Sabrina slammed her palm down against the table, letting out a strangled cry of frustration before stalking across the room. Digging her fingertips into her scalp, she groaned as she paced back and forth, shaking her head, dropping her face into her hands and muttering angrily to herself.

This was never going to work.

She couldn't make it work, no matter what she did, no matter how much she read, how hard she tried, or how thoroughly she prepared. This was beyond her. She'd finally reached the limit of her affinity. She couldn't do it on her own, and she couldn't find anyone capable of helping her.

Whenever she'd explained to one of the Hexen botanists her idea for joining plants with metal, they'd first struggled to understand why she wished to try such a thing before assuring her it simply wasn't possible.

They were wrong. Sabrina knew that firsthand, having seen herself do things others had previously labeled impossible. The Hexen witches weren't thinking creatively enough...they were content to use their affinity as they always had and saw no reason to act differently.

In fact, Sabrina was convinced a few of them didn't want what she was proposing to be possible. She'd questioned every witch with an affinity for plants, flowers, and trees, and received some version of the same answer from each of them.

By now, she suspected everyone in the coven saw her as delusional, if not completely crazy, but that wasn't what bothered her. The lack of progress was what bothered her, stole sleep from her, and consumed her mind during every waking moment.

Sabrina clenched her jaw.

She would figure this out. She had to. Anything was possible.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Sabrina walked over to the wall of windows and gazed out at the moonlight reflecting off the Neckar River. The stars twinkled in the dark velvet sky, shimmering pinpricks of light shining down over the Schwarzwald. The tall pines appeared black in the moonlight, skeletal silhouettes standing tall and proud against the sky, a world apart from her problems in the solarium.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and as lightning flashed across the sky, Sabrina blinked at the forest, lit from above with an otherworldly light, illuminating trees covered in twisted vines, ferns with elongated fronds, and night flowers that only bloomed under the loving gaze of the moon.

Thinking back to everything she'd read about the forbidden forest over the past three years, the image of the laughing Treasure Fox suddenly sprang to mind, the citrine-colored fox prancing through the forest, leaving piles of gold in her wake. Sabrina sighed and shook her head; the last thing she needed right now was to waste her time thinking about a magical creature that likely didn't even exist.

But then again, other magical things existed in the Schwarzwald...

The Nichts who'd been chased out of the forest near the Zurasammen coven had reported seeing a tree lift its roots from the ground, using them to capture a man before dragging him underground to his death. She'd read similar accounts in books from the library, stories of trees that roamed the forest at will, their roots dragging them forward like the tentacles of a great sea creature Sabrina's father had shown her a picture of once.

Based on barely legible accounts from witches who'd lived hundreds of years ago, plants in the Black Forest were capable of the same sort of movement, pulling up their roots and propelling themselves across the forest floor to resettle in a more desirable location.

She recalled the briars that had exploded fully-formed out of the ground after the Nicht's failed audience with the Waldkonig, as well as the vines she'd seen slither like snakes and the tree branch that had moved like an arm, fighting back against an intrusive Nicht.

Strange things lived in the Schwarzwald. Dark and strange things, things modern science wasn't even certain how to classify.

Perhaps it wasn't her affinity that was lacking.

Perhaps it was the materials she was attempting to merge her metal with.

Stepping closer to the window, Sabrina blinked as lightning once again illuminated the woods below. Perhaps it really was impossible to bind metal with plants, but for the first time, she saw the problem from a different angle. It wasn't the action itself that was impossible...it was the ordinary, mundane, common plants she was attempting to combine her metal with.

Perhaps to do something as impossible as what she desired, she required impossible plants...mysterious and inexplicable plants that defied logic...such as the ones growing across the river in the Schwarzwald.

Sabrina swallowed, working to remain calm even as her mind spun, trying to imagine how she could possibly acquire a plant or even a leaf from the forest. One thing she knew for certain was that it was truly impossible to interact with the forest without drawing the attention of its guardian; she'd witnessed that firsthand on two occasions now.

That meant if she wished to obtain a botanical sample from the forest, she was going to need perhaps the most impossible thing of all...the permission of the Waldkonig.

