Chapter Fifteen
“Kade!”Florianscreamedoninstinct,asthesensationoffallingovertookhim.Itwasdark—toodarktoseewherehewas,orwhathewasfallingthrough.Buttheawfullurchingfeelinglastedonlyamoment,andpainburstthroughhisbackassomethinghardcollidedwithhisspine,hisheadsnappingbackloosely.Heyelpedinpain,buthereachedoutwithbothhandsforsomething,anythingtokeephimselfsteady,thecrybecominganervouskeenatthesensationofteeteringontheedgeofsomething.Hisswordslippedfromhisgripasscrabbledforanykindofsolidpurchase,andhehearditclatterandclangagainstsomethingasitfell,untilwithafinal,decisivethuditwassilent.
His breath came in short ragged bursts, his heart hammering painfully in his chest, but he tried to keep his focus on the hard, stable surface beneath him. It felt woody and not quite pliant under his hands—it took only a moment to process that one hand was curled around a tree branch, and the other was pressed against its trunk. Was it still the trunk, this high up? How high up even were they? Or was it only him here? He didn’t hear Kade. He didn’t hear anything, except the pounding of blood rushing in his ears.
“Light,” he stammered, cautiously pulling one hand away to hold it in front of him. A little globule of soft light appeared in his palm. One of his fingernails had been ripped down past the quick, and all his fingertips were bloody; the sight made them immediately sting with pain, and he winced, but it was the least of his worries at the moment. Now that he could see, Florian could still make out the canopy of ivy above, blocking out the rest of the light, and there were a few other trees around him. It must have been quite tall, because he couldn’t see the ground in the dim light that the single globule gave off. With a groan, he shifted his weight slowly until he could sit up on the thick branch on which he’d fallen—as he moved, he realized that he’d been caught between a few branches clustered close together, which had broken his fall without breaking his back in the process, though his neck was certainly sore now.
Once he was seated, he could see better. He extended out his hand that held the light to try and see better, but he still couldn’t see the ground. Then—there was a glint of something below: his fallen sword.
Relief and fear flooded him in equal measure: relief at knowing his mother’s sword wasn’t lost forever, and fear when he realized how high up he was. It was hard to tell, but Florian figured that he was nearly fifty feet off the ground, maybe more. But if he could see the ground, he could get himself there—if thatwasthe ground. He desperately hoped it was the ground.
“I’m there,” he whispered, his eyes trained on the slight glint of light off the surface of his sword far below. The air popped around him. In an instant his feet were on wet but firm earth, and his arms swung wildly at his sides to keep his balance at the sudden change.
“Kade!” he shouted, his relief short-lived. He reached down to grab his sword, dirt clinging to the blade and hilt. “Kade! Can you hear me?”
For a moment there was only silence. Then, distantly, he heard an answering shout—”I hear you!”
Florian let out a heavy breath, his shoulders sagging with relief at the sound of his partner’s voice.
“I’m okay!” Kade’s distant voice continued, and carefully Florian turned to orient himself in the direction it was coming from. “Where are you?”
“I’m following your voice!” Florian shouted, taking a few staggering steps. As his vision started to adjust, the surroundings looked less like a forest and more like a jungle: the earth beneath his feet not quite muddy, but still wet and squishy. “Where are you?”
There was a beat of silence, longer than Florian expected, and his nerves started to mount once again—but then he heard a long, low howl, the sound of Kade’s wolf form calling out to him. The sound was clearer and louder than his voice had been, a beacon for him to follow. Florian smiled in relief and set off toward the sound of the howl.
It was slow going, tramping through mud and veering between densely packed trees; but eventually he caught sight of Kade’s yellow-orange eyes gleaming in the darkness, and he quickened his pace.
“I see you!” he called, but the wolf’s eyes had already caught sight of him. A soft glow spread from the eyes and surrounded the wolf’s body, and in the span of just a few steps it was once again Kade, standing there and stumbling toward him.
“Thank god you’re okay,” Kade breathed, gathering Florian into his arms with no heed for the mud and leaves stuck to him. “Did they grab you too?”
“No, I...” Florian stammered, all at once flustered at the outpouring of affection and somewhat embarrassed at the way he’d followed. “I, um, I fell through.”
“You fell?!” Kade snapped, pushing Florian back to look at him more closely. “Are you alright? How are you not hurt?”
“I did hurt my back,” he said, pain throbbing up his spine as he thought of it. “And my hand got kinda fucked up. But I’m okay, all things considered. I landed in a tree and then I popped down to the ground. Actually, now that I think of it...” He looked down at his bloodied hand, lightly touching his fingertips.
“Heal,” he said softly, and watched as the skin knit back together. His torn fingernail, though, didn’t grow back—he pressed the fingertip into his palm and winced at the blossom of pain, but at least the bleeding had stopped. “Ouch. I hope that doesn’t fall off.”
He looked up to see Kade watching him with his lips pressed together tight in concern. “You’re not hurt?” he prompted, shaking Kade from whatever he was thinking.
“No,” he replied, his eyes still lingering on Florian’s scraped hand. “The vines pulled me all the way down. I thought they were going to choke me, but... They squeezed until I dropped my sword, but when I did they grabbed it and started... I don’t know. They slid away almost like snakes. I tried to follow, but... I wasn’t fast enough, and it was dark.”
“Oh,” Florian said, his heart sinking. “Well... Here, you can use my sword in the meantime. It’s better if you have it.”
Kade eyed the sword that Florian pulled from his belt. His hesitance was obvious, but so was his understanding that he could still use it far more effectively than Florian could. After a moment, he reached out and reverently took it.
“I’ll be careful with it, I promise,” he said softly, slipping it into his own sheath. “I know it’s your mother’s. I’ll give it back as soon as I find mine.”
“It’s okay,” Florian said, shaking his head. “I know you will.”
He started to look around, but it seemed that the only light they had was the little globule in his hand. He looked down at it and willed it grow and glow brighter, only to stop, thinking it could pull his magic from the shroud—
“The shroud!” he exclaimed, realizing in a panic that the thread of magic that was the shroud was gone. Kade blinked, then nodded. “It’s gone.”
“I thought so,” Kade said, and glanced up. “The vines must be a shroud, like you thought.”
Florian nodded, brows knit together in worry. He hadn’t even realized that he’d dropped it, or when. It was lucky they were in a place that had its own shroud—if they hadn’t, things would have been much worse.
