I rested my fingers against the bark of a tree; it was deep and hewed, with lines running up and down the trunk—thick knots, sometimes a couple feet high and wide, marked all the trees.
Their red and green leaves blended with the night until I could barely distinguish the different hues, but the colors were spectacular. I caressed the bark, tracing the grooves as I leaned closer to rest my cheek against it.
Power flowed through these trees; it thrummed through them and into my veins. I’d never experienced anything like it before. There was something about these things, something that called to me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
Leaning back, I kept my palm flat against the bark while examining their twisted branches again. Nothing stirred the leaves, but I had the uncanny sensation something was watching me… maybe the trees themselves.
A shiver worked its way through me, but though I longed to step away from them, I kept my hand against the tree.What secrets are you hiding?
CHAPTERFORTY-SEVEN
Ellery
“Are you coming?”Ryker demanded.
I tore my attention away from the trees and looked at Ryker. While I’d been examining the trees, he’d walked fifty feet away before stopping to wait for me.
“Yes.”
Unable to resist, I gently patted the tree before hurrying to catch up with him. I was only a few feet away from him when a subtle shift moved the earth beneath my feet.
Frowning, I glanced around while searching for the source of the vibration but didn’t see anything. When I looked at Ryker, he seemed unfazed.
Am I imagining it?
I tried to convince myself of this, but I couldn’t deny the strange shaking under my feet. Ryker showed no signs of having felt it.
“Let’s go,” he said.
“Do you feel that?”
“Feel what?”
Before I could reply, the earth beside me split open. Dirt spilled to the ground in a cascading waterfall as a long-fingered hand emerged from the soil.
It twisted as it sought to break free of its earthly confines while reaching toward the sky… stretching towardme.At first, I was so astonished by its emergence that I could only stand and gawk as I tried to process the fact a corpse was rising from the ground.
No, not a corpse and not a hand… roots!
The palm of the handlike structure flattened against the ground as, a second later, another emerged. I was so focused on the strange creature that I didn’t realize another was rising a few feet away until a cracking sound drew my attention.
“Ellery!” Ryker shouted.
That was when I saw another emerging from the ground between us. I stepped back before stopping myself from getting any closer to the trees. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I sensed they had something to do with it.
Turning my head, I discovered another behind me. It used its stringy hands to pull itself higher until its head emerged.
Earth spilled from the sharp tip on top of its head. Long, thin roots wiggled in the air as they protruded from the point, but those roots wouldn’t stop this thing from spearing someone through.
As the thing continued to tear itself from the earth, it exposed its tall, thin body that matched the bark of the trees surrounding me. When its head turned toward me, two trunk pieces peeled away to reveal black spaces where eyes should be. No eyeballs filled the empty places, but Iknewit could see me.
Its mouth unfurled, and from within, another root emerged. It slithered toward me as the ones on its head and hands did the same.
My heart raced as a cold, clammy sweat coated my body.Oh shit. Oh shit.
The two words ran in a loop through my mind as every instinct I had screamed at me to run. I had nowhere to go.
I couldn’t open a portal; they were too close and would only follow me into it. Plus, they’d be on me before I got it open.