The thought was so preposterous, Sabrina laughed out loud. She'd seen what had happened to the Nichts who'd attempted to venture into the forest, and they were only human...she was a witch, a creature far more despised by the Waldkonig than someone with no magical powers. What hope did she have of succeeding where others viewed as less of a threat had failed?

Still, as was typical for her, now that the idea had taken root, she couldn't simply abandon it. She thought back to the book she'd read about the founding of the Great Forests and the process of selecting just the right guardian for each.

Based on everything she knew of the Waldkonig, he was unchallenged in his domain, intimately connected to every single aspect of the enormous woods. She'd sensed genuine concern for the wellbeing of the things in his care when she'd accidentally connected with him three years ago, but more than that, she'd sensed power beyond anything she'd ever felt before.

As thunder rattled the glass of the castle windowpanes, she wondered—was the Waldkonig content with the reach of his power? Or did he, like her, yearn for more? Did he ever ache to create new things rather than only caring for those that already existed? What was left for an ancient entity who had lived through countless lifetimes' worth of experiences? Was he content as he was or did he hunger for something new?

Perhaps it was nothing more than the hubris of her youth, thinking she and the Waldkonig shared something in common...at the very least, it was likely nothing more than wishful thinking. But Sabrina had seen wishful thinking become reality too many times over the past few years to discount the notion entirely, and she drew in a deep breath as she stood up straighter.

She hadn't attempted to reconnect with the Schwarzwald since her experience three years ago, and there was no reason to believe the barrier blocking her connection with the metal inside had been lifted...but then again, she'd spent the last three years strengthening her affinity, pushing her abilities past every boundary that had existed, past every stopping point that had been arbitrarily imposed upon her.

It was at least worth a try. And if it didn't work, well, it was simply one more failure to add to her ever-growing list.

Closing her eyes, Sabrina let her focus flow outwards, through the windows, down the ivy-covered side of the castle, over the Neckar River, and right up to the edge of the Schwarzwald. As she'd expected, she quickly sensed the barrier she'd felt thrown up against her before...but, to her surprise, she felt herself cut straight through it, her connection to the silver mine just inside the tree line stronger than the invisible wall intended to keep her out.

She allowed a smile to draw the corners of her mouth upwards...here was further proof of just how strong she'd become. Now all she had to do was wait, which wouldn't be long, given the Waldkonig's connection with the woods.

She was right. It wasn't even a handful of heartbeats later that the image in her mind shifted, changing from the dark grey of the silver far below ground to the face she'd seen three years ago, a face she'd forced from her consciousness so many times, she'd half-expected to have forgotten it.

The hazel-grey eyes were the same, but where there had been curiosity before, now there was only surprise...surprise which almost instantly changed to anger.

Sabrina hadn't planned out what she would do upon encountering the Waldkonig, but she knew she had to act before she was thrown out again. One thought stood out from the others in her mind, and she grabbed at it. The silver was part of the Schwarzwald, and the Waldkonig was connected with everything in the forest; in some ways, he was the embodiment of the forest.

If she could connect with the silver mine, it was at least possible she could connect with him.

Without another thought, she shifted her focus from the silver to the Forest King, imagining the metal as a part of him, something inside him that would allow her to communicate directly with him.

Feeling her face contort as she expended more effort than she ever had before, Sabrina poured every ounce of her affinity into joining with the Waldkonig...and then gasped as she found herself staring at images she'd never seen before...images from inside the Forest King's mind.

She felt him struggle to break the connection, but her hold was too strong. Like a dam that had been raised to allow a river to flow, Sabrina held the connection, her affinity pulsing with her heightened power, refusing to allow him to close the opening she'd forced between the two of them.

Images flooded the page in her mind. Things she'd only previously read about moved before her eyes, great oak trees dragging their roots across the ground, lifting them up into the air before setting them gently down, careful to avoid stepping on the smaller growth as they strode about the forest.

Flowers in every color imaginable, some so bright they almost hurt her eyes, sped across the pine-needle covered ground, leaves whipping back and forth in apparent delight as they chased one another, jumping over vines that zipped past, seeking to join in the fun.

