Keelie shone the flashlight into the mist. They’d been walking for what seemed like forever, but there was no sign of Grandmother. She hoped they would run into Sean. Even Knot seemed frustrated.

Risa stopped. “I think we’re going in a circle. That tree looks familiar.”

“They all look the same to me,” Laurie said. She sagged to the ground.

Keelie’s heart pounded. Risa was right. “If we keep walking, eventually the sun will come up and we’ll know which direction to go. At least to get out of the woods.” Meanwhile, Grandmother was in danger.

“Where are we?” Risa asked.

“I don’t know.” Keelie said. “I thought we were heading toward the Grove of the Ancients, but we should have been there by now.”

Laurie shivered. “I don’t want to go there.” She crossed her hands over chest.

“Use your rose quartz. I think we should go this way.” Keelie shone her flashlight down a path with branches intertwining like a woodland arbor, then flipped the beam up. She couldn’t even see the top of the canopy.

Bloodroot’s voice drifted in her mind. Are you sure this is the right way?

You have my grandmother, and I want her back.

Knot forged ahead.

Keelie closed her mind. She knew she was on the right path. She could feel a thread of dark magic. A very powerful source of dark magic, and different from the dark fae magic that she’d felt around Peascod.

“It’s this way. Follow me.”

Laurie looked very afraid. “Why do you always have to go walking into creepy forests in the middle of the night? It’s like a repeating plot line from a B horror movie.”

“It’s not a repeating plot line. I’m a tree shepherd, and helping forests in need, even in the middle of the night, is what I do. I don’t have a choice.”

Risa lifted her hands in frustration. “Will you two shut up?”

There was a loud snap, and Tavyn stepped out from behind the trunk of a giant Redwood.

“Allow me to escort you.”

Risa shrieked, and Laurie stumbled backwards.

Keelie stood firmly in the middle of the path. “We don’t need your help.” She put her hands on her hips. Tree shepherds came to a bad end in this forest, and she was sure that Tavyn was involved.

Laurie leaned close to Keelie. “Are you crazy? He’s a ranger elf. He can get us out of here.”

“Yes, but he’s also possessed by a tree.”

“I didn’t know trees could possess people. I thought he had a bad spray tan.”

“I didn’t know either, until I came to the redwoods. The Ancients are different.” Keelie had been possessed by a tree in the Wildewood Forest, but that had just been for a second.

“Will you two shut up?” Tavyn shouted.

Keelie could feel the power of the Earth beneath her. She felt her fairy and tree magic swirling together like a whirlpool, stretching her skin from inside. But her dark fae magic hadn’t been added to the blend. As long as she kept control of it, the trees wouldn’t be able to draw on it.

Tavyn glared at Keelie. He thrust his head forward, sniffing. “I feel your power. You’re so strong.” He circled her. “The goblins know about you. Herne wants you for himself. They’ve known about you since your birth. They’ve been looking for one like you for two hundred years, ever since their seer predicted that a half-elven, half-human child would be born with the magic of the fae.” He smiled, showing green teeth. “But we found you first.”

Keelie swallowed, trying to process all that he’d said. “I’ve never heard about a prophecy.” And what or who was Herne?

“The elves didn’t know about the prophecy, but the goblins did.” Bloodroot’s voice had taken over Tavyn’s. It was deep and woodsy.

“So, I’m just a half-human, half-elven girl. I don’t have any great power. What use am I to the goblins?” Keelie thought that the less she did with goblins, the better. She shivered.

“You can wield power that the fairies and elves only dream about,” Tavyn-Bloodroot replied. “You can change the shape of the natural world.”

“Oh please. If I could do that, would I be here talking to you?”

A ghostly tree shape formed in the air and floated in front of them. “You’re wanted now.”

Tavyn-Bloodroot frowned. “We’re on our way.” He motioned to Keelie. “Follow me.”

“What if we don’t come with you?”

“You want to see your grandmother again. So follow me.”

There was a muffled cry from nearby.

Tavyn-Bloodroot nodded. “To ensure your cooperation, and Knot’s, we have something that belongs to you.”

A wooden cage was lowered from the tops of the trees. Inside was a wild-eyed Scott.

Risa and Laurie gasped.

Scott saw Keelie and grabbed the bars of the cage. “Keelie, get me out of here. I lost that pink rock you gave me. Hurry, you’ve got to do something. The trees are going to eat me.”

“Stay calm, Scott,” Keelie called up to him. But like a yo-yo, the wooden cage was yanked back up into the tree canopy.

“Okay, we’ll follow you.” Keelie detached one of the rose quartz charms that she wore on her belt loop. “But give him one of these, okay?”

“Of course. I figured you would see it my way.” Tavyn-Bloodroot took the little charm and put it in his pocket.

