I ran my tongue across my teeth, tasting fur and old blood. Well, for Heaven’s sake! What in hell had caused all this? It didn’t help that I was upside down…and it would probably be better if I opened my eyes.

  The thing was, I don’t like dangling, and it felt like this was exactly what I was doing—dangling, when I should have been secured in my seat by the safety harness. And, where was my seat? Dayum, now, I was going to have to open my eyes.

  I tried, panicked when my lids were gummed together, then relaxed as my lashes reluctantly parted. I was right—I was dangling. The ceiling was below my head, and the floor was above my feet. Best as I could make out, there was a tree branch growing through the passenger window on which the pixies had set up court.

  “Oh, give it a rest,” I said, glaring at them. I’d had just about had enough of these guys.

  “So, you coming?” one of them demanded.

  “Coming where?” I asked. To be completely honest, I didn’t remember speaking to any of them before. I only knew I was sick of seeing them—and, yes, that made no sense to me, either.

  And I was starting to feel nauseous. Dangling upside-down from my seat belt was obviously disagreeing with me. Pain lanced through my skull, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe the pixies would be gone when I opened them again.

  I tried it.

  No such luck. There were five of them still sitting on the branch. The sixth was now hanging upside down from a twig by its knees, mimicking my position.

  “Why are you here?” I asked, because it beggared me to try and think of a reason.

  “To escort you to the Other Side.”

  I couldn’t remember agreeing to go.

  “Did I say yes?” The looks they exchanged were a dead giveaway. They were like a bunch of five-year-olds caught with their hands in the cookie jar. I glared at them. “I didn’t think so.”

  I looked around, and finally worked out where I was. I guess I just hadn’t recognized the car from this angle. I certainly didn’t remember getting into it and going for a drive.

  “Did I have a crash?”

  The pixies looked at each other, and then back at me.

  “You drove over a cliff.”

  That woke me up a bit.

  “I what?”

  “You tried to dodge the troll, and you drove over a cliff.”

  “Troll?” It was growing light outside. “How long have I been here?”

  “We don’t know. You snuck out of the house, and ran away in the car.”

  “I…ran…away?”

  The pixies nodded in unison, and then one of them stood up and flew to a few inches in front of my face.

  “You really need to come with us, officer.”

  Officer? Something of my puzzlement must have shown on my face, because he flew closer, looking me over with careful eyes.

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  “You’ve hit your head.”

  I vaguely recalled them mentioning an accident—and a troll? The pixies gave me no time for contemplation.

  “What do you remember of our request?”

  I tried to think, but it was difficult, and I gave up.

  “I don’t,” I said. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here.” I reached up and undid the buckle on the seatbelt, keeping a tight hold of the straps as I did so. “I don’t even know where here is.”

  Holding on to the straps as tightly as I could, I lowered my body onto the roof. The car shifted beneath my feet, giving a metallic groan of protest. The pixies looked at each other in alarm, and lifted into the air.

  “You need to climb out the window nearest you,” the pixie said. “Don’t try to open the door.”

  “Why?” I asked, trying to keep my head from spinning, and hoping that the sharp pain in my back wasn’t a sign of something worse.

  “Because, the car will slide off the branch if you try to climb out the passenger door.”

  Ookay. I really didn’t want to ask them why that mattered. I really didn’t want to think about it. I slid carefully over to the driver’s side window, and saw a rock-face, four feet from the side of the car, the upside-down car, the upside-down car that was caught on the branches of several trees growing out of the side of a cliff. The upside-down car caught on tree branches that were starting to creak under its weight, as the wind picked up. I hoped those trees were well-anchored into the cliffside.

  That hope grew stronger, as I took hold of the branch poking through the driver’s window, and gingerly moved to sit just under it. The pixies gasped and held their breaths, and I wanted to tell them all to get lost. The branch dipped, and I forced myself not to panic.

  I closed my eyes, reached through the window and renewed my grip on the branch further up, on the outside of the car. The way it shuddered under my hand gave no comfort. I looked towards the cliff, trying to see if there was another branch nearby.

  “Don’t look down,” said one of the pixies, but I had no choice; I needed to see where to put my feet.

  What I also saw was that the cliff fell away in a ragged drop, its surface cut by ledges and crevices, and marred by gnarled and twisted trees. I didn’t want to think of how little earth they must be rooted in, so I comforted myself with the fantasy that they’d found more depth by wriggling their roots in the gaps between the rocks. I also looked for that tree branch below me, and hoped it wasn’t part of the team holding up my patrol car.

  One of the pixies alighted on the branch between my hands, and the tree shuddered, again, this time accompanied by the sound of metal scraping along something. I stared at the pixie, trying to ignore the pounding in my head, trying not to think of how long I had before I had to throw up.

  “Get my phone,” I said, “and my bag.”

  It didn’t stop to argue, but left the branch with a flash of wings, followed by two of its mates. The other two hovered on either side of me. I don’t know what they were thinking, but it was nice to think they’d try to catch me if I fell.

  “Hurry,” one of them urged. “We don’t know how long the tree will hold.”

  Nice. Now, they told me.

  “Hurry,” the other one chorused. “We can’t catch you if you fall.”

  “You’re far too heavy,” said a third.

  Yeah, well, thanks for nothing, I thought, but I wriggled around so my legs hung out the window, trying to ignore the feel of the car lurching beneath me. Cautiously, I reached down with the toe of my boot and prodded the tree branch below. It didn’t shift beneath my foot, so I moved part of my weight onto the branch, keeping a good grip on the limb I had in my hands.

  Both held, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Cool. So far, so good.

  The next stage was not so cool. I had to leave the car behind and, even though I knew it was slipping, and even though I knew the trees wouldn’t hold it forever, and that I had to get out of it sooner, rather than later, I didn’t want to leave it behind. Taking a deep breath, I stood, stretching between the two branches.

  The one below me sagged a little under my weight, and I held my breath, shuffling my feet along it to get closer to the cliff, where it was thicker. Maybe it would be stronger there. Even as I did so, the branch I was holding on to gave an ominous creak, and the car shifted further away from me. The pixies surrounded me, just as I registered the movement beneath my feet.

  “Down!” they all shouted. “Down, down, down!”

  And down I went, dropping my weight onto the lower branch, and then sliding over it to find the branch beneath that with my toes. It wasn’t elegant, but it was fast, and suddenly the pixies were all around my head.

  “Stop! Stop!” they screamed, and I stopped, realizing I’d run out of tree.

  I clung to the last branch I’d reached, panting, and drenched in sweat, but the pixies gave me no rest.

  “In! In! In!” they cried, pulling on my hair and shirt to get me to move closer to the cliff. “In!”

  This was easier said than done, but I managed, grabbing hold of small side branches, and pulling myself along until I was nose to stone with the cliff face.

  Now what? I wondered, but still the pixies persisted.