Isla's POV
I was lost.
Without a phone, without a flashlight, wearing borrowed boots and a coat that smelled like horse.
"Latte?"
No response. Not even the clicking of claws.
I stood still. Breathed. The cold air stung my lungs.
Above me, the moon had shifted behind a thin veil of cloud, reducing the light from silver to something closer to ash. The hedges, which had been navigable a few minutes ago, were now walls of undifferentiated dark. I could see maybe four feet in any direction. Beyond that, nothing.
I picked a direction—left, because left felt right, which was probably the kind of reasoning that had gotten me lost in the first place—and walked. Another corridor. Another dead end. I backtracked, tried the opposite direction, and found myself in a small hexagonal clearing I wa
