of the men tending the gardens and animals in on our plan. They were nervous and a little sceptical at first, but eventually our determination and enthusiasm won them over.  So far, over the last couple of days, they had managed to stow away some broken tools to use as weapons. They were also finding branches and pieces of wood to sharpen secretly and hide around the place.