She screamed, throwing her hands up, expecting to hit the forest trail any second. And yet there was nothing. Still the sensation of falling.

Falling and falling with her eyes shut tight, and all around there was only silence, and the smell of smoke and lavender. Finally...she dared crack an eye open.

Natalie hit the ground hard, flat on her stomach. It knocked the wind out of her, and she wheezed, breathing in a mouthful of dirt. She lay there for a moment, unable to move, coughing and wheezing. For a moment of blind panic it seemed as though she would never catch her breath. Every time she took in a mouthful she inhaled dirt, which choked her all over again. Still coughing, she rolled over on her side, eyes shut tight against the dust cloud her fall seemed to have kicked up.

Where was the librarian now? Was he close?

The thought made her blink frantically, determined to open her eyes. To get up and keep running. But when her vision finally cleared Natalie stayed where she was, frozen.

The forest was gone.

In it's place stood a series of ramshackle huts. The trees had vanished, replaced by towering black mountains. They loomed so close they blotted out the sun and cast the houses around her entirely into shadow. On top of that, the sky was a strange burnt-red color, and the muted light was reflected on the metal roofs of the shanty town, which was filled with corroded looking tin huts, orange with rust. She could taste the soot and dust in the air. It felt as if it would blanket her lungs and steal her breath, and Natalie realized she was staring around slack-jawed. She snapped her mouth shut, tasting bitter chalkiness on her tongue.

What was this place? How had she fallen off the path and landed here?

Something beside her left leg was glittering, bright enough to catch her eye. The necklace.

The halfmoon pendant was...glowing. Not silver, but a strange, smoky red color. Stunned, Natalie leaned over to pick it up. The surface of the charm was white hot, and she dropped it with a hiss of alarm, shaking out her stinging fingers. She stared down at the glowing charm, eyes wide.

The distant sound of someone shouting jerked her head back up. The village around her, if that's what you could call it, was strangely silent. There was no one walking the crooked dirt paths between the houses, though here and there in the road a pile of black rocks—coal it looked like—was scattered. There were several upturned crates littering the spaces between the huts, as if people had been working and abandoned them just moments before.

Did anyone even live here? And where was here exactly? She couldn't remember ever seeing a place like this, not even on the outskirts of town.

You saw places like this on TV, and in National Geographic, not here. It seemed impossible.

The voices were getting louder. There were several, she realized, all shouting excitedly at one another, accompanied by a series of strange, dull rumbles and grunts. Something, or someone was coming her way, and they didn't sound exactly pleasant.

Natalie pulled her sleeve over one hand and grabbed the necklace, sliding it into her pocket. Even protected by a layer of jean, she could feel the warmth on her leg, but she had no time to question it. The voices were nearer now, low voices, male.

"The book says she's here somewhere." The voice was a deep base rumble. "Spread out, you useless Skulks. I won't have you losing her."

Natalie scrambled up, heart thumping wildly.

Somehow she knew "she" had to be her. Mr. Neilson must have people working with him.

She was tucked away in the shadow of one of the tin huts for now, but her cover would be blown as soon as one of them walked around the corner. She scurried forward, desperation making her try the door of the nearest hut. The knob wouldn't even turn.

Natalie turned, finding a pair of glittering, tawny eyes watching her through the dirty glass window. She pulled back and jammed a hand over her mouth to stop her scream.

The eyes flickered out. Gone.

Someone was in the house, and they didn't intend to let her in.

Fear rising in her chest, Natalie back away from the door, daring a panicked look around her. Where was she supposed to go? She needed to hide, but it was obvious now that all the people in town were doing the same thing, and she was the one being hunted. No one in this strange place was going to let her in.

She shrunk back into the shadows beside the house as a figure appeared around the corner. Whoever he was, he cast a tall, bulky shadow along the wall. He stepped into the light, and Natalie had to clap her hand to her mouth a second time, to block a surprised squeak from slipping out.

He was, without a doubt, a pirate. Everything about him, from his rolled down leather boots, to his patched clothing and navy hat, to the rusted cutlas shoved into the sash across his chest, it all screamed pirate. But that wasn't the strangest thing about him. No, he was decidedly not human.

His eyes shone in the darkness, reflecting the low light the same way the tawny eyes in the window had. But his eyes were a strange, reddish-orange color, like a smoke-tinged sunset. What part of his pale skin was exposed to the open, was covered in a strange, inky black substance that curled up and branched out across his arm and up his shoulders, like thick black veins. Natalie watched, horrified, as he moved closer to her hiding spot.

"Park, get your ass over here," he called, and Natalie realized that his was the deep base voice she had heard.

A second pirate came around the corner, and this one fished a pocket watch out of the red sash at his waist as he came, grumbling "An hour it took us to hike these damned mountains. I want to be back on the ship. This place spooks me."

"Coward," the other grunted. He raised one powerfully muscled arm to peer out the end of a copper spyglass, and Natalie saw with horror that the black substance snaking up his arm was moving. It pulsed here and there, and in other places it stretched inky fingers up his neck and down his shoulders.

Impossible. This was impossible.

Natalie squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head. Every time she took another shaking breath she breathed in more soot, and she clapped a hand over her mouth and nose. If she went into a coughing fit here...

Her mind was still reeling. This couldn't be possible. She had tripped on the path and hit her head on a root. She had gone home and fallen asleep before dinner again. This couldn't be real. It couldn't be.

Some instinct made her reach for the charm in her pocket, as if it could bring her comfort. Something crumpled under her fingers. The article, she had forgotten it was in there. She sunk her hand in deeper and found the necklace underneath. The surface of the charm was still slightly warm.

Natalie's eyes flew open as the pirates walked past, still grumbling to one another.

"Hate those creatures," the one with the pocket watch said, "give me the willies."

She saw what he meant a second later. Across the row of houses a horrifying creature slunk into view. It was on all fours, like a dog, but it was much bigger. Taller, and it's body was skeletal, all bones and sharp angles. It did not have fur, just a strange, oily kind of skin that matched the tone of the inky veins crawling on the pirates' skin. As it stalked forward, it yanked hard against the leash about its neck, and the pirate holding it growled and stumbled forward. The creature had its nose to the ground, tail lashing. There was a strange whistling sound emitting from it, and Natalie realized with a jolt of horror that the creature's tail ended in a razor-sharp barb. The sound it made cutting the air was so loud it reached across the village.

A strangled whimper rose in her throat, and Natalie jammed her knuckles into her mouth, biting down hard. Her eyes watered. She had to make herself move, at least edge to the left to slink behind the hut she was pressed against. She had to get away from that thing, whatever it was.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, she edged sideways.

She was about to dart behind the shed, because the pirates had turned to look at the nightmare creatures, when there was a creaking sound from beside her, and Natalie felt something grip her left arm. She didn't have time to cry out before she was jerked sideways and into what felt like a pair of muscular arms. A hand pressed hard over her mouth, and Natalie's shriek was muffled as she was dragged backwards into the darkness.