“Hey!” Anna shouted. “I know you’re out there! Get your Bleakness-cursed a*s over here so we can talk!”
But of course, no one answered.
The sun was bright in the western sky, and the trees of Pollock Island cast long shadows across the clearing. It was still hot – painfully so – and the buzz of cicadas filled her ears. She had come back here in the hopes that maybe the shadow creature would give her some answers, but no matter how hard she yelled, it never showed its face. The wormhole was gone now; this was just an ordinary patch of woodland.
She wanted nothing more than a nice, relaxing bubble bath. Her cheek and jaw were still sore, and she had a headache as well. But even with the bad guys thoroughly trounced, there was still work to do.
Standing just inside the clearing with her f
