Not going to do a damn bit of good if we can’t stop the snake, but at least they’ll be together.
Even though I keep my foot to the floor, I feel like we aren’t covering enough ground. Thoughts about what Paul might be doing to Alisha taunt me, filling me with an unbelievable rage.
I’ll tear him to shreds, even if that snake is right up his ass, making his eyeballs glow, I don’t care. I’ll rip his fucking head off!
“Boss,” Luke says. “Are you going to ram the rock with the truck or what?”
It takes a moment for his words to sink in, and I realize we should take a careful approach. I pull over to let the WS guys out, and they shift, racing into the woods in opposite directions to flank the stone.
“We’ll go right in,” I say to Grace. “And get him focused on us. That way, my boys can move in, and if we keep his attention, they can get him from behind.”
“Okay,” she replies, looking scared but determined. I turn back around and rev up the truck just to calm my nerves, then continue up the track towards the stone.
As the trees thin out, I start to feel a faint tendril of nerves deep inside me. The last incursion was no picnic. In fact, it was one of the most painful experiences of my life.
I’d never been as powerless as I was then. Rex was in the center, and I couldn’t help him—there was nothing any of us could do. We were just fucked.
And the thing…that snake. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
The memory of its liquid gold gaze sickens me as the images of men melting flash through my brain. All I do is press my foot harder on the accelerator, thinking only of Alisha.
I will not let you die. I won’t lose you again!
I see it all laid out behind me. My past, where I was a coward, and I ran from love and called it duty. Before me, a future rolls out, one full of honor and faith, but I have to claim it. I have to step up and put Alisha’s needs before mine. And be prepared to do it, every single day for the rest of my life.
The trees peel back, and I see the rock ahead. Pulling the truck to a hard stop, I leap out and run towards the stone, seeing carnage all around me.
“How did one man do this?” I ask, talking to myself.
“Insanity,” Grace answers, keeping pace with me on my other side. “He’s so unhinged, he acts completely without attachment. It always takes sane people by surprise that the nutcase always gets the upper hand.”
Grace seems to have a story to tell on that topic, but I have no time to hear it. We come up to the rock, and I stop suddenly, careful not to touch it in case I get melted.
When I look up, the sight shocks me so much, I stumble backwards and fall straight on my ass.
Alisha is standing in the center of the circle. A fierce wind whips about her, tangling her hair around her face. She has herhands up, and all around her, thick vines are twisting through the air, almost like a living tornado.
Caught in the strands of vegetation, Paul—I assume it must be Paul—is screaming as the plants twist around his arms and legs. He howls, fighting, but the plants are too strong, and they keep twisting tighter around his limbs, pulling him in separate directions.
“Alisha!” I yell, but she doesn’t hear or see me. Her eyes are focused on Paul.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Grace murmurs. “Her power is incredible!”
I’m so focused on Alisha that I almost don’t notice the glimmer of gold that catches at the edge of my eye. My heart beats so hard, I can feel it in my temples as I realize the snake is here, just outside the circle, watching with its gold eyes.
I look between Alisha and the snake for one second before I get up and run towards Alisha.
I don’t give a fuck if I get melted—he’s going to attack, and I won’t let him get her!
What I’ll do against an ancient, massive snake made of fire, I haven’t figured out yet, but putting myself between them seems like a great start.
I hear Grace scream behind me, and I don’t have time to look back, but it sounds like she’s following me. I keep my head down and keep running, my eyes fixed on Alisha in the center of a storm of green.
As I get closer, I realize that the plants have wound so tightly around Paul, they are slowly crushing him. His body is being bent and pulled as the plants curl along his limbs, a fainttearing and crackling sound ringing through the air as his bones break and flesh tears.
He must have died a few minutes ago! So why—
When I get closer, I see Alisha is in a trance, her eyes glowing milky white. I run to her, holding her against my chest and shaking her, begging her to snap out of it.