Laurie glared at the tree-possessed elf ranger. “You’d better not hurt him.”

“My dear, we are trees, not humans like you. Humans are the hurtful ones. We just want to make sure that your kind do not cause further destruction. We’re the injured parties here.”

Scott’s screams echoed through the night forest.

Laurie looked up. “Can we get one of those to him? I know just how he feels.”

“Me, too,” Keelie said. She wished Ariel were here. A hawk would be able to fly the charm right to Scott. She looked down at Knot and held out another charm. “Can you get this rose quartz to him? Mr. Greenteeth doesn’t seem to have any intention of giving it to him.” She thought she’d made too many charms, but at this rate she’d be out soon.

Knot took the key ring with the pink stone hanging from it and clawed his way up the bark of the nearby redwood. I hope those claws hurt, Keelie thought, but she didn’t dare say it in tree speak or Knot would be swatted down by a branch.

Tavyn-Bloodroot glared at the cat fast disappearing up the tree. “Come on, then.” He marched up the gradual slope, going through the great ferns and brush that covered the green hill. The girls struggled after him until they reached the top and saw a clearing, surrounded by the tallest trees Keelie had ever seen.

“The Grove of the Ancients,” she said aloud. She could sense that this was the source of the thread of dark magic.

Then she noticed Grandmother. Lady Keliatiel was sitting on a log in the center of the meadow with a very old man, who was wizened and wrinkled with age and holding a carved staff. He looked like a petrified wizard. It had to be the Redwood Tree Shepherd.

Keelie raced forward. “Grandmother, are you okay? We’ve been looking for you.”

Her grandmother didn’t seem to hear her. She and Viran appeared to be in a trance. At that moment, a clear bubble formed around them and they rose into the air, vanishing into the tree canopy.

Tavyn-Bloodroot leaned close. “She can’t hear you. She’s in her own world, lost in time.”

“What have you done to her?” Keelie wondered how she could get Grandmother and the old tree shepherd back to the ground safely.

“She’s in a kind of stasis, based on an elven charm that we have adapted to our own use. Tree shepherds are a constant source of magic, but your power exceeds our dreams.”

Now she knew why they wanted her here. “So you just want to use us as batteries? For what?”

“To protect the forest from humans. Humans have outstripped your tree shepherd skills. But we’ve discovered a way to keep them out. We need to control the Dread.”

“But the dark magic I feel here is not the Dread,” Keelie said. “What you’re doing is wrong. I will never help you.”

“That’s what we thought.” Tavyn-Bloodroot nodded as if she’d confirmed it.

Suddenly, there were loud screams. Keelie looked behind her and saw Laurie and Risa ascending in a wooden cage. They were next to Scott, whose cage now dangled above her as well, transported there by the trees. He had the rose quartz, but there was no sign of Knot.

“If you want your friends to survive, I think you will cooperate.”

Keelie had to find a way out of this. Sean and Coyote were somewhere out there, and Knot was somewhere up in the trees. She wished she could communicate with them.

Tavyn-Bloodroot turned to her. His eyes were bright green, but ringed with gold. Keelie recognized the sign of fairy magic. Dark fairy magic.

He leaned closer to her. “The elf jouster will not save you, nor will the fae creatures.”

Tavyn-Bloodroot could read her mind. Keelie stared into his green-veined eyes. Focus. Concentrate. The trees had used a disorientation spell, based on sound waves. She pulled up her barriers against the trees, then pushed Tavyn-Bloodroot out of her mind. Maybe if she concentrated on something that she found irritating, she could telepathically send it to Tavyn.

She thought about nails raking down a chalkboard. Laurie had done it at Baywood Academy.

Tavyn-Bloodroot stumbled back, holding his head.

Around the cages that held Laurie, Scott, and Risa, misty forms floated and circled. Then Keelie heard the sound of children laughing. Totally not what she had expected.

She looked around. The largest tree in the Grove stood in front of her, and growing between its roots were small treelings. It was the nursery she’d seen in her dream. Keelie heard the beautiful music, the lilting melody that had haunted her from the night she’d first arrived.

But the taint of goblin magic was getting stronger; Keelie located its source. It was the treeling nursery. And pushing her face out of the massive trunk was none other than Bella Matera, the Mother Tree.

“Hello, Keelie. I’m glad you could come and meet my babies.” Bella Matera pushed her whole body out of the trunk. No longer a part of the tree, she was in her spirit form, as were the little treelings, which had come down to dance and spin around their mother. Tavyn-Bloodroot pushed Keelie closer to Bella.

Bella clasped her elegant, treelike hands together. “Aren’t they beautiful? They will survive no matter what. I have seen to it.”

“What are you doing?” Keelie asked. “You’re growing them in soil tainted with dark magic. What will it do to their roots?”