Red-capped mushrooms leapfrogged over each another before diving happily into a mound of earth near a fallen tree, only to burst from the ground a moment later, shaking away the excess dirt as they settled next to a cluster of thin, green shoots.

Flowering bushes bloomed as butterflies the size of her hand floated past, landing on open petals to sip the nectar inside the welcoming blossoms. Waterfalls crashed down rocky mountain gorges, emptying into clear rivers and streams filled with fish, eels, and otters. Brown reeds and swaying willows dotted the edges of clear ponds, their surfaces marred only by a diving bird or racing water bug.

Water dripped from the pointed end of a stalactite, the tiny splash amplified into a loud echo by the sheer size of the cave. Fluorescent-colored plants basked in the cool darkness, chartreuse ferns waving their long fronds against boulders covered entirely by orange and yellow moss.

Algae blanketed parts of the stone floor, clumps shifting here and there in response to some imperceptible signal coordinating their movement. Tiny blue lights blinked in and out of existence as paper-thin fungi clung precariously to rocky ledges, peering down into canyons darker than the night of a new moon.

Tears filled Sabrina's eyes as she reveled in the beauty of this forbidden world, as well as the obvious magic. This was what she needed to complete her research. It had been right in front of her all this time.

Feeling as if she'd taken enough, Sabrina shifted her focus to giving, sharing images from her own life with the Waldkonig, flinging everything she could conjure through their connection.

She shared images from the books she'd read, page after page detailing the impossibility of altering her affinity, followed by each and every breakthrough she'd made, each impossible task she'd forced to become possible.

She shared memories of herself pounding her fist against the table in frustration, laughing elatedly with each accomplishment, standing before the windows in her workroom, fear gripping her heart as she gazed at the forest, terrified she would never be the witch she knew she could be.

She shared her experiences of learning about the Waldkonig and his powers and, more importantly, how she'd seen him exercise his unique connection with the plants in his care, enforcing his boundaries and protecting his domain.

She offered up pictures of herself bent over her microscope, studying plants at their cellular levels, seeking to unlock the necessary pieces to bind them with metal. She shared painful recollections of her failures at joining the metallic to the botanical, her anger at the Hexen botanists who regraded her as crazy, or worse, disregarded her ambitions entirely, chalking them up to childish whims or the fantastical imaginings of a girl too long indulged for her own good.

She then shared images of what she wished to create—trees covered in iron bark, impervious to rot or disease; roses with thorns of bronze; plants with leaves of steel, edges glinting sharply in the sunlight as they swiped at a hand attempting to pluck them from the ground; moss that appeared furry until it shivered and the fur was revealed to be tiny golden spikes; and hanging vines infused with platinum, clinking like wind chimes as they swayed against one another.

And then she stopped, chest heaving with the effort of reigning herself in, adjusting her focus until she was once again staring at the Waldkonig. She trembled, but it wasn't the Forest King she was afraid of...she was afraid of being denied access to the objects that could finally complete her research.

A thousand thoughts flickered across the Waldkonig's angular face, none of which remained long enough for her to fully comprehend, and Sabrina's hope began to flicker, like the flame of a candle exposed to a strong draft.

Just when she thought it had all been for naught, the Waldkonig's mouth moved. As it did, the single word he spoke rose on the empty page beside him, bold green text conveying for her eyes what her ears were unable to hear.

Come.

And with that, she felt their connection sever. The Waldkonig was far older and more powerful than she was, after all, and she'd assumed he would eventually find a way to break their bond, which he had. But, whereas before she'd been thrown out of the forest, this time she simply felt alone, as if the Forest King had merely walked out of a room they'd previously been in together.

Pressing a hand to her head as a wave of exhaustion swept over her, Sabrina lowered herself to her knees, shaking where she kneeled, the Waldkonig's response pulsing in her mind.

Come.

While it was almost impossible to believe, Sabrina had overcome enough impossibilities to know she hadn't somehow deceived herself.

Against all odds, the Waldkonig had given her to leave to enter the Schwarzwald.

Picture by Molly Blackbird from Unsplash