They go for Theron. He only has a second to grab his axe before they strike. He swings it at one of them and hits, blood spraying from the snake.
One of the women screams and the others scramble to arm themselves. Three snakes are making quick work of Theron, one wrapping around his neck and squeezing.
Two Tiders are running toward the jungle, but not toward us.
Nova. They spotted her. She stands her ground as they approach, aiming her gun at one of them.
She squeezes the trigger, but nothing happens. Her eyes widen with alarm, but she quickly recovers and moves to inspect the gun’s primer.
There’s not enough time.
Marcus takes off, racing toward Nova. One of the Tiders who was in the ocean is back on the beach now, and he picks up a spear and runs.
He’s locked on Marcus. I close my eyes, turning off my fear. Emotional control is the only way I can save them both.
I lock my thoughts onto Lochlan, and all the ways he violated me. I couldn’t fight back then, but I can do something now. I scream through my connection with plants and summon them, picturing the three people I saw closing in on Nova and Marcus.
A man grunts with pain. I shut it out, feeling thick vines arriving to defend us. Someone screams.
Bones crunch and break. A neck snaps. I feel it all happening through the sense that’s not really my own. It’s the plants. My dad taught me to fight, but I’m far deadlier just standing here and controlling the vines with my mind.
“Briar.”
My eyes fly open and I inhale deeply, unsteady on my feet.
“It’s over.”
It’s Pax. I look to the place I last saw Marcus. He’s not there.
I find him supporting Nova, who’s hunched over. The bodies on the ground are ...
Human pulp.
This is what Amira meant. Thick, brown, ropelike vines are slithering back into the jungle, leaving a bloody scene behind. The three people I targeted were all sliced completely through their midsections by vines.
I go to Marcus, my heart racing.
“Is she okay?”
“I’m fine,” Nova says, not sounding fine. “It’s superficial.”
Her abs look like they took a spear poke, but it’s not gushing blood.
“She’ll be okay,” Marcus assures me. “I can stitch this up.”
I’m glad Ellison insisted on going back for her supplies.
I turn to survey the rest of the scene on the beach, Amira jogging up to me.
“Pax’s snakes make that one in the cave look like an earthworm,” she says. “That was intense.”
“He got the other four Tiders?” I ask.
“Yeah. And I don’t mean to scare you, but the vines saved Nova with less than a second to spare. The guy was spearing her when the vine chopped him in half.”
A knot tightens in my stomach. That was too close.
“Everyone okay?” Pax asks.
