“Laurel!” She wasn’t sure who yelled it, but as soon as she could move she scrambled to her feet, feeling sugar glass sharp against her palms as she pushed herself upright – only to trip on something she guessed was a low stool, rendered invisible by the illusory cobblestone floor.

“I’m OK!” she yelled blindly to Tamani and David, hoping they could hear her over the roar of battle. She was suddenly painfully aware of just how vulnerable she was – she had no weapons, and even if she’d had her kit, her potions would be useless against these trolls. Gingerly she made her way to a crumbling bit of wall she could see but couldn’t touch, then crouched behind it.

Peering over the faux wall, Laurel realised that the inside of the Summer “castle” was even scarier than the outside. Creatures straight out of legend were running all over the place, but Laurel knew most of them couldn’t be real – or, at the very least, not the creatures they appeared to be. There were fire-breathing dragons, armour-clad unicorns, even an enormous cyclops. There were also trolls and faeries, some of them exact copies of others Laurel could see, and a rather large number of boulders Laurel knew hadn’t been there before. It was impossible to tell which were bespelled fae and which were illusions made from nothing.

They’re trying to get the trolls to kill one another, Laurel realised.

And for the most part, it seemed to be working. Laurel winced in horror as a black-clad troll gunned down an orange-haired faerie – only to breathe a sigh of relief as the “faerie” shimmered and shifted, taking the form of a tusk-mouthed lower troll. Across the imaginary courtyard, trolls were tripping over hidden fences and running into invisible houses and fae, all the while being blinded by sudden flashes of light. It was chaos, but Laurel had to admit, it was effective.

Still, it couldn’t last forever. Some of the faeries that dropped didn’t turn into trolls, and illusions were winking out where the trolls swung blindly and got lucky. And as each faerie fell, whatever the unfortunate Summer had been hiding was suddenly exposed and vulnerable for as long as it took for someone else to take up the illusion.

When Tamani and David failed to appear, Laurel tried to make her way back to where she thought she’d come in, her sense of direction skewed by the chaos around her. Taking care to avoid being seen, she carefully felt her way from faux boulder to faux boulder.

She realised she must be going the wrong way when she touched the curve of another bubble house, disguised as a half-destroyed stable. Swallowing her fear and wondering if she could risk calling out for David and Tamani again, Laurel tried to turn back, but the landscape had changed – the shifting illusion made navigation by sight impossible.

Suddenly the bubble house at her fingertips flickered and became visible, its translucent shell draped three-quarters with brilliant purple silk, a conspicuous target in a sea of artificial grey stone. A troll Laurel hadn’t seen lurking behind the mirage turned and swung his axe at the glass, smashing through it – then went after the faeries huddled within.

Helpless to stop the troll, Laurel could only duck behind a fake wall and curl up on the ground, her hands clapped over her ears as the screams – so close – filled her head. Where was Tamani? Where was David? Tears streamed down her face and her chest convulsed in sobs as the screams were silenced one by one.

It was a long time before Laurel stopped shaking enough to move. Forcing herself to find some semblance of control, she peeked around the corner. The troll had collapsed inside, its mismatched eyes glazed, its lips curled in a final sneer – but whoever had killed it was nowhere to be seen. The house remained visible. There was no one left to hide it.

“Help me!”

It was a small cry, the voice of a child – a child who would soon attract more trolls, yelling like that. No longer hindered by invisible obstacles, Laurel looked around for trolls, then approached the half-destroyed bubble of sugar glass, steeling herself against what she knew she would find there.

“Hello?” she called as quietly as she could. The crunch of sugar glass beneath her feet was her only answer.

Did I imagine it? She didn’t think the Summer faeries could make sounds with their illusions, but she had to admit she didn’t know for sure.

“Help!” came the voice again.

Laurel flew to the source of the sound, a hand waving from beneath a limp, headless body oozing thick, translucent sap. Laurel shuddered and tried not to think about it too hard as she braced her feet and rolled the woman’s corpse over to reveal a tiny girl, clutched protectively in the dead faerie’s lifeless arms.

She knew the child in an instant.

“Rowen!” Laurel pulled Tamani’s niece to her chest, carefully tucking the girl’s head behind her arm to protect her from the gruesome sight surrounding them.

“Laurel?” Rowen whispered. Laurel couldn’t imagine the confusion she must be feeling.

“It’s me,” she said, holding back a sob of relief. “I’m here. Tamani’s here too, somewhere.”

“Where?” Rowen asked as Laurel continued to hide the girl’s face while picking her way through the broken glass and ducking low to hide behind a small rock that was actually real, but too small to provide cover for long.

“I’ll bring him soon,” Laurel said, forcing her face to relax, her mouth to smile. “Was – was your mom with you?” she – asked softly. Rowen nodded and stuck two fingers in her mouth. The darkening around her eyes told Laurel that she knew something had happened, even if she didn’t comprehend quite what that was.