At the bottom of the stairs it was very dark—no light but the faint glow of my Asteria.

“Why a secret passage?” I asked, dipping my nose to the stony floor. Merlin, Lord Destrian, and Morgana had all come this way, but without any guards.

“I don’t know,” Arthur said. “The stones are cold, even colder than the cellar gets. So we’re underground.”

Then he stopped walking.

“You know, you really did look like a demon,” he said. “Going into the fire like that.”

“I’m a dog, Arthur,” I said, lifting my tail and exposing my backside. “Give me a whiff if you don’t believe me!”

Arthur held up his hand. “I take you at your word.”

The tunnel was damp and sloped downward. Along the way, I explained the types of magic I knew about: elemental, illusion, and alchemy. Arthur was baffled by it all, and I couldn’t really explain it. The only magic I’d done was accidentally blowing up a door. The memory made my tail wag. Stupid door.

Something sounded above my head. “What was that?”

Arthur whipped around. “Is someone here?” he shouted.

“I hear running water,” I said, looking at the ceiling. Arthur gripped his chest and glowered at me.

After we’d walked a long while down the dark passageway, silvery light seeped into the tunnel. I lifted my nose and caught a whiff of trees and woods. The tunnel sloped upward. The light grew stronger; it was moonlight. Shadows stretched before us. The tunnel was opening into a forest of midnight trees.

“It’s leading us out of the castle,” Arthur said, amazed.

“If Lord Destrian wanted to take Merlin and Morgana somewhere, why not go out the front gate?”

“It’s leading us out of the castle!” Arthur repeated, picking up his pace. We exited beneath a giant boulder that jutted into a thick grouping of trees, rocks, and grass.

Arthur hopped from foot to foot. “We’re out! We’re free!” I wagged my tail at his happy dance. It was good to be outside, but my goal was my family. I put my nose to the soil and picked out their scents.

“It seems they had three horses here. They mounted them and went…this way!”

“All right, so we won’t go that way, then,” Arthur said, peering at the trees.

I turned around with perked ears. “But that’s where Merlin and Morgana went.”

“And Destrian,” Arthur said. “I can’t go that way. He’ll recapture me.”

My ears pressed to my head. Arthur only wanted to escape the castle. I remembered that now.

“Well,” I sighed, “thank you for your help.” It had been nice having a pack mate again.

“Now, wait!” Arthur called out behind me. “You don’t even know where you are!”

“On the way to my family.”

“But this isn’t a safe place to be. If you were right, and you heard water above us in the tunnel, then I think we passed under the river, and this is the Haunted Forest.”

“The Haunted Forest?”

“That’s not its real name,” Arthur said. “It’s called Grimmshode. But people avoid this side of the river.” He stopped and looked down at the ground. “No towns nearby, really. Nowhere to go. Unless I cross south. But the soldiers patrol down there; they might catch me.”

Arthur pressed his palms to his eyes.

I felt my tail wagging and had to force it still. “You know,” I said, trying not to sound too pushy about it, “you could come with me and find Merlin. I’m sure he’d reward you.”

Arthur looked at me from behind his hands. “Reward?”

“Yes,” I said. “Bones! Back scratches! Tummy rubs!” Arthur crinkled his brow. “Or the kinds of things you like!”

“But they’ve gone into Grimmshode. Spirits live here. And the Fae don’t like intruders.”

“The Fae?”

“Otherworlders…monsters that walk the woods.”

“Why would Lord Destrian bring Merlin and Morgana there?” I asked. “And alone—without soldiers?”

“I should know the mind of a madman?”

The whole thing made my tail twitch. But it didn’t matter where they’d gone. I would follow them anywhere.

“Can that charm of yours protect you?” Arthur asked. He looked frightened but hopeful.

“I don’t think so,” I said, shaking the Asteria on the chain. “The only time it ever worked was an accident.”

Arthur grimaced. “Then I suppose we must pray for lucky accidents.”

“We?” I asked, my ears perking.

Arthur sighed. “For a little while. First safe town I find, I’m staying.”

My tail wagged wildly, though I tried to keep it still. Arthur and I made our way into the wood. I had a pack mate again.