It felt like it took forever for them to emerge, but it was only seconds before they surrounded me. For some reason, they had decided I was a menace.
Or perhaps this was how the trees fed. They lured their unsuspecting victims beneath their boughs, wrapped their roots around them, and dragged them beneath the earth to devour their carcasses.
My hands instinctively went for an arrow and my bow, the weapons I was best with, but I hesitated. I didn’t know what those weapons could do to stop these things.
I suspected they didn’t have a heartbeat. Maybe there was a brain I could puncture, but I believed theirrealthought process came from the trees themselves.
I shuddered at the possibility as the first root brushed my arm, and an excited gurgling sound issued fromallthe creatures. Overhead, the leaves rustled as the stillness encapsulating the trees since our arrival broke.
I’d always loved the sound trees made when they swayed in the breeze, their branches clicking together and their leaves whispering. The sound these things issued was nothing like those comforting noises and everything like the dead rising to destroy.
My shock gave way to survival instincts as I slapped the twisting root aside, lifted my hand, and unleashed a torrent of lightning into the thing. I couldn’t use my bow and arrows here, and while the dagger at my side could cause some damage, it wouldn’t be enough to fend these creatures off.
Panic fueled my ability, as did the training Ryker had put me through for the past couple of weeks. I’d grown stronger, which was evident as my lightning slammed into the creature, lifted it off the ground, and flung it backward.
The tree monster didn’t go far as roots tethered its feet to the earth. The rustle of the leaves intensified, though no breeze stirred the humid July night.
Thatcan’tbeagoodsign.
Before I could move again, roots from one of the creatures behind me ensnared my arms and pulled me backward. As I drew on the electricity in the earth, lightning crackled across my fingertips, and the strange creatures dragged me backward.
Overhead, the branches unraveled from each other.
CHAPTERFORTY-EIGHT
Ryker
“Ellery!”
The creatures enclosed her with a speed I wouldn’t have believed possible until I saw it. Trees didn’t move, but these were not only moving, they’d sent beasts from the earth to capture and drag her below.
I didn’t care what these things were, I wasn’t going to letanythingharm her. As I ran toward her, I pulled lightning from the ground and the sky.
I unleashed the ground lightning, and a whiplike torrent smashed into the back of one of the strange creatures while lightning bolts sliced through the tops of the trees, creating a cascade of leaves and sticks as it shattered their branches.
The beasts closing in on Ellery released an inhuman, keening wail. Sparks shot through the air, and fire blazed across the leaves before going out.
Another lightning bolt crashed onto the top of another creature, splitting it in two. Ellery twisted to face the one trying to drag her backward. When she placed her palm against its face and filled it with lightning, the thing burst into flames.
Less than a minute ago, Ellery was unwilling to work in this area because she didn’t want to damage the trees, and now she was unleashing on them. It was good to know she’d do everything necessary to survive and win.
From above, a tree branch creaked and swung at my head. The breeze it created stirred the air, and I ducked in time to avoid a blow that would have crushed my skull.
Diving forward, I wrapped my arms around Ellery’s waist and took her to the ground as more branches swung at me. The wind their movement created blew back my clothes as one of their limbs skimmed my legs.
Something grabbed at me, one of the thinner roots from those creatures. It tried to encircle my calf, but I dislodged it as I rolled with Ellery away from the offending monsters.
Her lightning enveloped me, but instead of feeling unpleasant, it crackled enticingly against my skin. My power rose toward her as her lush body pressed against mine in all the right ways.
When we came up against the base of a tree that blocked us from going any further, I told myself to let her go but pulled her closer. I’d forgotten how right she felt—no, I could never forget that; my damn dreams wouldn’t let me, but they were nothing compared to the woman herself.
We were in the middle of a war againsttrees, and a desire to bury myself inside this woman consumed me. That would be impossible if we were both dead.
Priorities.
My arms were slow to release her, but they finally did when more of those things emerged from the earth. Before, they were almost silent as they rose, but now, their rage-filled cries were deafening.
The one we’d rolled into shifted against my back. We had to get away from these trees, but there were so many of them, and they’d created so much chaos that I couldn’t see a way out.
