Not Kansas Anymore

Emma's POV

Cold water splashed across my face and I gasped awake.

My eyes flew open to see gray clouds above me instead of my college room ceiling. Rain was falling in big drops, soaking through whatever I was wearing. This definitely wasn't my bed.

I sat up fast, my head spinning. "What the heck?"

Everything felt wrong. The air smelled different - like Christmas trees and something else I couldn't name. Something that made my nose tingle and my heart beat faster. The ground under me wasn't my soft couch. It was dirt and leaves and rocks that poked into my back.

I looked down at myself and nearly screamed.

I was wearing a long dark dress made of rough fabric that scratched my skin. My feet had leather boots that laced up to my knees. These weren't my clothes. I didn't even own a dress, let alone something that looked like it came from a historical movie.

"Okay, Emma, don't panic," I said out loud, but my voice came out squeaky and scared. "There's got to be a logical explanation for this."

Maybe I was dreaming. That had to be it. I'd fallen asleep reading and now I was having some weird dream about being in olden times. That made sense, right?

I pinched my arm hard. "Ow!"

The pain felt real. Too true.

I stood up on shaky legs and looked around. I was in a small area surrounded by tall pine trees that stretched up so high I couldn't see their tops. Moss covered everything like a green blanket. Somewhere close, I could hear water running - maybe a stream or river.

But it wasn't the forest that made my blood turn to ice.

It was the smell.

That strange scent I couldn't name before - now I knew what it was. It was the smell of metal and salt mixed together. The smell of blood.

A lot of blood.

"No, no, no," I whispered, turning in a slow circle. "This can't be happening."

Because I knew this place. I'd read about it just hours ago. The small area in the Shadowmoon Forest where they left criminals and outcasts to die. The place where packs dumped people they didn't want anymore.

The place where they'd left Kai.

My heart hammered against my ribs as I forced myself to look behind the big oak tree I'd been sleeping against. Please don't let it be real. Please let this just be my mind going crazy.

But there he was.

A young guy lay crumpled on the ground like a broken doll. His silver-white hair was mixed with dirt and blood. Deep scratch marks ran across his chest, and his left arm bent at a weird angle that made my stomach flip. His face was so pale it looked gray.

I knew that face. I'd been looking at pictures of it for three days.

"Kai," I breathed.

This was impossible. People didn't just fall into books. That only happened in books, and this was real life. Real blood, real injuries, real guy who looked like he was dying right in front of me.

But the proof was right there. The boy from "Bloodmoon's Betrayal" was lying unconscious ten feet away from me, exactly like the book described. Just after his pack had expelled him and left him to die alone in the forest.

I stumbled forward, my legs feeling like jelly. Up close, Kai looked even worse. The claw marks were deep - four straight lines across his chest that were still bleeding. His breathing was so shallow I could barely see his chest moving.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God," I kept saying. "What do I do? What do I do?"

In the book, Kai survived this somehow. He lived long enough for the dark ghosts to find him months later. But looking at him now, I couldn't see how. These losses were too bad. He needed a hospital, not an empty forest.

I dropped to my knees beside him, my hands hanging over his wounds. I'd never seen anyone hurt this badly before. The worst hurt I'd ever dealt with was when my friend Jake cut his finger cooking dinner.

"Kai?" I whispered. "Can you hear me?"

No answer. His eyes stayed closed, his face peaceful in a way that scared me. People in movies looked like that when they were about to die.

My hands were shaking as I reached toward his neck to check for a pulse like I'd seen in medical shows. But the moment my fingers touched his skin, something incredible happened.

Warmth shot through my hands like I'd grabbed a live wire. Not painful - more like sticking my hands in warm light. The feeling traveled up my arms and spread through my whole body, making me feel warm and alive.

And Kai's cuts started glowing.

"What the..." I jerked my hands back, but the glow didn't stop. Golden light poured from the claw marks like liquid sunshine. As I watched in shock, the deepest cuts started closing up, the edges of torn skin knitting back together.

The broken arm straightened with a soft pop that made me wince. Color returned to Kai's pale face. His breathing got deeper and more steady.

In less than a minute, most of his injuries were gone. Only faint pink lines remained where the worst cuts had been, and even those were disappearing fast.

I stared at my hands like they belonged to someone else. "How did I do that?"

This wasn't in the book. Emma Chen, the girl whose life I'd somehow fallen into, was supposed to be a normal person. No special powers, no magic healing talents. Just a normal college student who liked to read.

But here I was, seemingly bringing people back from the dead with my touch.

"This is insane," I muttered. "Completely, totally insane."

A soft groan made me look down. Kai's eyes were starting to flutter open - one golden brown, one bright blue, just like the book explained. As his vision focused on me, I saw confusion and fear flash across his face.

He tried to sit up fast, winced, then looked down at his chest where the claw marks had been. His eyes went wide when he saw only smooth, unbroken skin.

Then he looked at me again, and I saw something that made my heart skip a beat.

Recognition.

"You," he whispered, his voice rough and barely audible. "I know you."

My blood turned to ice water. "What?"

Kai fought to push himself up on his elbows, never taking his mismatched eyes off my face. "I thought about you. Every night for weeks. A girl with kind eyes who would save me from the darkness."

He reached out one shaking hand toward my face. "But that's impossible. Dreams don't come true."

The moment his fingers touched my cheek, the world exploded into visions.

I saw flashes of things that hadn't happened yet - Kai and me running through dark woods, fighting creatures made of shadow, standing together against an army of wolves with glowing red eyes. I saw myself wearing a crown made of moonlight while Kai knelt beside me, both of us older and changed.

And underneath it all, I heard a voice that wasn't Kai's and wasn't mine. Ancient and strong, speaking words I didn't understand but somehow knew the meaning of: "The Healer has awakened. The prophecy begins."

The visions cut off suddenly, leaving me gasping. Kai was staring at me with an expression of wonder and fear.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

Before I could answer, the sound of howling echoed through the bush. Close. Too close.

Kai's face went white. "They've come back to make sure I'm dead."

The howls got louder, and now I could hear something else - the sound of paws running through the underbrush, headed straight for us.

"We have to go," Kai said, trying to stand. "Now."

But as he got to his feet, his legs gave out and he fell against me. Whatever I'd done to fix him, it hadn't given him back his strength.

The howling was getting louder. Through the trees, I could see shapes moving in the shadows. Big shapes with bright yellow eyes.

"I can't run," Kai gasped. "Leave me. Save yourself."

"Not happening," I said, putting his arm around my shoulders. "We're getting out of here together."

But even as I said it, I knew we were stuck. Kai could barely stand, I had no idea where to go, and whatever was hunting us was almost here.

The screaming stopped.

In the sudden quiet, I heard a new sound that made my blood freeze.

Footsteps. Human footsteps, walking slowly toward our clearing.

Someone was coming, and from the way Kai tightened against me, it wasn't anyone who wanted to help us.

A voice called out through the trees, cold and mocking: "Well, well. Look what we have here. The little freak is still alive."

I recognized that voice from the book. Alpha Marcus Bloodfang - the guy who had banished Kai in the first place.

And he didn't sound happy to find us here.