“It will make them stronger. They have to be strong to survive today. Do you know how many children I have lost over the past millennia? My heart has been broken thousands of times—whenever I hear a tree being cut down for lumber. Now they will strengthen, while the Dread keeps humans away.”

“There has to be a better way.”

“If there is, I haven’t found one in two thousand years.” Bella’s voice sparked with anger. “When the goblin died at my roots, we drank in his blood. We tapped into the dark magic, and I found a new way to strengthen my young.”

“I’ve never heard of trees using blood for power. You’re the Ancients—you can’t do this. Did you kill the goblin?”

“He had lost his way. He was sick, and going to die anyway. The elves killed him to keep him from revealing the Grove and their village.”

“The elves killed a goblin here. Why didn’t they tell me?” Keelie thought guiltily of the Red Cap she’d killed, but he’d attacked the people and forest around the High Mountain Faire. She’d done it to protect them … but how was that different from what they’d done here?

“We call it survival.” Bella Matera’s face hovered inches from Keelie’s. She turned her head toward the cages. “There is another here with green magic flowing through her veins. She can understand me.” She pointed to the cages with her ghostly branches. “Release the elf girl and bring her to me.”

The cages lowered. Tavyn-Bloodroot pulled Risa out and dragged her over to the queen tree’s spirit.

Stubborn and haughty, Risa held her head high.

Bella examined her. “Her power is nothing near the strength of Keliel’s, but there is a different kind of magic. A fertile power of the Earth. We can take it to feed my little ones.”

“I’m with Keelie. I’m not going to help you.” Risa lifted her chin.

Tavyn-Bloodroot slapped Risa across the face and she fell to the ground, angry red welts on her skin. “You will do as our queen commands.”

“Leave her alone,” Keelie shouted.

Tavyn-Bloodroot glared at her. “Why?”

“Because she’s in love with my cat, and she’s covered my butt on more than one occasion, and I guess that makes her my friend. Something you wouldn’t understand since you’ve sucked up so much dark power that it’s made you unbalanced. Can’t you see what Bella is doing is wrong?”

“Do not talk to me about what is wrong. You were glad when dark magic restored your hawk’s sight and helped you to make things right in your forest. We’re only doing what is right in our forest.” Tavyn-Bloodroot turned his attention back to Risa.

“Dark magic is only helpful when it restores balance,” Keelie said. “Killing another creature is not restoring balance. Draining the magic of the tree shepherd is not restoring the balance. It’s evil and it’s wrong, and you and the other redwoods will pay the price.”

“Yes, we will pay the price, but our treelings will stand a chance in this world, and we’ll be able to protect ourselves from humans. You say killing another creature is wrong? How about the humans who tear us down, to be used for their comfort?”

Keelie stared at him. “Don’t you know the karma fairy always finds you?”

He looked alarmed. “What karma fairy?”

Keelie shifted her gaze to Risa, who looked puzzled for a second, then nodded.

“I should know,” Risa said. “The karma fairy paid me a visit. Why do you think I’m in love with a cat?”

“See?” Keelie shrugged innocently. “She tried to give my boyfriend Sean a love potion.”

“Then I drank it instead because of a mix-up,” Risa added.

Tavyn-Bloodroot narrowed his eyes. “You’re in love with a cat because you made a stupid mistake.”

“Why do you think there was such a mistake? It was because of the karma fairy. She’s really good friends with Keelie.” Risa nodded toward Keelie.

“There is nothing in the lore about a karma fairy. Why haven’t we heard about it?” Tavyn-Bloodroot looked at Keelie for the answer.

“I don’t know. I didn’t know I was part of a goblin prophecy, either.” That was certainly true.

A sharp pain erupted in Keelie’s head. She winced.

You’re here, Tree Shepherdess. I tried to warn you away. The voice seemed sad. Keelie kept her eye on Tavyn-Bloodroot to make sure he couldn’t pick up on her telepathic communication.

“Why does Bella not know about this karma fairy? I must ask her.” Tavyn-Bloodroot walked toward Bella, who was back in her dark nursery.

If all the bad guys were present, then there was only one person her painful caller could be. Keelie sent a thought out. You must be Viran, the Redwood Tree Shepherd.

I am he.

Bella and Bloodroot have taken my friends and me prisoner. They have my grandmother, too. How do I stop them?

I have no answer for you, Keliel of the Dread Forest. I am fading and cannot help you. I sought only to warn you. Too late, too late. His voice seemed weaker, then vanished.

She looked at Risa, who was staring, frightened, at the treelings and their spectral mother. Somewhere above them, Grandmother floated, stuck in a tea party that would end when the trees were ready to drain her, and Keelie would be next. No help was coming.

She’d have to rescue everyone herself.