Shadow travel felt like being digested. When the darkness spat me out, I was knee-deep in oil-slicked water. Towering shapes loomed in the fog—not trees, but giant gear assemblies grinding slowly. Rust flakes drifted like metallic snow.
"Welcome to the Growth Chamber." Director Veridia's voice crackled from a brass horn on a pillar. "Prove you're more than a weapon, Thornwood. Find the exit before the forest eats you."
A grinding screech tore the air. To my left, two gear-trees collided. Sparks rained down. The oil-water began steaming. Acid. Of course.
I scrambled onto a pipe just as green bubbles erupted where I'd stood. The stench of dissolving metal burned my throat. My magic stirred, hungry for my own panic. Not this time. I needed a clear head.
A whirring sound above. Clockwork birds with razor-beaks dove at me. I ducked, but one sliced my shoulder. Blood hit the acid pool below—and the liquid screamed.
The blood spread into a shape: a screaming face. My face. The pool was alive. And it recognized me.
"Hungry!" The word bubbled up in a hundred voices. Acid tendrils lashed at the pipe. Metal groaned.
I ran. The pipe shook underfoot. Ahead, a bridge of spinning cogs connected to a platform. Too easy. But the acid was rising.
Halfway across, the cogs reversed direction. My foot slipped into a gap. Teeth—actual iron teeth—snapped shut on my boot.
"Gotcha!" a shrill voice giggled from the gears. A girl's face formed in the metal, oil dripping from her smile. "New meat for the grinder!"
The teeth bit deeper. Leather split. I jammed my scaled hand into the gear's joint. Black blood oozed, sizzling on the metal.
The girl-face shrieked. "Old blood! You're one of hers!"
"Whose?" I twisted my arm. Gears screeched in protest.
"The Bone Weaver! She who stitches nightmares!" The teeth loosened in terror. I yanked my foot free—bootless, bleeding.
Before I could demand answers, acid geysered below. The platform ahead birthed mechanical vines tipped with syringe needles. Enough games.
I focused on the pool's hunger—that vast, empty ache. My magic surged to meet it, but this time I didn't fight the craving. I fed it.
Black scales engulfed my forearm. I slammed my fist onto the bridge.
CRACK!
Not the metal. The air. A jagged rip tore open above the acid pool. Through it, I saw swirling colors that hurt my brain—and things with too many teeth skittering at the edge.
The acid pool recoiled. "Void breach! Close it!" The girl-face vanished as gears spun wildly.
The syringe-vines retracted. A hidden door hissed open in the platform. Exit.
I sprinted through as the forest shuddered. Behind me, the rip spat out a glob of rainbow slime. It landed in the acid and began growing.