Belladonna

but there was a large patch of it now, beginning at the base of the path she usually used to reach her garden and stretching out toward the cottage. It looked like someone had poured barrows of sand over the meadow to create a long-fingered, bony hand.
    But there were no grasses or wildflowers poking up beneath the sand, which didn't look deep enough to have covered the plants. And she'd never seen rust-colored sand before and knew it hadn't come from any of the beaches around Raven's Hill.
    As Coyle and Roy threw more rocks at the cottage windows, Caitlin watched meadow grass disappear as two of the sand fingers stretched a little further toward the cottage.
    There's something out there that can change the land, she thought. Something ... evil.
    The cottage was too isolated. She and Aunt Brighid would be nothing but hens waiting for the fox if they stayed. Which meant getting Brighid out of the cottage and escaping to the village proper. Which meant getting past those black-hearted boys.
    Holding the hoe handle in a two-handed grip that would make it a useful weapon, Caitlin scanned the trees at the base of the hill, looking for some movement. Where was the third boy, Owen? It was rare to see just two of the boys when they were causing trouble, so the third had to be around.
    Deal with the here and now, Brighid always told her. Well, the here and now was the two boys she could see.
    This is my place, Caitlin thought as she stared at Coyle and Roy, who had their backs to her. This is my land. You're not wanted here. You're not welcome here. Leave this place!
    She wasn't able to influence people, and she didn't expect anything to happen. The words were merely a way to bolster her own courage before she made a dash for the cottage that would bring her to the boys' attention.
    You're not wanted here. You're not welc —
    Her focus shattered as she saw three of the sandy fingers shrink, the sand changing back to packed earth. It was bare earth —
    the grass and flowers didn't magically reappear — but it was earth, not sand.
    I can change the meadow hack to the way it was. I can fight this evil, make it go away.
    Then her attention came back to the boys. They were waiting for her, staring at her. Each boy held a filled whiskey bottle with rags stuffed into the necks of the bottles like a wick in an oil lamp.
    The rags were already burning.
    "No!" Caitlin yelled.
    The Eater of the World flowed toward the hillside as fast as It could. The Landscaper was trying to destroy the access It had created into the bonelovers' landscape. She was sending her resonance into the world and Ephemera was responding.
    It would stop her. Yes, It would. She was stronger than many of the Landscapers It had destroyed at the school, but not as skilled or powerful — or dangerous — as the True Enemy. It could pull her into Its landscape, just as It had done with the others.
    The bonelovers would do the rest.
    Coyle and Roy flung the burning whiskey bottles through the broken windows. Then they grinned at her and ran, no doubt intending to be far enough away that they could claim ignorance when she accused them of setting the cottage on fire.
    Because it was burning. Too much. Too fast.
    "Aunt Brighid!"
    The fingers of sand were stretching out again, reaching for the cottage, blocking her way to the back door.
    Why hadn't Brighid come out the front door? They couldn't save the cottage. Not by themselves. Was Owen guarding the front door, holding some kind of club or other weapon so Brighid was afraid to leave despite the fire?
    Caitlin turned, intending to run to the front of the cottage and rescue her aunt. But with her first step, the ground felt soft, fluid ... strange. She staggered. Stabbed the hoe handle into the ground to maintain her balance.
    "Earth isn't fluid," Caitlin said, putting all the conviction she could into her voice. "This earth isn't soft. It's solid, and it's real."
    She felt the ground firm up, but when she looked around, she let out a cry of disbelief and despair.
    She stood in the center of a perfect circle surrounded by sand. She felt a pulse of evil at the edge of the circle. In front of her, bits of meadow still poked up like hummocks in a marsh.
    It was as if something were daring her to jump from one hummock to the next in order to reach safe ground. As if something dared her to pit her influence with Ephemera against its power to control the world.
    If I stay here, I'm safe, Caitlin thought. Except